Osama's Stamp of Approval

The Progressive Media received a posthumous letter of recommendation from terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to the UK Guardian.

The paper reports, “Osama Bin Laden pondered the merits of US television news channels as he considered how to extract the best propaganda benefit from the tenth anniversary of 9/11 last year, and concluded that CBS was ‘close[st] to being unbiased’.

“But an American-born media adviser for al-Qaeda warned Bin Laden to beware of the broadcasters’ “cunning methods” as he described Fox News as a channel in the ‘abyss’ that should ‘die in anger’, CNN as too close to the US government and MSNBC as questionable after it fired one of its most prominent presenters, Keith Olbermann.

“In a memorandum made public by the U.S. Military’s Combating Terrorism Center Thursday, Bin Laden asked for advice on exploiting the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

“’We need to benefit from this event and get our messages to the Muslims and celebrate the victory that they achieved. We need to restore their confidence in their nation and motivate them. We should also present our just cause to the world, especially to the European people,’ he said.

“Bin Laden suggested contacting Al-Jazeera.

“’You can point out to them that this way they will be showing the other opinion,’ he said.

“’But he also wondered if it would be good to work with an American channel, suggesting CBS as ‘close to being unbiased.’ Bin Laden added that the organisation should approach a British journalist, Robert Fisk of the Independent, and other reporters to press home the message that the major powers would be better concentrating on climate change than pursuing al-Qaida. He wrote:

 “’This is a chance to explain our motives for continuing the war.  The wise people would tell you to give people their rights in order to be able to focus on other vital issues such as global warming.  They have the option to stop the war, but we do not have any option, except to defend our nation.  This is a conflict between the biggest cultures in the world at a time when the climate is changing rapidly.’

“A U.S.-born al-Qaida spokesman, Adam Gadahn, wrote back to Bin Laden laying the merits or otherwise of using US news stations to mark the “Manhattan battle” as it is referred to in the memo.

Osama dismissed Fox News as an angry broadcasting channel that “falls into the abyss as you know, and lacks neutrality, too.”

Meanwhile, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will appear before a judge in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, tomorrow to be arraigned for the second time.  This will be another “victory” for Obama, as the trial is brought to a swift and satisfying conclusion, one that Obama will put on his resume.

U.S. prosecutors will seek to convict Mohammed and four others of the worst terrorist attack on American soil. At the same time, they’ll try to show that the military tribunal system the Obama administration has established can comply with international standards.

Civil libertarians are complaining that a military tribunal will allow evidence obtained through “torture.”

Tomorrow, U.S. Army Colonel James Pohl, the presiding judge, will ask the five defendants whether they understand the charges against them, want to be represented by lawyers, and are satisfied with the attorneys they now have, said James Connell, a lawyer for Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, a Pakistani who’s one of the five defendants and is accused of helping finance the attacks.  

Liberals claim a trial may be at least a year away but justice is likely to much swifter than they claim.  Defense lawyers already have filed motions seeking access to their clients without government monitoring and urging that statements the defendants make in court be disseminated publicly and not classified.

The five are charged with conspiring to finance, train and direct the 19 hijackers who seized four airliners used in the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon outside Washington. The charges include terrorism, hijacking aircraft, conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war and attacking civilians.

For a death sentence to be imposed, as the U.S. seeks in the case, a jury of at least 12 officers must agree unanimously on the verdict.   While it’s unclear what sort of defense KSM’s attorneys will mount, it’s likely that he is seeking the martyrdom he failed to achieve on September 11, 2001.

Those who suffered on September 11^th may be assured that no matter the sentence, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will die as he lived, a blustering coward.