Bin Laden Accuses America Of Abuses
Hmm…
DUBAI (Reuters) – Osama bin Laden accused U.S. forces of “barbaric” acts in Iraq comparable to those committed by Saddam Hussein, according to an audio tape first broadcast in January and posted on the Internet in full on Monday.
“The (U.S.) criminality has gone as far as raping women and holding them hostage before their husbands … as for the torture of men it has now come to the use of burning chemical acids and electric drills in their joints,” he said in the tape posted with an English-language voice over.
“Despite all these barbaric methods … the mujahideen are strengthening and increasing by the grace of Allah,” he said.
The tape, whose authenticity could not be verified, was posted on the Internet by the al Qaeda media group al-Sahab.
First the media runs some new Abu Ghraib photos for no reason other than they have them and they want to. Then the UN releases a report of US “torture” at Guantanamo Bay based on nothing more than unsubstantiated claims from the detainees themselves. This report sparks international outcry which is shortly followed by more claims of abuse from bin Laden himself as detailed above.
Its almost like a memo went out telling all these people that “American abuse” is going to be the subject of the next news cycle and that they should gett things rolling. Which is ridiculous, of course, but it is amazing how it all comes together on once.
Conspiracy theories about vast, anti-American networks aside, though, I suspect it went down like this: The media gets wind of the coming UN report so decides now would be a good time to get those Abu Ghraib photos out in the public eye. Then the UN drops its report on the world and Osama, with his finger in the wind of public opinion, decides to time some accusations of his own to coincide with that. All of which results in a perfect storm of criticism for alleged American abuses that will have our country once again defending the use of Christina Aguilera music and chilly rooms as interrogation tactics even as Muslims around the globe engage in murder and mayhem over some cartoons they don’t like.
What a strange, strange world we live in.
