Osama bin Laden's timing: Is the world's top terrorist trying

to 'help' George Bush? Above is a promotional graphic used

for recruiting by al-Qaeda.

Le Figaro, France

Bin Laden's Timing a

'Strange Coincidence'

"The last video of bin Laden turned up the day before the 2004 Presidential elections, and helped Bush considerably against Kerry. This time he has appeared just before a debate in Congress over the strategy in Iraq. Strange coincidence. …"

Editorial by Pierre Rousselin

Translated By Sandrine Ageorges

September 11, 2007

France - Le Figaro - Original Article (French)

Six years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden reappears after having been thought dead . The video WATCH  which shows him looking younger and with a nicely-colored beard contains little new of value. It's an anti-American and anti-Western sermon using the reasoning of left-wing intellectual Noam Chomsky, the bedside reading of the anti-globalists who from now on will have to share their views with the world's top terrorist, believed to be hiding in a cave somewhere between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

So once again, bin Laden has reemerged. Whether it's authentic or fabricated, the message arrived right on time the day before the sixth anniversary of the attacks that changed the world. In addition, it arrived the day before the great debate that opens this week in the United States, to evaluate the strategy in Iraq WATCH .

As occurs on every September 11, everyone reverts to talking about the mastermind of the attacks six years ago. Since that time, bin Laden has become an icon, a mythical figure, a source of inspiration for the planet's jihadis, without ever having had a true operational role in the attacks that have shaken the West and the Muslim world alike.

His video demonstrates this. Public enemy number one doesn't highlight any specific threat and doesn't make any direct call for new attacks. If the character remains frightening and if each of his words "fanaticizes" his troops, his appearance on the Internet is on the whole merely an exercise in propaganda.

The wave of terrorist attacks he set in motion six years ago continue to erupt around the world without him having to direct them with any precision.

Recent days have shown this: in the Maghreb [Northwest Africa] and Europe, local groups claiming to be part of al-Qaeda have attempted to strike or have succeeded in causing massacres.

In Algeria, two suicide bombings in 72 hours caused 50 deaths. The first one almost cost President Abdelaziz Bouteflika his life. The North African branch of al-Qaeda, founded on September 11th 2006 to draw together jihadis in North Africa and Sahel, claimed responsibility for the attacks. [The Sahel is the boundary zone in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the more fertile region to the south].

In Denmark, eight people were arrested, suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda. In Germany, the security services thwarted terrorist attack plans that would have been horrific, targeting an American military base or the Frankfurt airport.

Six years after September 11, the terrorist threat hasn't weakened. In order to reduce the threat, George W. Bush is right to fight the extremists. That gives him an argument to mobilize public opinion in favor of his policy in Baghdad. It is necessary he says, not to allow Iraq - which was discussed at length by bin Laden - to become a "sanctuary" from which al-Qaeda could "launch attacks against America or one of its allies."

The last video of bin Laden turned up the day before the 2004 Presidential Elections, and helped Bush considerably against Kerry. This time, the image of al-Qaeda's leader has appeared just before a debate in Congress over the strategy in Iraq. Strange coincidence.

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