Bring On The Horse Manure, It's Time For Another SOTU

The annual State Of The Union speech is due Tuesday night, so guess what we had in the news on Monday?

Al-Qaeda No. 2 mocks new U.S. strategy for Iraq in new tape

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader mocked President Bush's plan to send 21,000 more troops to Iraq, challenging him to send "the entire army" and vowing insurgents will defeat them, according to details from a new al-Qaeda videotape released Monday by a U.S. group that tracks terror messages.

Do you hear that? That's the detector ticking...

Excerpts from the video were distributed by the Washington-based SITE Institute, which said it had intercepted the footage of Ayman al-Zawahri. The tape had not yet been posted on Islamic militant websites, where his messages are usually placed.

Do you see that? That's the detector's red light flashing!

The SITE Institute, by the way, is The Search for International Terrorist Entities [!] and they say their transcripts and videos are available to their intel agency clients only. So sad, no? They'll tell you what he said, but they won't let you see him say it. Quite convincing, I'd say. Wouldn't you?

SITE did not elaborate on how it received the video and it wasn't immediately possible to confirm its authenticity.

Whoop-Whoop-Whoop!!! Unconfirmed, but rushed to release! Whoop-Whoop-Whoop!!

And guess what else? Can't you just smell it?

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader has mocked US President George W Bush's plans to deploy more troops in Iraq.

In a video posted on a website, Ayman al-Zawahri challenges Mr Bush to send his entire army to the country.

Over 20,000 more US soldiers are being sent to help the Iraqi government improve security.

"Why send 20,000 only? Why not send 50 or 100,000? Aren't you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops' dead bodies?" Zawahri said.

The dogs of Iraq, pining for the troops' dead bodies. Isn't that just about perfect? And just in time, too. Hmmmm.

In Al-Qaeda deputy mocks Bush, Britain's ITV gives us a few details that USA Today wasn't interested in conveying:

Zawahri said peace would be impossible if Americans continued to follow the policies of Mr Bush and his administration.

"If we are secure, you might be secure, and if we are safe, you might be safe," the website quoted Zawahri as saying.

Ain't it peculiar how the phony terror video has the phony terror guy saying the same things that Bush's most intelligent domestic opponents would love to say? This makes it harder for such things to be said, of course, because anyone who makes ridiculous comments like "if we stop attacking them maybe they'll leave us alone" can be called a terrorist-sympathizer ... and as we all know, that's just one step away from a cage at Gitmo where in between your daily helpings of lemon chicken and two desserts you can hang from the ceiling by your wrists while the guards break your legs with baseball bats just for the fun of it.

Oops! I wasn't supposed to say that, was I? Oh well, never mind...

For an even more detailed account of the video, we turn to ... drum roll, please ... CNN via Kazakhstan!

Al Qaeda deputy to U.S.: If we are killed, you will be killed

In a video released Monday, al Qaeda's second in command ridicules President Bush's plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq and predicts a fate "worse than anything you have yet seen."

"Security is a shared destiny," says Ayman al-Zawahiri [a.k.a. Zawahri] [...] "If we are secure, you might be secure, and if we are safe, you might be safe. And if we are struck and killed, you will definitely -- with Allah's permission -- be struck and killed."
...
He rejected Bush's contention that U.S. forces have deprived al Qaeda of safe haven in Afghanistan, calling the claim a "naked, barefaced lie."

In remarks intended for the American people, he said, "If you want to live in security, you must accept the facts of what is happening on the ground, and reject the fantasies with which Bush tries to deceive you.

"You must honestly try to reach a mutual understanding with the Muslims, for then and only then you might enjoy security. If, however, you continue with the policy of Bush and his gang, you will never even dream of peace."

He further warned, "What awaits you should you press on is much worse than anything you have yet seen."

Seems plain enough to me. They hate us because of our freedoms! Argggh!

Meanwhile, over by the barn some decaying equine fecal matter gets thrown into the mix. It's hard not to think that they've been saving this one for quite a while, letting it ripen, so to speak:

Details emerge about possible terror threat

Mimicking the hijackers who executed the Sept. 11 attacks, insurgents reportedly tied to al Qaeda in Iraq considered using student visas to slip terrorists into the United States to orchestrate a new attack on American soil.

Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, recently testified that documents captured by coalition forces during a raid of a safe house believed to house Iraqi members of al Qaeda six months ago "revealed [AQI] was planning terrorist operations in the U.S."

Who cares if the suspected terror plot was "more aspirational than operational"? Who cares if the progression of the plot was "so early" the group was "years away from pulling it off"? Just ramp up the fear for another SOTU! Just give this cruel and stupid little man one more chance to talk about hitting his 9/11 trifecta.

Two More Years! Two More Years!!

Are you ready for the SOTU yet? Or would you like a little warmongering propaganda to go along with what we've already got? Larisa Alexandrovna caught Reuters and the Associated Press serving up a steaming one, as we discussed here yesterday. Sweet!

So maybe we should talk about the progress we're making in Iraq, where fewer than 150 people were killed in the capital city Baghdad on Monday. The Iraqi people owe us a great debt of gratitude, according to the so-called president. And we might even hear him voice that insane sentiment again on Tuesday night. Wouldn't it be loverly?

Does all this get you in the mood for a rousing SOTU? I hope not.

Over at the Niagara Falls Reporter, Bill Gallagher has it just about right:

SORRY STATE OF THE UNION WON'T BE ADDRESSED IN BUSH'S STUPID SPEECH

The state of the union is sad and shattered. After six years, the man who peddled himself as a "uniter" has torn our nation apart and ripped us away from the international community.

President George W. Bush has systematically alienated most of the world and inflamed unprecedented hostility toward the United States, both from traditional friends and from an increasing number of angry people in the nations Bush has invaded, insulted, isolated and ignored.

This is a rockin' op-ed that covers a lot of ground and I can't do it justice with a quote or even a series of quotes so I urge you to go read the whole column.

But the State of the Union is even sorrier than Bill Gallagher writes it, because al-Q'aeda claims it shot down an American helicopter yesterday in Iraq; a dozen or more Americans died, and some others were hurt (the numbers depend on who you read).

So that's even more bad news.

And even though the Pentagon said it didn't know what had happened to the helicopter, the press went nuts with the old "al-Q'aeda, al-Q'aeda, al-Q'aeda" chant, because of something that was "posted on a militant Islamic website".

And the story got some traction, spread like wildfire, and soon appeared all over the world (as such stories always do). The only little problem with this, of course, is that if it goes on long enough, people might tend to forget that al-Q'aeda Doesn't Exist.

Are we having cognitive dissonance yet? No! because once you come to terms with the fact that al-Q'aeda is a hoax (just like the official story of 9/11 was a hoax), it gets easier to understand reports such as this one from Media Without Conscience, which says responsibility for the downed helicopter has also been claimed by another group:

Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed on Monday that it had shot down the helicopter but a group called Jaish al-Mujaihadeen has also said it carried out the attack.

My prediction: Don't expect to hear anything about Jaish al-Mujaihadeen (a.k.a. Jaish al-Mujahadeen) in the SOTU. But please remember all this while the so-called president fumbles his way through the speech, and try not to gag on any of it; you might suffocate and we can't have that. We're gonna need you again on Wednesday.