Yesterday I put up a link to MEMRI’s story on the Osama video, which includes a significant detail left out of major media coverage: Osama threatened US states that voted for Bush, and offered a dhimmi guarantee of safety to those that voted for Kerry.
I also put up a link to a New York Post report about another element of the video that eluded American media coverage: Osama complained that anti-terror efforts had hindered his activities.
I just checked them all again: ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, Drudge. Not a word about any of this. These are the people who have been quick to publicize reports that if France could vote, it would vote for Kerry. Very well; why then is it irrelevant that if Osama could vote, he would vote for Kerry too?
In any case, most Americans will vote tomorrow without knowing that Osama has said any of this. But will that keep Osama from proclaiming that a Kerry victory is a victory for the global jihad and the assumption of dhimmi status by the USA? Don’t bet on it.
Why does that matter? Some will say, of course, that there won’t be any victory for the global jihad, no matter which candidate wins: both have pledged to fight terrorists. True, but nonetheless it matters a great deal. The perception that America has followed Spain into dhimmitude could become the cause of a worldwide explosion (so to speak) of jihadist activity from mujahedin who have renewed evidence to believe that they are facing a paper tiger “” just as Osama himself did after the Black Hawk incident in Somalia.
UPDATE: At least Drudge has now put up a small (no screaming headline, no siren) link to this New York Post story about the MEMRI piece.