Month: October 2004

While there hasn’t yet been a definitive report on the health of Yasser Arafat, evidence points to the fact that he is very ill and may be near death.

The Kerry Spot has further details, and The Daily Recycler has a Fox News TV report.

Still More: A late report from Reuters in Los Angeles.

Michelle Malkin links to those who are familiar with this person who is the focus of a new videotape which purportedly predicts a pre-election day terror event in America.

The siren is out – ABCNEWS holds terror warning video.

MORE: Drudge’s page is getting hammered, so here’s the text of his latest alert.

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX WED OCT 27, 2004 12:42:01 ET XXXXX

ABCNEWS HOLDS TERROR WARNING TAPE

**Exclusive**

In the last week before the election, ABCNEWS is holding a videotaped message from a purported al Qaeda terrorist warning of a new attack on America, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

The terrorist claims on tape the next attack will dwarf 9/11. “The streets will run with blood,” and “America will mourn in silence” because they will be unable to count the number of the dead. Further claims: America has brought this on itself for electing George Bush who has made war on Islam by destroying the Taliban and making war on Al Qaeda.

ABCNEWS strongly denies holding the tape back from broadcast over political concerns during the last days of the election.

The CIA is analyzing the tape, a top federal source tells the DRUDGE REPORT.

ABCNEWS obtained the tape from a source in Waziristan, Pakistan over the weekend, sources tells DRUDGE.

“We have been working 24 hours a day trying to authenticate [the tape],” a senior ABCNEWS source said Wednesday morning.

The terrorist’s face is concealed by a head dress, and he speaks in an American accent, making it difficult to identify the individual.

A top goverment source tells DRUDGE, US intelligence officials believe the man on tape may be Adam Gadhan – aka Adam Pearlman, a southern California native who was highlighted by the FBI in May as an individual most likely to be involved in or have knowledge of the next al Qaeda attacks.

According to the FBI, Gadahn, 25, attended al-Qaida training camps and served as an al-Qaida translator.

The disturbing tape runs an hour — the man simply identifies himself as ‘Assam the American.

“Kerry has leveled an extraordinarily harsh wartime charge against President Bush. Shouldn’t he at least make sure that such a charge is true?”

Bill Kristol comments on the Kerry campaigns embrace of the missing weapons story and their rush to include it in Kerry’s stump speech and new ad “Obligation”.

The twisting and turning of the missing weapons story continues. The premise of the original story on Monday has not survived to today, and now the NYT attempts to include new accurate information while simultaneously keeping the older story alive for Kerry.

The guys on Fox News this morning are debating the missing weapons story. They do not deny that the weapons are indeed missing. They question why the old news was suddenly resurrected last Wednesday, and who was the source. They focused on folks at the IAEA, and also democratic operatives who work within the Kerry camp. Now yes, this is FOX news and not ABCNBCCBSPBS. But, if the MSM slowly changes the debate of this story and talks about why this 18 month old news came out again as new news just days before the election, the “October Surprise” will continue to backfire on the Democrats. The discussion will keep going if there isn’t another big story that comes out between now and this weekend. The last thing the dems want is to talk about this misfire on the Sunday shows.

UPDATE: It gets better – the TODAY show opens with the debate over the political motivations of the weapons story.

BUT: TODAY’s Nora O’Donnell attempts to spin the story as something the Bush campaign is trying to run from, put behind them, etc. (OK, so I was hopeful for a moment.)

Ace covers a last gasp attempt to bring George W. Bush’s military service back into question.

The Kerry Spot has more on Mohamed El Baradei, who’s now insisting that the Al Qa Qaa weapons were taken after the invasion…like he’d know.

The Kerry/Edwards campaign released an ad today (viewable online) which now includes the questionable information about missing weapons. Is this their October Surprise and will they continue to attempt to run with the story?