How ’bout you? Oh, let’s do it … McLellan’s press briefing begins momentarily on C-SPAN 1. Update [2006-1-19 12:51:53 by susanhu]: (Uh oh, the Dick has upstaged him and is live on CNN/MSNBC.) Update [2006-1-19 12:54:52 by susanhu]: Scottie has now preempted Dick and is on C-Span.
P.S. I was so glad to hear from Osama! ’bout time! He never even called to wish us Americans a Merry Really-Christian Christmas! (Tis funny, though, how he pops up whenever the administration is under heat for its illegal spying activities and ineffective real-world anti-terrorism measures.) And this wasn’t very nice of him:
… Osama bin Laden warned that al Qaeda was preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans, .. The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing, …
But this wasn’t bad:
In the tape, bin Laden said al Qaeda was willing to respond to U.S. public opinion supporting an American troop pullout from Iraq. He did not specify conditions for the truce, but indicated it was linked to U.S. troops quitting Iraq.
“We have no objection to responding to this with a long term truce based on fair conditions.” ..
Think Osama will win the Nobel Peace Prize someday? (Hey, don’t laugh! Henry Kissinger won it! So did a former (?) terrorist Yasser Arafat.)
Update [2006-1-19 13:46:48 by susanhu]: Raw Story has linked this important piece, “Iraq war could create a new bin Laden,” about the views of bin Laden expert Peter Bergen: “Drawing parallels between the Iraq war and the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s, journalist and terrorism analyst Peter Bergen believes that the terror blowback from the Iraq war will be “particularly vicious …”