April 15, 2004 - Bin Laden, or rather someone who claims to be Bin Laden, made an audio tape that is being broadcast on Arab television stations this morning. In it he offers what he calls a ‘truce’ to European nations who withdraw their troops from Islamic countries within 3 months and renews threats to exact revenge from the United States. None of that is news. Al Qaeda and its allies have been trying to drive a wedge between the United States and its political and economic allies for some time using the diplomacy of terror to do so. The 3/11 attack in Madrid is a prime example of the technique.

Neither is it new that the tape blames America for Israel’s killing of Sheik Yassin, the Hamas leader. The chanted mantra that the United States is responsible for Israel’s actions has been repeatedly sold to the Arab street for years. With the Presidents shift in policy to endorse the Sharon illusion of withdrawal from Gaza in exchange for American recognition of the legitimacy of West Bank settlements will certainly give credence to the militant’s claim that America is Israel’s willing accomplice in what they label as crimes against the Palestinian people. It is significant that the Israeli Prime Minister took great pains to issue a thinly veiled endorsement of George Bush in their joint appearance yesterday, praising him as the American leader whose opposition to terrorism was the greatest in the Israeli’s experience. Bush returned the praise. The implication was that the President was trading policy for political support.

What was new in the tape attributed to Bin Laden was that it echoed American critics of the Bush Administration’s conduct of America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The tape claims that America’s wars are being fought to secure corrupt profits for corporate America and singles out Halliburton as the chief corporate villain. If Bin Laden intended by his comments to reinforce the domestic political opposition to the Bush war policy he failed miserably. It is likely that the tape will have the opposite effect. It requires no leap of imagination to visualize the “Willie Horton” ad for election 2004. It will be Bin Laden’s contribution to the Bush campaign.

That the terrorist chieftain has adopted the rhetoric used by critics of the conduct of America’s wars does not make that principled opposition illegitimate though the Bush machine will seize upon this tape as a tool to blunt that criticism. The President’s supporters will parrot the line that continued criticism of Halliburton and the Second Iraqi War constitutes support for Al Qaeda and its campaign of terror.

In fact it is the opposite that is true. It the Administration’s continuing and failed policy focusing on Iraq that has supported Bin Laden and his allies. The diversion of attention from the pursuit of the terrorists to the conquest of Iraq has been the biggest boost to Al Qaeda’s fortunes. While America is pinned down in the siege of Fallujah and arrayed to attack the Shia’s holiest city Bin Laden has been free to roam free and strike wherever and however he pleases while the Bush Administration policies feed the terrorists recruiting effort.

But, of course, none of that matters. What does matter is that Bin Laden is headed for a featured role in the Bush campaign ads. Lee Atwater’s ghost must be chuckling. It is, “Move over Willie. Here comes Osama!”