Al-Qaeda in the House

With Pennsylvanians voting now for their Democratic nominee, I was struck by al-Qaeda no. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri's second taped message this month, and this one just the day before the primary. In fact, it was Tuesday in Pakistan and Afghanistan when this was posted.

I was reminded of the theory that Osama bin-Ladin's release of a message just before the last presidential election was a calculated al-Qaeda effort to help George W. Bush get elected. The logic is that al-Qaeda's recruiting, fundraising and propaganda efforts are strengthened by a belligerent U.S. policy in the Muslim world. Now this was just a theory and no solid evidence that I know of backs it up.

However, the timing of these two recent tapes is uncanny.

Again, the logic here would be that al-Qaeda would support '100-year war' John McCain for the presidency. So we can then ask, why would they release two tapes just weeks apart, one of them the day before the Democratic primary? It may be that they see Barack Obama as more likely to beat McCain than Hillary Clinton.

Hillary would probably benefit more from fear tactics than Barack Obama. In fact, her most recent television ad is a fear ad that actually flashes an image of Osama bin-Ladin.

Now again, there is no solid evidence for these musings, but you certainly have to wonder.