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October 28, 2004

Verbatim Transcript: That Censored ABCNews Half-Report

JENNINGS: US intelligence officials told us today that a videotape we've had in our possession for several days appears to have been produced by an organization connected to Al Qaeda. Our investigative unit has spent several days analyzing the tape. We also gave a copy to the FBI and CIA who have been checking it as well.

And ABC's Bryan Ross joins us tonight to tell us what the intelligence officials in the government have decided.

ROSS: Peter, we acquired the tape last Friday in Pakistan and now after days of anlaysis US officials say while they still cannot authenticate the voice on the tape, it has all the trademarks of an Al Qaeda production.

VIDEO OF TYPICAL HOMOSEXUAL-PANIC LUNATIC GRIPPING AK-47 LIKE IT'S HIS LOCKER-MATE'S SCHLONG, RANTING AND RAVING, BUT IN ENGLISH.

The tape features someone speaking English who claims to be an American, identified only as "Assam the American."

LUNATIC: No, my fellow countrymen, you are guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty. You are as guilty as Bush and Cheney.

ROSS: His face is never fully visible and he makes no reference to where in the US he might have lived, if he ever did. The 75-minute long tape is marked with the logo and graphics of the same shadowy group called As-Sahab which as produced numerous audio and video tapes for Al Qaeda.

The threats are familiar but now in English, with a slight accent which law enforcement officals believe indicates that English is not his mother tongue.

LUNATIC: People of America, I remind you of the weighty words of our leaders Sheik Osama bin Ladin and "Dr." Ayman Al-Zawahiri, that what took place on September 11th was but the opening salvo of the global war on America, and that, Allah willing, the magnitude and ferocity of what is coming your way will make you forget all about September 11th.

ROSS: US officials believe there are several Americans working with Al Qaeda but that the voice of this man does not match any of them, making it impossible to fully authenticate the tape. The man on the pate appears to be well-educated, and well-versed in current and cultural events. He makes references to American television shows (VIDEO: BILL MAHER SHOUTING LIKE A JACKASS) and even the 9-11 commission (VIDEO: Tom Kean lowers the gavel).

He criticizes Muslims who have abandoned their faith and says Muslims are fighting a defensive war against the US and warns Americans the next wave of attacks could come at any moment.

LUNATIC WHO MISTOOK A PICNIC BLANKET FOR A HAT: After decades of American tyranny (prounounced TIE-ranny) and oppression, not it's your turn to die. Allah willing, the streets of America shall run red with blood matching drop for drop the blood of America's victims.

ROSS: The US is taking the tape very seriously. Copies are being provided to all thirteen current officials mentioned by name on the tape and the tape is being shown to captured Al Qaeda suspects in US custody to see, Peter, if they can Identify the man who calls himself Assam the American.

JENNINGS: Many thanks, Bryan.

Couple of points.

1. Without Al Qaeda's express endorsement of John Kerry, this tape simply isn't news at all. An imbecile speaking in florid but bad English about "streets running red with blood" is not news. They embargoed the only newsworthy part of the tape.

2. They seemed very careful to not let on that Al Qaeda has endorsed John Kerry-- that's a "political implication" they wanted to avoid -- and yet they had no problems whatsoever with leaving the impression that Al Qaeda is angry at Bush and Cheney personally, rather than America, the West, and modernity generally.

3. The cute distribution to only the 13 officials specifically named on the tape, while otherwise holding the video close, is a rather obvious attempt to keep the tape from being used in a campaign ad against Kerry. If there are only 13 persons who have the tape outside of ABCNews, they figure, any use of the tape for informing the public about Al Qaeda's presidential preference can be traced directly back to the 13 Republican officials, thus blunting the attack.

Hey, assholes-- it's a tape. Release it generally. Stop playing games.

"No Kerry Endorsement": A commenter says that FoxNews obtained the tape "independently of ABC" and did not mention an endorsement of Kerry (or, more accurately, a condemnation of Bush-Cheney and the promise of further violence should they be elected). The poster's implication seems to be, Therefore there is no endorsement.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. That is possible, of course. I haven't seen the tape, so I don't know. But the story reported by Drudge is that ABC released the tape to the government with the arguable Kerry endorsement missing or edited out. FoxNews certainly received its copy from a government source (who had, in turn, gotten it from ABC); it is hard to believe that within just a few days FoxNews contacted the man peddling the same video in Waziristan and purchased an original copy.

So the fact that FoxNews has an expurgated copy does not mean the true copy possessed thusfar only by ABCNews does not contain the reported -- and undenied -- endorsement of John Kerry for president.

posted by Ace at 07:55 PM

Comments

I just read a story on yahoo saying that ABC is reporting that they have evidence that shows the disputed explosives were removed after US forces took Iraq.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&e=1&u=/nm/20041028/ts_nm/iraq_explosives_abc_d

You know anything about it?

Posted by: atomic_amish on October 28, 2004 08:06 PM

Yeah, Ace, where were YOU after the 101st secured Al Qa Qaa?

But, back to the video...

Posted by: See Dub on October 28, 2004 08:12 PM

Yeah, right.

Atomic Amish, I don't know if you're a liberal trying to push a story on me or a conservative who naively thinks I have any kind of connections, but let me assure you, I know nothing about nothing at all.

I am the very last person to be let in the loop on anything. The chain goes MSM reporters, Drudge, Powerline/LGF/Redstate/Allah, then chat forums, then porno forums, then me.

Posted by: ace on October 28, 2004 08:32 PM

It is obvious from viewing the tape that the Kerry campaign is writing, directing and producing the terrorists’ commercials for them.

Posted by: on October 28, 2004 08:34 PM

they had no problems whatsoever with leaving the impression that Al Qaeda is angry at Bush and Cheney personally

Erm - isn't that good? I mean, they say 9/11 was the first of many attacks. Bush didn't do shit to them till after 9/11 - hell Michael Moore even says bush supported the taliban or some crazy shit. Then, for them to come out and say this is all Bushs' fault is rather imbecillic - either that, or they're taking speaking cues from JFK and are trying to have it both ways.

*shrugs* First it's MoveOn coordinating with the DNC, AQ is only like a half a step further...

Posted by: fat kid on October 28, 2004 08:38 PM

Fox News played long excerts from the tape on Special Report tonight.

Posted by: Clark on October 28, 2004 08:43 PM

Actually i knew you had just watched the ABC evening news and i thought you might have seen the report. I only watched the terrorist video spot. Man it kinda pisses me off that you think im either a Lib. or naive for asking. Maybe i should just stick to Fleshbot for my news...

Posted by: on October 28, 2004 08:57 PM

Posted by: atomic_amish on October 28, 2004 08:57 PM

Speaking of MoveOn, I think Atomic Amish and Cindy, who left that charming comment about the New Yorker's endorsement, are just leafleting for some Soros-funded 527 that reeks of patchouli and stridex.

They're probably just cut-and pasting these stories into active forums on the right-leaning blogs of someone's blogroll--or maybe using the NZ Bear rankings.

It's an amazingly stupid waste of time because the comments just flop out there and stink like non-sequiturds. They're from people we've never heard of and they're obvious political spam. Like we're just going to see that and go, Oh, wow, the new ABC video! That's it, sign me up for four years of Kerry-Edwards! Thank you, atomic_amish, for your hip inside knowledge of a story we saw on Drudge at noon.

You know anything about it?

Posted by: See-Dubya on October 28, 2004 08:58 PM

A_A, sorry, your comments came in while I was writing. I figured we'd never see you again.

Your post did have that troll-psyop feel to it though.

Posted by: See-Dub on October 28, 2004 09:02 PM

IM NOT A DEMOCRAT DAMMIT!!! I saw the story and wanted to see if it was bullshit! My God. I didnt see all of the evening news and i knew Ace did so who else should i ask? I dont write the story-i really think the story is just more MSM B.S. so get off my back.

Posted by: atomic_amish on October 28, 2004 09:06 PM

The same thing just happened to me. sorry i got so ticked. I overreact sometimes. you know how tempermental the Amish are. You were this close being shunned!

Posted by: atomic_amish on October 28, 2004 09:12 PM

Off Topic, but "germane" as JFK II would say:

Theresa calls Bush and others "Neanderthals". Sez Bush unable to get along on the global playground - something "children learn" on their playgrounds. Jeez, I almost hope Kerry does get elected so I can hear what comes out of that woman's ever-flapping mouth next.

Johnny Damon, the Red Sox outfielder, was unavailable for comment.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/3868919/detail.html

Posted by: Cedarford on October 28, 2004 09:24 PM

Cedarford, are you Dick Morris? Cause you just sound like Dick Morris sometimes. Not in a toe-sucking way, just in a Dick Morris way.

Posted by: See-dubya on October 28, 2004 09:29 PM

Hey Ace

I watched some of ABC News tonight. You failed to mention (probably because its redundant) the ponderous, sighing, cocksucker tone that Jennings blankets over everything that he reads.

I'm starting to hate Canadians again.

Posted by: sonofnixon on October 28, 2004 10:19 PM

I watched the vid over at the Fox News site. There was no mention of a Kerry endorsement and Fox says they obtained their video independently of ABC.

Posted by: Gus on October 28, 2004 11:02 PM

Atomic Amish,

Sorry! I cast it as an either/or proposition. If you're not a Democrat, but a conservative seeking the inside dope, then be warned, I have no inside dope.

Nobody talks to me. Nobody tips me. I have about as much pull as an unstrung bow.

Posted by: ace on October 28, 2004 11:38 PM

Jeezum crow, if a terrorist gave me a videotape and I told the cops, yeah, I'll maybe let you see half of it when I'm done with it, I would probably be looking at a search warrant pretty quick.

I see a court case here. I really think the FBI & CIA should have that whole tape, pronto. How is ABC serving its viewers by editing the evidence of a terrorist conspiracy? That's going to screw up the chain of custody in case they ever catch the fruitbat in the blanket alive and put him on trial. ABC should copy it and turn the originals over.

I care less about how much of it they decide to air--it is their property and their discretion on their show-- than their unwillingness to share evidence with the authorities, especially since it's apparently evidence of a catastrophic terrorist attack. And they do use those public airwaves at the government's discretion.

That said, I think this tape is a bluff. Not Al Qaeda's style. They would just blow the shit out of us if they could, and save the sermon video till later. Madrid, after all, came with no advance warning.

Posted by: See-Dubya on October 28, 2004 11:55 PM

I am pretty sure when Fox News aired the video earlier this evening, they played the part where the nutjob blasted Bush/Cheney and said not to elect them.

Posted by: Clark on October 29, 2004 01:11 AM

Oops. You're right. I watched the Fox video again and it says *ABC* got the tape in Pakistan, not Fox. Sorry for peddling bad information.

Posted by: Gus on October 29, 2004 01:27 AM

I missed something - who said it was edited before hand over?

Posted by: R on October 29, 2004 10:08 AM

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In more marketing for Project Hail Mary, scientists say they've found the biosigns indicating life growing on an alien planet. It's not proof, just signatures of chemicals that are produced by biological metabolism, and it could be nothing, but scientists think it's a strong sign that this planet is inhabited by something.

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of scientists announced the detection of dimethyl sulfide (along with a similar detection of dimethyl disulfide) in the atmosphere of an exoplanet called K2-18b. This is actually the second detection of dimethyl sulfide made on this planet, following a tentative detection in 2023.
Tons of chemicals are detected in the atmospheres of celestial objects every day. But dimethyl sulfide is different, because on Earth, it's only produced by living organisms.
"It is a shock to the system," Nikku Madhusudhan, first author on the paper, told the New York Times. "We spent an enormous amount of time just trying to get rid of the signal."

He means they tried to prove the signal was caused by things other than dimethyl sulfide but they could not.

Artemis moon shot a go, scheduled for 6:24 Eastern time tonight
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Good rickroll

What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV.
Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.

A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.

The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring.
I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do.
But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.

Finish the job, Mr. President!
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Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Red Leather Suit and Sweatband Edition
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Tomorrow is March 25th, "Tolkien Reading Day," because March 25th is the day when the Ring is destroyed in the book. I think I'm going to start the Hobbit tomorrow and read all four books this time.
The only bad part of the trilogy are the Frodo/Sam chapters in The Two Towers. They're repetitive, slow, and mostly about the weather and terrain. But most everything else is good. Weirdly, the Frodo-Sam chapters in Return of the King are exciting and action-packed and among the best in the trilogy. (Though the chapters with everyone else in Return of the King get pretty slow again. Mostly people talking about marching towards war, and then marching towards war.)

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[Hat Tip: Diogenes] [CBD]

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Forgotten 80s Mystery Click
One day I'm gonna write a poem in a letter
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US decimation of Iran's ICBM forces is due to Space Force's instant detection of launches -- and the launchers' hiding places -- and rapid counter-attack via missiles
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“robert mueller just died,” trump wrote in a truth social post on march 21. “good, i’m glad he’s dead. he can no longer hurt innocent people! president donald j. trump.”

TJM has thoughts on Superheros and Iconography