Candidates always get a little bump in the polls during and shortly following the national conventions. Media coverage has a lot to do with this.
As long as we’re spinning conspiracy theories – Musharaff wants Washington off his back so he can go back to pandering to the Wahabiwackjobs, he figures Kerry is likely to do that, he figures that catching a high-panjandrum Wahabiwackjob with oh-so-convenient timing is a good way to undermine Bush, so he did just that.
What do I win?
Not much of a story there yet. Donations from nutcase whackos like PETA, HSUS, or the SPCA and their perverse supporters aren’t illegal. Donations from normal, wholesome gamefowl breeders shouldn’t be either. Testing is legal in SC anyway. The arrest is just pandering to bigots (elitists) who hate the whole human race and put animals on the level of human beings or those that hate people who participate in their rural culture. Nothing new for politicians who are seldom worth even their sweat.
Well, sure they do. I just don’t think the capture of a “suspect” who’s name doesn’t end in Bin Laden is going to steal much thunder from a theatrical rendition of an “acceptance” speech from one of only two candidates in the whole race.*
Kerry’s announcement of his running mate far outshone (is that even a word? Outshined? whats the past tense? 
) this staged, predictable foregone conclusion.
*I just got done watching said speech. I think he did a much better job than any past televised appearence. I doubt he really swayed anyones opinion/vote however. Man, his wife is creepy. Yes, I’ve also been drinking. I logged on to participate in a “homebrew” thread.
Well gotta agree with you there. If they had bagged OBL, it would have been a very different story.
Counter spin, hat adjustment, reality upchuck…
Checking the blogiverse, some talk that the Pakistanis let the info out too early, logic being that as long as the AlQ didn’t know he was captured, then information they got from him might still be current, but as soon as it was known that he was captured, his AlQ cell members would start disposing of things.
At any rate, they had him for several days. Gotta wonder what kind of shape he’s in…
The booby prize, but thanks for playing.
Musharaff hoping that a Kerry Presidency will take the heat off of him does not have a payoff as good as Musharaff getting hardware from Washington to use against India; why go against Bush and pray for a lucky roll of the dice?
This doesn’t deserve to drop off the radar. Let’s summarize:
-New Republic reporters quote several indepedant sources in the Pakistani government and intelligence agencies who told them that the Bush administration had recently started to demand that they produce high-value targets, and had given them specific dates: during the week of the Democratic convention, and before the US election. They were threatened/bribed with various military deals if they did not deliver before those deadlines. The facts on these claims, including the weapon systems deals, all seem to check out.
-The afternoon before Kerry speaks at the convention, the Pakistanis announce the capture of a major FBI most wanted figure, “another crowning success of Pakistan’s security apparatus in the fight against terrorism.” Wait, no. NOT THE DAY. The announcement is, inexplicably, made in what, in Pakistan, is midnight. Press conferences, especially those announcing information that is almost a week old and certainly is not so urgent that it cannot wait until morning, are not generally held at midnight, when no one in Pakistan is listening or watching. The intended audience was obviously not fellow Pakistanis, but Americans.
-Counter-terrorism experts are baffled by several things here. First, that they would announce the capture PRIOR to fully interrogating him: a break in the normal proceedure. Broadcasting someone’s capture before you’ve had a chance to try and make use of the information you get can seriously undermine the value of that capture to counter-terror efforts, giving your enemies a big head start to cut all ties to the guy or escape any contact that they might have set up that are now compromised. The warnings that are later given also raise red flags: why let the enemy know so quickly and grandly that you are on to them and publically show your hand as to exactly what sort of security forces we can deploy?
-Ridge praises Bush’s efforts in his terror announcements (implying, perhaps truthfully, that Bush was responsible for drumming up the new intelligence) and at the same time denies that there is anything partisan about the warnings (nevermind that the two are not mutually exclusive). The Bush twins, who had previously said that they would only ever make public appearances for campaign events, appear with their mother for a “standing up against terror” photo-op in the stock exchange.
How can anyone call this a conspiracy theory? At the very least, the Pakistanis appear to be putting partisan motives above wise security, and timed the press conference accordingly. And given that no one has well refuted the New Republic findings so far, it’s hard to deny that the administration has at the very least put pressure on the Pakistanis that it had, inexplicably, not been putting on in the last few years.