Osama Bin Laden
MINNEAPOLIS--I asked Governor George Pataki just now about a speech he gave yesterday in which he briefly conflated the names Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden and, intentionally or not, got a laugh out of the audience of convention delegates. "That's totally untrue," he said. "I would never do that." Asked if he meant that he had not done it purposely, he said, "I didn't do it, period." Then he added, "The word ‘Os’ came... MORE >
In his forthcoming Observer review of The Second Plane, Tom Bissell admires this throwaway Martin Amis line: “I found myself frivolously wondering whether Osama was just the product … of his birth order. Seventeenth out of fifty-seven is a notoriously difficult slot to fill.” Funny, but not entirely accurate—or so I gather from Steve Coll’s The Bin Ladens (Penguin Press, $35), an epic history of the vast and vastly rich Saudi Arabian family... MORE >
This volume, a collection of essays and broadcasts by Ayman Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, does the Al Qaeda leaders no favors. ... MORE >
By | January 10, 2007 | 5:16 am
Jason Horowitz writes about the efforts of Washington Democrats to assert themselves on Iraq without handing the Republicans a political gift. As Charlie Rangel put it: "The President will say we're in business with Osama bin Laden. Anytime, politically, you have to explain what you are saying, you have a problem. And so if I am there saying, 'Cut the funds for Iraq and the war in Iraq,' then someone is going to... MORE >
By | December 18, 2006 | 12:57 pm
Till he died on Mt. Hood, Kelly James led a rich, daring life. He did "high-end modernist" landscape design and loved climbing mountains. He proposed to his now-widow at 14,000 feet, on Mt. Rainier. The two men he climbed the challenging north approach to Hood with last week were also veteran adventurers. But the evidence that Hood River County Sheriff Joe Wampler just described at his news conference—two abandoned ice axes, a climbing... MORE >
By | October 19, 2006 | 10:48 am
The much-anticipated debate yesterday between Rep. Peter King of Long Island and his Democratic challenger Dave Mejias is online over here. Warning. It's an hour long. But it's also worth watching, at least for a couple of minutes, if you're at all interested in this stuff. Like the Times wrote today, most Republicans have done an about-face on the idea of campaigning on Iraq. King, as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, doesn't have... MORE >
By | October 17, 2006 | 8:41 am
Here is an unusual piece of literature from Rep. Vito Fossella's campaign, which features the image of Osama Bin Laden. Next to the phrase "Steve Harrison opposes key tools in the war on terrorism" is a headshot of Bin Laden, somebody the Republican Party hasn't been very keen on mentioning lately. The strategy for most Republicans this year has been to focus on local issues - like Tom Reynolds and the snow storm in Buffalo.... MORE >
By | September 27, 2006 | 5:07 am
Hillary Clinton said Condoleezza Rice didn't treat Osama bin Laden as a serious threat before Sept. 11. President Bush, in response, said, "I don't have enough time to finger-point." Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Richard Miniter said Bill Clinton "made no attempt to rally the public against terrorism...Bill Clinton did not fully grasp that he was at war." The debate between Eliot Spitzer and John Faso is covered here, here, here, here, and here. The... MORE >
George W.... MORE >
The largest mosque in Southern California is located in Culver City, just south of Beverly Hills, no... MORE >
By | September 14, 2006 | 7:41 am
It's a campaign! The press release Hillary Clinton just sent out about John Spencer's attacks appears to mark her first overtly aggressive maneuver of this election cycle. It should serve as something of an alarm to the Spencer folks that, after the bumpy but ultimately easy ride against KT McFarland, life is about to become considerably more challenging. "If comparing Senator Clinton to Osama bin Laden is what John Spencer's 'positive' campaign... MORE >
By | August 15, 2006 | 7:21 am
There's something to be said for shock value, I suppose. John Spencer has reacted to this week's foiled air terror plot by taking out what I assume to be a pretty limited cable TV buy for this spot, which features images of Hillary Clinton and - who else? -- Osama bin Laden. After a female narrator scolds the senator for opposing "the Patriot Act and the NSA wiretaps that helped stop another 9-11," John... MORE >
Osama bin Laden has never articulated the grim calculus of terrorism as pithily as an anonymous spok... MORE >
Death in war is rarely even dramatic in its circumstances.... MORE >
By 6:30 p.m.... MORE >
