Powell Welcomes Osama to the Rescue

The White House is using Osama bin Laden's latest message to sell an attack on Iraq . Maureen Dowd notes that "the president and his secretary of state had been huffing and puffing to prove a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. ... And then who but Osama himself should pop up on an audio tape, calling on Muslims to fight the U.S. if the 'infidels' attack 'our brothers in Iraq.' Osama's disdain for Saddam still gleamed through. ... Still, the administration pounced on the tape... Mr. Powell was so eager to publicize Osama's statements that he broke the news himself... In the past, Condi Rice has implored the networks not to broadcast the tapes outright, fearing he might be activating sleeper cells in code. But this time the administration flacked the tape. ... So the Bushies no longer care if Osama sends a coded message to his thugs as long as he stays on message for the White House? To get Saddam, the Bush administration is even willing to remind the American public that it failed to get bin Laden. Its fixation on Saddam seems to have blinded it to the possibility that Osama might be perversely encouraging America in this war."