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Al-Qaeda Wants Republicans to Win
By Robert Parry
Consortium News


George W. Bush's blunt assertion that a Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 elections means "the terrorists win and America loses" misses the point that Osama bin Laden stands to advance his strategic goals much faster with a Republican victory.
Indeed, as U.S. intelligence analysts have come to understand, there is a symbiotic relationship between Bush's blunderbuss "war on terror" and bin Laden's ruthless strategy of terrorist violence - one helping the other.
Last April, a National Intelligence Estimate, representing the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence community, concluded that Bush's Iraq War had become the "cause celebre" that had helped spread Islamic extremism around the globe.
In June, U.S. intelligence also learned from an intercepted al-Qaeda communiqué that bin Laden's terrorist band wants to keep U.S. soldiers bogged down in Iraq as the best way to maintain and expand al-Qaeda's influence.
"Prolonging the war is in our interest," wrote "Atiyah," one of bin Laden's top lieutenants....
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