Res Publica 2005

Stories circulated today that the new OBL video was much less bipartisan than at first believed, and that unedited versions of the tape included threats against the Bush family and several Cabinet members. This morning Al Jazeera posted what it claimed was a complete transcript of the video which apart from looking too short to be 18 minutes also had nothing that was not already aired. One interesting side note -- the text of the translation was based on the subtitles in the original video. The transcript does not include the final few sentences in which bin Laden mentions John Kerry. Nor does bin Laden anywhere mention Iraq. He does apparently say that this is the fourth year of the war, but everything else he says deals with the causes of the conflict. Is this a new tape or not?

From the Corner