Posted on: Thursday, February 13, 2003

EDITORIAL
U.S. needs credibility, not spin, in war aims

We don't blame the Bush administration for being a bit spooked by the reappearance of Osama bin Laden in the form of a second audiotape to surface since he went missing in the battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan.

And we appreciate the keen desire of the administration to drum up support — both at home and abroad — for war against Iraq.

But the administration doesn't help its case by playing fast and loose with facts. Its treatment of the latest bin Laden tape as evidence of a "an unholy partnership" between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein is an uncomfortable stretch.

A fair reading of the 16-minute tape, which has not yet been positively attributed to bin Laden, suggests that he is voicing solidarity with the Iraqi people — as he has in the past — but not for Saddam or his ruling clique, which he calls an "infidel regime" and "apostates."

Interestingly, he tells Iraqis how they can survive the full fury of American air power, just as he says he and 300 al-Qaida fighters survived with minimal casualties — "by digging large numbers of trenches and camouflaging them."

One expert suggested the tape was meant to rally bin Laden's followers, to garner fresh recruits and — above all — to remind Muslims that he's still a force to be reckoned with.

In the past, Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, had admonished the media not to air such tapes lest they unwittingly broadcast coded signals to al-Qaida's cells. Now the administration is so eager to demonstrate links between Iraq and al-Qaida that Secretary of State Colin Powell broke news of the tape before Al Jazeera, the Qatar radio station, acknowledged receipt of it.

A State Department spokesman told Al Jazeera that Powell believes Saddam and al-Qaida are "bound by a common hatred" for the United States. The common hatred is undeniable, but the assumption of a bond is a lapse in logic. Iraq and Iran both claim to hate the United States, but they hate each other, too.

Conversely, the links between al-Qaida and Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Pakistan are well known, but the Bush administration considers those nations allies.

The bin Laden tape better serves as a reminder of a job unfinished — the war against terror — than further reason to attack Iraq, and the administration doesn't help its case by mischaracterizing it.