Barbara Honewgger is the author of "The October Surprise", the first book to expose the true origins of the Iran side of the Iran/Contra scandal; the President of 9/11 Truth Monterey; a senior military affairs journalist; and former White House Policy Analyst and Special Assistant to the Assistant to the President in the first Reagan Administration.
While Al Qaeda leaders appear to have posted on the Internet that they are considering a terrorist strike before the presidential election to favor John McCain (“On Al Qaeda Web Sites, Joy Over Crisis, Support for McCain,” Washington Post, Oct. 22, 2008), far more likely is an attempt by the Republicans to try to pull a ‘bin Laden’ October Surprise before Nov. 4.
Indeed, with McCain crashing and burning in the polls and unable to contain his wild-eyed Mr. Hyde from bursting into full view on national television in the final presidential debate, all Bush, Rove and McCain have left is an ‘October Surprise’ – a high risk dirty trick before the election, usually in mid to late October, that can only ‘work’ if the Republicans’ fingerprints aren’t seen to be on it. But because McCain, despite his ‘I’m not President Bush’, is the candidate of the morally and financially bankrupt Republican party and voted with Bush 90 percent of the time, the only ‘October Surprise’ that could have even a hope of being effective would be one that appeared to rehabilitate Bush.
The most obvious such ‘rehabilitation’ would be one that appeared to vindicate Bush’s ‘war on terror’ by ‘finding’ ‘bin Laden’ before the election. Despite the fact that bin Laden has never been wanted for the Sept. 11 attacks by the FBI on its ‘Most Wanted Terrorists’ web page, and Director Mueller and the FBI’s chief investigative spokesman have publicly stated that the reason for this is that there is ‘no hard evidence’ linking him to the 9/11 plot (1), ‘finding’ bin Laden and charging him for 9/11 before Nov. 4 would, the Republicans are sure to believe, be to the benefit of McCain.
There’s only one problem. The real bin Laden is almost surely dead. Even before 9/11, he suffered from a serious disease that required frequent dialysis, which is impossible to obtain in a cave or in the wild mountains of the Afghan-Pakistan border. But being dead wouldn’t stop Bush, Rove and McCain from resurrecting bin Laden’s ghost for an ‘October Surprise,’ especially when they’re desperate.
So if they do, who will ‘bin Laden’ really be? Where are they going to ‘find’ a 6-foot, 4-inch Muslim who looks like bin Laden and whom they know they can control?
Funny thing, it turns out they already have him: Richard Reid, the infamous ‘Shoe Bomber,’ who’s in solitary confinement at the maximum security prison in Florence , Colorado . The New York Times, in separate articles, reported that both bin Laden and Reid happen to be 6’4” in height. And a forensic digital portrait photographer has noted the striking similarity between their images, as proven by the photos accompanying this article.
The first is the most famous public image of bin Laden,
and the second the most well known public imAge of Richard Reid.
The third is the No. 1 image of bin Laden with a 50% transparency overlay of the No. 2 photo of Reidand, to show it both ways,
the fourth is the No. 2 photo of Reid with a 50% transparency overlay of the No. 1 photo of bin Laden.
The photo journalist who did these overlays stated that when he first saw them, it sent chills up and down his spine: “Reid could easily be – and probably has been – used as a stand-in double for bin Laden,” he said.
By the way, Reid was ‘captured’ – came in out of the cold – on an airplane trying to light his shoes in a tight space next to other passengers (he might as well have had an ‘Arrest Me!’ banner plastered across his chest) the same week, in Dec. 2001, that ‘bin Laden’ ‘escaped’ from Tora Bora.
Bottom line: If Bush, Rove and McCain pull ‘bin Laden’ out of a rabbit hole between now and the election, demand to see ‘bin Laden’ in the same room at the same time as ‘Shoe Bomber’ Richard Reid.
1 http://www.twf.org/News/Y2006/0608-BinLaden.html
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