Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily (but not Aaron Klein) finally reported al Qaeda's endorsement of John McCain -- but buried in an article claiming al Qaeda endorses Barack Obama even more.
A Nov. 1 WND article by Ryan Mauro ("founder and chief editor of WorldThreats.com") claimed there has been more than one "tacit endorsement of Democrat Barack Obama by the terrorist network," citing "Joseph Shahda, an Arabic translator who monitors radical Islamic websites." But Mauro fails to offer any more information about Shahda.
A 2006 BlogCritics profile of Shahda describes him as a "denizen of the conservative web site Free Republic" -- which should raise red flags about his partisan motivations. Shahda did some translation of several documents posted on the Internet by the federal government seized in Iraq -- an idea pushed by Republican congressmen and right-wing radio hosts -- which he then posted at Free Republic.
Indeed, on Free Republic, Shahda, writing under the name "jveritas," is very much rooting for McCain and against Obama. As he writes in one post, "When you vote, you beat these insanely biased polls. Go and vote, ask you family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues to vote for McCain/Palin."
In another post, he writes:
Dear Freepers
It is time. Please mass e-mail the McCain campaign http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/ and/or call them at (703) 418-2008 to urge them to use the political nuclear weapon that will assure the destruction of Obama and his candidacy. Urge them to use Jeremiah Wright. The issue is very legitimate and John McCain should not hesitate for one more second to use it.[...]
Show no mercy, use Jeremiah Wright, defeat Obama.
Another Shahda post simply recites McCain talking points:
We are going to win because at the end a defeatist, a socialist, and a left wing liberal like Barack Obama will not be elected President.
We are going to win because at the end Barack Obama who voted to cut the funding for our brave troops in the battlefield, who voted against the surge, who voted against victory, and who voted for defeat will not be elected President.
We are going to win because Barack Obama who believes in socialism, who wants to raise our taxes and who wants to spend heavily on welfare programs will not be elected President.
We are going to win because Barack Obama who spent 20 years in a church of hate, racism, and anti-Americanism under his friend and mentor Jeremiah Wright and who launched his political carrier in the living room of terrorist William Ayres will not be elected President.
We are going to win because our candidate John McCain is an American hero who believes in strong defense, in crushing our terrorist enemies, in lowering our taxes, in cutting welfare and wasteful spending, in the right to life for the unborn, in constructionist judges, and believes in the greatness of and the uniqueness of our beloved America.
We are going to win and McCain will be elected President.
Back to Mauro: It's not until the 11th paragraph of his article that Mauro gets around to addressing the McCain endorsement -- done so, of course, only to dismiss it:
The title of a Washington Post story Oct. 22 suggested the forums indicated significant al-Qaida support for John McCain.
But the story, "On Al-Qaeda Web Sites, Joy Over U.S. Crisis, Support for McCain," cited only one posting declaring a Republican victory would benefit the terrorist network.
"Al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming election," the Post quoted from the website posting, which also stated an attack around the time of the election could help McCain win."It will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida will then succeed in exhausting America," it said.
But Shahda said many postings on the Al-Hesbah website mocked the Washington Post article.
Why should anyone trust Shahda when he clearly has a right-wing, anti-Obama bias?
