Subject: El Shukrijumah

Got this in an email today from an Internet acquaintance.

I didn't want to bump the thread again with this, but I wanted to expand on my reasons for believing an attack was imminent, and the target is Detroit:

Washington Times

Incidentally, Hamilton, Ontario is approximately 150 miles from Detroit.

Also, along the lines of bin Laden's truce offer, Al Jazeera reported yesterday that al Zawahiri made a truce offer of his own, inviting President Bush to convert to Islam. (Hindustan Times). This is relevant, because after the 9/11 attacks, many otherwise radical clerics and Imams were able to condemn OBL on the grounds that he didn't offer the kaffir an opportunity to submit to Islam before he slaughtered them, in accordance with Sharia law. Now, AQ's top two have both made the offer in a span of three weeks (OBL also offered a truce to the UK just prior to the London subway bombings). And the offers were made prior to the SOTU address, where Bush would certainly reject the offers in no uncertain terms.

Also, Zawahiri's white turban, white robe and the absence of his AK-47 were symbolic of this gesture of "peace". I don't have any read on the black background, except that it hasn't been done before. I don't buy the puffed-up presumptions that he's petrfied and taking extra steps to hide by concealing his background (we spend too much time congratulating ourselves on kicking ass, not enough time resigning ourselves to the long, titanic struggle this war is going to be). I believe the background is a trigger of some sort.

Also, multiple al Zawahiri tapes have consistently triggered attacks (outside of Iraq and Afghanistan) within 30 days of the last tape release. That pattern is based on two tapes released within a three month period. Never before have there been three AZ tapes and one OBL tape in a thirty day period.

And finally, I think they have to hit a hard target and they have to do it on Bush's watch to inflict maximum damage on the President and support for the overall war. A radiological attack on the Super Bowl would accomplish that in spades, and unlike the 9/11 attack, it would divide this country in a way we've never been divided before. They're not going to have an opportunity like this, in a place like this (a heavily Muslim, border city) again during the Bush presidency.

I hope I'm wrong. Or, at the very least, if I'm right, I hope they fail. But I'll be stunned if they don't try something huge on Sunday.

That is all.