Two years ago, American-born Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn released this video in which he informed his operatives in the United States that because of a loophole in America’s gun laws they could avoid background checks by buying assault weapons at gun shows. Gadahn’s implication was that it would be easy to assemble the arsenal required to launch an attack in the United States similar to the 2008 terror campaign in Mumbai, in which 12 simultaneous bombing and gun attacks across the city left 164 people dead and at least 300 people wounded.
Transcript:
Muslims in the West need to realize that they are perfectly placed to play an important and decisive part in the jihad against the Zionists and crusaders .. and to do major damage to the enemies of Islam waging war on the religion, sacred places and things and brotherhood.
This is a golden opportunity and a blessing from [Arabic phrase] and the way to show one’s appreciation and thanks for this blessing is to rush to discharge one’s duty towards [Arabic word] and fight on its behalf with everything at his disposal.
And in the West, you’ve got a lot at your disposal. Let’s take America as an example. America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check and mostly likely without having to show an identification card.
So what are you waiting for?
In the years after the 9/11 attacks, George Bush, Dick Cheney and their GOP allies in Congress exploited Americans’ fear of terrorists in order to build support for their bogus invasion of Iraq as well for standing up the sort of big-government security state apparatus that Republicans have dreamed of since the McCarthy era.
Now conservatives like West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey have rolled out this video for a similar purpose. They hope to use it to inflame whatever residual fear of terror that still exists here in what Gore Vidal called the “United States of Amnesia” in order to create cover for their votes in favor of of a more secure background checks at gun shows — in defiance of opposition for expanded checks by their corporate masters in the gun manufacturing industry and its NRA lobby.
During the Bush years, fear of terror was certainly persuasive among Fox viewers and other low-info citizens. Perhaps it can also be used now to help convince these same fearful people that gun-show background checks could help prevent a Mumbai-style coordinated attack at, say, a county fair or high-school football game or in a mall or downtown area somewhere in America.
