NEW BIN LADEN THREAT – AT 8:16 P.M. ET:  While Obama was busy bashing an American ally, our enemies were active.  Osama bin Laden has made another threat, and this one is completely credible:

(March 25) -- Osama bin Laden leveled a new threat against the U.S. in an audio recording released today, saying al-Qaida will kill American captives if the U.S. executes Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or other terror suspects in its custody.

Bin Laden named Mohammed specifically in the 74-second recording aired on Al-Jazeera television.

"The White House announced they intend to sentence them to death," he said on the recording. "When the U.S. takes that decision, it means they will take a decision that any hostage who falls in our hands will be sentenced to death."

And...

It remains unclear whether there are any U.S. captives in al-Qaida custody. In December, the Haqqani group of the Pakistan-based Taliban faction released a video of a U.S. soldier they captured in Afghanistan in June.

COMMENT:  You can be sure that bin Laden is planning ways to grab American hostages, and it isn't all that difficult.  It can be done on the streets of a city, especially one in Pakistan.  That's the way Danny Pearl was captured.  He was later beheaded.

If bin Laden can grab a couple of Americans, especially servicemen, we're checkmated on the death penalty for terrorist detainees, and may even have to release some to save American lives.  The enemy is not without his means.  He's low tech, and determined.  We're high tech, with a president who really wants us to beg forgiveness for our imagined sins.

March 25, 2010