What Osama Really Said

Powerline reports on a Memri translation of OBL's latest video. Bottom line: the American media mistranslated a key phrase; Osama was, in fact, directly threatening any US state that votes for Bush.

The U.S. media in general mistranslated the words "ay wilaya" (which means "each U.S. state") to mean a "country" or "nation" other than the U.S., while in fact the threat was directed specifically at each individual U.S. state.
[...]
The Islamist website Al-Qal'a explained what this sentence meant: "This message was a warning to every U.S. state separately. When he [Osama Bin Laden] said, 'Every state will be determining its own security, and will be responsible for its choice,' it means that any U.S. state that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as president has chosen to fight us, and we will consider it our enemy

Homeland Security should pass this warning on to the public, with a caution to be extra careful at the polls, lest OBL target polling locations in neighborhoods known to be favorable to Republicans. This is a credible threat from a credible source.

UPDATE: Commenter John Mann says we cannot trust "Zionist" translations. In response, here is the full english transcript from al-jazeera, plus a "Jihad For Dummies" interpretation from Al-Qal'a, who, as noted here have "in the past carried statements by militants in Iraq, including Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi accused by the United States of being the leading operative of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network in Iraq.":

The Islamist website Al-Qal’a explained what this sentence meant: “This message was a warning to every U.S. state separately. When he [Osama Bin Laden] said, ‘Every state will be determining its own security, and will be responsible for its choice,’ it means that any U.S. state that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as president has chosen to fight us, and we will consider it our enemy, and any state that will vote against Bush has chosen to make peace with us, and we will not characterize it as an enemy. By this characterization, Sheikh Osama wants to drive a wedge in the American body, to weaken it, and he wants to divide the American people itself between enemies of Islam and the Muslims, and those who fight for us, so that he doesn’t treat all American people as if they’re the same.

Seems pretty clear to me: Osama, Al-Jazeera, Al-Qal'a and Memri all agree on the same meaning of the words in question. The threat is real and should be reported as such.

UPDATE: Commenter John Mann objects to my reference to his characterization of Memri & their translation. In response, here are his original words:

MEMRI is a Zionist-slanted organization which will say anything at all to make Arabs look bad

The complete discussion is available in the comments section.