Uh, Oh

Drudge is giving the siren treatment to a report that the CIA and FBI have authenticated a new Al Queda terror warning video that ABC has been sitting on this week. Purportedly, the tape shows an American member of AQ warning of a forthcoming attack that will dwarf 9/11.

As I say, ABC has been sitting on this tape, apparently because of the political implications of releasing it just before the election. ABC says it got the tape last weekend and has been waiting for confirmation that it is legit. If this has now happened and as the story is already out on the Internet, my guess would be that ABC now has no choice but to air the thing, at least in part.

For the record, I have no earthly idea whether this latest AQ threat is legitimate or not.

UPDATE: James Joyner is wondering about the political implications too. And Donald Sensing has some thoughts about what the tape really represents in terms of the AQ threat.

As far as the political implication goes, if knowledge of the thing becomes widespread, my guess would be that people would break back towards the President. Most of the non-moonbat pro-Kerry commentary I've seen involves elaborate intellectual gymnastics to get to a point of grudging acceptance. Something like this bypasses that exercise and instead goes right to the gut. And I believe that if people face up to what they believe to be a real gut-check time, they're much more likely to go with Dubya. In the end, as my old rowing coach used to say, it's a question of who you'd rather have on your side in the back alley.