New bin Laden Tape Caps Off Great Week for Obama

Seems Osama bin Laden, or whoever it is who cut this audio, knows exactly how to get under Obama's skin--go directly for an admitted weakness. Well, granted, most everything about Obama is weak these days, but his laments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems a particular sore spot.

First, the alleged bin Laden message:

A new audio tape allegedly from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden claims responsibility for an attempt to blow up a plane en route to Michigan on Christmas Day and warns the United States of more attacks.

The tape, which aired on the Arabic-language news Web site Al-Jazeera on Sunday, says "the United States will not dream of enjoying safety until we live it in reality in Palestine."

The tape continues: "It is not fair to enjoy that kind of life while our brothers in Gaza live in the worst of miseries."

CNN could not independently confirm the authenticity of the message, but the CIA has in the past confirmed Al-Jazeera reports on tapes from the al Qaeda leader.

In another section of the audio tape that Al-Jazeera broadcast, the voice says: "God willing our attacks will continue as long as you support the Israelis and may peace be on those who follow guidance."

Bin Laden also claims responsibility for the foiled attack on Delta flight 253 in December.

"The message intended to be sent to you was through the hero fighter Omar Farouq, may God release him, confirming an earlier message that the [September] 11th heroes delivered to you and it was repeated before and after [that event]," he says.

A Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has been charged with attempting to blow up the Delta Airlines plane as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam, Netherlands.

A security expert said there's a possibility bin Laden did not know about the attempted attack in December and al Qaeda branches may be using it to prove themselves to the group's leadership.

Funny, but I thought Obama's outreach to the "Muslim world" was going to make everyone love us.

Oh well, it's just so hard for Obama.

I'll be honest with you. A) This is just really hard. Even for a guy like George Mitchell, who helped bring about the peace in Northern Ireland. This is as intractable a problem as you get. B) Both sides — the Israelis and the Palestinians — have found that the political environment, the nature of their coalitions or the divisions within their societies, were such that it was very hard for them to start engaging in a meaningful conversation. And I think that we overestimated our ability to persuade them to do so when their politics ran contrary to that.

Poor thing. I guess that charm offensive has failed. Pretty much like everything else Obama has tried to accomplish.

His foreign policy is a dangerous muddle. He is feckless about both Iran's brave dissidents and the mullahs pushing for nuclear weapons.

He took a bad situation in the Mideast and made it worse with pernicious demands on Israel. Muslims reject his bended-knee apologies, giving him nothing for his amateurish squandering of American power.

Frightening details are still emerging about the disastrous handling of the Christmas Day bomb plot. The decision to quickly put the al Qaeda-trained Nigerian into civilian courts stems from his fixation on giving terrorists constitutional protections.

Well, he can always blame Bush. Oh, that's not working any longer?