Jihadists join campaign discourse

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. presidential election nearing, Web sites closely linked to al-Qaida have become a sparring ground, as competing jihadist commentators measure Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama against a single yardstick: which presidential candidate would bring about the nation's downfall faster.

The one area of apparent agreement is the belief that both candidates are bad men. Recent Web posts have mocked McCain as "impetuous" and "more stupid and more extreme than Bush," while others have prayed for Obama's death. One prominent commentator whose views have tracked closely with al-Qaida's predicted that the next president would be forced to withdraw from the Muslim world.

"If the enemy continues to remain in our land, it will exhaust America, and this is one of al-Qaida's objectives," read an item posted last week by the writer known as Asad al-Jihad 2. "If (America) withdraws its forces, then al-Qaida will have control of the land and will turn to its other enemies to eliminate them. ... This, too, is one of al-Qaida's objectives."

The commentaries have mostly appeared on al-Ekhlaas and al-Hesbah, two password-protected Web sites closely tied to al-Qaida. Some of the more prominent postings were translated and analyzed by the SITE Intelligence Group, a private company that monitors jihadist Web sites for government and industry clients.

"There is no particular consensus among jihadists on which particular candidate would most benefit al-Qaida and the group's goals," said SITE Director Rita Katz. She also noted that none of the commentators endorsed either candidate.

"Al-Qaida can no more advocate for a particular candidate than the U.S. president can support a new leader for al-Qaida," Katz said.

Much of the recent debate about the U.S. election was spurred by an al-Hesbah commentary last week that expressed a strong preference for McCain, arguing that the Republican would draw the United States deeper into a costly guerrilla war with al-Qaida in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of predecessor, Bush," wrote Muhammad Haafid on Oct. 20. Haafid's is one of the oldest and most influential voices within al-Qaida's Internet community, with more than 600 postings since 2003, SITE officials said.

Haafid's commentary drew dozens of responses, including some arguing that an Obama presidency would hasten the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The pullout would be "strongly in favor of the Islamic State of Iraq" and would allow al-Qaida to create a base from which to expand the conflict to other Middle Eastern countries, wrote one poster, "Al-Qalam," on Monday.