Now they tell us . . .

Before last November's election, right-wing commentators were convinced that the terrorists wanted John Kerry to win.

• So the only real question is, if al Qaeda's active and capable, what are they going to do? Because we know what they want: they want Kerry, they want the Democrats in power, they'd love that. -Rush Limbaugh, 3/15/04


• [terrorists] are going to throw everything they can between now and the election to try and elect Kerry. -Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Fox News Channel, 9/21/04


• Of course they'd [terrorists] like to see Kerry win, because it means Bush would get kicked out of the White House. -John Gibson, Fox News Channel, 9/30/04


• Of course the terrorists want Bush defeated. How can anyone pretend otherwise? -Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 10/8/04

Nobody asked the terrorists themselves. Now a report in the Jerusalem Post fills that gap.

     Two French journalists who were held hostage in Iraq told a British documentary program that their captors believed George W. Bush's re-election as US president would help radicalize Iraqis.
     Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot . . . told the British Broadcasting Corp.'s "Panorama" program that they were allowed to interview the leader of an Islamic militant cell within the group that seized them.
     ...
     The cell leader trained with terror leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and told them the insurgents supported a Bush presidency because they believed it meant that "there will be confrontation, occupation and radicalization of the Iraqi people," Malbrunot said.