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Bin Laden in US election ad
21/10/2006 08:39 - (SA)
Washington - Republicans have unveiled an advertisement featuring the image and words of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a warning to voters that "these are the stakes" in November 7 elections.
The Republican national committee ad, first shown on its website and scheduled to air on cable television in the United States early next week, also includes images of al-Qaeda fighters in training and other al-Qaeda leaders.
"What is yet to come will be even greater," the ad quotes bin Laden as saying.
It concludes with the words: "These are the stakes. Vote November 7."
President George W Bush's Republican party has recently slipped in the polls, largely from public dissatisfaction with the Iraq war.
The party is fighting to retain control of congress in the election.
Democrats must pick up 15 house seats and six senate seats to win a majority in each chamber.
Republicans hope to turn the debate in the campaign's closing stages back to their traditionally strong issues of national security and its war on terrorism, although recent polls show Democrats overtaking them on that turf.
Democratic senate campaign committee spokesperson Phil Singer called the ad a "desperate" effort to spur Republican voter turnout.
The bin Laden ad recalls one of the most famous American political ads, the 1964 "Daisy" ad used by Democratic president Lyndon Johnson in his race against conservative Republican Barry Goldwater.
It featured a small girl picking a daisy and a countdown to nuclear explosion before an announcer says, "These are the stakes".
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