It is ridiculous and naive to think that al-Qaeda does NOT watch the news. They take the liberal hand-wringing and self-loathing and Bush-bashing; they see it as signs of weakness and chinks in our armor of resolve.
Yeah, they linked to the satellite via the wireless on top of their cave.
Maybe the 'terrorists' do understand our democracy and know there will always be dissent; checks and balances, but if they are so hard to find with all our satellite imagery and sophisticated intel. then maybe they'll learn of that and just decide to get things second-hand from CNN - you know, through the Arabian grapevine.
The fact is, Al-Qaeda, Bin Laden, etc. will all pass; if UBL is alive at all anyway..but Islamic fundamentalism will persist far longer - a trademark to be expected of all Islamic regions.
So..should we censor all dissent in our media? What's your solution singrdave, how should we preserve free speech while still retaining effective 'resolve' in the eyes of terrorists?