Ed said:
I'm sorta sure that this was asked but:
What constitutes Aug. 4? Isn't it Aug 4 for 48 hours somewhere? Is it Greenwich? Or is it one of those predictions where anything around Aug 4 is "close enough"?
He isn't going to clarify of course. If something happens on Aug. 4 GMT it looks like a very specific hit. If something happens in the period of Aug. 3-5, it is still within serveral hours of being spot-on, and probably close enough to be considered a hit by woo-woo standards. If something just happens that week, it can still be deemed "significant".
Similarly, since the U.S. (and Europe) has interests and does business all around the globe, there is virtually no part of the world that could not be construed as "western" in some sense. Again, if something happens in the U.S. or Europe, it looks like he made a specific prediction in advance. If something terrible happens in Outer Mongolia, well then he can just blow some smoke about the westernizing influence of global trade or American imperialism or foreign aid or somesuch, and still paint it as a hit. The "western" Fallujah police HQ incident is an example of this.
His later statement that it would be a result of "malicious intent" may appear specific also but it's no better really. If there are no terrorist attacks that week anywhere in the world, a natural disaster could always be ascribed to the maliciously negligent actions of multinational corporations whose pollution supposedly cause disasters indirectly by damaging the environment. Or perhaps he will lay it at the feet of Project HAARP controlling the weather or something--part of the Great American Imperialist Conspiracy[TM]. Malicious intent is just as broad (and useless) as the other parts of his prediction.
Obviously it would be "better", from his perspective, if over 100 people were killed in a single incident in the geographical U.S. or Europe on Aug. 4th GMT as a result of a deliberate, malicious act. The possibility exists that that could happen of course (though the odds are against it IMO) in which case he might be able to leverage this "prediction" into a book deal, TV appearances, etc, depending on how entertaining he is.
And if Aug. 4 comes and goes, well, he can always claim some mudslide in Chile in the early morning hours of Aug. 5th that left almost 100 villagers homeless as a fulfillment of his prophecy. That's good enough to convince himself, if no one else, and he can always try again a few months down the road to make another "prediction" that will propel him into the Big Time.