So, who would Osama Bin Laden vote for? The campaign of presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday held a teleconference with reporters in which officials stopped just short of saying the bad guys want Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to win.

But while the officials — former CIA Director Jim Woolsey and McCain campaign senior foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann — carefully avoided placing al-Qaida among the Illinois Senator’s legion of fans, they emphasized that the choice of the country’s enemies is not McCain.

The call was a response, at least ostensibly, to an article in Wednesday’s Washington Post that described commentary on an extremist Web site saying al-Qaida would support McCain. Woolsey and Scheunemann dismissed the article and the statement as presenting the view of one extremist who was actually trying to damage McCain by announcing al-Qaida backs him.

Woolsey and Scheunemann provided statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that they said were supportive of Obama. The officials described McCain as al-Qaida’s worst nightmare because he supported policies for conducting the Iraq War that led to the destruction of al-Qaida in Iraq.

“It is ridiculous … to believe al-Qaida wants John McCain to be president,” Woolsey said.

Asked whether he was trying to suggest al-Qaida would pull the lever for Obama, Scheunemann said “I’m not saying that at all,” but he added it was up to reporters to make the assertion if they felt moved to do so.