Posted on 01/19/2006 8:49:06 AM PST by snowrip
Bin Laden Offers Truce in Purported Tape Terrorist Leader Threatens New Attacks Against U.S. By Yara Bayoumy, Reuters
DUBAI (Jan. 19) -- Osama bin Laden warned that al-Qaida was preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans, according to an audiotape attributed to him on Thursday.
Al Jazeera television, which aired the tape, said it was recorded in the Muslim month that corresponded to December.
"The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing," said the speaker on the audiotape, who sounded like bin Laden .
In the tape, broadcast by al Jazeera television, bin Laden said al-Qaida was willing to respond to the fact that public U.S. opinion favored withdrawing troops from Iraq.
"We have no objection to responding to this with a long-term truce based on fair conditions," he said.
Bin Laden issued an audiotape in April 2004 in which he also offered a truce -- on that occasion to Europe, but not to the United States. Bin Laden Messages, Past and Present
AFP/Getty "The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing." -- Audiotape, purportedly by Osama bin Laden, aired by Al-Jazeera Jan. 19
Timeline: Bin Laden's Messages
Analysts saw the move at the time as an attempt to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies and to scare wavering coalition members out of Iraq.
In the brief segments aired on Thursday, bin Laden ridiculed President Bush for misreading public opinion which he said showed Americans wanted U.S. forces to quit Iraq.
He also said Iraq had become a recruiting ground for militants. Al-Qaida in Iraq, led by one of bin Laden 's deputies, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is one of several insurgent groups fighting U.S. and foreign forces. U.S. and Iraqi officials say many of their members are non-Iraqis.
"Your president is misinterpreting public opinion polls which show that the vast majority of you support the withdrawal of your forces from Iraq," bin Laden said.
"He (Bush) disagreed with this desire and said the withdrawal of troops will give the wrong message to the enemy and that it is better to fight them on their ground than on our ground."
"Reality shows that the war against the U.S. and its allies is not just restricted to Iraq as he claims, but Iraq has become a gravitational point and a recruiting ground for qualified (mujahideen)."
A U.S. counterterrorism official said U.S. intelligence was assessing the tape to determine its authenticity.
Bin Laden 's last audiotape was in December 2004. The interval between then and now is his longest public silence since al-Qaida's September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
Saudi-born bin Laden and his right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in a mountainous area on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
On Thursday, Pakistani intelligence sources said four top al-Qaida militants were believed to have been killed in a U.S. airstrike last week which U.S. officials say was aimed at Zawahri.
First the bad cop: "attacks are coming.....they're in preparation....won't be long now..."
Then the good cop: "I offer a truce....we're reasonable people....we know you guys don't want to be in Iraq....just leave now and we'll call it quits..."
Divide and conquer as they say. Classic.
No wonder we couldnt find him..
Don't believe him for a minute. He's still in cahoots with Bert
I think he is still kicking.
I don't think that he and Zawahiri are in the same location.....
"In the tape, broadcast by al Jazeera television, bin Laden said al-Qaida was willing to respond to the fact that public U.S. opinion favored withdrawing troops from Iraq."
Apparently he hasn't heard about the vote against pulling out of Iraq.
Listen up, you moral infidels. Jehovah God has promised to make you desolate. Can you control the earthquakes or the droughts? We shall see...
Is that you Michael?
Remember, it is considered OK for the Islamist to lie to infidels. No truce! Extermination!
He probably feels that the Iranians have us by the nose on the nuclear issue and therefore he is standing down his troops.
I keep thinking of the part in Independence Day where the alien escapes in the lab. President Bush should model his response on that...
Bin Laden: Can there be a peace between us?
Bush (in menacing, alien voice): No peace...
Bin Laden: What do you want us to do?
Bush: To die.
Really, Bush could just play the clip for them, and then explain that then explain that we can't have peace because this isn't a war, it is an extermination.
PISH-TUSH. Even if you only succeeded in cutting it half off, that would be something.
POOH-BAH. It would be taken as an earnest of your desire to comply with the Imperial will.
KO-KO. No. Pardon me, but there I am adamant. As official Headsman, my reputation is at stake, and I can't consent to embark on a professional operation unless I see my way to a successful result.
POOH-BAH. This professional conscientiousness is highly creditable to you, but it places us in a very awkward position.
KO-KO. My good sir, the awkwardness of your position is grace itself compared with that of a man engaged in the act of cutting off his own head.
why didn't he go to france first? oh that's right - they've already surrendered.
wasn't it US Grant that said "unconditional surrender" is the only acceptable outcome?
Now that I think of it, I've never seen Kerry and Osama photographed together. Coincidence?
How would would like to be the parents of one of the kids who "martyred" himself for this cause? Now that it's his butt on the line he wants a truce?
I can't believe the way Fox has been asking the "question" of accepting the "truce."
Where is Gandalf when you need him? "'We will have peace, when you and all your works have perished-and the works of your dark master to whom you would deliver us. You are a liar... and a corrupter of men's hearts."
Have you guys notice that this is the exact rhetoric that Democrat always talkabout. I smell something sinister here...
I don't think old Osama's completely lost the war, but he's completely lost his mind.
I think the Osama tape has shown up, because his #2 man, Al Zawahiri, who normally would be the public face of Al Qaeda via videotape, is dead. That is why Al Qaeda chose now to release the tape of Bin Laden. If Zawahiri were alive, they should be showing a videotape of him, but it ain't going to happen, because he's deader than a doornail. The proof will be in the pudding. Let's see if another video of Zawahiri shows up in the near future. Want to place your bets? May bet is that there won't be one.
accept the truce. put the Dems in charge of negotiating and enforcing it. when it blows up, it's their fault, again.............
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