It's still the best one: http://www.mikeoverbeck.com/osama/diplomacy.html
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.
Hassan like!!
iggity agkity upp!
ha ha squeak!
Oh oh snort.
Remember the arab guarding the treasure cave in that old Bugs Bunny cartoon?
Thats an osama follower.
HAS BEEN LADEN asking for a truce makes me think of Monty
Python's "Holy Grail". Remember the knight who gets his arms and
legs cut off during a fight? Finally, refusing to quit or to die, the talking
torso says, "All Right. Let's call it a draw."
It's still the best one: http://www.mikeoverbeck.com/osama/diplomacy.html
I think the guy offered a truce for ME PR points. If he has the wherewithall to strike (and few doubt this since it takes very little capability to terrorize), he can point to this communique as the olive branch rebuffed. Makes perfect (and scary) sense for him to take this step, especially if they had something particularly nasty in mind.
It's lovely, I wish I had one for my front yard.
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