FLASH: BIN LADEN RESURFACES...WITH OLIVE BRANCH?
By Michelle Malkin · January 19, 2006 10:35 AM
***scroll for updates...check Link Mecca for moonbat monitoring and more...230pm EST CIA authenticating that voice on tape is bin Laden's...must-read: Walid Phares' tape analysis...text of tape...***
Via Breitbart/AP:
Al-Jazeera aired an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden on Thursday, saying al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
The voice on the tape said heightened security measures in the United States are not the reason there have been no attacks there since the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings.
Instead, the reason is "because there are operations that need preparations, and you will see them," he said.
"Based on what I have said, it is better not to fight the Muslims on their land," he said. "We do not mind offering you a truce that is fair and long-term. ... So we can build Iraq and Afghanistan ... there is no shame in this solution because it prevents wasting of billions of dollars ... to merchants of war."
The speaker did not give conditions for a truce in the excerpts aired by the Arab broadcaster.
Here's the story on al Jazeera.
The Counterterrorism Blog is on the story and adds:
This would be the first broadcast of any kind from bin Laden since December 2004. CNN reports that Al Jazeera did not appear to have run the entire tape. No indication thus far of when the tape was recorded, so it's not clear whether the recent successful attack against Al Qaeda leadership was a factor in the recording and release of the tape.
Evan Kohlmann debunks the "death" of Bin Laden here.
John Podhoretz: This isn't the first time.
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More info via CNN shows that al Qaeda is paying close attention to MSM polls and pandering to moonbat sentiment:
CNN could not immediately confirm that the voice in the poor-quality audiotape, which was aired on Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera on Thursday, was that of bin Laden. However, CNN Senior Editor for Arab Affairs Octavia Nasr said it does sound like the al Qaeda leader.
"Our mujahedeen were able to overcome all the security measures in European countries and you saw their operation in major European capitals," the voice on the tape said.
"As for similar operations taking place in America, it's only a matter of time. They are in the planning stages and you will see them in the heart of your land as soon as the planning is complete."
There is also no way to determine when the message was recorded, but the reference to attacks in European cities could indicate it was recorded after the July 7 bombings on London's transportation system that killed 52 people.
There was no mention in the portions of the tape that were broadcast of the CIA strike on a home in Damadola, Pakistan, on January 13 that targeted senior al Qaeda members who had been expected to attend a dinner there that night. It's not clear if any of them were among the 18 killed.
The man speaking in the audiotape also cited American opinion polls, saying that most Americans want U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq.
"Your President Bush has been misleading you. He has lied when he said that the people are behind him. Opinion polls have indicated that the overwhelming majority of you want him to pull the troops out of our land.
"We have the answer to these misleading information. The situation in Iraq is getting worse for you and the dead and the injured among you is on the rise," the voice on the tape said.
It's not clear exactly what polls he's referencing, but CNN/USA Today/Gallup polls released January 11 regarding the Iraq war showed that 53 percent of those questioned felt things were going badly for the United States in Iraq, and 46 percent thought things were going well.
Half the respondents said it was a bad idea to send U.S. troops to Iraq, while 47 percent said it wasn't. Fifty-two percent said it wasn't worth going to war in Iraq, but 46 percent felt it was.
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About those
"truces," reader Matt H. writes:
Any one who knows anything about Islamic history know that the only reason the Koran allows a truce with infidels is when the Muslims need time to regroup.
I know you knew this - I only wish the general public did (or the Biased News Networks [BNN] would announce it.)
From Human Events Online:
"The train bombings in Madrid on March 11, 2004, killed 191. Three days later, Spaniards voted out the pro-war government and voted in the anti-war Socialists. The incoming prime minister vowed to promptly pull out Spanish troops from Iraq. Spain's reward? On April 2, 2004, Spanish authorities found a 22-pound bomb on a railway track between Madrid and Seville. And, later that year, in October, Spanish authorities foiled a plot to blow up their National Court, Spain's center for prosecuting terrorists. So much for Osama bin Laden's "offer," made a month after the Madrid train bombings, for a "truce" to any European country that stops "attacking Muslims" before a three-month deadline."
From The American Thinker, "Islam Without Camouflage" (August 20th, 2005):
"In 1958, Antoine Fattal, a Lebanese Maronite Professor of Law, whose Le Statut Legal de Musulmans en PaysÂ’ dÂ’Islam remains the benchmark analysis of non-Muslims (especially Christians and Jews) living under the ShariÂ’a (i.e., Muslim Law), offered these perspectives on the living legacy of jihad and dhimmitude: ... when Moslems are in a subordinate state, they can negotiate a truce with the Harbis lasting no more than ten years, which they are obliged to revoke unilaterally as soon as they regain the upper hand..."
Do you think the BNN will report that? I doubt it.
Clayton Cramer shares his truce thoughts.
Austin Bay:
"Essentially, the new Bin Laden tape says “please don’t wage war on our turf, but let us wage war on yours."
