Al-Qaeda talking truce with US
Here's an unexpected turn of events. He claims that despite al-Qaeda's preparations for fresh US attacks, he wants to sue for peace. He claims that he's got several projects underway and the only way we can prevent them from happening is to accede to bin Laden's demands. He claims that he doesn't want to fight any more, but can we take it at face value?
From Yahoo News:
Osama bin Laden warned that al Qaeda was preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans, according to an audio tape attributed to him on Thursday.
"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 audio tape, who sounded like bin Laden.
In the tape, broadcast by al Jazeera television, bin Laden said al Qaeda was willing to respond to public U.S. opinion in favor of withdrawing troops from Iraq.
"We have no objection to responding to this with a long term truce based on fair conditions."
It was not immediately known when the tape was recorded. A U.S. counterterrorism official said U.S. intelligence was assessing the tape in an effort to determine its authenticity.
Bin Laden issued an audio tape in April 2004 in which he also offered a truce -- on that occasion to Europe, but not to the United States. 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.
Bin Laden's last audio tape was in December 2004. The interval between then and now was by far his longest public silence since the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
Wow, what a shocker. It's a surprising turn of events and an intriguing offer. But not believable. "Death to Americans" has been their rallying cry for so long. Why is it suddenly "live and let live"?