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On January 19, 2006, Al-Jazeera TV broadcast excerpts from a new audiocassette by Osama bin Laden, in which the Al-Qaeda leader threatens further attacks on the U.S., "immediately with the completion of the preparations.” At the same time, bin Laden makes a plea to accept and uphold a long term truce under fair conditions [if America offers it to him], which will provide security and stability to both sides and will make it possible to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. "We are a nation forbidden by Allah to betray and lie," promises bin Laden. Contrary to mistranslations in the media, from...

Is Osama bin Laden looking for contracts for his family's construction firm? -- snip -- The second reason for issuing the tape is to prepare Arab opinion for the turning of the tide against the Jihadists in Iraq. With the Arab Sunnis now part of the democratic process in Iraq, the foreign Arab Jihadists fear that they will soon face the ire of the Iraqis rather than occasional operations launched by the U.S. forces. And if things come to that, the Jihadists know that the Iraqis will not be fighting them in accordance with the Marquis of Queensbury rules.

Osama bin Laden's taped message is the strangest evidence to emerge that the U.S. is winning the "information war" with al Qaeda and is new proof that al Qaeda's famed media unit is in tatters, says Rich Miniter, author of Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror. (Click here to order from Amazon.) It was not long ago that the propaganda arm of al Qaeda could easily get videotapes onto al Jazeera in hours. But the new tape played on al Jazeera took upwards of five weeks to move from bin Laden to al Jazeera. Could al...

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...

Palestinian armed groups ended a year-long truce with Israel yesterday in a move which could lead to new violence and derail elections in the West Bank and Gaza already threatened by lawlessness and political infighting. The so-called "cool down" by militants has been frequently interrupted by rocket attacks launched from Gaza, and Islamic Jihad has continued to carry out suicide bombings on Israeli targets. Palestinian's examine the bomb-damaged United Nations club in Gaza City yesterday But it has brought the most enduring calm in the region since the latest Palestinian uprising, or intifada, began five years ago.

GAZA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Crawling beneath bushes and planting bombs for practice attacks, Palestinian militants trained in the Gaza Strip on Thursday to resume fighting when a truce with Israel expires at year's end. Most Palestinian armed factions agreed to halt attacks on Israel until the end of 2005 and follow a "period of calm" at the behest of President Mahmoud Abbas, but many say they want to resume the uprising fully after Dec. 31. Gunmen training in Gaza came from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Abbas's Fatah, as well as the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group that...

. . . James McIvor has found an instance in the Civil War when the animosity between the Union and Confederate soldiers also lifted, if only for the length of a single song . . . As the opposing forces settled into battle lines near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on December 30, 1862, the bands on each side played an evening concert for their respective comrades. The two concerts continued, unharmoniously enough, until, “as if by common consent,” recalled the Tennesseean, both took up “Home, Sweet Home.” The men on both sides soon joined together in singing the song. When it was...

The political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas has said it will not renew its informal ceasefire with Israel that expires at the end of year. Khaled Meshaal told a rally in the Syrian capital Damascus his group was preparing for a new round of conflict. The truce begun in February was based on Israel ending its attacks on Palestinians and releasing prisoners. Hamas had already said it would pull out of the truce when Israel killed a military leader in November. Addressing the crowd at the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, Mr Meshaal said there was no room...

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- The leader of Hamas said Wednesday that his Palestinian militant group will not renew a truce with Israel when it expires at the end of the year and accused the Jewish state of violating the agreement that has greatly reduced violence. Khaled Mashaal, whose group has carried out dozens of deadly suicide attacks on Israelis over the years, also restated Hamas' rejection of U.S. and Israeli demands to disarm. "All circumstances on the ground, the regional political atmosphere and the Palestinian situation are not encouraging to renew the truce," Mashaal told The Associated Press in a...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The militant group Hamas said Wednesday it would not renew an informal 9-month-old truce, which expires at the end of the year, after Israel killed one of its leading activists in an airstrike in Gaza. The truce was brokered by Egypt, which is expected to invite militant groups, including Hamas, to Cairo in the coming weeks to discuss extending the agreement. In the past nine months, violence has dropped sharply, and Hamas refrained from carrying out suicide bombings in Israel. But it has repeatedly fired rockets from Gaza at Israeli towns, in what it said...

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal's Maoist rebels announced a three-month cease-fire from Saturday, their chief said in a statement, in a move to win support of political parties after King Gyanendra seized power in February. "During this period, our People's Liberation Army (PLA) will be in defensive positions," Prachanda said in a statement made available to Reuters. "The PLA will not launch any offensive from its side." "We believe our move will encourage all forces, within and outside Nepal, who want peace through a forward-moving political solution," the elusive Maoist chief said. The Nepali army said it had heard about the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrats struck a conciliatory note over the appointment of John Bolton as Washington's UN ambassador, saying that their bitter opposition is over and that they will work to help him succeed in his new job. "My fervent hope is now he'll do a good job. This is over with now," said Senator Christopher Dodd, who said Democrats are resigned to working with Bolton. "He's going to be there for the next 13 months," Dodd, a staunch Bolton opponent, told NBC television. "At this point here, I want him to succeed." US President George W. Bush on Monday...

Gaza City -- The Israeli military killed seven members of Hamas Friday and early today in rocket strikes that renewed Israel's policy of assassinating militant Palestinian leaders and effectively marked the end of a five-month truce. SNIP The military wing of Hamas, known formally as the Islamic Resistance Movement, has fired more than 100 mortar shells and rockets into Israel and Jewish settlements in Gaza in recent days, one of which killed a 22-year-old Israeli woman Thursday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger feuded bitterly with Democrats throughout the spring over a package of government reform measures he is asking voters to consider in a special election this November. In recent days, the partisan chill that had descended on the state Capitol during the first half of the year has begun to thaw. Polls released over the last few days showed a dramatic drop in the governor's job-approval ratings and the Democrat-controlled Legislature more unpopular than ever. Both sides are inching toward compromise on a package of reforms that could avert a high-stakes showdown this fall, as Schwarzenegger seeks to...

A coalition of Palestinian militants threatened on Friday to resume attacks on Israelis despite a conditional truce agreed by other armed groups in talks with the Palestinian Authority. Mohammed Abdel-Al, a spokesman for the umbrella Popular Resistance Committees, said the Palestinian Authority had not invited the PRC to the negotiations in Egypt and the deal reached there on Thursday was not binding on it. "Our patience is over and it is time the Zionist entity be called to account by our fighters after the past two months (of calm)," Abdel-Al told a news conference. Before the current lull, the PRC...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Palestinian groups say they will reach an agreement today on a formal halt to attacks on Israelis, a step President Mahmoud Abbas hopes will persuade Israel to pull back from Palestinian towns. The Palestinian Authority and Egypt, which is hosting the meeting of several Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, want them to agree to an open-ended period of "calm", an Arabic term for the lowest level of truce. "We have an agreement in our hands now from all factions on the 'calm'," Samir Mashharawi, an official from Abbas's Fatah movement, told Reuters on Thursday. Mashharawi...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said Saturday they were adhering to a de facto truce with Israel, but stopped short of committing to the official cease-fire that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) agreed on at their summit. Israel agreed to repatriate about 55 Palestinians it deported to the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and Europe on terror accusations. The majority were exiled after a monthlong siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002. In fast-paced moves to cement the...

<p>WASHINGTON -- It is now conventional wisdom that the new opening to a Middle East peace is a result of Yasser Arafat's death. This is only half true, and it misses the larger point.</p> <p>Arafat's death was a necessary condition for hope, but not a sufficient one. It was necessary because Arafat had the power to suppress and literally kill any chances of peace. But his passing would have meant nothing if it had not occurred at a time when the Palestinians finally realized that Arafat's last great gamble, the second intifada, was a disaster.</p>

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said Saturday they will not attack Israeli targets, but they refrained from officially joining a Palestinian cease-fire with Israel agreed upon during last week's summit in Egypt. Leaders of both groups met Saturday with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to keep the fragile cease-fire intact. A Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, told The Associated Press the group will wait to see whether Israel stops its military activities and targeted killings of Palestinian militants before deciding whether to join the truce agreed upon by Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel...

Early this Tuesday, a cease-fire was declared between newly elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli PM Ariel Sharon. Abbas promised with Sharon to "cease all violence against the Israelis and against the Palestinians, wherever they are," Israel agreed furthermore to release 900 Palestinian prisoners, to gradually withdraw from West Bank cities, and as a gesture of commitment, reopened a major Gaza checkpoint where six Israeli civilians had been killed last month in a terrorist attack. Abbas in return promised to stop glorification of terrorists and incitement against Israel on official Palestinian Authority media outlets. The western media was churning...