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See this thread first. Osama has offered a truce Afghanistan is his excuse He wants to rebuild? Justice goes unfulfilled 'Till we've put his damn head in a noose!

By now, there can be no doubt that al Qaeda's message to the West has been distilled down to two simple concepts. The first is that the terrorist group can be appeased. The second is that, if they aren't appeased, Westerners face grave consequences. The latest Osama bin Laden audiotape, released on January 19, makes these points explicit and shows how bin Laden intends to fashion his message for Western ears. In the tape, bin Laden offers a truce in return for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. "We have no objection to responding to a long...

The former chief of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit says bin Laden’s “truce” offer comes from a long-established Muslim tradition of warfare -- sending a clear signal to the United States that an al Qaeda attack is more than likely. Twenty-two-year CIA veteran Michael Scheuer, who wrote “Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror,” says bin Laden has offered his final warning before launching his next strike. “Warning your enemy before you attack him is very much a tradition in Islam from the prophet to the times when Saladin was fighting the Crusaders, he would...

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...