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<p>Osama bin Laden stresses the importance of martyrdom for Muslim causes in a videotape that purportedly contains a 50-second message from the al Qaeda leader. ...</p> <p>The videotape was made in the last four weeks, but the clips appear to be old, said Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior editor for Arab affairs. There is no indication of where it was shot, and CNN cannot verify its authenticity. ...</p>

In the years following the September 11th 2001 attacks, Osama bin Laden seemed very eager to appear on camera releasing numerous Al Qaeda propaganda videos. For the last 18 months, however, his public messages have been audio only, like the tape posted on the internet Wednesday. Between the threats and the rhetoric on this tape, however, one can also hear that bin Laden is quite short of breath for a man who is just 52 years old, suggesting a possible health issue. "This is the first real indication that we've had of a bin Laden health problem," said John Kiriakou,...

I can't confirm that (al Qaeda's responsibility for the attack) nor can we confirm the authenticity of the tape, but assuming that it is him, his message contains the same hollow justifications for the mass slaughter of innocents that we've heard before," David Axelrod said on CNN's "State of the Union" program. The audiotape that aired on Al Jazeera television on Sunday claimed responsibility for the attempted Christmas Day bombing of the Detroit-bound plane. A Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has been

l-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called on France to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in exchange for releasing French hostages being held by affiliates of the extremist group, according to a new audio message broadcast on an Arabic news channel Friday. "The exit of your hostages out of the hands of our brothers depends on the exit of your troops from Afghanistan," bin Laden said in the message broadcast by al-Jazeera. Bin Laden reminded the French people of President Nicolas Sarkozy's refusal in November to withdraw the French troops from Afghanistan and to negotiate with al-Qaida over the hostages.

unday April 23, 2006 A new audiotape from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will be aired today on the Arabic news station al Jazeera, the organisation claims.More follows . .

Volume 3, Issue 4 (January 31, 2006) The Significance of Bin Laden's New Audio Statement By Michael Scheuer On January 19, 2006, al-Jazeera Television broadcast a new statement by al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. The statement was bin Laden's first since October 31, 2004. The U.S. government announced that the voice on the tape almost certainly is that of bin Laden (Bloomberg, January 20, 2006). Al-Jazeera speculates that the tape was recorded in December 2005 (al-Jazeera, January 20, 2006). As always, bin Laden was calm and dispassionate, reminding the American people and the West that the mujahideen cannot be deterred,...

We don't know whether the latest and much-discussed Osama bin Laden tape was recorded recently. But the harangue is still a valuable reflection of the current Al Qaeda hierarchy that broadcast it to the world. First, things must be going very badly for the terrorists to propose a cease-fire: "We don't mind offering you a long-term truce." In truth, the winning side does not ask for a reprieve. Losing autocrats--whether the officers of the German army in the summer of 1918 or Hitler's cadre in the spring of 1945--always "don't mind" sending out peace feelers in the 11th hour to...

Would anyone living outside America’s coastal enclaves of leftism actually believe that any major American newspaper would run an editorial arguing that we ought to be accepting Osama bin Laden’s recent truce offer? Remarkable, isn’t it? But we can top that. Would you also believe that the editorialist, one John Arquilla (a man with these kinds of views) is employed by the Defense Department as a professor of Defense Analysis, no less (in his case, clearly: Surrender Analysis), at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Arquilla is additionally a senior consultant for the RAND Corporation, and an advisor to...

An audio tape featuring Osama bin Laden marks al Qaeda's announcement that a new strategy is now in place. Al-Qaeda has lost hundreds of operatives through killings and arrest. By the end of 2003, the organization was in the doldrums and infested with spies. Its vertical, centralized structure was abolished and its various groups and cells - apart from a few - were abandoned and allowed to scatter. These issues were later linked with two conditions: The acquisition of bases to launch a war in the open. The reorganization of sympathizers and new recruits to launch a worldwide battle. Throughout...

Al Qaeda's Big Boast By DANIEL BENJAMIN and STEVEN SIMON IF Osama bin Laden's aim in releasing an audiotape was to gauge his enemies' reaction, he must have been gratified to find that America's leaders and opinion-makers understand him little better than they did on 9/11. The proof is in how his offer of a "long-term truce" was treated. The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, declared: "We do not negotiate with terrorists." Vice President Dick Cheney saw Mr. bin Laden's offer as "some kind of ploy." SNIP Yet, while Osama bin Laden has seldom used the word "truce," the vision...

You know this fellow David Cameron? Well, obviously you do. But I’m thousands of miles away and I don’t, not really. I mean, I know who he is, and I read The Spectator, and I buy the London papers when I’m up in Montreal. But I’m not sure I’ve ever knowingly seen this Cameron guy on TV and I wouldn’t recognise the sound of his voice on the radio. And if I had to give a speech to, say, some Tory ladies in Banbury about the challenges facing David Cameron, I’m not sure I could plausibly pass myself off as...

We don't know whether the latest and much-discussed Osama bin Laden tape was recorded recently. But the harangue is still a valuable reflection of the current Al-Qaida hierarchy that broadcast it to the world. First, things must be going very badly for the terrorists to propose a cease-fire: ``We don't mind offering you a long-term truce.'' In truth, the winning side does not ask for a reprieve. Losing autocrats -- whether the officers of the German army in the summer of 1918 or Hitler's cadre in the spring of 1945 -- always ``don't mind'' sending out peace feelers in the...

Osama bin Laden’s latest audiotape message, broadcast by Al Jazeera on January 19, is ostensibly aimed at the American people but also addresses important audiences in the Muslim world. Bin Laden’s message is multifaceted: He is still alive and still in charge of al-Qaeda despite his long absence from public sight; he is a rational leader who claims to speak for all Muslims; and he is willing and capable of delivering a truce, if Americans will only stop their “aggression.” Bin Laden’s message continued some of the themes of his October 29, 2004, videotape message, which broached the possibility of...

Terror - Islam Monday, January 23, 2006 - Omega Letter Editor In his first message in more than a year, Osama bin Laden made a return appearance on al-Jazeera to dictate what were, in effect, terms of surrender to the United States. Not Osama's surrender. AMERICA's surrender. The CIA has since authenticated the voice on the tape as Osama bin Laden's and time references contained within the body of the message confirm that Osama was alive in mid-December when the tape was made and is probably still alive today.Intelligence authorities were examining why bin Laden would be speaking out after...

History is what no one ever expects to happen, and last week it happened again. A tape was released, purportedly from Osama bin Laden, in which he offered a truce “under fair conditions” with the United States, in order to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. For the sake of argument, I am going to assume that the tape from Bin Laden is authentic, and that he is sincere in offering a truce. I am aware that these are both bold assumptions, but neither of them affects the question that I want to address, which is, even if it is a ploy,...

CARMEN Bin Ladin, wife of Yeslam Bin Ladin, who is brother to Osama bin Laden - the spelling is differ ent, the men's mentality is the same - is in New York. We talked about the new truce tapes. She believe they're real? Does she feel her bastard brother-in-law is actually still alive? "The tapes are absolutely, definitely real. I know for a fact," she said. Out of Saudi Arabia and in her native Switzerland fighting for a divorce 14 years, she can know this for a fact? "I know his voice. That is not another pretending to be Osama....

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...

...Michael Scheuer, a former CIA officer who tracked bin Laden for 10 years as part of a unit he created, told CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer that this latest threat should be taken "very seriously." (video) The important thing about bin Laden, Scheur says, "is that the coordination between what he says he's going to do and what he does is very nearly 100 percent over the past decade. He's a very deadly serious man." Scheuer said the offer of a truce is "very similar to one he made to the Europeans about two years ago. They paid no attention...

MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews got himself into some hot water Thursday evening when he suggested that Osama bin Laden in his recently released tape sounded “like an over-the-top Michael Moore here, if not a Michael Moore” (video link to follow). On last night’s installment, Matthews invited on MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough to discuss this issue in greater detail (video link to follow). After being asked by Matthews if bin Laden was playing politician, Scarborough moved the discussion in a media direction: “You look at, like, for instance, him saying that George Bush went to war because of -- because he...

As reported yesterday by NewsBusters’ Mark Finkelstein, Katie Couric of NBC’s “Today Show” wondered aloud on yesterday’s program if Osama bin Laden might be getting information from the New York Times. It turns out that Couric isn’t the only media representative asking this same question. A just released Editor and Publisher article reported on more such media opining. First, MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson said the following on that network’s “Scarborough Country” Thursday evening (full transcript to follow): “By the merchants of war who financed Bush's presidential campaign, in the words of Osama bin Laden and many on the left...