Bin Laden threatens attacks, offers truce (AP) Updated: 2006-01-20 06:47
Al-Jazeera's editor-in-chief Ahmed al-Sheik would not comment on when or
where the latest tape was received. He said the full tape was 10 minutes long.
The station aired excerpts with what it "considered newsworthy," he said, but
would not say what was on the remainder.
Jeremy Bennie, a terrorism analyst for Jane's Defense Weekly, said bin Laden
appeared to be "playing the peacemaker, the more statesmanlike character" with
his offer of a truce.
"They want to promote the image that they can launch attacks if and when it
suits them. That's the message of a powerful organization, not a weakened one.
They want us to believe they are in control," he said.
The mention of rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan may be a recognition of
divisions among the ranks of Islamic militants over the insurgency in Iraq by
bin Laden's ally, al-Zarqawi, who has come under criticism by some radicals for
attacks on Iraqi civilians.
"The initial significance of this is that he's still alive," former White
House antiterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke said.
Beyond that, he told The Associated Press, "the only new element in his
statement is that they are planning an attack soon on the United States.
"Would he say that and risk being proved wrong, if he can't pull it off in a
month or so?" Clarke asked.
Of the truce offer, which Clarke said bin Laden has made before, "I think
it's designed to make him look more reasonable in Arab and Muslim eyes. He's a
very sophisticated reader of world opinion and American opinion, and he
obviously knows he can't affect American thinking. He's too reviled."
Intelligence authorities were examining why bin Laden would be speaking out
after more than a year of letting his al-Zawahri serve as al-Qaida's public face
in statements and other communications.
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