Bin Laden threatens attacks in US but offers truce

OSAMA BIN LADEN warned al-Qaida is preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with the US, according to an audio tape attributed to him yesterday.

A CIA official last night said “a technical analysis” authenticated the audio tape as a genuine message from Bin Laden.

It was the first purported tape by Bin Laden since 2004. Al-Jazeera television, which aired the tape, said it was recorded in December.

In the tape, Bin Laden said al-Qaida warned of new attacks in the US, but was willing to “respond” to US public opinion in favour of withdrawing troops from Iraq. He did not specify conditions for the truce, but indicated that it was linked to US troops quitting Iraq.

The White House responded by saying the United States “does not negotiate with terrorists”.

“Clearly the al-Qaida leaders and other terrorists are on the run. We do not negotiate with terrorists, we put them out of business,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

In the brief segments aired, Bin Laden also said Iraq had become a recruiting ground for militants. Al-Qaida-in-Iraq, led by close Bin Laden ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is one of several groups fighting US-led forces in Iraq.

“Reality shows that the war against the US and its allies is not just restricted to Iraq as he claims, but Iraq has become a gravitational point and a recruiting ground for qualified (mujahideen),” Bin Laden says on the tape.

Analyst Mustafa Alani said Bin Laden’s message was part of his psychological warfare against Washington.

“I don’t believe they have the capacity now to carry out a major operation, especially in the US ... the value is not what he is saying, the value is that he is still alive.”

Bin Laden’s last audio tape was in December 2004. The interval is his longest public silence since the September 11 attacks.

Saudi-born Bin Laden and his right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in a mountainous area on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Yesterday, Pakistan said four top al-Qaida militants were believed to have been killed in a US air strike last week which was aimed at al-Zawahri.

“The timing of its airing is interesting, to say the least,” a US counter-terrorism official said of the tape.