FLASHBACK: Bush not concerned about Bin Laden.
Faiz
Thinkprogress.org
January 19, 2006
 http://thinkprogress.org/2006/01/19/flashback-bush-not-concerned-about-bin-laden/

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Bush: “So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him. … And, again, I don’t know where he is. I — I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.” [3/13/02]

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5 Comments »

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1.

Hey, bubbleboy, Osama on line one.

Comment by yankeluh — January 19, 2006 @ 11:18 am
2.

He’s not concerned because they both share the same contempt for America, American values (the real kind) and what this country truly stands for. What we need to ask ourselves is not so much why the terrorist messiah hates us, but why the president hates America so much and what can we do about it. Repent!

Comment by Texan Jesus — January 19, 2006 @ 11:22 am
3.

So much for hunting down the terrorists.

I don’t know where Bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.

- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

And remember Cheney?

We’ve got a pretty good idea of the general area I don’t have the street address.

- Dick Cheney 5/23/05

Comment by Ava — January 19, 2006 @ 11:23 am
4.

Just read portions of Bin Laden’s alleged video on both CNN and BBC and I literally laughed out loud.

So are we to believe now that Bin Laden is gathering polling data from AP/IPSOS and Gallup from his remote Pakistani cave on how Bush’s war in Iraq is playing? You cannot make this shi* up!

CIA black/psy ops handiwork, no doubt about it.

Comment by Jay — January 19, 2006 @ 11:24 am
5.

That should have been alleged transcript.

Comment by Jay — January 19, 2006 @ 11:24 am


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Bin Laden says new US attacks prepared, offers truce
By Yara Bayoumy
Reuters
19 Jan 2006
 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1953473.htm

DUBAI, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden warned that al Qaeda was preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans, according to an audio tape 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 on the audio tape, who sounded like bin Laden.

In the tape, broadcast by al Jazeera television, bin Laden said al Qaeda was willing to respond to the fact that public U.S. opinion favoured withdrawing troops from Iraq.

"We have no objection to responding to this with a long-term truce based on fair conditions," he said.

Bin Laden issued an audio tape in April 2004 in which he also offered a truce -- on that occasion to Europe, but not to the United States.

Analysts saw the move at the time as an attempt to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies and to scare wavering coalition members out of Iraq.

In the brief segments aired on Thursday, bin Laden ridiculed U.S. President George W. Bush for misreading public opinion which he said showed Americans wanted U.S. forces to quit Iraq.

He also said Iraq had become a recruiting ground for militants. Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by one of bin Laden's deputies, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is one of several insurgent groups fighting U.S. and foreign forces. U.S. and Iraqi officials say many of their members are non-Iraqis.

"Your president is misinterpreting public opinion polls which show that the vast majority of you support the withdrawal of your forces from Iraq," bin Laden said.

"He (Bush) disagreed with this desire and said the withdrawal of troops will give the wrong message to the enemy and that it is better to fight them on their ground than on our ground."

"Reality shows that the war against the U.S. 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)."

A U.S. counterterrorism official said U.S. intelligence was assessing the tape to determine its authenticity.

Bin Laden's last audio tape was in December 2004. The interval between then and now is his longest public silence since al Qaeda's Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

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.

On Thursday, Pakistani intelligence sources said four top al Qaeda militants were believed to have been killed in a U.S. airstrike last week which U.S. officials say was aimed at Zawahri.

 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1953473.htm


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INSTANT VIEW-Bin Laden tape aired on Al Jazeera
Reuters
19 Jan 2006
 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19617947.htm

Jan 19 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden warned that al Qaeda was preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans, according to an audio tape attributed to him on Thursday.

The following is reaction from analysts:

KENNETH KATZMAN, TERRORISM ANALYST AT CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE, IN-HOUSE THINK TANK OF THE U.S. CONGRESS:

"It seems that there's some relationship between this tape and the (U.S.) strike (in Pakistan), both in the content and the timing. Over more than the past year, (bin Laden deputy Ayman al-) Zawahri has been the one issuing tapes, and bin Laden has been very careful not to appear at all, and now all of a sudden he's deviated from that," Katzman said.

"Why issue this message now? It's strange. There's an airstrike and all of a sudden this message appears. It would be a big coincidence."

He noted that the truce call, while not necessarily signalling weakness, might also mean "he felt some pain from that strike. Although it does appear to be a hardline statement that he's issued".

ABDEL-BARI ATWAN, EDITOR, AL-QUDS AL-ARABI NEWSPAPER, LONDON:

"Osama bin Laden is looking for political recognition as a formidable force in the Middle East ... I think he is playing politics here.

"He is presenting himself not as a terrorist, a bloodsucker, a man who would like to destroy the world -- he also has a political agenda, he is using this terrorism for political ends. That is the message he would like to pass: yes we are fighting, but at the same time we are willing to talk, we have our political agenda.

"He said 'we are winning in Iraq and the Americans are losing because of the escalation of their casualties' -- financial losses and also human losses ...

"He is trying to differentiate between the American people and the American administration ... He's saying 'I'm talking to the American people: your problem is your government, and your president is lying'."

 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19617947.htm

Is Bin ladin the MAHDI? or is he too sunni to shia? anyone know the answer to this?