- DUBAI (Reuters, Washington
Post) -- Arab television stations yesterday aired a new audio tape purportedly
from Osama bin Laden offering a truce with European states if they stop
attacking Muslims, but not with the United States.
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- "I offer a truce to them [Europe] with a commitment
to stop operations against any state which vows to stop attacking Muslims
or interfere in their affairs," the speaker said. "The announcement
of the truce starts with the withdrawal of the last soldier from our land
and the door is open for three months from the date of the announcement
of this statement."
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- The voice on the tape, broadcast by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya
and then by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera,
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- also vowed revenge on Israel and the US for the death
of the Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated last month
in Gaza.
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- It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity
of the tape, though the voice sounded like previous tapes thought to be
genuine.
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- The Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, said yesterday
it would be "completely unthinkable" to enter into negotiations
with Osama bin Laden.
-
- In Washington, the independent September 11 inquiry released
a report saying US intelligence services failed to recognise the emergence
of al-Qaeda until more than a decade after it was founded in 1988.
-
- The CIA's Counterterrorist Centre failed to recognise
the possibility of planes being hijacked and used as weapons despite mounting
evidence during the 1990s that terrorist groups were formulating such plans,
the commission said.
-
- The CIA director, George Tenet, acknowledged in testimony
to the commission on Wednesday that he did not brief President George Bush,
FBI leaders or White House cabinet members after he was told in late August
2001 of the arrest of Zacharias Moussaoui, who would later be charged as
a conspirator in the attacks in New York and Washington.
-
- Mr Tenet did not refer to the arrest at a meeting of
top administration officials during discussions about al-Qaeda a week before
the attacks, because "it just wasn't the appropriate place",
he told the inquiry.
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- Copyright © 2004 The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/15/1081998301906.html
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