Bin Laden tape threatens fresh attacks on US (Updated)

Jan 20, 2006, 12:36 GMT

Cairo, Egypt - An audio tape attributed to Osama bin Laden said Thursday that al-Qaeda is planning fresh attacks on the United States, but also ready to negotiate a 'long-term truce.'

The US Central Intelligence Agency said it believes the voice in the recording, aired by the Arab television channel al-Jazeera, is bin Laden's. The White House ruled out any talks with al-Qaeda.

If authentic, the message was the al-Qaeda leader's first sign of life since a voice recording aired in December 2004.

Addressing 'the American people,' Thursday's tape referred to recent attacks in European capitals and threatened the same for the US.

'The new operations of al-Qaeda has not happened not because we could not penetrate the security measures,' al-Jazeera quoted bin Laden as saying. 'It is being prepared and you'll see it in your homeland very soon.'

The speaker said the point of the message was to offer a way out of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he claimed the US is losing.

The message mentioned polls late last year showing that a majority of Americans distrust President George W. Bush's Iraq policy, and it taunted Bush by noting the Pentagon's rising tally of US dead in Iraq.

'The war on the US and its allies will no longer be restricted to Iraq,' the speaker said, calling Iraq a 'recruitment centre for Islamic potential.'

An expert on political Islam, Diaa Rashwan, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa that any suggestion of a truce was merely aimed at bringing public pressure to bear on the Bush administration.

'The truce is merely a tactic, not a real offer, and bin Laden does not expect the Americans to consent to it,' Rashwan said.

In Washington, FBI associate director John Miller indicated the US is taking the threat seriously.

'It does contain what is close to a specific threat,' he told Cable News Network (CNN). 'We have seen that threat before, so we neither put undue weight on it nor discount it.'

A CIA spokeswoman said the spy agency analyzed the recording and 'concludes with high confidence' that the voice is bin Laden's.

It was unclear when the tape was recorded, though the plural reference to attacks in European capitals suggests it was made after last year's July 7 London bombings.

The White House rejected the message's offer of a 'long-term truce based on just conditions,' which bin Laden said would allow Iraq and Afghanistan to rebuild.

'We do not negotiate with terrorists,' said Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan. 'We put them out of business.'

He said Washington and its allies have taken the fight to terrorists all over the world and bin Laden is 'on the run.' But the war on terror also is 'broader than any one person,' McClellan said.

The US blames bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terror network for a series of attacks on US targets, led by the September 11, 2001 suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.