The Arabic-language satellite network Al-Jazeera today aired portions of an audio tape purporting to be by Osama bin Laden. Al-Jazeera’s English-language webpage features a story titled “Bin Laden Offers Americans Truce.”

The following analysts are available for interviews:

BEAU GROSSCUP
Author of the book The Newest Explosions of Terrorism, Grosscup said today: “Assuming the validity of the tape, Bush administration officials are likely to focus on the threat of another domestic attack rather than the offer of a truce in order to bolster their case for war and … for domestic spying. The comment ‘the U.S. doesn’t negotiate with terrorists’ is the usual public stance. Yet it is contrary to the historical experience which shows it is not a matter of whether terrorists negotiate with each other, but a matter of when.” Grosscup is professor of international relations at California State University in Chico and author of the forthcoming book Strategic Terror: The Politics and Ethics of Aerial Bombardment.

RANDALL HAMUD
Hamud is editor of the new book Osama Bin Laden: America’s Enemy In His Own Words. He said today: “The Iraq war has been a diversion from the war on terror. We need to focus on the terrorism, on getting Bin Laden. By invading Iraq, we played right into his hands. His message is resonating throughout the Muslim world — in 1995 Bin Laden said we would invade Arab and Muslim countries which posed no threat to us.”
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167