Bin Laden Offers ‘Truce’ To Europe

"I present a reconciliation initiative … and we are committed to stop operations against all (European) countries if they commit to not being aggressive towards Muslims," said the voice on the tape, aired by Al-Arabiya and then Aljazeera satellite channels.

The announcement of the truce towards Europe "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", the man was quoted by Reuters as saying on the tape.

"Stop spilling our blood so we can stop spilling your blood," the message added. "This is a difficult but easy equation."

This truce, the message said, was to deny "the war mongers" further opportunities and because polls have shown that "most of the European peoples want reconciliation" with the Islamic world.

The voice said there would be no truce with the United States, saying that Washington is rather a "fatal danger" to the world.

"President (George W.) Bush and leaders in his sphere, big media institutions, and the United Nations .. all of them are a fatal danger to the world, and the Zionist lobby is their most dangerous and difficult member, and we insist, God willing, on continuing to fight them," the man said.

On the tape, the speaker also promised to avenge Israel’s March 22 assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

"We are committed before God to avenge," he said.

The 67-year-old Yassin, who was confined to a wheelchair, was killed in an Israeli helicopter strike on the Gaza Strip, drawing widespread condemnation from across the globe.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the tape, though the voice sounded like previous tapes thought to be genuine.

But the media spokesman for Aljazeera said the tape is "more likely to be genuine according to known standards".

"It is more likely to be the voice of bin Laden," Gihad Ballout told IslamOnline.net form the Qatar-based headquarters of teh channel – which had broadcast a number of tapes for Bin Laden before.

The CIA has said some previous tapes purportedly from Bin Laden were likely to be genuine.

‘security Is A Necessity For All’

The tape said the March 11 commuter train bombings in Madrid that killed some 200 people were response to Spain’s actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

"What happened on September 11 and March 11 are your goods returned to you so that you know security is a necessity for all," the voice on the tape said.

Spain sent troops to Iraq and the U.S. and British forces occupied Iraq in April last year, despite the mass waves of public opposition.

The voice on the tape said Russians were only killed after attacking Afghanistan in the 1980s and Chechnya, Europeans after invading Iraq and Afghanistan and the Americans in New York after "supporting the Jews in Palestine and their invasion of the Arabian Peninsula."

Change Of Tone

Experts said the tape carried a clear change of tone in Bin Laden’s voice on this tape.

"Al-Qaeda leader associates his bloody discourse with a political one," Hafez El-Karmy, an Islamic scholar in London, told Aljazeera.

El-Karmy said that Bin Laden trespassed European governments to speak to peoples in these countries.

"He is playing on sentiments of fear and horror spreading there after the Madrid blasts and threats of similar attacks," he opined.

"Despite his actions which I do not agree with, Bin Laden’s demands on the tape are genuine this time, and they even coincide with Europeans’ calls to their governments to stick to justice."

The voice said that "security is a need for all humans and we could not let you have a monopoly on it for yourselves".

"People who are aware would not let their politicians jeopardize their security."

It denounced the U.S. invasion of Iraq, also opposed by many Europeans, saying it was making "billions of dollars" for companies, "whether those that make weapons or those that take part in reconstruction". He named the American firm Halliburton.

El-Karmy noted that Bin Laden is closely following news in the world, with his mentioning of recent polls and incidents.

How Did They Get It?

Dubai-based Al-Arabiya declined to say how or when it received the tape, but the speaker referred to events that occurred less than a month ago.

Al-Jazeera, a Qatar-based satellite station, also aired the tape in full.

Ballout told IOL that the channels usually get its tapes with the voice of Bin Laden "through different ways, and not only directly from Al-Qaeda leader".

He declined to elaborate or declare whether the tape was received on the Qatar-based office or in the pan-Arab television network’s bureaus such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

An Afghan official said on March 6, that Bin Laden had escaped a recent Pakistani manhunt operation down the borders with Pakistan. The U.S. intelligence is likely to be keeping a close eye on all electronic communications at the area.

Asked on the timing of airing the tape a few time after Al-Arabiya, the spokesman gave no reasons.

"when we receive such tapes, we study them and evaluate their news value, in order to decide whether to put them on screen or not," the spokesman of the Qatari channel said.

He declined to say whether such tapes is screened before speific parties before broadcasting it.

Qatar hosts the U.S. Central Command, from where U.S. forces launched its invasion of Iraq that erupted on March 20.

And Bin Laden – Washington says he is the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks – is number one on the U.S. "wanted" list, and was the target of an intensive manhunt in Afghanistan and on the bordesr with Pakistan.

Ayman Gaballah, editor of Al-Arabiya, said in other press reports that his Saudi-owned Arab television network received the tape from "our sources".