“As for similar operations taking place in America, it’s only a matter of time. They are in the planning stages and you will see them in the heart of your land as soon as the planning is complete.”


But it also says, “we do not mind offering you a truce that is fair and long term … so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan … There is no shame in this solution because it prevents wasting of billions of dollars … to merchants of war,” the Associated Press reported.


The conditions for such a truce were not made clear.” – CBC

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In the Arab context an expressed interest in negotiations or a truce usually indicates that the interested party needs to get the fighting to stop. Because of this, my first reaction to the statement concerning a truce in the latest putative Bin Laden tape was to think that it meant that the Jihadis see their war effort as not going well at present.


But, after listening to the larger message of the tape, I am inclined to think that the “truce talk” is intended for the Muslim audience as assurance that the Jihadis do care about the welfare if the Islamic masses, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to deliver the message that it is the Kuffar (infidels) who are responsible for the continuation of the misery of war.

This tape is basically a pep talk for the Faithful, wherever they may be. For us, in the West, it means nothing. Did we think they had “gone away?”

Pat Lang


Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann (interview), CNN and Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room (interview), PBS’s Newshour, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” (interview), and more .


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“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2