A tape believed by the Central Intelligence Agency to be from Osama bin Laden boasts of terror attacks underway in the United States and offers a truce between al Qaeda and the United States in what would be his first message since December 2004.
'In response to the substance of the polls in the U.S., which indicate that Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stick to,' the voice on the tape says.
The truce seems to refer to an arrangement in which further terrorist acts will be canceled if the United States pulls out of the Middle East, but dismisses the possibility of the United States being willing to commit to such an agreement.
The United States has rejected the truce, and White House spokesman Scott McClellan characterized the offer as the desperate action of terrorists on the run.
'We do not negotiate with terrorists,' McClellan said. 'We put them out of business.'
