Osama bin Laden's taped message is the strangest evidence to emerge that the U.S. is winning the "information war" with al Qaeda and is new proof that al Qaeda's famed media unit is in tatters, says Rich Miniter, author of Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror. (Click here to order from Amazon.)

It was not long ago that the propaganda arm of al Qaeda could easily get videotapes onto al Jazeera in hours. But the new tape played on al Jazeera took upwards of five weeks to move from bin Laden to al Jazeera.

Could al Qaeda's network be fraying? One thing is for certain: Al Qaeda's reliance on a network of human couriers to smuggle these tapes suggests fearfulness and potential apprehension.

Bin Laden's offer of a "truce" to help rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan is actually an attempt to rebuild support among Muslim populations in those two countries, who have borne the brunt of terrorist attacks since 9/11. With Muslim opinion increasingly alienated away from bin Laden the truce and rebuilding effort is a last chance effort by bin Laden to win back the hearts and minds of his one-time Muslim supporters.
 

(Excerpt) Read more at humaneventsonline.com ...