The BBC has a message allegedly from Osama bin Laden, in which he offers a truce with Europe if it ceases “the destruction and killing of our kinfolk in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine”:

Based on the above, and in order to deny war merchants a chance and in response to the positive interaction shown by recent events and opinion polls, which indicate that most European peoples want peace, I ask honest people, especially ulema, preachers and merchants, to form a permanent committee to enlighten European peoples of the justice of our causes, above all Palestine. They can make use of the huge potential of the media.
I also offer a reconciliation initiative to them, whose essence is our commitment to stopping operations against every country that commits itself to not attacking Muslims or interfering in their affairs – including the US conspiracy on the greater Muslim world.
. . .
The reconciliation will start with the departure of its last soldier from our country.
The door of reconciliation is open for three months of the date of announcing this statement.
For those who reject reconciliation and want war, we are ready.
As for those who want reconciliation, we have given them a chance. Stop shedding our blood so as to preserve your blood. It is in your hands to apply this easy, yet difficult, formula. You know that the situation will expand and increase if you delay things.
If this happens, do not blame us – blame yourselves.

I’ve never fully understood how al Qaeda works. The standard media analysis has been that the organization has assumed a more loosely-knit horizontal structure since 9/11. If that’s the case, does Osama even have the influence to control the so-called terrorist cells, even if he wanted to? After all, there’s nothing he can do about free-lance attacks.
This is a moot issue, since no country is going to cut a deal with bin Laden. But it is interesting how little the public knows about how al Qaeda actually functions, despite all the media attention the group receives.

Not exactly breaking news:

Uncontrolled U.S. budget deficits would pose a serious threat to global prosperity in coming years as rising interest rates depress economic growth in the United States and the world, the International Monetary Fund warned yesterday.
The IMF released a new analysis predicting that if nothing is done to control soaring U.S. deficits, it would cut global economic output by 4.2 percent by 2020 and reduce U.S. economic growth by 3.7 percent during the same period.
IMF economists said much of the damage would occur because of increased borrowing demands in the United States to finance the deficits. This would drive up U.S. interest rates and interest rates in other countries as the global supply of available capital is reduced, they said.
“The rest of the world is affected seriously by the U.S. fiscal deficit,” IMF chief economist Raghuram Rajan said.

Oh yeah–I forgot. Bush promises to cut the budget in half after his supposed second term ends.

During the summer of threat:

ROEMER: Would it have made any difference if you had mentioned — did you ever mention it, for instance, to the president — your briefing the president from August 6th on?
TENET: I didn’t see the president. I was not in briefings with him during this time. He was on vacation. I was here.
ROEMER: You didn’t see the president between August 6, 2001, and September 10th?
TENET: Well, no. Before — saw him after Labor Day, to be sure.
ROEMER: So you saw him September 4th — at the principals’ meeting?
TENET: It was not at principals’ meeting.
ROEMER: Well, you don’t see him…
TENET: Condoleezza Rice — Condoleezza — I saw him in this time frame, to be sure.
ROEMER: OK. I’m just confused. You see him on August 6th with the PDB.
TENET: No, I do not, sir. I’m not there.
ROEMER: OK. You’re not — when do you see him in August?
TENET: I don’t believe I do.
ROEMER: You don’t see the president of the United States once in the month of August?
TENET: He’s in Texas and I’m either here or on leave for some of that time, so I’m not here.
ROEMER: So who’s briefing him on the PDBs?
TENET: The briefer, himself. We have a presidential briefer.
ROEMER: But you never get on the phone or in any kind of conference with him to talk at this level of high chatter and huge warnings during the spring and summer to talk to him through the whole month of August?
TENET: We talked to him directly throughout the spring and early summer almost every day.
ROEMER: But not in August?
TENET: In this time period, I’m not talking to him, no.
TENET: I don’t have a recollection of being called, Mr. Roemer. But I’m sure that if I wanted to make a phone call because I had my hair on fire, I would have picked up the phone and talked to the president.
ROEMER: It was just never made.
TENET: No.

So despite all the threats, warnings, increased “chatter,” and other clues pointing toward a terrorist strike, President Bush never once talked to the CIA director in the month leading up to 9/11?
That speaks volumes on how our “steady leadership” has performed behind the scenes.
UPDATE: Via Atrios, a CIA spokesman claims Tenent briefed Bush on August 17.

One Iraqi at a time:

AN Iraqi has died of his wounds after US troops beat him with truncheons because he refused to remove a picture of wanted Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr from his car, police said today.
The motorist was stopped late yesterday by US troops conducting search operations on a street in the centre of the central city of Kut, Lieutenant Mohamad Abdel Abbas said.
After the man refused to remove Sadr’s picture from his car, the soldiers forced him out of the vehicle and started beating him with truncheons, he said.

From Great Britain, no less:

George Bush has had a “devastating impact” on global sustainable development and set the world back more than ten years, says Jonathon Porritt, the prime minister’s senior adviser on the subject, today.
Writing in Guardian Society Mr Porritt, who is the chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, says it is hard to exaggerate the damage done to the planet by Mr Bush’s drive for a “new world order”.
On a whole series of issues including climate change, international aid, family planning, nuclear proliferation, trade and corporate responsibility, “staying true to a discredited model of extreme economic liberalism has set the world back a decade or more”, says Mr Porritt.
He says it is not surprising that the rest of the world has done so badly because Mr Bush has given them the perfect “out” from their responsibilities.

Ouch.