New bin Laden tape

Purportedly, bin Laden is offering varying gold rewards for anyone who kills Paul Bremer, Koffi Anan, Lakhdar Brahimi, other military commanders, and even any "citizen of countries he called 'the masters of the veto like Americans and Britons' — a reference to nations with veto power on the U.N. Security Council. And he offered 500 grams of gold to anyone killing citizens of countries he called 'slaves of the Security Council who are in Iraq, like Japan and Italy.' The context indicated the rewards applied to citizens of those countries who are in Iraq." Fox News

I would have thought that was calculated to appeal to Iraqi police or other coalition supporters rather than the faithful or the "insurgents", since their reward is a martyr's death. But the tape apparently recognizes that, adding the gold as a reward for a potential martyr's family.

I don't know if this has any bearing on anything, but it's kind of interesting that this comes on the heels of a statement claiming bin Laden is really only a figurehead, and the man to get is Zawahiri. But I bet it's no coincidence. And the figurehead statement may have even been calculated to try to get some activity from bin Laden. I'm just speculating.