To curry favor with Egypt, Iran has offered to hand over 13 long wanted Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorists in return for Cairo's support for installing Shiite Nuri al-Maliki as Iraqi prime minister and helping to find a way out of the impasse over the Hizballah's indictment for the Hariri assassination. This is revealed exclusively by debkafile's counter-terror sources. Islamic Jihad's leader is Ayman al Zuwahiri, Osama bin Laden's lieutenant and of late his rival. The deal would be a severe blow to al Qaeda.

In a new audio message aired by Al Jazeera TV Sunday, Jan. 24, Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the Dec. 25 attempt to blow up an airliner bound for Detroit and vowed there would be more attacks. In a message addressed from "Osama to Obama," he said America would have no peace unless there was "security for Palestinians."  
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