September 19, 2005     

"Is Al Qaeda asking to negotiate?" asks Wagner's Zerkin in LA Times op-ed

"Isn't it clear now that the U.S. and its allies are not likely to be able to wipe out Al Qaeda or ensure that we are not attacked again domestically?," writes NYU Wagner Adjunct Professor Allen Zerkin in today's Los Angeles Times. "As the British acknowledged in July, the London attacks were just a matter of when, not if. To be sure, the terrorists can't win this war, but neither can we."

"I'm not suggesting that we engage in direct meetings with Al Qaeda, nor that we stop pursuing those who commit or support acts of terror," writes Zerkin, who is also a research fellow at NYU's Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response. "But, through back channels, we should seek to determine if Bin Laden would withdraw his fatwa against Americans in exchange for certain policy changes, if Al Qaeda would settle for less than its maximum demands and if its far-flung followers would honor a truce."

Click here for the full article (at latimes.com).