From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

US President George W Bush has heaped praise on Pakistan for arresting six suspected members of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, calling it a major coup in the global war on terrorism.
Mr Bush specifically hailed the detention of Waleed Mohammad bin Attash, alias Khalid, a Yemeni believed to be linked to the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, as "a major, significant find".
"He is a killer, he was one of the top Al Qaeda operatives," the US leader said during an Oval Office meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
"He is one less person that people who love freedom have to worry about."
"I want to thank our friends in Pakistan, I want to thank the agency ... the CIA, for working hard to continue to win the war against terror," said Mr Bush, who declared war on terrorism after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"And make no mistake about it ... we will win the war against terror."

BBC

Indonesian prosecutors have formally charged their first suspect in connection with the 2002 Bali bombings.

A spokesman for the prosecution, Antasari Azhar, said the trial of the man, known only as Amrozi, was expected to start on 12 May.

The bomb attacks have been blamed on members of the Muslim militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI). A treason trial against the group's spiritual leader, Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, is already underway.

Reuters

The United States said on Wednesday Syria and Libya reduced their support for "terrorism" they remained on a U.S. list of seven "state sponsors of terrorism" along with Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan.

In its annual "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, the State Department said attacks by "international terrorists" dropped sharply to 199 in 2002 from 355 a year earlier and the number of deaths fell to 725 from 3,295 in 2001, a year that included the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Being designated "state sponsors of terrorism" means the seven nations are subject to a ban on U.S. arms-related exports and sales, controls over exports of "dual-use" items that could be used for military purposes, prohibitions on economic assistance and a variety of financial and other restrictions.

The report again described Iran as the most active sponsor of such violence, saying its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence and Security helped plan and support attacks and exhorted groups to commit them.

Newsday

Renegade groups in Iran and Pakistan are providing a lifeline to rebels who continue to menace U.S. forces in Afghanistan's lawless border regions, a top U.S. commander warned Tuesday.

Despite international efforts to choke off terrorists' funding, supporters in neighboring countries are succeeding in getting cash and weapons over Afghanistan's rugged mountains, Maj. Gen. John R. Vines told reporters.

"I think there are renegade elements in Iran who have an interest in controlling a portion of Afghanistan," Vines said. "I think there are elements in Pakistan -- not the government -- that have an interest in creating instability."

[Time.com]

TIME has learned that sometime today the FBI plans to send a classified Intelligence Bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies over its secure telecommunications network, advising officials to pay attention to suspicious activities around nuclear power plants, and including people who are spotted photographing them and light aircraft flying near them.

Full story...

Press Trust of India/The Hindu

The Indian Army has made a disturbing discovery on the Jammu and Kashmir militancy front, a development that would take the militancy to an entirely new level.

Foreign mercenaries operating in Jammu and Kashmir are reported to be in possession of lethal chemical weapons raising security concerns in the border state, according to an army official.

"Terrorists operating in J and K have chemical weapons, as per the recent intelligence reports analysed by army", Lt Col S P K Singh of Northern Command Headquarters said today.

IMRA:

Official Palestinian Authority [PA] TV has broadcast a music video calling for the murder of Jews in the disputed areas, even showing scenes of Jewish teenage girls and a Jewish couple, who are among those targeted for death by PA TV.

[Click here to view on Windows Media Player]
[Click here to view on Quick Time]

The music video shows scenes of masked gunman firing automatic rifles,
aerial views of Jewish towns, and as mentioned, Jews who are targeted for
murder: a man walking his wife, a group of teenage girls, and a soldier.

The words that repeat throughout the music video:

"From the mountain of fire [Nablus] came the rebels...
Everywhere there are settlements.
Oh brave Nablus, keep the cauldron ablaze
Pour over the settlements great flames
Foreigners have no place on this land
Foreigners have no place where Shahids [Died for Allah] were killed."

The Music video may be viewed by clicking either of the 2 links above.

PMW Comment:
It is interesting that PA has chosen to broadcast this call to murder Jews
of the disputed areas at the very time that the Palestinian Authority is
approving Mahmoud Abbas as the Prime Minister. Abbas in a recent interview
legitimized the murdering of Israelis who live in the disputed territories:

"The Intifada must continue. And it is the right of the Palestinian people
to rise and to use all means at their disposal... all means even guns..."
[A-Sharq Al Awsat, March 3, 2003]

It may be that this week's public call in the media to murder Jews is the PA
reassurance to its people, that in spite of Western demands to solve
disputes through negotiations, the PA continues to follow the Abbas
doctrine, seeing murder as a legitimate tool, in times and places when seen
as beneficial.

Haaretz.

Haaretz.

ABC (Aus)

Pakistan has arrested a Yemeni suspected of involvement in the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to officials.

In a separate operation, the Interior Ministry says six "high-profile" Al Qaeda members, who were allegedly planning a terror attack in Pakistan, have also been arrested.

Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani says Yemeni Khalid Al-Atash is "wanted in the bombing of the USS Cole".

Reuters:

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Non- Proliferation John Wolf told a UN meeting in Geneva that Iran had an "alarming, clandestine program" to get hold of nuclear technology as part of an illegal weapons effort. "Iran is going down the same path of denial and deception that handicapped international inspections in North Korea and Iraq," Wolf declared.

See also Russia and Iran's Nuclear Program:

Iran is much closer to acquiring a military nuclear capability than supposed, due to its unexpected progress in developing uranium enrichment facilities using centrifuge technology. By admitting that it has a uranium enrichment program, Iran is basically telling the world that it indeed has military intentions.

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a continuous stream of leakage of Russian technology, technicians, materiel, contracts, and activities to Iran from some 20 companies, institutes, universities, and engineering firms in the two critical domains of missile capability and nuclear development.

The Russians secretly negotiated additional nuclear cooperation agreements with Iran, with full knowledge that they were assisting Iran in its military programs. The result is an Iran that is within a short distance of having a first-generation, nuclear military capability coupled with a delivery capability.

We cannot be confident that reform in Iran will eliminate the strategic threat to Israel. Even the moderates are extremely problematic on a number of issues. Iran's attitude toward the West is basically hostile and the regime shows no signs of any sharp policy changes.

Haaretz:

Military Intelligence told the political echelon at the beginning of the week that the new Palestinian government headed by Abu Mazen has no intention of uprooting the terrorist infrastructure. "According to what we know now, Abu Mazen plans to speak with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders, and not clash with them," said a senior military source on Tuesday. Abu Mazen "may have opposed the violent intifada from the first day," say military sources, "but he's barely a third of the new political framework in the PA. The other two-thirds are Yasser Arafat and the terror organizations, which continue to support violence." According to Military Intelligence, the new prime minister feels he lacks domestic legitimacy and therefore has to concede to Arafat on critical issues, which has already eroded his ability to fight terrorists in the future. Mohammed Dahlan has not shown any signs of readiness to enforce his will in the West Bank and some of the heads of the security apparatus are asking out loud why they have to make an effort for him.

AP/Newsday:

A federal judge has ruled the Palestinian Liberation Organization should be held accountable for not responding to a lawsuit filed on behalf of an American man and his Israeli wife who were murdered in Israel. Yaron Ungar and his wife Efrat, both 25, were killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996. The suit was filed in 2000 on behalf of their two children and seeks $250 million. The Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991 allows American victims of overseas terrorism to seek monetary damages in U.S. courts. Experts say the April 18 ruling could ultimately hold the PLO responsible for the killings and allow the plaintiffs to extract damages.

Update on previous post

Fox News is reporting that at least three people have been killed:

At least three people were killed and 30 were injured after a huge explosion rocked a popular seaside promenade in Tel Aviv early Wednesday. Police said it was a terror attack.

The walkway runs along the Tel Aviv (search) beach from the southern edge of the city leading north several miles -- a major draw for Israelis and tourists.

"There has been a terror attack on the seafront walkway," said police spokeswoman Shlomit Hertzberg. She gave no details and there was no immediate word on casualties.

The bomb went off inside a pub called Mike's Place and blew the front off the restaurant. Army Radio said the blast site was near the U.S. Embassy (search), which is on the coast.

Ambulances raced to the scene and police moved to close off the area.

UPDATE: Fox is now reporting the death toll is five.

Ha'aretz

A loud explosion was heard at around 1 A.M. Tuesday night in a cafe next to the United States embassy on the beachfront Hayarkon Street in Tel Aviv.

Initial reports from Army Radio said dozens of people had been wounded. Police said that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber, the radio said.

Deepikaglobal (India)

Eleven Pakistani terrorists and six security force personnel were killed in a fierce gunbattle in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir this afternoon, police sources said.

PakTribune

Eleven freedom fighters and six Indian force personnel were killed in a fierce gunbattle in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday afternoon, police sources claimed.

ABC (Aus)

Eleven suspected Islamic militants and six Indian soldiers have died in a bloody clash in southern Kashmir's Doda district today.

The Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON -States and localities will receive $1.5 billion to help pay for the costs of increasing security during the war with Iraq, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Tuesday.

The funds are in addition to $1.6 billion in federal funds already going to state and local governments.

"You cannot secure the homeland from Washington, D.C.," Ridge said. "You can only secure it from the hometown."

Hawash accused of aiding Al-Qaida

The complaint alleges that in October and November 2001 Hawash stayed at the same three hotels in China on the same three occasions as some of the defendants. On Oct. 30, 2001, the complaint says, Hawash shared a hotel room with defendant Jeffrey Leon Battle in Kashgar, in northwestern China.

On Oct. 9, Hawash had turned over the title of the family house in Hillsboro, Ore., to his wife, Lisa. He left the United States through Seattle Oct. 24 and returned Nov. 18. Hawash told his wife that he traveled to China to look for opportunities for his software business, according to the complaint.

The complaint also mentions slips of paper found in the homes of three of the defendants with Hawash's Portland telephone number written on them. Bank records show Hawash wrote a check to defendant Patrice Ford for $105 on Sept. 8, 2001, according to the complaint. In a search of Ford's apartment in October 2002, investigators found a piece of paper that contained the note ``Maher -- 73 owe'' and the names of the other five Portland defendants.

From this:

— Federal officials in the United States dismissed a report from Brasilia on Monday that suggested a bioterrorism case had been uncovered... U.S. sources told NBC that the case appeared instead to involve drug smuggling... U.S. officials told NBC the case had nothing to do with anthrax but did not explain the death of Ibrahim... Ibrahim died in the hotel were he was staying on April 11. Several health workers who found his body were taken to a hospital after becoming ill but are now out of danger.

See the earlier post "Egyptian sailor dies in Brazil from anthrax-police" for more information.

UPDATE: Apparently he didn't die from anthrax: "Bob Fowler, regional director general of Health Canada Atlantic, said today that anthrax has been ruled out as the cause of the sailor's death... "The crewman did not, and I repeat did not, die from anthrax," he said during a news conference."

As to why the Wadi al Arab received attention in Brownsville, TX, that remains to be determined.

Haaretz.

From Debka:

Palestinian PM-designate Abu Mazen, requesting Palestinian council’s endorsement of his government, repeatedly deferred to Arafat as elected Palestinian leader, made no reference to fighting terror. He said Middle East road map must begin with halt on Israeli settlement.

Arafat, who spoke as Middle East leader, demanded an end to US “occupation” of Iraq, called on “Shurfa” and “free men” to rise up against Americans in Iraq. (USAID official Laurence Foley was assassinated last October in Amman by “Shurfa” after his appointment by President Bush to oversee reconstruction of reformed Palestinian Authority.)

He was addressing Palestinian legislative Council convened at his Ramallah office Tuesday for what should have been landmark vote.

Arafat nobbled (sic) would-be reform government hours before its confirmation. He created “national security council” to retain control of Palestinian terror machinery, named his appointee Erekat leader of peace negotiations.

Also revealed: Arafat’s personal envoy to Saddam Hussein, Azzam al-Ahmad planted in cabinet as transport and advanced technology minister.

From Debka:

Arafat, who spoke as Middle East leader, demanded an end to US “occupation” of Iraq, called on “Shurfa” and “free men” to rise up against Americans in Iraq. (USAID official Laurence Foley was assassinated last October in Amman by “Shurfa” after his appointment by President Bush to oversee reconstruction of reformed Palestinian Authority.)

[Sky News]

Libya will pay £6.29m to each of the 270 victims of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing after accepting civil responsibility for the blast.

Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgham confirmed the £1.69bn compensation deal.

He said. "My country has accepted civil responsibility for the actions of its officials in the Lockerbie affair, in conformity with international civil law and the agreement reached in London in March by Libyan, American and British officials."

Full story....

Who would have thought that that Arafat's hand-picked successor would turn out to be a Holocaust-denier and terrorist? Here are two articles about President Bush's 'Man of Peace' that make that compliment seem appropriate for a president who termed Islam a 'Religion of Peace:'

From IMRA:

ISRAELI CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP ACCUSES ABU MAZEN OF HAVING FUNDED 1972 MUNICH OLYMPIC MASSACRE, CALLS FOR PROBE OF PALESTINIAN PM's ROLE

Letter to German and American Leaders Alleges that New P.A. Prime Minister
Financed "Black September" Terror Attack Which Killed 11 Athletes Including
U.S. Citizen

On September 5, 1972, a squad of heavily armed Palestinian terrorists
attacked the dormitories housing the Israeli Olympic team and murdered a
coach and weight-lifter David Berger, who was an American citizen. The
terrorists then took nine Israeli athletes hostage. While the terrorists and
their hostages were transported to the airport, the German police botched a
rescue attempt and all nine of the athletes were murdered.

The director of Shurat Hadin, attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, sent letters
this week to U.S. President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder containing new information indicating that that Abu Mazen (whose
given name is Mahmoud Abbas) provided financing to the PLO's Black September terrorist group, in order to carry out the notorious terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympic Games.

While recent newsmedia profiles of Abu Mazen have accentuated the
Palestinian leader's alleged "terrorism-free" personal history, the Shurat
Hadin charges that in 1972, Abu Mazen, then a high ranking PLO official,
provided financing for the terrorist attacks being perpetrated by Yassir
Arafat's PLO faction Fatah under the nom de guerre Black September.

Shurat Hadin is basing its information on published statements by the
terrorist who masterminded the the Munich attack, Mohammed Daoud Oudeh ("Abu Daoud"). In his French-language autobiography, Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich, Abu Daoud describes the role of Abu Mazen in providing the funds to carry out the Black September Olympic attack.

Furthermore, in an interview with journalist Don Yaeger of Sports
Illustrated Magazine in August 2002, Abu Daoud reiterated his charges that
Abu Mazen supplied the money for the deadly attack.

In his memoir Abu Daoud states:

"After Oslo in 1993, Abu Mazen went to the White House Rose Garden for a
photo op with Arafat, President Bill Clinton and Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and
Shimon Peres.

"Do you think that ... would have been possible if the Israelis had known
that Abu Mazen was the financier of our operation?" Abu Daoud writes. "I
doubt it." Today, the Bush Administration seeks a Palestinian negotiating
partner "uncompromised by terror," yet last year Abu Mazen met in Washington
with Secretary of State Colin Powell."

Abu Daoud's allegations have been confirm by sources within the Palestinian
Authority, according to Shurat Hadin.

Sports Illustrated: Abu Mazen funded Munich Massacre

From Haaretz:

Strikes by Israeli security forces on Palestinian terror networks during the past year have led to a situation in which many more prominent terrorists are locked in Israeli facilities than are at large. Yet according to a recent report by the Shin Bet, its prisons have become terror headquarters, with incarcerated leaders seeking to orchestrate kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and civilians in order to negotiate their own release. In addition, a rise has been detected in the number of attempts to smuggle firearms into the prisons and prepare bombs, to be used against the guards. Inmates manage to maintain communications with their people outside through mobile phones, letters, and oral messages conveyed by visiting attorneys and family members. Palestinian inmates possess hidden cellular phones on which they can be reached, although the IDF has recently installed devices designed to disrupt such calls.

Haaretz reports a victory in the Financial War On Terror:

There has been a drastic drop over the past few months in the amount of financial aid channeled from Islamic charitable organizations abroad to Islamic terror groups in the territories.

Israeli officials believe this is due to restrictions imposed by the U.S. and other countries on charity groups in their respective countries.

On the other hand, the PA's financial situation is improving, with about NIS 1 billion in its coffers.

Some Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are also sending humanitarian aid through the PA now instead of to Hamas.

From NBC 17:

An airman from Pope Air Force Base was killed in Afghanistan last week, the Pentagon confirmed Monday.

Airman 1st Class Raymond Losano, 24, of Del Rio, Texas, died of wounds suffered on Friday while accompanying Army paratroopers behind enemy lines to call in airstrikes, the military said.

From The Mercury (Australia):

US federal authorities have charged a seventh person with plotting to aid al-Qaeda and Taliban forces fighting US soldiers a month after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Maher Hawash, a 39-year-old Palestinian software engineer, was charged with conspiracy to levy war and two counts of conspiring to provide material support to the two groups. He has been in custody since late March.

Even this far into the engagement, it appears the Afghanistan countryside still holds many secrets. From ABC (Australia):

US special forces have discovered a massive haul of more than 200 tonnes of explosives in a cave complex in north-western Afghanistan, a military spokesman says.

Acting on a tip-off, special forces last week discovered 204 tonnes of explosives in 17 caves near Maimana, capital of Faryab province, Colonel Roger King said at Bagram Air Base.

He said the haul included 80 tonnes of high explosive and the rest was from small arms ammunition.

AFP/News Interactive

TEN suspected Taliban fighters were killed in a clash with local security forces in south-east Afghanistan's Zabul province, governor Hameedullah Tokhi said.

"Yesterday at 11am Taliban attacked Daychopan district and up to now the fighting is still going on," he told AFP by telephone.

"Up to yesterday evening 10 Taliban were killed and six injured," he said citing reports from the district chief and local security commanders in Daychopan, 300km south-west of Kabul.

From this:

BRASILIA, Brazil, April 28 (Reuters) - A crew member of an Egyptian merchant ship has died in northern Brazil, almost certainly from anthrax, after opening a suitcase suspected of containing the substance which he was taking to Canada.

A spokesman for Brazilian federal police in the Amazon state of Para said on Monday an autopsy of the Egyptian man, whom he named as Ibrahim Saved Soliman Ibrahim, showed that he had died after vomiting, internal bleeding and multiple organ failure.

"He was the victim of anthrax," said Fernando Sergio Castro, adding that police were 90 percent certain that Ibrahim had died of anthrax.

Ibrahim had traveled to Brazil from Cairo to join his ship, the Wabi Alaras, which loaded bauxite in the Amazon to take to Canada...

Castro said Ibrahim had been given the suitcase in Cairo by an unidentified person and was due to deliver it to somebody in Canada. But he doubted Ibrahim knew what the content of the bag was otherwise he most likely would not have opened it.

"Health Canada awaits anthrax ship results" says that Canadian officials are awaiting test results from swab samples taken on the quarantined ship.

There appears to be confusion over the ship's name. The Globe & Mail report (second link) says it's "Wadi Al Arab." The Reuters report says "Wabi Alaras." I'd tend to go with "Wadi Al Arab." That ship name is also mentioned here and here ("Ship Guarded" from 2/28/03):

The Federal Government is guarding a foreign ship at the Port of Brownsville. The ship is registered in Egypt... Newschannel Five has learned the Egyptian vessel, the Wadi Al Arab, as been guarded by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies since it reached American waters. The ship is carrying iron ore from Brazil... Also aboard the Wadi Al Arab are 32 Egyptian nationals... I.N.S., Border Patrol, and the U.S. Coast says keeping an eye on the Wadi Al Arab is no different than guarding any other ship from a foreign country... The Wadi Al Arab will be unloading its cargo for 4 to 5 more days, under the watchful eye of federal agents.

This story has been UPDATED.

From The Jerusalem Post:

Israeli security forces recently exposed five Fatah Tanzim terrorist cells whose members are responsible for the deaths of nine Israelis.

One of those arrested is Kamel Abu Wa'ar from Kabatyia, in the past one of Yasser Arafat's presidential guard.

....Judea and Samaria district police chief, Maj.-Gen. Shahar Ayalon, said that the discovery of the Fatah Tanzim terror cells had thwarted "many planned attacks," reports Israel Radio.

From Haaretz:

IDF troops on Saturday apprehended an 18-year-old Palestinian near Itamar, armed with a knife, who planned to carry out a terror attack in the settlement. The soldiers were tipped off by the youth's father, who arrived at an IDF checkpost near Nablus and requested that the soldiers prevent the attack. The IDF said that by notifying the troops, the father had saved his son's life.

Syrian Spokeswoman: Hizbullah Is Not A Terrorist Organization

Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bouthana Shaaban told Fox News today that Hizbullah has "never targeted any civilian in Israel" and is "not a terrorist organization." However, Yonatan Peled, the spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, told Arutz-7's Eli Stutz that Shaaban was not quite accurate in her portrayal of the facts:

"Hizbullah is a terrorist organization, and has attacked Israeli civilians, both in Israel and abroad. In 1992, in Buenos Aires, it blew up the Israeli Embassy, killing 29 people. They have fired rockets over the border at Israeli [communities], and are actively involved with Palestinian terror organizations, assisting them in carrying out attacks against Israelis. Syria is not only supporting Hizbullah, but is actually harboring them."

Just 14 months ago, on March 12, 2002, two Hizbullah terrorists infiltrated northern Israel outside Kibbutz Metzubah, shot at passing cars, and murdered five Israeli civilians and a soldier.

US Congressman Tom Lantos, who met in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad yesterday for an hour and a half, presented him with a series of demands that would enable the U.S. to "open a new page in its relations with Syria." These included closing down headquarters of terrorist organizations and withdrawing Syrian forces from Lebanon. Lantos said also that Syria must cease its support of Hizbullah, especially granting it use of the Damascus airport. Lantos said afterwards,
"I told President Assad that Syria made a terrible mistake by choosing to side with Saddam Hussein in the period that preceded the war [with Iraq]. I explained that Syria's image in the U.S. had deteriorated drastically when it became clear that military equipment was transferred from Syria to Iraq and that many Syrian fighters had joined the [flickering] Iraqi regime… It appears that Assad accepted my words as constructive criticism - though I don't expect an immediate response regarding the demands that America placed upon Syria."

Wiesenthal Center to press for Brunner's extradition from Syria

With the US pressing Damascus to cease supporting terrorism after the liberation of Iraq, officials of the Simon Wiesenthal Center believe the time is ripe to seek the extradition of Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner, who is believed to be living in Syria.

...."This is part of the wider Syrian picture of a country that harbors Nazi as well as Iraqi war criminals, and provides a haven and support for terrorist groups."

....Brunner, 91, was one of the henchmen of Adolf Eichmann and a leading official of the main security office that helped draft and implement the "final solution." He was responsible for the deportation to death camps of some 128,500 Jews: 47,000 from Austria, 44,000 from Greece, 23,500 from France, and 14,000 from Slovakia.

Brunner reportedly fled to Egypt after the war, but later sought and was granted refuge in Syria.

Following the capture and execution of Adolf Eichmann, Brunner has been at the top of the wanted list of Nazi war criminals and Holocaust perpetrators.

A woman was injured in one of the incidents.

IBA radio.

Walla cites IDF radio, saying that 3 of the Russians were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a mine.

State prosecutors said the youth, a naturalized German citizen, had demanded the release of four suspects linked to al Qaeda, but police said they did not believe he had any ties to Osama bin Laden's network.

AP/Kansas City Star

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, before Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, there was Air India Flight 182, blown up by a bomb with 329 people aboard in what is still the worst terrorist attack on a commercial airliner.

On Monday, after an almost 18-year investigation that cost more than $30 million, two men from India's Sikh religious minority will face murder charges while sitting behind bulletproof glass as their trial starts in a specially built courtroom.

Air India Flight 182 from Montreal to India's capital, New Delhi, exploded over the Atlantic Ocean near Britain on June 23, 1985. Most of the victims were Canadian.

An hour earlier, a bomb in baggage intended for another Air India jetliner exploded at Tokyo's Narita Airport, killing two baggage handlers.

San Antonio (TX) Express-News: Del Rio airman's death mourned

Family members Saturday were mourning the death of an airman from Del Rio, one of two U.S. servicemen killed in a battle with rebel fighters in Afghanistan on Friday.

Airman 1st Class Raymond Losano, 23, attended Del Rio High School before he earned his GED to enter the Air Force in 2001. He also attended Pima Community College in Tucson, Ariz.

Salt Lake (UT) Tribune: Second G.I. Dies in Afghanistan After Battle

The Pentagon on Saturday identified the first soldier killed as Pvt. Jerod R. Dennis, 19, of Oklahoma. Dennis was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Fort Bragg, N.C.

[Sky News]

Terrorists have been blamed for a bomb blast that ripped through an American fast food restaurant at Jakarta's international airport.

The attack is the second on foreign facilities in three days, officials said.
Eleven people were injured in the explosion at a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet.

The blast near the restaurant may be linked to current or pending trials of terror suspects, said top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Full story...

IRANIAN REGIME WORRIED BY PEOPLE’S PRO-AMERICANISM

This is from Iran's official news agency:

As President George W. Bush has also warned the Islamic republic to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs, an influential French daily says Iranian officials are worried by the "obvious pro-Americanism sentiments" of " the Iranian people".

Iranian officials are worried. Worried of the American presence next to their doors, on the East as well as to the West, worried of the invasion of Iraq "with so little popular resistance", worried of the fast fall of the Baghdad regime, worried of the sidelining of the UN, worried of the total disillusion of the Iranian people that, since the beginning of the Iraqi crisis, has resulted in a fierce pro-Americanism of the population... but, especially, worried of the vox populi, that asks for "a change of the regime with the help of the American marines", the daily "Le Monde" wrote.

This demand is taken enough seriously in the political circles so that the resumption of the relations with America -- a 24 years-old taboo -- had moved forward on the political agenda in Tehran. These relations had been broken on the eve of the establishment of the Islamic Republic and the hostage taking of 55 American diplomats in 1979.

Muslim Rebel Attack on Kashmir radio station, other violence leaves 14 dead

The new deaths came on a second day of bloody violence in the region, after 18 people were killed on Friday, including six in a suicide attack.

Two Indian security men and three Muslim rebels were killed Saturday in a attack on the Radio Kashmir office in the heart of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir.

Seven other security force personnel were injured in the attack.

Police said three militants detonated a car laden with explosives near the main gate of Radio Kashmir, killing a policeman, before they tried to storm into building in the confusion.

Federal troops deployed in and around the radio station opened fire killing one of the rebels, while the other two were shot by security forces after running away.

A BSF trooper was also killed during the gunfight, a spokesman said.

Officials described the assault as a suicide attack because at least two of the rebels had grenades strapped to their bodies.

This news article, about Israel's legitimate fears of nuclear attack by Iran, concludes:

No one in the Israeli establishment believes that after the war in Iraq, the United States will be in any mood for a far more difficult military campaign against Iran. Moreover, many are convinced that it is too late to stop Iran from going nuclear. Therefore, they argue, the best way to neutralize a nuclear Iran is to promote regime change from within. [Emphasis mine - JW]

"Evidently, I am afraid!" he exclaims. "How would I not be afraid of an America armed to the teeth and who demonstrated in Iraq its total disdain of respect for the sovereignty of the States? . . . according to him, "that the best defense of Iran against the Americans would be to reinforce its democracy in order to deprive them of their arguments".

Interrogated on the voices calling for "the American interference", Mr. Nabavi declares: "It is obvious that it is the result of our mistake. The fact that people prefer a foreign invasion to living in the Islamic Republic is only the sign of our failure. We have not been able to fulfill the people's democratic aspirations and it is normal that they are disappointed". If one admits that the Iraqis are delighted with Saddam Hoseyn's end, one must also think about the possibility that maybe, the Iranians would celebrate at the end of the Islamic Republic as well".

Just some photos from Afganistan. So we don't forget.

A comparison of media reports from Iraq and Israel on civilian deaths at checkpoints.With lots of links to news reports.

I am linking to the blog which translates the original German news item, and provides a link to the original. A 17-year-old Lebanese hijacked a bus in Germany, has "Islamist motivations."

From Reuters:

Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah called on Pakistan on Saturday to act against Taliban leaders he said were operating from its territory.

He said the shadowy head of the fundamentalist group, Mullah Mohammed Omar, topped a list of those thought to be taking refuge in Pakistan.

From Radio Australia:

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has handed down death sentences to three Islamic sectarian militants for involvement in the killing of minority Shi'ite Muslims.

Akram Lahori, a leader of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi -- one of the country's most feared militant groups -- and his accomplices were convicted in two separate cases of sectarian killings.

Al Bawaba

US Representative Tom Lantos, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, urged Syria to cut support to Lebanon's Hizbullah.

He said the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was a "historic opportunity" to improve Syrian-US ties, but conditioned this on Damascus ending support for "terrorism."

"I hope it (Syria) will not flounder on continued misguided policies like military support for Hizbullah or the maintenance of terrorist headquarters in Damascus," Lantos told reporters after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Is it me, or is Afghanistan heating up? From FOX23/AP:

The U-S military in Afghanistan says a second soldier has died of wounds suffered in a gun battle with Taliban fighters.

The soldier died early Saturday, hours after the Friday gun battle in eastern Afghanistan.

Four other U-S special forces soldiers injured in the fighting are in stable condition at a hospital at the Bagram base, just north of the capital, Kabul.

Hmm ... I wonder why they always seem to be so close to Pakistan. From Reuters:

U.S. and Afghan forces have arrested several suspected members of the Taliban near the southern border town of Spin Boldak, an Afghan military commander said on Saturday.

Abdul Razzak, a military officer based in Spin Boldak, said the arrests were made in an operation launched on Thursday in the Loi Karez area, close to the Pakistan border.

From The Australian

A CAR bomb and a gunbattle at state-run broadcast offices in the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir killed three suspected Islamic militants and two soldiers today, police said.
Three men from the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force were wounded, said senior police officer Javed Ahmad.
The area had been cordoned off by soldiers, and the army and paramilitary were searching for any other attackers who may have entered the radio and television complex after exploding their car at the entrance.
Police found explosives strapped to the bodies of two of the attackers killed in the gunbattle. The bomb disposal squad had been summoned to defuse them, Ahmad said.
The attack came a day after a powerful explosion ripped through a courthouse in Kashmir, killing three people and injuring 34, amid a sharp surge in violence in the strife-torn region.

Middle East Intelligence Bulletin

According to a report in the Israeli daily Maa'riv early last month, the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has acquired highly sophisticated SA-18 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. Acquisition of the Russian-manufactured SA-18, a much improved version of the SA-7 missiles used by Hezbollah in the past and employed by Al-Qaeda last November to attack an Israeli airliner in Kenya, would vastly upgrade the movement's air defense capabilities and strengthen the threat emanating from its massive stockpile of rockets capable of hitting Israeli population centers.[1]

As the militant Islamist group accelerated its rocket buildup in 2002, Syria ordered a large shipment of SA-18s from Russia with the apparent intention of transferring them to Hezbollah. Following several trips to Russia by Israeli National Security Advisor Ephraim Halevy and a state visit by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in late September, Israel announced that Russia had canceled the sale.[2] However, the UAE daily Al-Bayan reported that Hezbollah had already received a "first installment" of SA-18 missiles earlier in the year.[3]

American authorities are investigating a suspicious money trail that leads from the jungles of South America to the suburbs of Dallas and may shed light on the interlocking finances of some key terrorist networks, including Hamas and Al Qaeda. Federal and Texas state investigators are seeking clues to the origin and destination of millions of dollars wired from a business in the lawless tri-border area where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet, to apparent shell companies in Texas suspected of serving as fronts for either Al Qaeda, Hamas or both.

Russian-born American physician Dr. Daniel Branovan organized an international conference on "Doctors against Terrorism."

Some 100 people attended the conference at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, including victims of terror attacks and their relatives, local politicians and about 50 physicians who volunteered to treat terrorism victims overseas or in the United States.

A dozen countries — Israel and republics of the former Soviet Union — have expressed interest in having their wounded citizens treated by Branovan’s nondenominational organization, he said.

Israeli officials think Iran will have nuclear weapons within two years. Iran wants to use their nukes on Israel. Iran's #2 official, cleric Hashemi-Rafsanjani, has stated that annihilating Israel is worth Muslim collateral damage, and

Iran was behind the 1992 and 1994 terrorist attacks on the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Iran regularly supplies Hezbollah with weapons, including long-range rockets, through Damascus, Syria; and in 2002, Iran tried to sell arms to the Palestinian Authority for use against Israel.

Kansas City Star

Yemen offered a reward of $8,300 Thursday for information leading to the arrest of 10 fugitives wanted for the fatal bombing of the destroyer USS Cole.

The 10 men escaped from a prison in the southern port of Aden on April 11, embarrassing the Yemeni government and setting back the investigation of the suicide attack.

The reward was advertised in Yemeni newspapers Thursday.

An update to this post that consolidates the information on several attacks reported in the previous post.

Violence exploded afresh in Held Kashmir on Friday when at least 18 people, including an Indian major, were killed and nearly 50 injured in the bombing of a courthouse, a suicide attack on a security force post, a military ambush and attacks on politicians, police said.

Foiled German bus hijacker demanded Sept. 11 suspect's release

During negotiations with police, he demanded the release of four prisoners including Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the Hamburg-based Sept. 11 plotters who was captured in Pakistan last year and is in U.S. custody, Picard said.

Binalshibh, a Yemeni, is believed to have been the key contact between al-Qaida and the Hamburg cell that included three of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers.

Bremen's top security official, Kuno Boese, told a news conference that the teen-age suspect praised the hijackers in a letter left for his parents Thursday.

"The crime has a radical Islamic motive," Boese said. But officials said there was no indication the bus hijacker was a member of terrorist group.

You can't make this stuff up. If you're looking for OBL, ask Naomi Campbell. From Sify News (India):

Who needs the CIA when you have supermodel Naomi Campbell to keep up with the movements of international terrorists?

Well, that is how the story goes for the tempestuous clotheshorse, who according to the New York Post has revealed that she has 'intelligence sources' across the globe to keep her updated on terrorist activities.

According to a report in PeopleNews, Campbell has confided in close friends that her network of spies has been keeping tabs on none other than the kingpin of terrorism, Osama bin Laden.

Moreover, she knows it for a fact that Laden is holed up in Saudi Arabia.

In the last few minutes The Command Post passed another milestone, reaching two million visitors since we started keeping track on March 21st.

We thank you for your support, and our contributors for all they do to keep the site current. It's been a great ride, and while the war in Iraq is winding down, we're excited about moving forward and reaching the next million!

All the best,

Alan & Michele

No word of what they were doing in Newark, but Seattle may have been the People's Front For Free Cows. From Newsday (US):

Federal agents on Thursday were mum about the Joint Terrorism Task Force's raid of a Seattle home and a site in Newark, N.J., this week.

"Yeah, we were there, but there's nothing I can say about it," said Seattle FBI spokesman Ray Lauer.

Citing a search warrant filed under seal in U.S. District Court in Seattle, The Seattle Times reported Thursday that the investigation related to arsons and other acts of vandalism associated with radical animal and environmental groups.

From the Hindu (India):

Nepal and the United States today signed a five-year agreement for cooperation in fighting against terrorism and preventing possible terror attacks ...

... The agreement covers security cooperation including security of important physical infrastructures, important personalities and security in border areas.

Posted by Newshound at 02:36 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

From the Kansas City Star / AP:

Authorities have seized four anti-aircraft missiles in house in eastern Afghanistan, a senior Afghan official said Friday. The find was in the same Nangarhar province where suspected Islamic militants this week killed three Afghan soldiers with a land mine.

The missiles were discovered Wednesday in a house in Dera Said Mian, 15 miles southeast of Jalalabad, said Afghan Gen. Said Agha Saqib.

And is Pakistan helping them along? From the Asia Times:

[There are] growing allegations of the Pakistan army's direct involvement on behalf of Taliban remnants flexing their muscles in eastern and southern Afghanistan to unseat the US-backed Hamid Karzai regime in Kabul. With the approach of warmer weather, it is expected that the rebels will become more active, challenging the weak system over which Karzai presides.

Recent reports from the Taliban-infested areas in Afghanistan indicate that this has already begun. Clashes between the rebels and the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF), US Special Forces and Afghan government forces are happening daily. Bombs are exploding daily in and around Kabul, Kandahar, Khost, Jalalabad and other eastern Afghan cities bordering Pakistan, and grenade and rocket attacks on US bases in eastern and southern Afghanistan are reported regularly.

This is NOT the same firefight that killed the US soldier (see below). From the Chicago Sun Times:

Taliban fighters attacked a government office in southern Afghanistan with rockets and automatic weapons, setting off a four-hour shootout that left two Afghan soldiers and three assailants dead, a senior official said Thursday.

The battle took place late Wednesday at Chapan in Zabul province, 150 miles northeast of Kandahar, provincial governor Hamidullah Kahn Tokhi said.

CNN

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A firefight near the Pakistan border in Afghanistan's Paktika province killed at least one U.S. soldier Friday and wounded five Americans and an Afghan soldier, U.S. Central Command said.

The soldiers were reportedly from the 82nd Airborne Division.

Bush: I believe Abu Mazen is a man dedicated to peace

Despite warning sings [my comment] Bush says "I believe Abu Mazen is a man dedicated to peace, and I look forward to working with him for the two-state solution."

Powell says unless terrorism ends it will be almost impossible to go ahead with Mideast peacemaking

From UPI:

U.S. stopped al-Qaida plots against troops

U.S. intelligence agencies and their allies disrupted a number of terrorist threats -- including some from al-Qaida against U.S. troops in the Gulf -- during the war against Iraq, U.S. officials have told United Press International.

Those were the words of Australian Defence Minister Hill, at the ANZAC day dawn service held on board HMAS Kanimbla, off the coast of Iraq. From The Australian

"Others of the like of Saddam Hussein, who hold weapons of mass destruction as a tool to strategic advantage, will know that the civilised communities will no longer tolerate such threats."
"In the same way as we could not isolate ourselves from the threat of global terrorism, neither could we quarantine Australia and Australians from threats associated with weapons of mass destruction," Senator Hill said.
"You and your coalition colleagues have been mightily successful. You have removed the immediate threat."

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Suspected Muslim rebels have killed a ruling party official, two Indian soldiers and two alleged informers in restive Kashmir, while a sixth person died in a gun battle, police said.
Abdul Gani Malik, 70, a functionary of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was shot dead in the village of Waripora in northern Baramulla district late Thursday, police said.
...
Police blamed Muslim rebels for the killing and said the gunmen later barged into the house of Abdul Ahad Malik, 45 - an activist of the pro-government Ikhwan militant oufit in the same village - and shot him dead too.
...
Meanwhile, an Indian army major and a soldier were killed and three others injured in a militant ambush in the village of Sumblar, near Bandipora, 60 kilometres north of Srinagar, the summer capital, police said.
...
Suspected rebels also shot dead alleged police informer Fayaz Ahmed Dar in the Laroo village of southern Pulwama district overnight.
Another person died in an exchange of gunfire between rebels and security forces in the neighbouring village of Kelar.
"We are trying to find out whether the dead man is a militant or a civilian caught in the crossfire," a police spokesman said.

From The Australian

Indonesia's police chief Da'i Bachtiar warned today that terrorists would not give up despite the recent arrest of 18 suspected members of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) regional terror network and the seizure of weapons and explosives.
"Their documents show that they are not quitting. They will continue to engage in terrorist activity," Bachtiar told reporters.
"Therefore we have to be very careful in handling them (suspects) so that those who have not been arrested can be uncovered soon," he added.

Updating an earlier post, the hostages taken by Moro rebels have been rescued in a co-ordinated attack by Helicopter Gunships. From The Australian

As they fled, the rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) released scores of villagers, bus commuters and several policemen they had held hostage, local military commander Colonel Ernesto Boac said.
About 500 MILF fighters yesterday took the people hostage and attacked government installations, blocking the 400km highway linking Iligan city in south-western Mindanao and Zamboanga City, the regional trading capital.
The government repulsed the attacks using helicopter gunships.
Relatives of the hostages said many of the captives escaped when the MILF rebels fled from the helicopter gunships.

Shark Blog has a translation of a Der Spiegel interview with Syrian ambassador to Germany Mohammaed Walid Hezbor. (If the original was in English I would point there, but the Der Spiegel URL is in Shark's post, if you read German.)

It kinda tells you want you need to know about Syria.

Maher, better known as Mike, Hawash was born in Nablus in the Palestinian territories, raised partly in Kuwait, and has been a US citizen for 15 years. He is married to a native-born American and has three children. He is an electrical engineer with Intel, most recently as a contract employee.

On Thursday, March 20, 2003, our friend and colleague Maher (Mike) Hawash was arrested ("detained") as a "material witness" by the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force in the parking lot of Intel Corp's Hawthorne Farms offices.  Simultaneously, FBI agents in bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles awoke Mike's wife Lisa and their three children in the home, which they proceeded to search.  Since then, Mike has been held without charge in the Federal Prison at Sheridan, OR.  All proceedings in his case are secret.

The most recent news story on the Hawash case, with speculations on the reasons for his arrest.

A reflection on vulnerability to the caprices of the state from someone who knew Hawash in Houston.

This case has all the earmarks of a litmus test on whether the United States can itself retain the civil liberties we hope to export to the dictatorships of the world. Keep watching this space.

From Michele's local paper, Newsday:

Al-Qaida has been badly disrupted by the loss of several key leaders but continues to try to put together terrorist attacks, U.S. military and counterterrorism officials said Thursday.

"There's no question but that the intelligence community broadly feels that al-Qaida has been significantly weakened," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said.

Another emerging power center may be Iran, where U.S. and allied officials say several leaders have surfaced.

"Al-Qaida has become Iran's problem," a senior Turkish intelligence official recently told The Associated Press.

ABC Radio Australia

Muslim separatists have attacked a town and ambushed two buses in the southern Philippines, killing at least 16 people and taking policemen and commuters hostage.

Military officials say four people were killed on Wednesday when their private bus was ambushed by guerillas from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Carmen town.

At least 12 other civilians and three guerillas were shot dead when the MILF launched attacks on the highway near Kulambugan town today, firing on a bus and military and police outposts.

From the Sydney Morning Herald

A cyber "September 11" has been predicted by Mike McConnell, a former director of the US National Security Agency. McConnell has warned that an attack on information infrastructure - with an impact equivalent to the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York - will happen, owing to neglect of the country's critical networks.
McConnell's comments follow a recent warning by US cyber-security expert Richard Clarke that the new Department of Homeland Security lacks resources and expertise to fight cyber terrorism.
McConnell, who is vice-president and director of management consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton's Infrastructure Assurance Centre of Excellence, said that both the US and Australia have neglected their critical information infrastructure.

Ha'aretz reports:

At least 10 people were injured, one critically and one seriously, when a suicide bomber blew up at the train station in the city of Kfar Sava, shortly after 7:00 A.M. on Thursday.

The bomber apparently blew himself up at the entrance to the newly-unveiled train station in the city, after spotting the security guards there, Israel Radio reported.

Security forces have been on high alert over the Passover holiday which ended Wednesday night. During this period, there have been many warnings of an attack in the Sharon region.

Update: A security guard, who took most of the blast, was killed.

Tehran Times

Afghanistan has begun submitting lists of wanted "war criminals and terrorists" to Pakistan in an effort to stamp out Taleban and Al-Qaeda extremists lurking along the neighbors' mountainous border, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday, AFP reported.

Afghan and United States forces hunting the extremists have come under repeated attack along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, leading to suspicions that anti-U.S. and anti-Kabul groups have been regrouping on the Pakistani side.

Karzai did not say where the wanted men were believed to be hiding, but warned that they would cause trouble for Pakistan if they had taken shelter here.

"These people are criminals. Yesterday they were in Afghanistan. They created havoc. Today, if you allow them a place in Pakistan, they will probably cause the same trouble here. "We want terrorists, whether in Afghanistan or in Pakistan, arrested and tried... for the benefit of both the countries. It is not that only Afghanistan will get hurt. Pakistan will get hurt equally."

[Wired via Defense Tech]

The United States' arsenal of 10,000 nuclear weapons isn't enough. The country needs more bombs, and the place to make them is the scandal-plagued Los Alamos National Laboratory.

That seems to be the meaning behind yesterday's announcement by Los Alamos officials that the lab has constructed the first plutonium pit -- the deadly heart of a nuclear warhead -- that's bomb-ready.

It's been 14 years since the last one was completed. The United States hasn't had the ability to make the pits since the FBI stopped production at the Energy Department's Rocky Flats plant for environmental violations in 1989.

Full story...

The New York Times reports:

The trial judge in the case against Zacarias Moussaoui has ordered the Justice Department to provide defense lawyers with any statement made by captured leaders of Al Qaeda that would tend to exonerate Mr. Moussaoui, according to court papers made public today.

The judge, Leonie M. Brinkema of Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., said any such statements "must be promptly produced to the defense in compliance with the government's continuing obligation to provide exculpatory evidence in its possession."

Judge Brinkema's orders, made in a pair of rulings on March 28 and April 1, could be an important victory for Mr. Moussaoui and his court-appointed lawyers, who have demanded access to the Qaeda leaders, an issue that has delayed his trial and has threatened to derail his prosecution in a civilian court.

Mr. Moussaoui, a French citizen, is the only person charged in an American court with conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks. Acting as his own lawyer, he has contended in recent court papers that the captured Qaeda leaders know he had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks and should be allowed to testify at his trial.

Bush administration officials have acknowledged that in recent interrogations some captured Qaeda members had suggested that Mr. Moussaoui was not involved in the Sept. 11 attacks but was sent to the United States on a different terrorist mission.

The orders make it clear that the Justice Department has been reluctant to turn over the results of government interrogations of the captured terrorists, notably those of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the former senior Qaeda leader who was captured last month in Pakistan, and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, another terrorist leader who is believed to have been involved in the planning of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Japan Today

Seven years to the day after the trial of Aum Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara began on cases including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, prosecutors are expected to demand the death penalty for him on Thursday.

Asahara, 48, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, was indicted on charges of masterminding 13 criminal cases, including murder in the March 1995 subway gassing that killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000.

An ambush by Taliban and a remote-control mine each killed two Afghan soldiers. Coalition forces also captured seven and killed one in an operation to apprehend those responsible for the murder of an International Red Cross worker. The dead is believed to be the killer.

From The Australian

In a major test case for Indonesia's fight against terrorism, Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir today went on trial as the alleged leader of extremist network Jemaah Islamiah (JI).
Police today also announced the arrests of 17 JI followers across Indonesia, including key Bali bombing operative Umar Wayan.
Amid tight security and supporters' cries of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great), prosecutors accused Bashir of treason for founding JI in 1985 and later leading the secret group.
They said the 64-year-old "emir" (leader) approved a series of terrorist attacks over the past three years, including the simultaneous bombing of a string of churches across the country in which 17 people were killed on Christmas Eve 2000.

Gallipolli holds a special place in Australia's history. At once, it's Yorktown, Gettysburg and Little Big Horn. It holds the same place in Turkey's History, both nations were forged in the same crucible. Every year, people from both nations make a pilgrimage there. From the Sydney Morning Herald :

Prime Minister John Howard said he was in regular touch with ASIO over the safety of Australians going to Gallipoli for Anzac Day amid reports of possible terrorist attacks.
Mr Howard said the government would tell Australians if the security situation changed.
But for now the government was relying on the travel advice issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
That advice warns travellers to be aware of security threats in Turkey and warns of long queues at Gallipoli because Turkish authorities had boosted security.
"I'm not going to ask people not to go to Gallipoli," Mr Howard said.
"I'm trying to react responsibly by drawing attention to the travel advice.
"You can't create a situation where the prime minister or someone in a position of authority has got to make that kind of personal judgment on each and every personal excursion that people might make."
Mr Howard said media reports from Turkey of al-Qaeda terrorists entering Turkey were news to him.
The news reports said the Turkish Security Agency had issued warnings of possible attacks after 35 specially-trained terrorists moved from northern Iraq into Turkey.
The agency also said other terrorists trained by the al-Qaeda network were planning suicide bombings or timed explosions this month against Australian and other targets.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Indonesian police say they have arrested the man who succeeded Abu Bakar Bashir as leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network.
"Earlier today we have arrested someone who you might not be too familiar with, but he has been identified as Abu Rusdan," national detective chief Erwin Mappaseng told reporters.
"Abu Rusdan, according to information from Nasir Abbas and several other people, is the current emir (leader) of Jemaah Islamiyah, the successor of Abu Bakar Bashir."
Mappaseng said Rusdan took over the regional network, which is blamed for the Bali blasts last October and a string of other bombings, when Bashir was arrested last October 20.

We've read about how Saddam compromised CNN as it tried to keep its access to Iraq. Here's how the Palestinian Authority does the same thing.

US troops are to assist Filipino soldiers in operations against Abu Sayyaf later this year.

“We will have the American soldiers on the ground only for non-combat operations,” Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes later told reporters, explaining Arroyo’s comments.

He said this would “emphasize that it will be the Filipino soldiers who should be doing the fighting.”

Instead, the USsoldiers could be asked to provide “real-time information on movements” of Abu Sayyaf rebels, Arroyo spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

But he stressed that “if they (US troops in Sulu) are fired upon, they have the right to self-defense.”

Reuters

Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah called on Arab and Muslim states on Tuesday to defend Syria if the United States launched any military action against Damascus.

Nasrallah, whose Syrian-backed Shi'ite Muslim guerrilla group is labeled as "terrorist" by the United States, said Arabs should not trust Washington's promises that its troops were in Iraq to liberate the people.

AFP/Khaleej Times (UAE)

Seventeen suspected militants and a soldier were killed on Tuesday in two fierce clashes in disputed Kashmir, a defence spokesman said.

The Daily Star

While three suspects are still on the run, 13 others have been indicted for the recent spate of explosions targeting US fast food restaurants, including two noncommissioned army officers.

The latest attack involved a booby-trapped car with more than 55 kilograms of TNT that was discovered at the Dora McDonald’s. The car failed to detonate but a stick of dynamite in the toilet exploded wounding six people and causing damage.

A current roundup on the Florida / Washington state biotoxin scares, courtesy CNN:

... in Fort Myers, Florida, six Postal Service employees are being treated for contact with a potentially hazardous powdery substance at a cargo facility.

Preliminary field tests indicate the material is not toxic, according to Homeland Security Department officials, but more tests are under way.

The Philippine government is using a three-year old money laundering statute and help from foreign intelligence agencies to track down and halt the supply of money and weapons to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), an organization that wants to set up an Islamic state in Mindanao.

The network of the MILF's fund can be traced from many front organisations, private companies and charity institutions in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, North Korea and Singapore, said the Philippine Star.

The Straits Times

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has placed security forces on red alert after Tamil Tiger rebels suspended peace talks with her cohabitation government, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

President Kumaratunga, who is also the commander-in-chief of armed forces, called an emergency meeting of military officers overnight and ordered the new measures, a spokesman for her office said.

From HKNL (Hawaii):

So far, tests on a white power that prompted a postal facility in Washington state to evacuate have come back negative. A federal Homeland Security official says comprehensive testing found no signs of any biotoxins in the powder. The official says the samples are being sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for a final review. The facility closed early this morning after the white powder was found in two envelopes. The captain of the Tacoma fire department says the mail center could reopen later today based on other test results from a state laboratory.

PLO gets more than SR 1.8 million from the popular committee for assisting the Palestinian Mujahideen

WCVB - Boston Woman Suspected Of Al-Qaida Ties Arrested

A former Boston woman sought by the FBI for questioning about possible ties to the al-Qaida terror network is in custody in Pakistan, U.S. law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Aafia Siddiqui, 31, was detained by Pakistani authorities in the past few days and was being interrogated at an undisclosed location. She originally is from Pakistan.

The FBI in March put out a global alert for Siddiqui, who has a biology degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and wrote a doctoral thesis on neurological sciences at Brandeis University in 2001. She also visited the Maryland suburbs near Washington in December or January, officials say.

It was the first time an FBI bulletin sought a woman since the war against terror began, officials have said.

MSNBC -

CNN -

Fox -

Comment - further testing appearing to yield negative results, timing of incidents coincidental?

More on the substance in Florida, from WPLG (Florida):

White powder found at a southwest Florida airport has sent six people to the hospital.

Lee County officials say that emergency workers responded to a hazardous materials incident at Southwest Florida International Airport. Workers unloading a FedEx flight that arrived from Memphis reportedly found the powder.

So far 4 out of 5 tests turned negative. (Fox TV)

From Reuters:

A postal facility was evacuated in Tacoma, Washington on Tuesday after white powder found on a mail sorting table initially tested positive as a biotoxin, MSNBC reported.

MSNBC said 94 people were evacuated from the mail distribution center and four of them were decontaminated. An army unit was brought in to investigate and carry out further tests.

U.S. authorities introduced new protective and reaction measures for biological attacks after letters laced with anthrax killed five people in 2001 as America launched its war on terrorism after the attack on the World Trade Center.

From the Australian:

TURKEY has warned that al-Qaeda terrorists are plotting to assassinate Australian government officials, in a security alert issued on the eve of Anzac Day ceremonies in Gallipoli.

Treasurer Peter Costello is due to arrive today in the town of Canakkale in northwest Turkey to represent Australia at the dawn and Lone Pine services on Friday.

The website of the Turkish newspaper Zaman (www.zaman.com) reports the Turkish Government's Security General Directorate issued two terror alerts to its provincial security units, warning that 35 specially trained terrorists had entered Turkey from northern Iraq.

From Ananova:

A specially-equipped National Guard unit has reportedly been testing for biological agents in many of New York's major buildings.

According to the New York Times, the 22-strong team has made repeated visits nearly every day for the past month to as many as 30 sites on a list compiled by police.

Arafat Refuses to Disband Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades

Kuwaiti Paper Criticizes Syria: Assad's Regime More Criminal than Saddam's

Kuwaiti Paper Criticizes Syria: Assad's Regime More Criminal than Saddam's

Muslims try to quash Bush nominee: Washington Post backs radical group's opposition to Daniel Pipes

[Newsday]

Two men were arrested after police saw them videotaping the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest U.S.-Canada border crossing, and found dynamite, a collapsible baton and shotgun shells in their car.

Officers saw the men during a routine patrol late Sunday, police spokeswoman Bernadette Najor said. The men, who were not identified, were being questioned by the FBI.

"We are trying to find out what their motivation was," Willie Hulon, special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit office, said yesterday.

Read the story...

The Straits Times

Dozens of supporters of a militant Muslim cleric stormed the prosecutors' office here yesterday and snatched him away from police custody.

The cleric, Habib Rizieq Shihab, turned himself in five hours later, but not before having dealt a blow to the reputation of the police force.

Rizieq’s Islamic Defenders’ Front (FPI) has raided establishments it believed were acting against Indonesian law and Islamic principles, and tried to sign up volunteers to go to Afghanistan and Iraq to fight the United States.

AP via Boston Globe

A Yemeni man with suspected Al Qaeda links told a court yesterday that he killed three American missionaries to defend Islam, believing they were sterilizing Muslim women and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Abed Abdul Razak Kamel, 30, said he moved from the capital of Sanaa to this city 125 miles south after he heard about missionaries working in Jibla at a Southern Baptist-run hospital.

''I acted out of a religious duty . . . and in revenge from those who converted Muslims from their religion and made them unbelievers,'' Kamel said as his trial opened under tight security.

''They were also committing another corruption,'' he said, contending he had learned that women were visiting the hospital to get sterilized. ''This is a violation of Islam,'' he told the court.

Via Reuters, a follow-up to the imprisoned pint-sized Palestinian terror-plotter:

A year after his arrest in an Israeli commando raid, calls for his release echo almost daily in the Palestinian street and media. For some Palestinians, Marwan Barghouthi has become their Nelson Mandela.

Israel regards the street leader of the Palestinian uprising as a top "terrorist." He is now on trial charged with multiple counts of murder arising from Palestinian attacks which killed 26 Israelis in a revolt that broke out after peace talks stalled in 2000.

Barghouthi, 43, has denied any role in violence by armed militants, calling himself a solely political leader. He has rejected Israel's authority to put him on trial, saying Israel's grip on the West Bank and Gaza Strip should be in the dock instead.

Palestinians believe his imprisonment has put him in line to succeed President Yasser Arafat if he is ever freed, just as Mandela became South Africa's first black-majority leader after the demise of the apartheid system that jailed him for 27 years.

Pakistan Daily Times

Abu Hamza, the radical Muslim cleric fighting an attempt by the Government to deport him back to Egypt, is to be stripped of his state benefits under an international ban on state funding of terrorism.

Ministers plan to strip Hamza of around £200 a week in social security payments by arguing that to continue giving him money would mean that the Government was sponsoring a terrorist suspect.

A letter, approved by Andrew Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, will be delivered to Hamza this week warning that he is to lose his allowances. It is the Government’s latest response to public concerns about the activities of the cleric: earlier this month David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, began proceedings that would see Hamza stripped of his passport and deported.

Just in case you read in the New York Times or Washington Post that the Palestinians didn't commit any violence or terrorist acts over the Passover/Easter holiday, it's not for a lack of trying.

From HA'ARETZ:

Security forces operating the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday morning arrested a Palestinian woman suspected of planning to carry out a suicide attack inside Israel.

The woman was arrested in the city's Balata refugee camp. The woman, who was named as Feyroz Ahmed Mahmoud Makhil and is in her twenties, was arrested along with another wanted Fatah activist in the dawn raid.

The Israelis captured at least ten Palestinians planning or in the process of carrying out attacks over the Passover holiday.

AP -

JAMMU, India - Indian soldiers killed seven Islamic militants sneaking into Indian-controlled Kashmir from Pakistan on Sunday, police said.

Hours later, a fierce gunbattle raged in the Mendhar area, 150 miles north of Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, a police spokesman said on condition of anonymity. Details of the battle were not immediately available.

The killed men were all Pakistanis, the officer said.

Security officials in Kashmir usually identify slain fighters by their identity cards, personal letters, hotel bills, photographs or other documents found on their bodies. However, there was no way to independently confirm the identity of the dead men.

Since 1989, Muslim rebels have fought Indian security forces to make Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority region, independent or a part of Pakistan. More than 61,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed.

India, the United States and Britain say the militants sneak across the mountainous Kashmir frontier. Indian army officials say the Pakistani army across the border sometimes opens fire to cover them.

India says Pakistan trains, arms and funds the militants. Pakistan denies this, saying the support is only ideological

From Australia's Mercury:

AN elderly Muslim cleric accused of leading a murderous terror network will stand trial on Wednesday in a spectacle that would have been unthinkable in Indonesia less than a year ago.

Abu Bakar Bashir, 64, is charged with treason for attempting to topple the Government in his capacity as emir, or leader, of the Jemaah Islamiah and plotting to install an Islamic state.

In February last year, Singapore accused Bashir of leading JI, believed to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Indonesia was criticised for going soft on alleged terrorists but said it lacked evidence to arrest the white-bearded cleric.

From Reuters:

Afghan military leaders agreed on the need for a national army on Sunday as the country struggles to snuff out violence between regional warlords.

The first national military meeting since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 brought together regional commanders, government leaders and commanders of U.S.-led forces pursuing remnants of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

From the New Zealand Herald:

Twenty-five people have been arrested in connection with the escape this month of 10 suspects in the fatal bombing of the USS Cole, but the fugitives themselves - some with alleged ties to al Qaeda - remain at large.

Among those recently picked up was a taxi driver who transported the suspects to a bus station, as well as others suspected of links to Osama bin Laden's terror network, officials close to the investigation said.

From the Guardian:

A Yemeni man with suspected al-Qaida links told a court Sunday that he killed three American missionaries to defend Islam, believing they were sterilizing Muslim women and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Abed Abdul Razak Kamel, 30, said he moved from the capital of San'a to this city 125 miles south after he heard about missionaries working in Jibla at a Southern Baptist-run hospital. ...

... "I acted out of a religious duty ... and in revenge from those who converted Muslims from their religion and made them unbelievers,'' the bearded Kamel said as his trial opened under tight security.

Kathleen A. Gariety of Wauwatosa, Wis., Martha C. Myers of Montgomery, Ala., and William E. Koehn of Kansas were killed in the Dec. 30 shooting. Donald W. Caswell, of Levelland, Texas, was wounded.

Yemeni security officials said they believe both suspects belong to a terrorist cell linked to al-Qaida.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Two US Congressmen asked Syrian President Bashar Assad during a meeting in Damascus on Sunday to shut down the offices of Palestinian factions listed as terrorist by the US administration, The Associated Press reports.

Representatives Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat, and Darrell Issa, a California Republican, were the first US officials to meet Assad since the recent escalation of US-Syrian tensions, the AP writes.

They asked him to shut the offices of Palestinian groups based in Syria. While The AP didn't specify which groups they mentioned, one of the more dangerous groups based in Damascus is Islamic Jihad¹, a terrorist group responsible for numerous suicide bombings against Israelis. Another group that apparently came up is the Lebanese-based Hizbullah², which Syria has used as a proxy in its conflict with Israel.

Issa said Assad told them if the Mideast issue is settled, groups like Hizbullah and Palestinian groups would "by definition fade away."

Now what exactly does Assad think the real "Mideast Issue" is?

Editor's notes:

1. Islamic Jihad is the primary group responsible for the use of Jenin as a terrorist training and deployment zone, having killed scores of innocent Palestinians in the process of subverting that town.

2. Hezbollah is also responsible for the suicide bombing of the U.S. Marines in Lebanon and many other acts of terror against Israelis, Americans, and Lebanese Christians.

Both are funded and supported by Syria and Iran.

Via Palestinian Media Watch, an example of incitement to terror by the Palestinian media:

One of the new Palestinian Music Videos which has been broadcast regularly since January 2003 includes the following scenes, acted out by Palestinian actors:

1. It opens with a laughing girl on a swing, which turns into a burning swing and burning child’s rocking horse. The implication is that Israelis attack children at play, leaving behind burning swings and burning rocking horses.
2. A father reads his young son a section from the Koran calling to fight the enemies.
3. The father hands his young son a stone to throw at Israelis.
4. A bomb is hidden [by Israel] inside a soccer ball and blows up when a child kicks it.
5. Actors depict Israeli soldiers murdering an elderly man by shooting him in the head.
6. A mother and her infant are blown up by Israeli soldiers.

The video is available here.

Walla (citing Reuters): the helicopter belongs to the Pakistany military, and was shot in the South of Pakistan. The helicopter is thought to be part of the American patrols of the Pakistani gas fields.

[BBC]

The measure - which is being introduced in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US - aims to protect crews and passengers from hijack attempts. If one of them is scheduled to fly on Sunday, then as early as Sunday we might have a pilot with a gun in a cockpit

A group of 46 pilots have been attending a two-day course on using firearms at a federal training centre in Glynco, Georgia.

Read more...

From The Sun via The Australian

The al-Qaeda network planned to shoot down an airliner from a theme park close to London's Heathrow airport earlier this year, a British newspaper has reported.
Reacting to police intelligence, Britain's government moved swiftly to thwart a terror plot in February, stationing thousands of military personnel and police around the world's busiest airport and other key London sites.
At the time the authorities would not reveal the exact nature of the threat, except to say that there were fears of a possible al-Qaeda attack coinciding with the Muslim festival of Eid.
But a government source told The Sun – Britain's biggest selling daily – that members of the terror network planned to break into Legoland while it was closed for the winter before carrying out the strike using a shoulder-fired missile.

Deepika (India)

Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir were on Thursday put on high alert following two wireless intercepts that terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were planning to carry out a suicide attack during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee beginning on Friday.

Security agencies intercepted a message sent from across the border by a LeT terrorist saying he would carry out the attack during Vajpayee's visit, especially targetting his public functions in the valley.

The Army intelligence intercepted another cross-border message by LeT calling for a "high-profile" action during the prime minister's visit to Qazigund in South Kashmir where he would be laying foundation of a railway bridge and a railway reservation centre.

The state police and other agencies were monitoring the situation and all precautionary measures had been taken, a senior police official said.

AP

Coalition forces have found three caches of heavy ammunition, including anti-tank rockets, anti-aircraft rounds and rocket propelled grenades in southeast Afghanistan, an army spokesman said on Thursday.

The US Task Force Devil found 271 rocket propelled grenades, four RPG launchers, 40 mortar rounds and hundreds of cases of ammunition for heavy machine guns in the village of Khar Bolah in Ghazni province on Wednesday, Army spokesman Col. Roger King told a news briefing. Khar Bolah is 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital, Kabul.

Romanian troops found two other caches of unspecified amounts of grenades, 107 mm rockets and rocket propelled grenade boosters near the town of Qalat in Zabul province as part of an operation called Carpathian Lightning, he said. Qalat is about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of Kabul.

Both operations are part of an intensified hunt for weapons hidden by the remnants of al-Qaeda or the ousted Taleban regime for use against coalition forces.

Japan Today

ISLAMABAD — A powerful bomb exploded inside the UNICEF office in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday night, damaging the building, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported Thursday.

The Pakistan-based news agency said the explosion created cracks in the building, but it gave no details about possible injuries to people inside the office building. (Kyodo News)

Reuters -
U.S., Italy Consult Over Abu Abbas Extradition

"We are considering next steps right now, consulting with the Italian government," U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Abbas was convicted in absentia in Italy in 1986 and sentenced to life in prison for planning the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. A disabled, elderly American Jewish passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot and thrown overboard in the attack.

A U.S. official said the United States is unsure whether it could still prosecute him for the Achille Lauro incident because the statute of limitations may have expired and many anti-terrorism laws were not retroactive. Washington dropped a warrant for his arrest several years ago.

The official said Italy has been telling the United States that it has to look into a number of technical issues before moving forward.

Italy had released Abbas after U.S. warplanes intercepted his plane and forced it to land in Italy shortly after the Achille Lauro hijacking. But it tried Abbas and convicted him after he had already left the country.

But will there be extradition? From Reuters:

Afghanistan's Western-backed government said on Thursday it had arrested a notorious member of the former Taliban regime who served as the deputy head of its feared religious police.

State-run Kabul Radio said Maulawi Qalamuddin had been arrested by government security agents. It did not say when or where the arrest took place.

From the Washington Times:

Battered by the war on terror, extremist groups in Southeast Asia apparently are recovering, thanks to the war in Iraq, according to an authority on Southeast Asia extremists.

The U.S.-led coalition's military strike to oust Saddam Hussein has fanned anti-American anger in the Muslim world and boosted al-Qaida's efforts to recruit terrorists, according to Zachary Abuza, an assistant professor of political science at Simmons College in Boston.

Raleigh News & Observer/AP

KHAR BOLAH, Afghanistan (AP) - The chatter of the metal detector turned to a solid hum when it reached the center of the house's mud-baked floor. Sgt. Derrick Edwards dug his fingers into the earth, prying apart the flat stones. He shined his flashlight at the dark hollow below."It's a weapon," he called out, as the light caught the grip and metal of a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Eighteen months after U.S.-led forces drove out the Taliban regime, search missions like this one, dubbed Operation Crackdown, show that dangers still lurk in the barren Afghan landscape.

The terrorist group most in need of a name, or acronym, change has apparently struck again.

Three women were wounded when a bomb ripped through a passenger bus near an army checkpoint on the outskirts of this southern Philippine city, the military said on Thursday.

The military blamed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim separatist guerilla group, for the blast on Wednesday evening. MILF spokesmen could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

AFP via The Straits Times

Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, accused of leading the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror network, had ordered the assassination of President Megawati Sukarnoputri when she was still vice-president, according to a copy of his indictment obtained yesterday.

But another leading JI member had refused the order from Bashir on the grounds that it was not feasible, the indictment alleged.

For those not familiar with Jemaah Islamiah,

JI is blamed for the Bali blasts last October which killed 202 people, and for a series of other bombings or attempted bombings in the region.

[...]

Bashir, 64, is not charged with the Bali blasts. The indictment alleged that he gave his blessing to the Christmas Eve bombings of churches and priests in 2000 which killed 19 people in Indonesia.

It said the cleric 'also approved planning to bomb American interests in Singapore' - a plot which was foiled with the first round of arrests in December 2001.

From Deepika (India)

Stating that the war on Iraq sends a clear message to countries possessing weapons of mass destruction, the United States has warned North Korea, Iran, Syria and Libya that it will be forced to take military action against them if they failed to get rid of their weapons.

"I think it sends a message that when the President of the United States says that all options are open in his determination to rid countries of weapons of mass destruction, he is serious about it," Under-Secretary of State John Bolton told Radio Sawa in an interview yesterday.

"In terms of countries that are closest to acquiring or actually have nuclear weapons, clearly North Korea and Iran are the two highest on our list. They are in two different parts of the world and they are at two different stages in their nuclear weapons programme," he said.

"But there are other countries that that already have substantial chemical and biological weapons capabilities that also worry us greatly," Bolton said.

"And no one wants to repeat what has happened in Iraq, and we are hoping that the elimination of the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein and the elimination of all of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction would be important lessons to other countries in the region, particularly Syria, Libya and Iran, that the cost of their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction is potentially quite high," he said.

"We want a peaceful resolution to all of these issues, but the determination of the United States, especially after September 11, to keep these incredibly dangerous weapons out of the hands of very dangerous people should not be underestimated," Bolton said.

[CNN]

Secretary of State Colin Powell is planning to travel to Syria "to have very candid and straightforward discussions" with President Bashar Assad and others.

Read the rest...

From The Times of India :

Worried by the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in France, the country's interior minister has threatened to expel any foreign Muslim religious leader who disseminates extremist propaganda.
Nicolas Sarkozy issued the warning after the unexpectedly strong showing of a Muslim fundamentalist party in weekend elections for a new council to represent France's various Islamic factions and serve as a link to the government.
The Union of Islamic Organizations of France -- inspired by Egypt's banned fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood -- took 19 seats in the 58-seat council in a vote Sunday. The moderate, Algerian-backed Mosque of Paris, which had been considered a favourite, won just 15 seats.
"We want to say very simply: imams who propagate views that run counter to French values will be expelled," he told Europe-1 radio on Tuesday. A majority of Muslim leaders in France are of foreign nationality, according to the interior ministry.
Sarkozy, a no-nonsense law-and-order minister who was instrumental in creating the council, said he was determined to curb the influence of extremism on one of Europe's largest Muslim communities.

From the LA Times, via the Sydney Morning Herald

Syria has functioned as a hub for al-Qaeda operatives who moved Islamic extremists and money from Italy to north-eastern Iraq, where the recruits fought alongside the recently defeated Ansar al Islam terrorist group, according to an Italian investigation.
The investigation, which began last year, could intensify the growing debate about Syria's alleged ties to terrorism.
Two weeks ago, Italian police arrested seven alleged al-Qaeda operatives. They were charged with sending about 40 extremists through Syria to terrorist bases operated jointly by al-Qaeda and Ansar al Islam, whose stronghold in north-eastern Iraq was recently overrun by Kurdish and US troops.
Transcripts of wiretapped conversations between the arrested suspects and others paint a detailed picture of overseers in Syria co-ordinating the movement of recruits and money between Europe and Iraq, according to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. An Italian judicial order dated March 31 said the conversations showed that a Kurdish spiritual leader, identified as Mullah Fuad, was the respected "gatekeeper in Syria for volunteers intent on reaching Iraq".

Guardian

Afghan soldiers captured eight Taliban fighters, including two commanders, after a fierce battle left two soldiers dead in a mountainous southern region of the country, a senior government official said yesterday.

The clash happened on Tuesday when the soldiers were sent to the area of Sur Ghar, or Red Mountain, to arrest Taliban fighters suspected of killing an Italian tourist last week, the provincial governor, Hamidullah Khan Tokhi, said.

Nevertheless he warned the US against attacking Syria.

Iran will not defend neighbouring Syria militarily against the United States, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Wednesday.

"We support Syria which is on the front line against the Zionist regime and defends the Palestinian cause, but that does not mean we are going to enter a military phase" to defend Syria against an eventual attack, Khatami said after his weekly cabinet meeting.

"I hope the US threats against Syria are bluffs,... I don't think the United States has the capacity to attack Syria, since the world situation does not allow a repetition of what happened in Iraq," Khatami said, while calling on Washington to stop its "threats" against Damascus.

[Fox News]

The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday lowered the national terror threat level from orange, or "high," to yellow, which is "elevated." That means there is a significant risk of terrorist attacks. The threat level was raised to orange on March 17, when President Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to get out of Iraq or face military action by a coalition of the willing.

Read the rest....

Extract from a transcript of the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) programme "The World Today" :

A team of Federal agents, specialists in investigating terrorist bombings, has just returned to Australia from the Philippines, where they've been involved over the last month in investigating bombings around Mindanao in the southern islands of the Philippines.
The Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, has been telling The World Today that his team has gleaned valuable intelligence on bombing tactics and he says they've generated identikit pictures of the suspects, similar to those that proved so important in the Bali bombing investigations.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Nauru's President says he knows nothing about the arrest of six suspected terrorists in Asia allegedly carrying Nauruan passports.
...
New President Derog Gioura, whose Government last month passed legislation to close down its offshore banks because of alleged terrorist money laundering, says he has not been told.
"I was surprised. I read that in the papers that some elements of terrorists using Nauruan passports, but this is a matter that I was not aware of," he said.
"I shall certainly look into it as soon as I get into Nauru."

Documents obtained by The Australian show those wanting to buy passports were required to undergo no more than a medical and HIV test. After approval was granted, $US30,000 ($50,000) was wired to a bank registered in Hong Kong.
In light of complaints from two Nauruan ministers that the island's revenue stream has been crippled by stopping the two controversial programs, the US has again threatened to bring Nauru to its knees if it fails to honour the agreement.
"It took more than eight months to get the necessary documents and background in order to accomplish what we did in February," said Steven Ray, a US citizen who acted as an intermediary between the US and Nauru.
"When third parties with a clear personal financial interest on both sides of the upcoming elections try to unwind this good work, then the US needs to examine whether or not it needs to pull the plug on the Nauru financial system as promised," Mr Ray said. "Especially if known corrupting elements were to regain control of Nauru's parliament."

Reuters:

Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Abbas, who masterminded the hijacking of an Italian cruise ship in 1985, was captured by U.S. special forces and is in U.S. custody in Baghdad. Abbas, also known as Mohammed Abbas, is the leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, which hijacked the Achille Lauro in the eastern Mediterranean, resulting in the death of a disabled elderly American man, Leon Klinghoffer.

AP: the US options »

From Crosswalk / CNN:

Libertarians still critical of the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act find a further erosion of civil liberties in a leaked Justice Department memorandum outlining a second PATRIOT Act that is expected to be submitted to Congress in the coming months.

In response to the leaked memo, obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, the Justice Department said there were no formal proposals for PATRIOT II submitted either to Attorney General John Ashcroft or President Bush.

Are things getting worse in Afghanistan? From the Daily Times (Pakistan):

The United States believes that remnants of Afghanistan’s toppled Taliban militia plan to abduct and murder foreigners on highways in the north and east of the country, the state department claimed on Tuesday.

The alert, contained in a little-publicized notice to Americans from the US Embassy in Kabul, is the third warning Washington has issued this month about possible threats and the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

From the Times Online:

The radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri faces arrest on an American extradition warrant on terrorism charges.

Mr Hamza, who is in the process of being stripped of his British citizenship, has been identified by a man convicted in the United States of conspiring to help the Taleban in Afghanistan.

From the Albuquerque Tribune:

About 60 companies quietly settled with the government this month on charges of trade or other business with countries such as Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Cuba.

... This month, companies including Amazon.com, AAA Travel, Chevron/Texaco, Citibank, Wells Fargo and the New York Yankees settled claims by the government that they had some prohibited dealings with sanctioned countries.

A spokesman with the U.S. Treasury said there has been a lot of public interest in companies that pay those settlements. The lists will be made available on the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Web site (www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/) every Friday except for holidays.

Maoist rebels thought responsible for attack.

Seven policemen were killed in a land mine explosion triggered on Tuesday by suspected communist rebels near an eastern Indian village, police said.

The policemen were on patrol in a hilly area near Khirki Pahadi village, 95 kilometers (60 miles) east of Patna.

Arroyo's words backed with action.

At least six Abu Sayyaf kidnappers have been killed in clashes while a grenade attack killed a local official in the strife-torn southern Philippines, the military said Tuesday.

It's always good to be proactive. From the UN News Center:

Commending the "proactive" approach taken by its committee monitoring sanctions imposed against Usama bin Laden, the Taliban and Al Qaida, the Security Council today strongly encouraged Member States to submit, whenever they are able, implementation reports on entities and persons subject to the measures because of their links to the group or other terrorist operatives.

From EurasiaNet:

A recent State Department announcement counseled American citizens to "evaluate carefully the implications for their security and safety" of travel to Uzbekistan, citing reports that terrorists may be "planning attacks against hotels in Uzbekistan frequented by Westerners." While US officials provided no reason for the timing of the announcement, the reported discovery of bomb-like materials in the basement of a Tashkent hotel lend credence to the State Department’s expression of concern.

From SBS Australia:

Al-Qaeda’s assets are now valued at $(US)5 billion. Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir says that when he interviewed Osama bin Laden in 2001, the terrorist leader claimed to have purchased nuclear weapons – as a defensive measure. Mir believes bin Laden has purchased a suitcase bomb – a device developed in Russia by the KGB.

Ex CIA-agent Robert Baer says the obsession by the American administration with Osama bin Laden is misguided, “Osama bin Laden – is a way for them to focus people on an enemy which is – they don’t even know who it is…” Many transactions are between the “Red Mafia” – Russian organised crime networks and terrorist organisations other than al-Qaeda. The Republic of Kazakhstan plays a key role in this drugs for nuclear arms trade – the administration in Kazakhstan is highly corrupt and there is no proper customs control between the Russian and Kazakhstan borders.

UNI

Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed has said jehad against India is paramount as the country is a ''threat'' to world peace.

''India only understands the language of jehad. It has never been sincere in resolving the Kashmir issue,'' Saeed was quoted as saying by the 'Friday Times'.

Propagating suicide bombing as the best form of 'jehad' against the 'oppressors', he said the powerful western world is terrorising Muslims and there was no other way to respond to them.

United News of India

Prior to September 11 terror attacks on the United States, the al Qaeda of Osama bin Laden had planned to set up its own university and a few technical and medical institutions in Pakistan.

However, immediately after the terror strikes on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center and the US response to the attacks, the outfit was forced to wind up its operations in the country.

This was revealed by Supreme Court lawyer A Basit in his writ petition filed in the Lahore High Court, the 'Friday Times' has reported.

Are we winning the GWOT? A view from the Christian Science Monitor:

In the run-up to the US-led attack on Iraq, everyone from domestic security chief Tom Ridge to FBI whistle-blower Colleen Rowley warned of a nearly inexorable wave of terrorist attacks being unleashed on the American homeland during the war.

Yet more than three weeks later, not a single attack has been carried out.

It's a fact that has surprised even some close observers - and may reveal stronger-than-expected progress in America's war on terror, both at home and abroad.

IBA radio, quoting Radio Monte-Carlo.

The Hindu:

The Russian military sees the U.S.-led war in Iraq as a potential threat to Russian security, pointing to growing U.S. military presence in former Soviet republics and resumed flights of American U-2 spy planes along Russia's borders. The Air Force Commander, Alexander Mikhailov, went as far as to warn the Americans that Russia would shoot down any spy plane that intruded "as little as one kilometre'' inside the Russian air space.

Some stories in WaPo seem to indicate that we are indeed not planning to go On To Syria but are simply using the Saddam example to get them back in line. That the regime has allowed Iraqi fugitives to escape into Syria seems clear. Otherwise, as this piece notes, most of our grievances with Syria are longstanding, although there is some evidence that they're stepping up chemical weapon production. The timing is convenient, though:

Remarks by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and White House spokesman Ari Fleischer were a clear indication that the administration has turned its attention to recent and long-standing grievances with Damascus, and expects it to heed the lesson of the successful U.S. military campaign against Iraq.

Senior administration officials said there are no plans to launch a military strike against Syria. But "we're trying to scare them for the moment," one official said, in the hope that "Syria will change its behavior."

Jim Dunnigan has a good explanation for why Syria risked the ire of the US to begin with:

Syria has apparently decided to make a few billion bucks by offering some sanctuary for senior Saddam followers. Unlike the Persian Gulf nations, Syria has not got a lot of oil. With a population of 17 million, oil revenue is only about $3-4 billion a year. With a socialist dictatorship like Iraq's, the economy is a mess and only a ruthless police state keeps a lid on rebellion. Syria earns additional money by tolerating the drug trade in Lebanon, and the radical Shia groups (like Hezbollah) that operate in Lebanon against Israel. The Baath party that has run Syria for four decades is dominated by Alawite Moslems, a sect that comprises only 14 percent of the population. The Alawites make common cause with the ten percent Christian minority and the Druze (3-4 percent). But by adroitly handing out money and brutal treatment as needed, the Assad family has managed to stay in power. Syria has made deals with the United States as well, to provide information on al Qaeda. The Baath gangsters in Syria don't think the United States would invade, and that they can bargain and buy their way out of any problems.

The NYT editorial page, somewhat surprisingly, acknowledges that Syria is dangerous but, quite predictably, does not think we should go to war with them.

Update (9:20): The Canadians are scared, too. (via GoogleNews)

The New York Times reports that:

These are unsettled days in Damascus, a city that has long prided itself as the capital not just of Syria, but of all things Arab. The government of the young president, Bashar al-Assad, gained widespread popular support for its heated oratory against the United States over the war against Iraq. Indeed, hundreds of Syrian and other Arab volunteers rushed to fight in Iraq's defense.

But now Syria finds itself caught between burnishing its pan-Arab credentials by criticizing America and facing a new, painful fact: the United States is now on Syria's doorstep, across the border in Iraq, and the American administration has already shown it is ready to flex its muscles again even before the battlefield smoke clears.

NYT

Prosecutors in Indonesia indicted a radical Islamic cleric yesterday on charges of treason and plotting to overthrow the Indonesian government and establish an Islamic state.

If convicted, he faces life imprisonment.

The government alleges that the cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, was involved in the bombings of several churches in Indonesia in December 2000, and in a plot to blow up the American Embassy in Singapore.

CNN

A Seattle man under investigation for ties to Islamic terrorists pleaded guilty Monday to charges of conspiring to support the Taliban, the former rulers of Afghanistan.

Under a plea agreement, James Ujaama pleaded guilty to providing support, including cash and computer technology, to the Taliban and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their pursuit of a radical Islamic cleric in London.

[...]

An attorney for Ujaama, Peter Offenbecher, told CNN the plea deal involves the government dismissing all of the terrorism and gun charges that had been filed.

As to what information his client might have that would be helpful in ongoing investigations, Offenbecher said Ujaama "has agreed to tell the truth" and that "the plea agreement is not conditioned upon any investigation."

The attorney also said "it is not conditioned whether his truthful information helps or hurts the government."

The Daily Star

Authorities arrested another four men Saturday suspected of belonging to a “terrorist network of Islamic extremists” responsible for the recent attacks on restaurants associated with the United States.

Security sources told The Daily Star that the men were arrested by Internal Security Forces during a raid on their houses in Tripoli at dawn Saturday. The ISF seized guns, ammunition and explosives.

The latest arrests raised to 22 the total number suspects detained for their alleged roles in the April 5 bombing of an America-associated fast-food restaurant in Beirut and other similar attacks, the sources said.

Arab Times (Kuwait)

The United States Monday took its biggest step yet into the Sri Lankan peace drive, but its decision to bar Tamil Tiger rebels from a major donor seminar injected new tensions into a vicious separatist conflict.

The rebels greeted the move with fury, threatening to boycott a bigger international donor conference for Sri Lanka in Tokyo in June, accusing the United States of insincerity towards the group's fragile ceasefire with the Colombo government.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, hosting the talks including a senior Sri Lankan minister, envoys of 30 nations plus world aid and financial institutions, held out hope however that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could soon enter the fold.

"There is one partner for peace that is today conspicuous in its absence," Armitage told the seminar, which was designed to drum up support for the Tokyo talks.

"It appears the Tigers are unhappy at their exclusion today," Armitage said, but noted that since the Tigers have been on the US list of foreign terrorist organisation since 1997, their leaders were barred by law from acquiring visas to enter the United States.

"Our position is crystal clear, the LTTE must unequivocally renounce terrorism in word and in deed if we are to consider withdrawing the designation.

"The way the current negotiations are going, the United States can see a future for the LTTE as a legitimate political organization, but it is still up to the LTTE to change this situation."

From Sun.Star (Philippines):

President Arroyo ordered the military and police to maintain pressure on the Abu Sayyaf until all the group's hostages, including the Chinese-Filipino trader they abducted during the weekend, are rescued and the terrorist gang is neutralized.

"There will be no letup, no negotiations. This strategy reinforced by community cooperation has proven effective in enabling the escape of the Indonesian hostages," Arroyo said, referring to the other hostages of the group who managed to escape from their captors in the last three weeks.

The Independent:

Sandstorms are obstructing an increasingly desperate search this weekend for 31 travellers who have vanished in the Sahara in six separate groups over a period of several weeks. (...) Some German and Algerian investigators suspect the tourists may have been taken hostage by a militant Islamist group known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), which has links to al-Qa'ida. The GSPC is fighting the Algerian authorities and has been active in the central Sahara for years.

Reuters reports that a court in Pakistan has convicted 4 people for a terrorist bombing last year in Karachi:

A Pakistan court convicted four men on Monday for involvement in last year's suicide bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in the port city of Karachi, handing down death sentences to two of the men.An anti-terrorism court judge, Syed Aalay Maqbool Rizvi, found them guilty of organizing the June 14 bombing in which 12 Pakistanis were killed. Two men were given life sentences, while a fifth man was acquitted.

Suspected Islamic militants packed a vehicle with explosives and detonated it outside the consulate during the morning rush hour.

[...]

Prosecutors said the men belong to a shadowy militant group called Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Almi. The group is a splinter faction of the outlawed Harkat-ul Mujahideen, fighting Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.

From Sun.Star (Philippines):

A female Chinese-Filipino trader was abducted on Sunday by guerrillas of the Abu Sayyaf kidnapping gang in an island in the south, the regional police chief said.

Five gunmen seized Gertrudes Tan as she was on her way to a mosque in the island of Siasi, 980 kilometers from Manila, said Chief Superintendent Acmad Omar.

From UPI:

They were secretive and spouted extremist ideology; they sought false documents and had sketches of alleged targets -- so say prosecutors of the four men on trial in U.S. District Court in Detroit, accused of being members of a terrorist sleeper cell.

Karim Koubriti, 24; Ahmed Hannan, 34; Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 22, and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, 37, are charged with providing material support for terrorists and possession of false documents.

From WaPo:

The FBI has labeled El'Shukri-Jumah one of the five most dangerous fugitive terrorist suspects in the world and the most serious terrorism threat to the United States. Federal law enforcement sources have compared his organizational skills to those of Mohamed Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Law enforcement sources believe El'Shukri-Jumah has gained widespread notoriety in terrorist circles, assuming the battle name "Ja'far the Pilot" because of an apparent interest in aviation.

"The connections that this individual had to known al Qaeda members, including senior al Qaeda officials, is of very great concern to us," said Pasquale J. "Pat" D'Amuro, head of counterterrorism at the FBI.

From ABC News (Australia):

A recent wave of attacks on foreign and government targets has raised fears of a spring offensive by Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants, although the US military says such attacks are not out of the ordinary.

From The Guardian:

Yemen was questioning two senior secret-police officers yesterday after 10 al-Qaida suspects, including two linked to the suicide bombing of the American warship USS Cole, escaped from a Yemeni jail, an official said.

From FOXNews.com:

The massive manhunt for 10 escaped suspects in the fatal USS Cole bombing has led to the arrests of more than a dozen people with links to the men, but the fugitives remained at large Sunday.

This article from WaPo provides an perspective on how firms are moving to capitalize on recent increases in security and defense spending.

"We were selling it as a disaster-recovery solution but they strongly suggested we call it homeland security solution," said Julius N. Neudorfer, director of network services at the Hawthorne, N.Y., company. He happily obliged, revising billboards and brochures in time for an information technology exposition last week at the Washington Convention Center. "I hate to be blasé, but we just listen to what they tell us."

From the Pak Tribune:

Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Salah Hayat has said that government will not permit any organization or individual to indulge in terrorist activities in and out side the country from or outside the country.

We'll hope contributor Alan E. Brain is safe in bed. From The Age:

Australia was exposed to a terrorist backlash from the Iraq war, a former intelligence officer told a Sydney peace rally.

Andrew Wilkie, who quit his job at the Office of National Assessments in protest at the government's pro-war policy, told the Palm Sunday rally that the invasion of Iraq had fuelled hatred in the Middle East against the West.

"There will be a terrorist backlash and we are now that bit closer to the so-called clash of civilisations," Mr Wilkie told thousands of peace protesters in the Domain. "The government said there is no increased threat of terrorism to Australia - what rot."

From KPCL / AP:

Four people apparently planning a terror attack are dead after their explosive-filled car blew up by accident in eastern Afghanistan.

An Afghan commander says the blast killed two unidentified Pakistani nationals and one man from Yemen. The car's driver was an intelligence officer with the former Taliban government -- ousted in the U-S-led war in 2001.

Security forces still aren't sure what the group's target was.

[BBC]

The Foreign Office has stopped advising against travel to Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel and Jordan - despite "evidence of terrorist plans to attack Western targets linked to events in Iraq". There remains "a high threat to British individuals and organisations in the region", it says.

"The risk of further terrorist attacks within Israel and the occupied territories, including in Jerusalem, often targeting crowded public areas and transport, remains very high.

[AP]

Six months after terrorist bombs devastated two nightclubs and killed more than 200 people, the tourist island of Bali is still trying to get back on its feet.

Nearly a third of people have lost their jobs. Resort restaurants remain eerily empty. Many hotels have so few guests that owners are using the lull for maintenance and renovation.

From CNN.com:

Attorney-General Daryl Williams said Friday a list of major terrorist activities over the past few years had been reliably attributed to these six groups, which are based in Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.

Under Australia's beefed-up counter-terrorism laws, anyone found belonging to a banned "terrorist group," training, funding or recruiting members, could be jailed for up to 25 years.

From The Star:

Former Toronto resident Abdul Rahman Khadr has become the second Canadian citizen held at the United States base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Star has learned.

Sources say Khadr, the son of Ahmed Khadr, who U.S. authorities claim is one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants, was recently transferred to the military base.

From CCN.com:

Acknowledging the need to protect classified information, 11 media organizations are asking a federal appeals court to end the near-total secrecy imposed in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, accused in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Not just a girl's best friend. From IOL / Reuters:

The Senate unanimously approved a bill on Thursday to ban the import of uncut diamonds that help fund African civil wars and may also be a source of financing for Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

From The Olympian:

Army scientists have reproduced the deadly anthrax powder mailed in letters two years ago and concluded that it was made using simple methods, inexpensive equipment and limited expertise, according to a report published Friday.

The (Baltimore) Sun, citing sources it did not identify, said the scientists have concluded that the powder could have cost only a few thousand dollars to create.

From UPI:

An official Yemeni newspaper Saturday published the photographs of 10 prisoners, accused of a role in the USS Cole bombing two years ago, who broke out of prison Friday in the largest escape of its kind ever in the country.

[via Defense Tech]

Lt. Col. Doug Dyer, a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), told a privacy conference that the recent test examined records of over-the-counter drug purchases, "which could indicate planning of a bioterrorist attack."

According to the magazine, the initial experiment also considered "relationships between purchases of certain chemicals, whether the buyer or a family member was involved in an activity such as farming that could explain a benign reason for the purchase, and where the purchase was made."

From Newsday:

An Egyptian immigrant who opened fire inside Los Angeles International Airport committed an act of terrorism, but he did it alone and was not tied to any terrorist organizations, federal officials have determined.

Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41, killed two people at the ticket counter of El Al, Israel's national airline, and wounded several others in the July Fourth attack before he was fatally shot by an airline security guard.

From KSFY:

It's probably real.

That's the C-I-A assessment of an audiotape released earlier this week purportedly containing Osama bin Laden's voice.

The voice on the tape calls on Muslims to rise up against the nations it says are the "agents of America" -- Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bahrain and Afghanistan.

From Hi Pakistan:

The US general leading the war on Iraq returned on Friday to Afghanistan with a US special envoy to assure the government and international troops that the United States can fight two wars at once.

With world attention focused on the war in Iraq, Gen Tommy Franks said the United States remained committed to Afghanistan and to capturing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who may be hiding there.