[AP via Yahoo]

Eric Rudolph, the longtime fugitive charged in the 1996 Olympic Park bombing and in attacks at an abortion clinic and a gay nightclub, was arrested early Saturday in the mountains of North Carolina, a Justice Department official confirmed.

The FBI confirmed Rudolph's identity through a fingerprint match, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They got him," the official said.

Full story..

From CNN, the most trusted name in news:

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas predicted Friday that he would persuade all radical Palestinian groups to agree to a cease-fire -- and end their attacks against Israelis -- within three weeks.

The announcement came as President Bush began a trip that includes a peace summit with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and other stops in the Middle East

For his next trick, Yasser Arafat offered to drink a glass of blood while his puppet prime minister made the same vow.

Note the new anti-proliferation initiative. Also note the incredibly annoying pop-up banner at the top of the ABC News page. From ABC News in the US:

President Bush sought to heal bitter wounds lingering from the Iraq war Saturday by calling on NATO partners new and old to unite against terrorism.

"This is no time to stir up divisions in a great alliance," he said in the town square here, on the first day of a Europe trip that will include his first meetings with the leaders of France and Germany longtime allies who split with Bush on the Iraq war ...

... Bush announced a new effort, the Proliferation Security Initiative, in which the United States, Poland and other, unspecified countries will search planes and ships carrying "suspect cargo." The initiative aims to seize illicit weapons and missile technologies and other agents of terrorism, Bush said.

(Hat tip: Marduk)

From IMRA, Hamas claims not to be a terrorist organization:

Hamas spokesman Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi told Newsweek: "Combatants are not just people who wear uniforms." He considers all Israeli men combatants because they at one time or another served in the army and do reserve duty, and the same goes for Israeli women, most of whom have served in the army. So the majority of the Israeli population are considered combatants.

IMRA then provides a snippet from an article on Newsweek that seems to have vanished into their archives somehow:

Q: What do you mean? How does Hamas define civilians? A: An Israeli civilian is someone who never took part in the fighting. If he participated in the fighting in the past, years ago, he is not a civilian. That's why Israelis are still pursuing the Germans who took part in the Holocaust, though some of these people are in their 80s. They are still considered soldiers. Q: So you consider all Israeli men combatants because they at one time or another served in the army and do reserve duty? A: Yes. Q: What about Israeli women? A: Most Israeli women served in the army. Q: According to these criteria, what percentage of the Israeli population do you consider combatants? A: The majority. We choose military targets. If civilians are liable to die, that isn't a reason to stop the attack. But we don't set out to kill civilians.

Explain that to the students in the Hebrew University cafeteria, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi. Sure, most college campus cooking is effectively a biological weapons program, but the Hamas bomb was placed among ordinary students eating, not a military base.

MSNBC

Details on Alan's post: The Department of Homeland Security on Friday lowered the federal terrorism alert level one notch to yellow, or elevated. It had been at orange, the second-highest level on a five-color scale, since May 20.

ORANGE INDICATES a high risk of terrorist attack. The lowest two levels, green and blue, and the highest, red, have not been used since the system was adopted in March 2002.

The alert level was raised on May 20 after terrorists believed linked to al-Qaida struck in Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Seventy-five people were killed, including eight Americans.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said it was feared the incidents could mark the beginning of a wave of worldwide attacks that could include U.S. targets.

From the red banner at the top of CNN.com:

U.S. terror threat level lowered to yellow, or 'elevated.' Details soon.

Source: Financial Times

SANGUESA, Spain (Reuters) - 30 May 2003 15:41
A bomb has killed two police officers and seriously injured a third in northern Spain in an attack the government blames on armed Basque separatist group ETA.

ETA has been dormant for months after a heavy police crackdown, but the bombing in Navarre on Friday was in an area the guerrillas claim for a Basque homeland. It came amid heightened regional tension after nationwide local elections.

"ETA has returned to commit a brutal attack," Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told a news conference shortly after news broke of the bombing. "We will keep fighting within the law...against this terrorist group and those who support it."

Rajoy said two police officers were killed and a third was in a serious condition in hospital after the bomb attack in the main square of the small town of Sanguesa, some 30 miles east of the regional capital Pamplona.

A civilian was also receiving treatment for minor injuries, Rajoy said.

There appeared to be no warning for the attack, which was not immediately claimed by ETA or any other group.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar promptly cancelled a planned trip to Russia, while Interior Minister Angel Acebes was travelling to the scene of the attack.

Police quickly threw a cordon round the town to check vehicles leaving and a Reuters photographer said he passed through three road blocks on his way in.

GUERRILLA FORCE

ETA, western Europe's most active guerrilla force, has killed 839 people since 1968 in a campaign for an independent state in northern Spain and southwestern France.

Sunday's municipal elections raised tension in the Basque region as they were the first since Madrid banned the radical separatist party Batasuna on the grounds it supported ETA. The group is listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and European Union.

Officials said the victims of the latest bombing were members of a team of roving police who were in Sanguesa to renew national identity cards for local people.

Navarre borders Spain's northern Basque region but is claimed by ETA as part of a Basque homeland straddling the border with France. The semi-autonomous region has been the scene of many ETA attacks although the majority of its population does not support Basque nationalist parties.

After months of ETA keeping a low profile, three masked members said in a video, broadcast on May 15 by Basque public television, that the armed group had not declared a ceasefire.

In the last fatal attack previously attributed to ETA, a hooded gunman shot and killed a local police chief in the Basque Country in a restaurant in February.

(End of story)

Source: Financial Times
NAZRAN, Russia (Reuters) - 30 May 2003 10:24 BST

An explosion targeting a bus carrying workers to Russia's main military base in its turbulent Chechnya region has killed three people and wounded eight, security sources in the region say.

The attack in a region gripped by a decade of conflict came as heads of state began arriving in St Petersburg, at the other end of the country, for celebrations marking the 300th birthday of Russia's second city, hosted by President Vladimir Putin.

The sources said the bus was taking about 20 workers to Khankala, the main Russian military base just outside the Chechen capital Grozny and had dropped them off when the explosion occurred on Friday.

One person travelling in a nearby car died, along with two others in the vicinity. The bus driver was among the wounded.

Interfax news agency quoted Grozny Mayor Oleg Zhidkov as calling for more mobile patrols in the capital but he opposed any increase in Russian forces or restrictions on residents' movements.

"We don't need more troops or tougher measures. Setting up barbed wire won't work either," he was quoted as saying. "What we do need is more vigilance by security forces."

Putin has refused to speak to Chechen separatist leaders and answered Western critics of two post-Soviet military campaigns by offering Chechnya autonomy.

Results of a March referendum showed considerable support for keeping the region in Russia and elections are planned for a regional president and assembly.

With rare exceptions, Western countries have toned down allegations of abuse by the Russian military since Russia gave its full backing to the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign after the September 11, 2001, airline attacks.

Rebels have rejected the plan and vowed to pursue their fight against Russian rule. Recent incidents have included two suicide bombings last month which killed more than 70 people.

(End of piece)

From the Jerusalem Post:

The US Embassy has received "credible reports" of plans to kidnap US citizens in Gaza, the embassy announced on its Web site Friday. "At this time, Americans are advised to be particularly cautious," the announcement said.

Hamas responds:

"We are battling with the Zionist enemy and not with the United States," Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi told The Associated Press on Friday, referring to Israel. Hamas "will not target any American or any other nationalities."

Janis Ruth Coulter and Benjamin Blutstein would appreciate that sentiment from these practicioners of The Religion of Peace if they weren't dead, killed by Hamas at Hebrew University.

If you haven’t noticed, the past several days have been positively slow for news on the stories we follow. We expect today to be no different, and given the generally playful tone in our comments today, Michele and I thought perhaps it might be time to have some fun.

After all … it’s a beautiful, warm spring day here in Philadelphia and New York, and while we’re certainly hard at work, it’s a day that just BEGS for distraction.

So here’s the proposal: You likely noticed that last weekend we added an “Evildoer” photo and snarky caption to the top-right-column of this page. We’d like to change that snarky caption, and thought today may be a fine day for a caption contest. The “rules”:

The photo will stay the same

No obscenity or vulgarity (this is, after all, a quasi-family site)

The caption should in some way glorify our contributors or the idea behind the Command Post (i.e., citizen triangulation of the media). If you want to single out a particular contributor for glorification, that’s fine, but Michele and I recuse ourselves (we get enough glory as it is ... if that's what you call whatever it is we get)

COTABATO CITY–At least 19 people, including 12 militiamen and 5 civilians, were killed after suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels stormed an Army detachment in Carmen, North Cotabato, at dawn Thursday, military officials said.

The incident came a day after the MILF military affairs chief, al-Haj Ibrahim Murad, declared a 10-day unilateral cease-fire beginning June 2 “to give peace talks a chance to resume” in the South.

Maj. Julieto Ando of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Maguindanao said the rebels also set on fire 10 houses in Sitio Baroin, Barangay Macabinban in Carmen.

SYDNEY -- An Indonesian group linked to the al-Qaeda network held a high-level meeting last month in Indonesia, possibly to identify new terrorist targets, The Australian newspaper reported Friday.

Citing unidentified intelligence sources, the newspaper said the meeting involved members of four cells of Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical Islamic group blamed for killing 202 people in a car bombing last October.

The meeting included a former resident of Australia, Abdul Rahim Ayub, who reportedly heads a Jemaah Islamiyah cell responsible for actions in Australia, the newspaper said.

I've typed it before; I'll type it again: "You are either with us, or against us." From the Grand Forks Herald (AP):

In a reversal, Iran left open the possibility Thursday it may have top al-Qaida operatives in custody, including the terror network security chief suspected by U.S. officials of planning attacks in Saudi Arabia.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi's comments to The Associated Press contradicted his statement Monday, when he was quoted as telling state-run radio that al-Qaida members detained in Iran "are not senior members of the group."

Instead, he said Thursday, Iran is unsure of the identities of the al-Qaida members it has detained and Saif al-Adil may be among them.

From the China Post:

The al-Qaida network plotted terror strikes in Australia well before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday ...

... "These reports indicate that al-Qaida's interest in mounting attacks in Australia actually predated the 11th of September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington," he said.

The prime minister provided no details of where the information came from or the type of targets al-Qaida had focussed on.

From Ha'aretz:

Any Palestinian cease-fire deal with Hamas militants to stop attacks on Israel must also include steps to disarm and dismantle "terrorist infrastructure," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Thursday. "Should the Palestinians declare a cease-fire it must be accompanied by parallel steps to disarm and dismantle terrorists and terrorist infrastructure," Fleischer said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas told the daily Yedioth Ahronoth on Thursday that he expected to reach an agreement with Hamas for a complete halt to attacks on Israelis by next week. "Hamas will commit to halting terrorism both within the Green Line and in the territories," Abbas said.

But an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in response Thursday that such a step would be insufficient. "A cease-fire is not a substitute for taking real action to stop terrorist activity," said Ra'anan Gissin.

From Jerusalem Post:

Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip said Thursday that talk about a cease-fire with Israel was premature, noting that the movement was still considering a proposal to this effect made by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).

However, sources close to Hamas said they didn't rule out the possibility that the movement would agree to a short-term cease-fire that also calls for stopping suicide bombings inside Israel, and not in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

From Jerusalem Post:

An Israeli was lightly injured when Palestinians fired shots at Egged bus No. 160 at the Halhoul junction north of Hebron late Wednesday night. The man was taken to hospital with bullet shard wounds.

Security forces arrived on the scene and conducted searches.

Hebron had a spate of palestinian-on-palestinian violence in Hebron recently due to a clan-based riot, but apparently shooting Jews is something they can all agree on.

[CSM]

High-level administration officials are expected to meet Thursday to begin formulating a clearer policy towards Iran. Another meeting set for earlier in the week involving lower-level officials was replaced when it was decided a decision was going to require high-level participation, sources close to planning for the inter-agency meeting said.

Full story...

[Sky News]

The suspected mastermind of the suicide blasts that killed dozens in Casablanca has died in prison, the city's prosecutor has said.

He is reported to have died of heart and liver problems while in detention.

He has been named as Abdelhaq Moulsabbat, who had been arrested on Monday in the central Moroccan city of Fes.

Full story...

Separatist Muslim rebels facing a military offensive by the government in the southern Philippines have declared a 10-day unilateral ceasefire.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said the ceasefire would come into effect next Tuesday and urged the government to reciprocate.

The government has not officially responded to the ceasefire offer, but the southern military chief Major General Roy Kyamko rejected it as a "tactical move", the Associated Press news agency reported.

[Fox News]

A key Bali bombing suspect admitted in court Wednesday that he was the operational chief of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, and said he knows Usama bin Laden "very well."

Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, testified at the treason trial of Abu Bakar Bashir, a Muslim cleric and the alleged spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Mukhlas told a packed courtroom he took over as the operations chief after his predecessor, Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, went into hiding.

"My followers chose me to replace Hambali after he left," he said.

Full story....

Thousands of demonstrators marched against terrorism in Casablanca on Sunday.

"I am here for myself and for them, the next generation," said Abdellatif Ghanam, an unemployed night watchman, gesturing to his 6-year-old son. "The people who did those attacks are not followers of Islam in its true sense."

... According to the Committee to Defend Filipino Progressives in Europe (Committee-Defend), defrocked Catholic priest Luis Jalandoni, chair of the communist-led National Democratic Front peace panel and head of its international relations office, was even further asked to discuss the issue before the chamber’s meeting held early this month at the Moses Room of the House of Parliament in Westminster, London. The gathering, with the theme, "This War of Terror Threatens Us All," was hosted by Lord Rea of UK’s Labor Party, and called for by the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and the Campaign Against Criminalizing Communities.

Committee-Defend said that Jalandoni discussed before the meeting "the increasing US military intervention in the Philippines," which the NDF leader stated has been manifested in the inclusion of Sison and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Washington ‘s list of "foreign terrorists."

It was in August last year when the US listed the CPP and NPA as "terrorist" groups. In October, the 15-nation European Union (EU) included Sison and the CPP-NPA in its list of "terrorist threats." This resulted to the suspension of the social, health and housing benefits, as well as the monthly allowances, then being extended by the Dutch government to the communist leader.

One of the great things about managing the Command Post is that we're on the Christian Science Monitor's editorial preview email list. In tonight's preview is a link to this story:

With the nation's terrorism alert ratcheted up to orange, terrorism experts cite concern about people who are not part of organized groups like Al Qaeda, but are inclined to act in sympathy with their aims. Such worry was heightened last week when Osama bin Laden's No. 2 lieutenant called on all loyal Muslims to wreak havoc on the West ...

... With the exception of the attacks on the World Trade Center, experts say the major terrorists attacks in the United States have been perpetrated by deranged individuals who were sympathetic to a larger cause - from Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh to the Washington area sniper John Allen Muhammad

The coercion of such individuals to do the bidding of a larger cause even has its own name - leaderless resistance. And the rhetoric of terrorist groups from American right wing militias to Al Qaeda is designed to inspire it.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath on Monday said a cease-fire agreement with Israel, including all Palestinian factions, is close at hand.

Speaking with reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Sha'ath said the PA expects all factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to accept the cease-fire agreement, following Israel's endorsement of the US-backed 'roadmap' plan for Mideast peace.

Expects? Or what?

Boy, is this rich. From the Tri Valley Herald / AP:

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published Sunday that he doubts the existence of al-Qaida, the terror group blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks and recent strikes in Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

"Is there really an entity called al-Qaida? Was it in Afghanistan? Does it exist now?" Assad asked, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anba.

Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born Islamic extremist who heads al-Qaida, "cannot talk on the phone or use the Internet, but he can direct communications to the four corners of the world?" Assad said. "This is illogical."

[Fox News]

The United States has intercepts that show senior Al Qaeda operatives in Iran probably played a big role in the recent bombings in Saudi Arabia, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News. The official said the U.S. had intercepts for months prior to the bombings, which showed that senior Al Qaeda operatives in Iran were communicating with Al Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia about an upcoming attack, with cryptic language suggesting the attack was going to happen in Saudi Arabia.

The operatives had been in Iran for at least months, and came there after they fled Afghanistan during the U.S. military's attack aimed at toppling the Taliban government.

Full story...

From ABC (US):

The U.S. Embassy in the Saudi capital reopened Sunday after a temporary closure due to terror threats in the days after suicide attackers bombed Western housing compounds.

American consulates in the western port city of Jiddah and the eastern city of Dhahran also reopened Sunday.

From the Arab Times (Kuwait):

Security forces in southern Afghanistan have reportedly captured five suspected Taliban including "notorious al-Qaeda link" Mullah Janan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said on Sunday.

"This morning we received a report from Kandahar that a group of Taliban which wanted to plant a bomb in one of the populated areas, near of course a government facility, in Kandahar were caught. Among them was Mullah Janan," he told reporters at a press conference.

Boy ... they seem much more serious now than they did on, say, March 18th? From Reuters:

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, his country under mounting pressure from Washington, called Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network a "dangerous organization" on Sunday and said Iran was serious about combating it.

The Washington Post newspaper reported Sunday the United States had broken off all contact with Iran after intelligence reports suggested al Qaeda operatives in Iran played a role in the May 12 suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia.

Iran, which is on Washington's "axis of evil" list, says it has in the last year arrested and deported about 500 al Qaeda members who had slipped over its borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq and is interrogating further suspects.

A BOMB expert of the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) believed to be behind the Dec. 30, 2000 bombings in Metro Manila that left 22 people dead was caught Sunday at the Cagayan de Oro City airport, according to the military.

Alex Soriano, alias Muklis Yunos, was arrested along with an Egyptian Islamic missionary while about to board a Philippine Airlines plane bound for Manila. The Egyptian was identified as Dia'a Algabri.

Intelligence officials believe Yunos is the head of the MILF's Special Operations Group that was allegedly behind a series of bombings in Mindanao and in Manila in recent years.

Yunos, allegedly one of the conduits of the regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah in Mindanao, was also believed to be behind the bombing of a bus on Edsa Avenue in the Balintawak district of Quezon City on Oct. 18, 2002 that killed two people and wounded 20 others.

[Netscape News]

Boeing's head of security sent his staff an e-mail this month warning that people had been conducting ``very disturbing surveillance'' of the company's facilities in the Seattle area and elsewhere.

The e-mail, as described in Saturday's editions of The Seattle Times, offered no details beyond that "apparent Middle Easterners'' were seen conducting the surveillance.

Chief Security Officer Greg Gwash urged his personnel to heighten "surveillance detection measures ... especially during hours of darkness, to detect any reconnaissance being done in advance of a future attack,'' the Times reported.

Full story...

[Fox News]

The U.S. Embassy in the Saudi capital reopened Sunday after a temporary closure due to terror threats in the days after suicide attackers bombed Western housing compounds. American consulates in the western port city of Jiddah and the eastern city of Dhahran also reopened Sunday.

Full story...

The Council on Foreign Relations has a site about terrorism. So does the Dudley Knox Library of the Naval Postgraduate School. (These are backgrounders rather than breaking news sites.)

I suppose we should suspect this, but it's from the Bad News File nonetheless. from the North County Times / AP:

Osama bin Laden's terrorist network has been pursuing a sophisticated biological weapons research program and is seeking chemical weapons, the Pentagon has told Congress.

Other terrorist groups and dozens of countries also are pursuing chemical and biological weapons, which could be used in a regional conflict or terrorist attack, the military said in a report.

The report also said companies in Russia and China are the key suppliers of the know-how and equipment for countries like Iran trying to develop their own biological and chemical weapons. It said Iran and Syria have chemical weapons and may be trying to make biological weapons, and Libya is trying to make both.

From Dar Al-Hayat (Saudi Arabia):

In an interview with Al-Hayat in Paris, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said that the Iranian-American dialogue had froze because the U.S. was not keeping its promises. He strongly criticized al Qaeda and said it shared nothing whatsoever with Iran, which has arrested a large number of its members who had illegally entered Iranian territories. He considered the presence of this organization in Iran to be against his country's interests.

The online edition of the Atlantic Monthly offers an interview with Bruce Hoffman, world-renowned terrorism expert, about the strategy behind suicide bombings. You can read it here.

How would you judge our responses to recent terrorist attacks? What should we learn for next time?

I think, firstly, that the most important metric is the prevention of another 9/11-type attack, not only in the United States, but anywhere. Obviously we've been doing well in that sense, because there hasn't been one, and that's a towering achievement. I think, though, that the sniper case in Washington was a very important warning bell, because of the way that society was so easily unsettled.

Morocco's Islam has been moderate and its ancient Jewish community has been treated relatively well, but Moroccan Jews have mixed feelings after the bombings last week.

The bombings at a Jewish social club, a Jewish cemetery, a Jewish-owned restaurant and a hotel popular with Israeli tourists was a blow to the prestige of the regime of King Mohammed VI, whose extensive security network had guaranteed the safety of Jewish sites during the U.S. war against Iraq. His predecessors on the throne protected Jews during World War II and during the 1991 Gulf War. . . . Though Moroccan Jewry traditionally boasts about the tolerance of Moroccan society and close ties with Muslim neighbors, the increasing influence of Muslim fundamentalists has increased tension in the Jewish community.

The footprint of a new Islamist terrorist network, targeting Jews all over the globe, emerges from the attacks on three continents in one week:

. . . Western analysts noted growing signs of coordination between Al Qaeda and regional Islamic groups previously seen as unrelated to it, including Hamas. . . . Fifteen attacks took place during the seven-days from May 12 to May 19 in Saudi Arabia, Chechnya, Morocco and Israel, killing a total of 164 persons, 90 of them in the two Chechnya bombings alone. Nine of the 15 attacks — five in Israel and four of the five in Morocco — were aimed at Jewish targets. Intelligence services warned of threats of new strikes in Kenya and the United States.

American and European security officials continued to distinguish between the bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, which are said to be the work of Al Qaeda, and the attacks in Israel and Chechnya, which are seen as stemming from regional disputes. But new evidence is blurring the distinction, some experts say, and strengthening the argument of Israeli and Russian officials who insist the Islamic terrorism campaigns in their countries are part of a global network linked to Al Qaeda.

[Fox News]

A bomb went off Friday near an armored bus carrying Israelis in the Gaza Strip, and at least one passenger was hurt, the military said. The bus was traveling from the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in central Gaza to Israel when the explosion went off.

Fifteen people were on the bus, and Israel Radio said a woman passenger was hurt and being treated on the scene. Moshe Hiller, a resident of Netzarim, said he had reports of at least two people being hurt.

Full story...

ZAMBOANGA CITY — At least 28 soldiers were killed as fighting between government troops and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas raged overnight Wednesday in the areas of Maguindanao and Lanao del Norte, a rebel spokesman claimed.

On the other hand, the military announced the surrender of 97 MILF guerrillas, six of them commanders of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), in Iligan City yesterday.

Commander Bravo, one of the most wanted MILF leaders tagged as responsible for the Maigo and Kolambugan attacks, downplayed the surrender, claiming the "surrenderees" were hired by the local officials for propaganda purposes. MILF vice chairman for military affairs Al Haj Murad also dismissed as "preposterous" the military’s claim of rebel casualties.

Murad claimed the figures of the rebels killed in the offensives were "padded" to project the superiority of the Armed Forces against secessionist groups operating in Southern Mindanao.

[CNN]

Iranian officials Thursday told a U.N. representative that Iran has several unnamed al Qaeda operatives in custody, CNN has learned.

The acknowledgment comes as Washington has intensified its accusations that al Qaeda terrorists are inside Iran -- something Tehran had previously denied.

U.S. officials said the key question is whether the al Qaeda operatives in custody are allowed to communicate and receive visitors.

Full story...

From at World Net Daily:

* * *

"The FBI had a clandestine plan to capture terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in 1998 – and even practiced the daring operation in the Texas desert – but former Attorney General Janet Reno scrubbed it, calling it "too dangerous," reports ABC News.

Jack Cloonan, a former FBI agent who is now an ABC NEWS consultant, revealed the details of a secret team of federal investigators he was a part of whose sole purpose was to apprehend bin Laden."

* * *

"But when the details of the scheme went up the chain of command for approval, according to Cloonan, Reno killed it.

At the time, the former attorney general was still answering to critics about her handling of the inferno at the Branch Davidians' Waco, Texas, compound in 1993."

* * *

"Reno declined to comment ..."

* * *

Apparently Attorney General Reno and President Clinton were more concerned with capturing David Koresh than they were with capturing Osama Bin Laden.

Below is the entire text of the story from World Net Daily:

The FBI had a clandestine plan to capture terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in 1998 – and even practiced the daring operation in the Texas desert – but former Attorney General Janet Reno scrubbed it, calling it "too dangerous," reports ABC News.

Jack Cloonan, a former FBI agent who is now an ABC NEWS consultant, revealed the details of a secret team of federal investigators he was a part of whose sole purpose was to apprehend bin Laden.

In 1996, the group set up shop in an unmarked office off the Beltway in Alexandria, Va., which was dubbed Alex Station.

Cloonan said the agents discovered a great deal about bin Laden's al-Qaida network which was operating out of a compound in the Taliban's stronghold of Kandahar, Afghanistan at the time.

"We had information, pretty good information on the particular house where he was," he told ABC, noting the team intended to act on the information.

"There's no sense in getting involved in a case like this and seeking an indictment if you're not going to bring this to a logical conclusion," Cloonan told ABC. "And that logical conclusion for us was the arrest of bin Laden."

The Alex Station team formulated a scheme to have a plane from Uzbekistan swoop into the area and execute an arrest warrant. They even practiced the mission in a desert area outside San Antonio, Texas, which has terrain similar to that in Afghanistan.

"A U.S. plane was to fly in," Cloonan said. "And he [bin Laden] would have been greeted by an FBI agent, who would have said, 'Sheik bin Laden, there is a warrant for your arrest,'" he said.

But when the details of the scheme went up the chain of command for approval, according to Cloonan, Reno killed it.

"They came to the decision that this plan was probably too dangerous, that the loss of life on the ground would have been significant," Cloonan told the news network. There was concern that people around the bin Laden compound would be killed."

At the time, the former attorney general was still answering to critics about her handling of the inferno at the Branch Davidians' Waco, Texas, compound in 1993.

As WorldNetDaily reported during her failed bid for Florida governor last fall, Reno defended the use of force in the federal raid: "John Danforth, the person appointed to review Waco, said I did exactly the right thing. I couldn't walk away from four agents killed and 16 wounded. Neither could I stay there forever. ... David Koresh was out to create his own Armageddon."

Reno declined to comment to ABC News' "Good Morning America" on the Alex Station plot, calling the incident classified.

[Sky News]

The Israeli navy has seized a fishing boat carrying weapons from Lebanon, military sources said.

The boat was reportedly intercepted off the nothern Israeli coast in international waters.

A member of the Lebanon-based fundamentalist group Hezbollah was arrested aboard the boat, as well as eight crew members, the sources added.

In January 2002, Israel intercepted a 50-tonne shipment of Iranian weapons destined for the Palestinians in the Red Sea.

More to follow...

[Globe and Mail]

Montreal man suspected of having links to terrorist groups tied to al-Qaeda was arrested Wednesday by Canadian Security and Intelligence Service agents, Montreal La Presse reported.

The man, who is of Moroccan origin, has lived in Canada for a number of years, the newspaper said in a report Thursday, citing sources.

Simone McAndrew, a spokeswoman for the Citizenship and Immigration Department, told the newspaper a man was detained on a security certificate, a rarely used judicial tool.

Less than 25 such certificates have been issued in the last 10 years.

Full story....

via Damian Penny

The Daily Telegraph - Three men were arrested in Saudi Arabia as they were about to hijack an airliner and crash it into a Saudi skyscraper, security sources said yesterday.

The plot was revealed as a taped message claiming to be from al-Qa'eda's second-in-command called for fresh attacks against the West, including Britain. The men, believed to be Moroccans, were held in Jeddah as they queued to board a flight to Sudan. They were apparently behaving suspiciously at passport clearance. When asked if they were travelling together, one said no and one said yes.

Under interrogation, one of them said they had planned to crash the airliner into the National Commercial Bank, the only skyscraper in Jeddah, Saudi's commercial capital.

Indonesian judges on Thursday ruled that the trial of key Bali bombing suspect Amrozi should continue.

Lawyers for the 40-year-old mechanic had argued that the charges were not accurate, and asked for the trial to be dismissed.

"All the objections by defence counsel can be declared unacceptable...the court decides to continue with the trial," Judge I Made Karna Parna told the court.

Amrozi faces the death penalty for buying explosive materials and a mini-van used to carry out the attacks.

GOVERNMENT security forces on Wednesday averted a plot to launch a series of bombings in Metro Manila with the arrest of seven suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in a predawn raid in Tondo.

Confiscated from them were 4 kilos of ammonium nitrate, 16 pieces of non-electrical blasting caps and assorted time devices.

...[Philippine National Police chief] Ebdane said the suspects would be interrogated to determine if they are behind the plot to bomb several areas in Metro Manila.

“We have to look into that [suspects’ links to reported MILF terrorist plot in Metro Manila]. But they have been under continuous surveillance and there were search warrants because of the presence of the explosives,” Ebdane said.

"You are either with us, or against us." From FOXNews.com:

The Bush administration on Wednesday accused Iran of harboring Al Qaeda members and said Iranian leaders had a responsibility to prevent terrorists from entering and operating in the country.

"There's no question but that there have been and are today senior Al Qaeda leaders in Iran, and they are busy" plotting attacks, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said.

[Channel NewsAsia]

Indonesian troops were on Wednesday ordered to shoot on sight anyone involved in burning, looting or kidnapping in the province of Aceh as the military intensified its offensive against separatist guerrillas.

At least 13 people were reportedly killed on the third day of martial law in the troubled province in fighting between government forces and the rebels.

Full story...

[Washington Post]

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has raised its warning of possible terror attack against military facilities in the United States to its highest level, defense officials said on Wednesday.

Responding to that change in threat from "significant" to "high," the military will deploy additional mobile anti-aircraft missile systems and increase air patrols in the Washington area, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified.

Full story...

At this hour, MSNBC and CNN are reporting an explosion in the mail room at the Yale University Law School. CNN adds the only other detail; that "one floor has collapsed."

UPDATE: Matt Drudge links this story by Associated Press. No great detail, but it's the earliest that I've seen.

UPDATER: MSNBC is now carrying live coverage from local affiliate WVIT-TV, reporting that they "have it confirmed from one source" that this explosion "was, in fact, a bomb".

UPDATERER: MSNBC is now speaking to Yale Daily News reporter Nathan Francis, who says that the explosion actually took place in a classroom. This may mean that this story does not belong on this page, but we'll see.

Economist

Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network is fighting on, but in a new form. Officials around the world have issued a fresh wave of warnings about terrorist cells following a series of bombings linked to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organisation, al-Qaeda. Security forces in Saudi Arabia and Morocco have detained a number of Islamic militants in the hunt for the organisers of suicide attacks in Riyadh and Casablanca; and Saudi police have arrested three men they say were planning to hijack a plane and fly it into a high-rise office block in the Saudi capital. Other cells may be lying dormant, waiting to carry out further atrocities, European ministers said after a weekend security meeting.

With some background stuff on al-Qaeda

Yahoo/AP

Officials are fearful that al-Qaida could expand a wave of attacks overseas into the United States, but there is "no specificity" as to potential targets or times of attack.

BBC

No group has claimed responsibility but, in the wake of the Riyadh attacks, terror alerts were issued for the United States and countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. BBC News Online looks at what is behind the warnings and the latest attack.

BBC

Full text of the audio tape which is believed to have been recorded by al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri. The tape was broadcast by the Arabic television channel al-Jazeera.

[Update to this item]

[Sky News]

One of Osama bin Laden's right-hand men has urged Muslims to carry out more attacks against Western targets, especially those of Britain and the US.

Qatar's al Jazeera television has played an audio tape said to have been made by Ayman al-Zawahri.

In it, a voice said to be his urges Muslims to strike against embassies, and the interests of the US, UK and other countries.

He also stated:

"Carry arms against your enemies, the Americans, the Jews."

"Oh Muslims, muster your resolve and hit the embassies of America, England, Australia and Norway, their interests, their companies and their employees."

"Set the ground ablaze under their feet...kick these criminals out of your homelands."

Full story....

From CNN.com:

Saudi security sources told CNN on Thursday that they have arrested three al Qaeda members, who were planning to hijack a passenger plane and crash it into a building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Reporting now on CNN TV in the United States. The tape is reportedly from Bin Laden's second in command. Nothing on line as of yet ...

From the Guardian:

U.S. soldiers guarding the American Embassy in Kabul shot and killed four Afghan soldiers on Wednesday as they unloaded weapons destined for a nearby intelligence depot, apparently mistaking the men for assailants, Afghan officials said.

"You are either with us, or against us." Looks like Syria is making its choice. From WPMI / AP:

Doorbells and phones are ringing unanswered at the Damascus offices of Palestinian militant groups accused of terrorism.

All signs point to what neither the Palestinians nor the Syrians will acknowledge: Syria has bowed to U-S pressure and curbed the radicals it has hosted for years.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

The portrait of Al Qaeda emerging one week after some of the worst terrorist bombings since 9/11 is of a group that is decentralizing and setting up bases of operation in new regions - to the considerable detriment of antiterror efforts.

Although President Bush has said at least half of Al Qaeda's leadership has been removed, many experts think it's the less important half and that the organization is becoming more active in exploiting local conflicts as well as plotting new attacks.

In the end, the US military's disruption of Al Qaeda's base of operations in Afghanistan has had the result of forcing remnants of the organization to fan out around the world, making it harder for US intelligence officials to track cells and foil hits.

What's Arabic for "orange"? From the Straits Times:

Saudi Arabia has raised its terror alert to its highest level ever in anticipation of another attack on its soil, CNN quoted Saudi intelligence sources as saying.

'My gut feeling tells me something big is going to happen here or in America,' Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, told reporters in Riyadh on Monday.

The Arab News has posted a story about the embassy closings, filed in Riyadh. I thought you might like to see its take, which is very much fact-based and devoid of "spin." You can read the story here.

The United States, Britain and Germany are closing their embassies in the Kingdom today. The three Western countries cited security concerns in the wake of suicide bombings in Riyadh last week as reasons for their decision ...

Breaking....

The terror threat level has been raised from elevated to high.

Update from Fox:

The United States went back on orange alert Tuesday afternoon, indicating a high risk of a terror attack within the country, Fox News has learned.

The decision was made not long after the FBI warned local law enforcement officials to be on the alert for a possible terror attack within the U.S. The FBI bulletin was described as a continuation of the one issued late Friday, which warned Americans of possible terror attacks abroad.

Tuesday's move to high alert marks the fourth time it has been raised to orange.

Full story....

Intelligence agents have found to be "credible" the claim of a former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) that terrorists tried to recruit him to plant bombs in one of many American apartment buildings in Saudi Arabia.

A source in the intelligence community, who interviewed the man known as "Mang Boy," said they are working with Saudi investigators to get "pictures" of the terrorists.

"He is credible," said the intelligence agent who asked not to be named. "His statements are consistent. In that sense, he could be used as a witness."

But a police official said investigators are determining whether Mang Boy could help Saudi police in investigating the bombings.

"Beyond that we can do nothing," the police official said. "We are taking his statements and interviewing him as we could not just take his words at face value and endorse him to Saudi authorities. It’s not for us to decide. It’s the Saudi authorities."

[Fox News]

The FBI on Tuesday warned local law enforcement officials to be on the alert for a possible terror attack within the United States. The bulletin was described as a continuation of the one issued late Friday, which warned Americans of possible terror attacks abroad.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was going to the White House Tuesday afternoon to meet with President Bush and the Homeland Security Council to discuss "threat and intelligence information."

A Department of Homeland Security spokesman would not comment on whether those discussions would include raising the national threat level.

Full story...

From Noah Shachtman at Defense Tech:

DARPA WANTS YOUR LIFE INDEXABLE AND SEARCHABLE

It's a memory aid! A robotic assistant! An epidemic detector! An all-seeing, ultra-intrusive spying program!

The Pentagon is about to embark on a stunningly ambitious research project designed to gather every conceivable bit of information about a person's life, index it and make it searchable.

What national security experts and civil libertarians want to know is, why the hell would the Defense Department want to do such a thing?

The embryonic LifeLog program would take every e-mail you've sent or received, every picture you've taken, every web page you've surfed, every phone call you've had, every TV show you've watched, every magazine you've read, and dump it into a giant database.

All of this -- and more -- would be combined with a GPS transmitter, to keep tabs on where you're going; audio-visual sensors, to capture all that you see or say; and biomedical monitors, to keep track of your health.

This gigantic amalgamation of personal information could then be used to "trace the 'threads' of an individual's life," to see exactly how a relationship or events developed, according to a briefing from the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, LifeLog's sponsor.

Someone with access to the database could "retrieve a specific thread of past transactions, or recall an experience from a few seconds ago or from many years earlier … by using a search-engine interface."

On the surface, the project seems like the latest in a long line of Darpa's "blue sky" research efforts, most of which never make it out of the lab. But Steven Aftergood, a defense analyst with the Federation of American Scientists, says he is worried.

With its controversial Total Information Awareness database project, Darpa already is planning on tracking all of an individual's "transactional data" -- like what we buy and who gets our e-mail.

Aftergood said he believes LifeLog could go far beyond that, adding physical information (like how we feel) and media data (like what we read) to this transactional data.

"LifeLog has the potential to become something like 'TIA cubed,'" he said.

My Wired News article has details on the LifeLog program.

THERE'S MORE: The idea of committing everything in your life to a machine is nearly sixty years old. In 1945, Vannevar Bush -- who headed the White House's Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II -- published a landmark Atlantic Monthly article, "As We May Think." In it, he describes a "memex" -- a "device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility."

Minicomputer visionary Gordon Bell, now working at Microsoft, sees his "MyLifeBits" project as a fulfillment of Bush's vision.

There are other commercial and academic efforts to weave a life into followable threads, including parallel processing prophet David Gelernter's "Scopeware" and "Haystack," from MIT's David Karger.

AND MORE: LifeLog may eventually dwarf Total Information Awareness, Darpa's ultra-invasive database effort. But "TIA" could wind up being pretty damn large on its own, with 50 times more data than the Library of Congress, according to the Associated Press.

Reprinted with permission from Noah Shachtman

[Read Noah's article on LifeLog at Wired.]

[Sky News]

On the heels of the U.S. Embassy closign its doors, the Brits follow suit:

The British embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is to close because of an "imminent" terrorist threat....The British embassy, the consulate in Jeddah and trade office in al Khobar will also close and are expected to remain shut for the week.

Full story....

[Fox News]

Fearing an imminent attack, the United States on Tuesday closed diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia. The move came on the heels of recent FBI warnings that Al Qaeda may attack American and Western targets.

The U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia decided to close the missions beginning Wednesday due to security threats. They will be closed for the regular Muslim weekend on Thursday and Friday, as well as Saturday for Memorial Day. It's not yet known whether they will reopen on Sunday.

Full story....

[CNN]

A powerful explosion ripped through a cafe in central Ankara Tuesday, killing a woman and wounding two other people, police said.

The blast happened at 9:15 a.m. in the Crocodile Cafe, and police launched an investigation shortly afterwards.

A police official said the blast, in the commercial district of Kizilay, may have been caused by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a highly flammable substance used for cooking and heating, or a bomb....Local news reports suggested the woman may have been a suicide bomber, or may have died when the bomb she was planting exploded prematurely, but police and interior ministry officials refused to confirm the reports.

Full story...

IHT

Investigators raided suspected Islamic militant hideouts across Morocco on Sunday after near-simultaneous suicide attacks killed 28 bystanders and tainted this country’s image of security and peace. A diplomatic source said on condition of anonymity that American and French anti-terrorism experts had arrived in Casablanca to help investigate Friday’s bombings at five downtown locations.

Relocation intentions are a bomb, Cosmo Macero's column in the Boston Herald today highlights this:

Tucked away in the secure files of the state's Radiation Control Program is a wealth of proprietary information about products in development by various companies licensed to use cobalt-60, iridium-192, various grades of plutonium and more than 1,000 other radioactive compounds.
The DPH is about a month away from moving the tracking agency from its secure offices on Portland Street to space it will share with the Department of Transitional Assistance in Dorchester's Grove Hall section.

The full text of the column is not available, but a fuller excerpt is available at Macero's blog.

Fox

Al Qaeda attacks against American and Western targets are "likely" and "attacks in the U.S. cannot be ruled out," the FBI said in a special edition of its bulletin to law enforcement agencies throughout the country.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gets a grand reception at the White House on Monday, a meeting with President Bush and a state dinner. It's payback for her loyal support of the fight against international terror, but she wants to take home more than memories.

Arroyo is asking the United States for economic aid, trade concessions and money to combat terrorists.

Arroyo was among the first world leaders to call Bush and express condolences after the Sept. 11 attacks. Arroyo and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore were the only two Southeast Asian leaders to support the U.S.-led war in Iraq, and she expelled three Iraqi diplomats after Bush asked U.S. allies to do it. The Philippines is sending a 175-member humanitarian mission to postwar Iraq.

Besides Bush, during her visit she is scheduled to talk with Secretary of State Colin Powell and members of Congress, meet with representatives from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, give a speech at the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council and receive an honorary degree at Fordham University in New York.

[Washington Post]

Saudi authorities are investigating suspected illegal arms sales by members of the country's national guard to al Qaeda operatives in the country, U.S. and Saudi officials said.

The weapons were seized in a May 6 raid on an al Qaeda safe house and were traced to national guard stockpiles, the officials said.

Full story...

[Sky News]

At least four people have died after a female suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a shopping mall in northern Israel, it is reported.

At least 15 people are reported to be wounded, some seriously.

Israeli radio said the explosion happened at the entrance of the mall in Afula.

A guard conducting security checks at the entrance to the Emakim mall prevented the bomber from entering the shopping centre, Israel Radio

The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

Full story...

[MSNBC]

After months of frustration, FBI investigators have stumbled on a new theory of the 2001 anthrax attacks that some sleuths hoped could crack the case. Earlier this year, acting on a tip, FBI divers recovered a plastic container from the depths of an ice-covered pond near Frederick, Md. Some suspect it could have been used as a crude piece of lab equipment.

Full story...

President Megawati Sukarnoputri has imposed martial law on Aceh province, home of the rebel Free Aceh Movement. This after the breakdown of peace talks in Tokyo.

While there may be no direct link here to America's War on Terror, Indonesia is a Muslim country where radical groups are known to operate. The Free Aceh Movement appears to base parts of its ideology on Islam and, while there's no proof whatever that they are linked to any known international terrorist group, the situation in Indonesia probably bears watching.

ZAMBOANGA CITY-- A day after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered "selective" attacks on "embedded terrorist cells" in Mindanao, the death toll has risen to more than 80 MILF rebels, the military's top general in the area said Sunday.

Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko said air strikes using OV-10 bombers and an artillery barrage using 105-mm and 155-mm howitzers started in at least four points in Mindanao shortly after the President issued her directive on Saturday.

...In Camp Aguinaldo, Gen. Narciso Abaya, Armed Forces chief of staff, said the assaults were directed against selected strongholds of the separatist MILF where suspected assailants have fled following bombings and attacks that have left more than 210 people dead so far this year.

Maybe now we can start to catch them before they blow themselves up. From WaPo:

Saudi authorities have arrested four al Qaeda suspects in last week's Riyadh suicide attacks that killed 25 bystanders, the Saudi interior minister said Sunday.

Prince Nayef also said investigators identified five of the nine dead attackers believed to have carried out the May 12 attacks on three compounds housing foreigners in Riyadh.

Prince Nayef said the four men in custody were among a group of 19 suspected al Qaeda members whom the Saudi authorities had identified earlier this month. He also said three of the nine suicide bombers who were killed in the blasts were among this same group.

From VOA:

A Moroccan Interior Ministry spokesman says investigators are focusing on whether the attackers belong to a known extremist group, Salafia Jihadia, which is suspected of having ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

There has been no claim of responsibility, but Interior Minister Mustapha Sahel has linked the bombings to international terrorism.

State issued the warning Friday; you can read the warning here.

Due to increased security concerns, the Department of State has authorized the voluntary departure of family members and non-emergency personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. The Department warns Americans to defer all non-essential travel to Kenya at this time. The Department recommends that private American citizens in Kenya evaluate their personal security situation in light of the current terrorist threat and consider departure from the country as one option to ensure their safety ...

... The threat to aircraft by terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles continues in Kenya, including Nairobi. Terrorism poses a continuing threat in East Africa. Terrorist actions may include suicide operations, bombings, or kidnappings. U.S. citizens should be aware of the risk of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in public places including tourist sites and locations where westerners are known to congregate, as well as commercial operations associated with U.S. or western interests.

UPDATE: Read the take by the East African Standard (Kenya) here ... the headline: "We Are At Home In Kenya, Say Tourists." The paper also has this to say about the British Airways decision to halt all flights to Kenya.

Riyadh, Casablanca ... Nairobi? From Ha'aretz (Israel):

Acting on the orders of the Shin Bet security service, Israel yesterday halted all flights to Kenya following increased warnings of possible terrorist attacks.

All flights to the African country, including those by foreign airlines out of Ben-Gurion International Airport, as well as national carrier El Al and the smaller Arkia company, will be stopped. El Al flew weekly to Kenya ...

... The U.S. said yesterday it would allow embassy staff to leave Kenya, a day after it warned for the second time this week of a "credible threat of attacks" on Kenya.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Peter Claussen said the embassy would remain open. The so-called "authorized voluntary departure" had been triggered by "increased security concerns," he said.

From WaPo:

U.S. and British military forces will help their Kenyan counterparts set up round-the-clock surveillance of the country's airports in response to continuing fears that terrorists are planning to attack commercial airplanes here, officials from the three nations said today.

[Sky News]

A suicide bomber has killed up to seven people and injured 20 on a commuter bus in east Jerusalem.

Another bomber blew himself up just minutes later on the outskirts of the city.

Full story...

Related: Sharon postpones trip to U.S.:

Sharon postponed Sunday's trip to the United States after the attacks and called a meeting of his Cabinet for later Sunday to address a recent wave of violence.

An interesting analysis from the UK's Independent:

And what of the rest of the estimated 20,000 people who passed through al-Qa'ida's camps in Afghanistan, and have gone to ground? Simple maths suggests that 17,000 may be at large, either active or as possible sleeper agents. Some clearly will have opted for a quieter life, but just as many may have taken up arms in their stead. Even more worrying, according to Western intelligence, is that new and nimbler command structures are emerging, taking advantage of information and encryption technology, to operate largely in cyberspace ...

... But two distinct trends are evident. US and British intelligence specialists believe a younger generation of leaders is coming through – people like Saif al-Adel, a Saudi who came to al-Qa'ida in the early 1990s from the Islamic Jihad movement in Egypt, and is still at large today. Al-Adel, it is said, learnt his trade with the tribal militias that harried the US peacekeepers in Somalia.

This leads to the second point. Islamic terrorism's centre of gravity may be shifting away from Afghanistan and Pakistan, back to the even more lawless lands of east Africa, where it flourished in the 1990s.

From CNN.com:

A U.S. counterterrorism official said Saturday that "there is a strong suspicion" al Qaeda coordinated the Moroccan attacks, which were similar to attacks earlier in the week in Saudi Arabia. Those attacks are also thought to have been the work of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.

Future attacks will likely be "on a small scale" and against "soft targets" like the ones attacked in Casablanca, U.S. officials said.

[Sky News]

Moroccan police have arrested 27 Islamics over the suicide bomb attacks which killed 41 people and injured up to 100 others in Casablanca.

The five explosions on Friday night happened a few hours after the United States said al Qaeda "killers" were poised to strike again.

Up to 10 of the dead are said to have been the bombers, some of whom used car bombs.

Full story..

The suspect, identified as Shadi Moh'd Mustafa A., 26, was among nine alleged Islamic extremists detained after investigators searched 21 apartments throughout Germany in April 2002. They are accused of being members of a cell of the radical Palestinian network al-Tawhid and were believed to be plotting attacks on at least two German cities. . . .

"The cell members developed a plan to attack people in a busy square of a German city using a pistol with a silencer, and to detonate a hand grenade in another German city in the immediate vicinity of an Israeli or Jewish installation with the goal of killing as many people as possible". . . .

Iraqi operatives planned to mount terrorist attacks on US and Israeli embassies in Romania.

According to the Romanian intelligence service, an Iraqi spy working under diplomatic cover was supposed to procure the weapons - AG-7 grenade launchers - to be used in the attacks. The attacks were to be carried out in the event of military action against Iraq. . . .

Romanian authorities reacted at the time by declaring 10 Iraqi diplomats and 31 other people persona non grata, expelling some and barring others from entering the country. . . . documents found in Iraq's espionage headquarters after the war "fully confirmed the information obtained by the Romanian intelligence service."

A Filipino worker who escaped from Saudi Arabia and who could be a possible witness in Monday's bombing at the Saudi capital of Riyadh that killed several Americans, three Filipinos and nine bombers is now in the custody of the National Police.

Director Ricardo de Leon, chief of the National Police Directorate for Police-Community Relations, said the Filipino, whose identity he withheld, was approached by terrorists who tried to recruit him into pulling off the bombing at the American enclave.

As of Friday night, de Leon said the worker is still undergoing debriefing for leads that might point to the identities of the suspects and the unmasking of their terrorist operations.

Embassies of "friendly" countries including the US and Saudi Arabia have been notified of the yielding of the Filipino.

Updates on this developing story, from Reuters:

At least 40 people were killed and 100 wounded in suicide bomb attacks in Morocco's biggest city Casablanca, diplomatic sources said, hours after the United States said al Qaeda was poised to strike again.

A Jewish center and Spanish club were among the targets of Friday night's second major attack within a week on an Arab state with historically close ties to the United States, following multiple suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia.

The latest from FOXNews.com:

Four explosions ripped through Casablanca late Friday, leaving at least 24 people dead in the coastal city, the Moroccan Interior Ministry said ...

... MAP also reported that three bombing suspects were apprehended. There were no further details on the suspects.

Read local coverage from the Maghreb Arabe Presse, Morocco:

“The Kingdom of Morocco will not be intimidated nor destabilized,” Moroccan Interior Minister, El Mustapha Sahel, said Saturday Morning after the terrorist attacks perpetrated Friday evening in downtown Casablanca, claiming at least 20 lives.

“The Kingdom of Morocco will neither be intimidated nor destabilized by those who seek today to attack the democratic and constitutional gains of our country,” the Minister said in a statement to the press.

He stressed that Morocco will not be intimated either “by those who want to cast doubt on the values of pluralism, tolerance and overture, values for the defence of which all Moroccans are, today as they have always been, unified behind their Sovereign.”

From the New York Times:

As many as 70 additional American law enforcement and intelligence officials left for Saudi Arabia tonight after the Saudi government approved tripling the size of the team investigating the terrorist bombings on Monday in Riyadh ...

... The move came as a senior Saudi official, who called the bombings a "massive jolt" to his country, said his government would now "do whatever we need to do" to halt terrorism within its borders, and would work with the United States to do so.

From VOA:

U.S. and British officials are reporting a wave of electronically intercepted "chatter" among suspected terrorists that points to new attacks in the Mideast, East Africa and Asia.

The officials say the "chatter" may be even more definitive than that prior to Monday's car bombings in Riyadh ...

... Now, intelligence officials say the chatter indicates terrorists are building up to doing something in the next few days. As one official put it, "In some cases, the bullets have already left the gun."

According to the Associated Press:

RABAT, Morocco - Four explosions tore through the coastal city of Casablanca Friday night, killing at least 20 people in blasts that went off near a synagogue and heavily damaged the Belgian consulate, officials said.

Two policemen outside the consulate were killed and a security guard was hospitalized, Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Didier Seeuws told the Belgian news agency Belgas.

A U.S. official said that the blast were caused by car bombs and at least one occurred near a synagogue. "No U.S. government facility was targeted," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said in Washington. officials said.

The Interior Ministry said at least 20 people were killed and several other injured. Security officials said there were burned-out vehicles at the four sites near consulates and restaurants in the center of the city, Morocco's economic center.

The previous version of this story read:

According to the Associated Press:

RABAT, Morocco - Four car bombs exploded in the coastal city of Casablanca Friday, leaving several people dead or wounded, Moroccan security officials said.

A U.S. official said the blasts occurred near a synagogue. "No U.S. government facility was targeted," U.S. State Department spokesman Joanne Moore said in Washington.

Moroccan security officials said there were burnt-out vehicles at the four sites near consulates and restaurants in the center of the city, Morocco's economic center.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks in Morocco.

But U.S. counterterrorism officials in Washington had warned Friday of a coordinated effort by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network to strike lightly defended targets worlwide, citing the bombings earlier this week in Saudi Arabia as well as threats in Africa and Asia.

U.S. and British authorities had warned of threats in East Africa, particularly Kenya, and in southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia. U.S. officials also received an unconfirmed report that a possible terrorist attack may occur in the western Saudi city of Jiddah.

Al-Qaida has suffered serious blows in recent months, including the capture of alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. But senior al-Qaida leaders were thought to be hiding in Pakistan, Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iran, U.S. officials said.

Here's the Reuters version of the story.

NATIONAL security issues like the rising threat of terrorism in Asia will take center stage during President Arroyo’s eight-day state visit to the United States.

According to National Security Adviser Roilo Golez, the President will discuss with US President George W. Bush further assistance that the US government could provide to the Philippines, espe­cially in boosting the capabilities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“The issue concerning national security will be the primary agenda of the President’s trip to the US, especially at her bilateral meeting with President Bush. The US could help us a great deal to modernize and upgrade the capability of the military,” he said.

More on the bombing, from CNN.com:

A leading Saudi dissident who broadcasts a nightly radio newscast from London into the Saudi kingdom said he is certain that Saudi exile Osama bin Laden gave the "green light" for Monday's suicide attacks in Riyadh.

Saad al Fagih told CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen the attacks in the Saudi capital are "most probably the beginning of an al Qaeda campaign within Saudi Arabia."

Reuters via Yahoo News - The U.S. State Department has warned Americans in Saudi Arabia of a possible imminent terror attack in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

"The U.S. Consulate General in Jeddah has received an unconfirmed report that a possible terrorist attack in the Al Hamra district of Jeddah may occur in the near future," the State Department said in a statement on Thursday. "While we cannot certify the credibility of the threat, in light of recent events this information is being shared with the American community."

[Fox News]

An Iranian opposition group said Thursday that Iran's fundamentalist government is racing to produce several types of lethal chemical and biological weapons, dedicating up to 11,000 workers at numerous factories and research facilities. The National Council of Resistance of Iran said Iran has already weaponized deadly agents anthrax, smallpox and typhoid and has the missiles to use them throughout the region.

Full story...

New Zealand Herald

American officials believe the Philippines and Malaysia are likely to soon be hit by terrorist attacks. New intelligence yesterday led the US State Department to reissue a warning to Americans in Malaysia to be aware of threats posed by extremist groups in the region.

More stuff on the BA Kenian flight Terror alert:

BBC | CBS | Guardian | Reuters

[Sky News]

All flights to and from Kenya from the UK are being suspended from 10pm.

The Department for Transport told UK airlines: "The threat level to UK civil aviation interests in Kenya has increased to imminent".

It added: "Accordingly, from 10pm tonight UK time, all UK airline operations to and from Kenya must be suspended".

Full story....

ABU SAYYAF bandits who received fresh combat and explosives training from two Indonesian instructors are planning to attack US troops who will be deployed in Sulu province, confidential military debriefings of three former hostages have revealed.

According to summaries of debriefings seen by the Associated Press, two Filipino women and an Indonesian sailor who escaped last month after several months of jungle captivity gave insights into how the ragtag, al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf survived military offensives on Jolo island.

"The ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) is eager to have imported clothes ... to have their heads," she was quoted as saying.

"The ASG also plans to welcome the US troops with suicide attackers and car bombs," she said.

Interfax

A bomb attack in Chechnya on Wednesday claimed 18 lives, according to an update at 6.30 p.m. Moscow time on Thursday. The figure was cited to Interfax by Chechen Emergency Situations Minister Ruslan Avtayev and was confirmed to the agency at the Chechen Prosecutor's Office. Avtayev also said 43 people are in the hospital with major injuries.

[Fox News]

series of explosions shook 18 Shell gas stations in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi early Thursday, slightly injuring four employees, police and company officials said. Police spokesman Malik Sheikh said two men on a motorcycle went from one station to the next before dawn, placing small explosive devices in garbage cans.

"They were are all Shell pumps that were targeted," Police Chief Kamal Shah said, adding that additional security had been deployed to several foreign-based businesses.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but law enforcement officials who have raided militant organizations have seized maps of Karachi with Shell stations marked as possible targets.

Full story..

The Strategy Page has what they say are two first hand accounts of the Riyadh attacks:

First Account
"... Many of you asked for an update, so here is what I can tell you from what I saw. The story is still unfolding.. ( Hey, You know us Gators are tough to kill...) At about 1115 pm last night there was a firefight with automatic weapons at the Jadawel Compound''s back gate -about 200 meters from my door.. I jumped up from my computer which "was" on my desk next to a big plate glass window in the front of the house.. I knew immediately that it was not just some idiot celebrating because It started out as quick single pistol shots then escalated to what sounded like an argument between a 9mm MP5 (our security) and an AK 47or two.. it got faster, louder and closer, then there was a dull crump like a grenade , and a distant heavy thump like a big explosion off in the distance somewhere..

By the second heavy burst of fire I ran to the stairs and hollered to my housemate Dave who was already in bed on the second floor. he jumped up and left his room. the shooting lasted about sixty seconds before the bomb detonated. At this point I remember everything in slow motion. As I turned from the stairs to grab my shoes and start turning off the lights (since it sounded like they were inside the perimeter and heading our way) I turned one step to my right, into a small alcove where my shoes were, & the world suddenly turned orange. There was a massive flash, and I could actually see the shockwave as the window and doors blew in, things blew by me, glass shattered, and the blast picked me up and shoved me back against a wall, -hard...the noise was .. incredible, undescribale, aparently they detonated a truck full of RDX about 200 meters from me. the blast seemed to last forever. as the front rooms came apart it reminded me of those slow motion nuke test films..

See the Strategy Page for the rest of this account, and for the second one.