[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