The British closed the port of Dover for seven hours in a terror alert overnight; three men are held. Their car held a suspected explosive device. Details on this story are still sketchy, but here's the latest report from the Telegraph.

From CNN:

"Transcripts of radio and telephone transmissions and handwritten notes released Thursday chronicle the confusion and desperation of those seeking rescue from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

More than 260 hours of transcripts and notes were released by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey."

The New York Times is reporting that the transcripts show that, "at times [people in the World Trade Center] were given mistaken advice to stay in their offices." For most people, of course, this information could not have saved them.

Tragic, just tragic, to read. Never forget.

Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Dan Darling of Regnum Crucis.

TOP TOPICS

• IAEA inspectors in Iran have discovered traces of weapons-grade uranium. See our Iran Reports for more.

• There was a major bombing in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai (Bombay) this week that killed at least 65. Local suspicion appears to be focused on either the Student Islamic Movement of India or the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba that harbored Abu Zubaydah and acts as a secret police for al-Qaeda in Pakistan according to US or Indian intelligence. This event may well reingnite the possibilty of war between India and Pakistan if LeT involvement is confirmed.

• A transcript of Rumsfeld and Abizaid's press conference is definitely a must-read - right to the end. Tip of the hat to Blaster.

Other Topics Today Include: Iraq Briefings; SCIRI vs. Sadr?; al-Qaeda & GIA in Iraq; Iran-NK cooperation; al-Qaeda cells in Canada & USA; the latest developments in the Bali bombers' trial; al-Qaeda's funding of Jemaah Islamiyyah; the JI infrastructure in Southeast Asia; a call for an end to violence in Algeria; tracking down the Sahara kidnappers; simultaneous bombings in Mumbai and Krasnodar; the assassination of a Dagestani minister; Mullah Omar in the mountains; Osama in northern Pakistan; and a Canadian ban on smiling on passports.

Copngratulations to Daniel Pipes, who was just made a recess appointment to the U.S. Institute of Peace (Hat Tip: reader Shirley Anne Haber). I'd say a few words in congratulations, but since he's had to be silent for the last 5 months, it seems only fair to let Pipes speak for himself.

Oh, and by the way Mr. Pipes... love your project idea for the USIP.

BBC:

Up to 50 suspected Taleban fighters have been killed in a joint Afghan-US military operation in south-eastern Afghanistan, local officials in the region say.

A spokesman for the governor of Afghanistan's Zabul province said Afghan troops had overrun a Taleban base after US forces bombed it on Monday.

"We have seen 40 to 50 dead bodies," the spokesman, Ahmadullah Watan Dost, told Western news agencies.

More...

NY Times:

Two car bombs killed at least 46 people in the heart of India's financial capital Monday, one ripping through a congested bullion market and a second exploding near a popular tourist attraction, police said.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the coordinated bomb attacks which also wounded 137 people.

But Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said similar attacks in the past had been carried out by the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), acting alongside the Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant group Lashkar e-Taiba.

More... (reg. required)

[Fox News]

Numerous reports indicate that America's staunchest ally is a possible target for a major, 9/11-style attack by Al Qaeda.

Sunday's London Telegraph reported that the FBI had uncovered intelligence suggesting Al Qaeda is plotting to hijack an airplane in Britain and fly it into an important building in the next two months.Airlines operating in Britain — including British Airways and other leading carriers — have been put on alert about the potential terrorist scheme, according to the Telegraph. Planes leaving from London's two main airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, are the most likely targets, the newspaper reported.

Former CIA Intelligence Officer Peter Brookes, now with the Heritage Foundation, said Al Qaeda wants to generate terror on a more global scale.

"They like big attacks, no doubt about it," Brookes told Fox News. "We saw 9/11. They've gone after tankers. It has a psychological effect, terrorizing people. We shouldn't be surprised."

Full story....

[CNN]

At least 25 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a pair of explosions that shook India's financial capital Mumbai, according to medical officials.

One of the blasts occurred near the colonial-era Gateway to India monument -- a famous landmark and popular tourist attraction -- during lunch-hour.

Another blast struck in or close to one of the city's main Hindu temples.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blasts but police say they suspect militant Islamic groups who have been blamed in the past for several bomb attacks in Mumbai.

Full story....

UPDATE: The death toll has risen to 46.

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Andrew Olmsted.

TOP TOPICS

• Good intelligence is key to winning an asymmetrical war, and the U.S.'s decision to recruit former Iraqi agents for the task may be a good step in the right direction. But the decision carries a major political risk, and it gives anti-U.S. forces a golden opportunity to slip some double agents into the mix. In the long run, this is probably a good decision, but it's going to carry a stiff cost for the Administration. Hat tip: Instapundit.

• The attacks on soft targets in Iraq may be backfiring on the Islamofascists. Popular support for those attacking coalition forces has dropped in the wake of recent attacks. It's too early to be definitive, but this is good news for the Coalition as they fight for hearts and minds.

• The 'cease-fire' is over, and the fighting is ramping up in Israel as an Israeli helicopter attack killed four members of Hamas in Gaza City. Although it is to Israel's best interests for the fiction of the cease-fire to end, look for Europe and others to complain bitterly about Israel's 'perpetuating the cycle of violence.'

Other Topics Today Include: More on the U.N.'s incompetence in its HQ Bombing; Bring 'Em On Watch; Troop strength in Iraq; Britain's arrest of a former Iranian ambassador; Corruption in the Iranian economy; Is India helping Iran become nuclear?; Why cell phones matter; Afghanistan update; Possible good news in the North Korea talks; the Marines leave Liberia (for now); Colombia bombing; a possible Canadian 9/11; and a Khmer-Rouge theme park.

VOA News:

Palestinian officials say they have put on hold plans to crack down on militants after Israeli forces killed a Hamas leader in response to a suicide bombing in Jerusalem earlier this week.

Palestinian security officials say Thursday's targeted killing of Abu Shanab took place just as they were about to launch a campaign to arrest militants and confiscate weapons. They say the effort was aimed at disarming Hamas and Islamic Jihad - the two groups who claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem attack that killed 20 people.

The attack prompted the United States to freeze assets of at least six Hamas leaders and other supporters of the radical Palestinian group. President Bush said Palestinians must dismantle extremist groups, calling it an initial step toward an independent Palestinian state as envisioned by the internationally-backed road map to peace in the Middle East.

More...

Fox News:

A U.S. special operations soldier was killed in action in eastern Afghanistan, U.S. military said Friday.

In a neighboring province, meanwhile, coalition troops arrested four people and seized weapons stored in caves by insurgents.

Petty Officer 1st Class David M. Tapper, 32, of Camden County, N.J., died from injuries suffered on Wednesday, the Defense Department said in Washington. The U.S. military's Central Command said his injuries were sustained during a "hostile fire incident" around Orgun in Paktika province.

More...

[Reuters]

Canadian police arrested 19 men last week in a case that, according to court documents obtained by a newspaper, has eerie parallels to the preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Michele Paradis on Friday confirmed the arrests but declined to offer details.
"We arrested 19 people last Thursday," Paradis said, adding the operation had involved four police departments from across the Greater Toronto area.
"They're all related and it's all part of, what we're alleging, has to do with a group taking advantage of a system -- the immigration system here in Canada."
The Toronto Star newspaper said the men were arrested after a "pattern of suspicious behavior" which featured one man taking flight lessons that took him directly over an Ontario nuclear power plant.

Full story....

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Central Asia, guest blogged by Nathan Hamm of The Argus. Nathan got a feel for the area while with the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan.

Top Story

* Cross-border confrontations between Afghan and Pakistani troops continue, and Hamid Karzai warned Pakistan that Afghanistan will not tolerate these incidents. The Telegraph also has a report from the frontlines.

Other Topics Today Include: More reports from Afghanistan; Naval exercises complicate a Caspian compromise; SCO takes aim at Uighur separatism; Uzbek-Kyrgyz border problems; Iran and Pakistan plan to boost trade in Central Asia; Rising violence and a new plan for Afghan reconstruction; India looking for a perch in Central Asia; Birth of a dynasty in Azerbaijan?; Kazakhstan eager to enter WTO; Uzbek human rights activist jailed for homosexuality.

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday.

TOP TOPICS

• While the death toll at the Baghdad U.N. headquarters continues to climb, FBI agents now reporting that at least 1,500 pounds of explosives from Saddam's arsenal were used in the blast.

• Breaking News: "Chemical Ali" has been captured in Iraq. He was the King of Spades.

Other Topics Today Include: the UN's possession of advance intel indicating a likely truck bomb attack; Ansar al-Islam's involvement in the blast; renewed efforts to increase international involvement in Iraq; the IMF and World Bank's latest withdrawals; more nuke power for Iran; web-wide automated public security alerts; Israeli advances; Palestinian de ja vu; North Korea's latest fund-raising scheme; and rating television reporters on what really matters: their sex appeal.

[Fox News]

Israelis killed a senior Hamas official and two of his bodyguards Thursday in a targeted strike meant as retaliation for Tuesday's deadly Jerusalem bus bombing, the Islamic militant group said. An Israeli helicopter fired five missiles at a car in a crowded Gaza City neighborhood Thursday, killing three Palestinians.

Hamas said its senior official, Ismail Abu Shanab, was in the gold-colored station wagon when it was struck in the Rimal neighborhood. Paramedics pulled three bodies out of the burning vehicle, witnesses said.

Full story...

Ever since last week when President Bush announced the capture of an al-Qaeda operative named Riduan Isamuddin who used the nom de guerre of Hanbali or Hambali (depending on one's source), there has been a media frenzy, with many press outlets following Time Magazine in declaring him "the bin Laden of Southeast Asia."

Yet who is Hanbali? Why does his capture mean so much for Southeast Asia, the so-called "second front" in the war on terror? And if he's out of the picture, who's left?

read the rest! »
 

FRom The Australian :

The Israeli army captured four militants from the hardline Islamic Jihad group in the northern West Bank today, Palestinian security sources said.

The four were nabbed as they were driving in the village of Araba, south of Jenin, and the vehicle was later blown up, the sources said.

The arrests came a few hours after a devastating suicide bombing in Jerusalem, which killed 18 Israelis and was claimed by both Islamic Jihad and its larger rival, Hamas.

The same Palestinian security sources also said two more unidentified Palestinians were arrested by Israeli troops in the nearby village of Jalbun and added that bulldozers had dug ditches blocking all roads to Jenin.

According to Arutz Sheva:

Preliminary reports from Jerusalem?s Shmuel HaNavi Street indicate dozens of persons were wounded in an explosion believed to have been caused by a terror attack. The explosion appears to have been on a bus in the Maalot Daphne neighborhood of the capital. More details to follow as information becomes available.

According to Ha'aretz:

An explosion was reported Tuesday night on a bus in the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood in downtown Jerusalem. Fatalities were reported in the blast.

The explosion occured at around 9 P.M. on Egged bus number 2. Army Radio said that it is still unclear if the blast was caused by a suicide bomber or an explosive device. Ambulances and rescue workers were at the scene of the blast.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A Casablanca criminal court has handed down death sentences on four of 87 defendants being tried for the May 16 suicide bombings in Morocco's economic hub.

Three were would-be suicide bombers who had survived while the fourth was a leader of the organisation responsible for the attacks that killed 45 people, including 12 of the bombers.

Prison sentences ranging from 10 months to life were handed to the rest of the accused, all suspected members of the Islamic extremist Salafia Jihadia movement..
...
One of four Islamic "theorists" appearing before the Casablanca appeals court's criminal chamber was sentenced to life imprisonment, with the others getting 30-year sentences.
...

Hundreds of people have been arrested in connection with the five suicide blasts, which targeted a Spanish restaurant, the Belgian consulate, a Jewish community centre and cemetery and a hotel.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Indonesian police say a Malaysian bombmaker was responsible for both the Bali bombings last year and the hotel bombing in Jakarta earlier this month.

Indonesia's chief of detectives says Azahari bin Husin - who was educated in Australia - is one of a group of 16 who were involved in the latest attack on the Marriott hotel.

Many of those involved are already in custody.

Dr Azahari is still at large, along with another Bali bomb suspect named in connection to the Marriott attack, fellow Malaysian Noordin Mohammed Top.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

An international research company has found that Australia is the country best prepared for terrorist attacks.

The London-based World Market Research Centre, which provides information on the risks of terrorism, has been highly impressed by the efforts of Australian companies and the Federal Government.

And, to prove that every cloud has a silver lining,

The country rated as being at the least risk from terrorism is North Korea because the company says its repressive nature makes it impossible for terrorists to function.

Decapitation is the most effective cure for a headache too.

Jeff over at Caerdroia has a good post on the logic of distributed systems and redundant networks, and how we can apply some of that thinking to combating terrorist attacks.

Armed Liberal looks at that thesis, and sees a worthy idea with a fatal flaw. He thinks that the government needs to come up with some good communications channels that can go from citizen upward. Based on his experience, which may include a close call with an armed bandit gang in California, the gap there is an absolute chasm. But we'll let him tell you that story.

Until we can build structures that make that kind of communication a reality, he says, the kind of distributed defense that Jeff discusses, and Instapundit pushes aren't going to be able to leverage the existing safety and security infrastructures. Instead, we'll get centralized bureaucratic systems that will shut out information they aren't interested in hearing. When that doesn't work, he says, they'll get more and more intrusive - and sadly, they won't work any better.

I think he's right. How about you?

As for his mystery car... well, it's worth reading the whole post to find out how it ends.

Noah Shachtman talks to security experts about the potential for terrorist attacks aimed at shutting down the U.S. power grid.

People like Phil Anderson, who have put together high level simulations and scenarios, don't think so. Despite this past week's events, trying to shut down the grid by design may be a lot more difficult than it looks.

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday.

TOP TOPICS

• David Adesnik channels Steven Den Beste's strategic overview format, offers 3-part set of thoughts on the development of U.S. foreign policy over the course of the next 2-5 years: (Part i | Part ii | Part iii).

• Caerdroia's excellent piece on Homeland Security & distributed defense.

• A grim warning from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to President Bush that Iran is much closer to producing nuclear weapons than U.S. intelligence believes has triggered speculation that Israel is seriously considering a preemptive strike against Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor.

Other Topics Today Include: Oil pipeline troubles; Kurdish sex slaves; Jihadi flypaper; Blue Force Tracker; Multiple blogs from Baghdad; Iraqi infrastructure reports; Rabbi's return to Nineveh; Science & Islam; Protests in central Iran; Argentina indicts Iranian officials; Womens' rights in Iran; Daniel Pipes' & USIP; An American Hogwart's?; Khaled El-Fadl; BBC perfidity; NK's weapons & SK's weakness; Israel's warning to Syria; Yemen heating up, Pakistan's jihadis not cooling down; Ding, dong, Amin is dead!

read the rest! »
 

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Indonesian police said on Sunday they had arrested 10 people in connection with the deadly August 5 bombing of a luxury Jakarta hotel and were seeking to apprehend more suspects.

"First we captured six people, and then four people," national police chief General Da'i Bachtiar told reporters.

He gave no further details.

"This is still developing... we are still searching for several people who need to be arrested," he said.

UPDATE : Make that nine and a quarter. Again, from the ABC :

Indonesian police have arrested nine suspects over the bomb attack on the American-run JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta which killed 12 people, National Police Chief General Da'i Bachtiar said.

Another suspect, Asmar Latin Sani, is believed to have to have been in the car that blew up in front of the hotel lobby entrance on August 5.

His severed head was found at the blast site.

When asked how many people had been arrested over the incident, General Bachtiar said: "The figures are as has been announced."

"Six are old suspects and four are new suspects and that includes Asmar," Gen Bachtiar said after attending a ceremony at Negara Palace to mark the country's 58th Independence Day.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Leading clerics in Saudi Arabia have issued a religious ruling, or fatwa, that acts of terrorism by Islamic extremists are serious criminals acts which are against the will of God.

As the BBC reports, the ruling confronts the Islamic doctrine of jihad, which has been used by extremists to justify their attacks.

In a statement, the Council of Islamic Scholars called acts of sabotage, like bombings and murder, dangerous crimes.

It said such actions were against Islamic or Sharia law and said people who claimed these actions were a form of Jihad, or Holy Struggle, were misguided and ignorant.

Agence France-Presse via News.com.au:

FOUR Abu Sayyaf guerrillas were killed in a clash with navy troops escorting a commercial trawler off the coast of the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga, the military said today.

The Muslim gunmen were in a motor boat and attacked the commercial trawler late Friday, triggering a high-seas clash that left four of them dead, an officer said.

The rebels last year seized four Indonesian seamen after boarding their vessel near the southern island of Basilan. They were taken to the nearby island of Jolo, where one of them escaped and the three were killed.

And for once they're not Islamic ones. From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Three men are due to appear in a London court on Saturday local time charged with possessing guns and money for terrorist purposes, police say.

The three were charged after a raid last weekend by anti-terrorist police in north-western England.

Robert Naylor, 48, and Benjamin Wilson, 35, from Morecambe in north-west England, and James Moloney, 44, from Bradford in northern England, were charged with possession of guns, silencers and ammunition for terrorist purposes; with possession of money for terrorist purposes; and possession of a machine gun, two handguns and two silencers.

From the Malay Mail, via The Australian :

A suspected member of the Jemaah Islamiah terror network captured a few weeks ago in Thailand provided vital information which led to the arrest of alleged terrorist mastermind Hambali, a news report said today.

The United States' CIA and Thai police closed in on Hambali after obtaining information from Malaysian Zubair Mohamad, an alleged Jemaah Islamiah operative suspected of funding the terrorist group's cell in Cambodia, The Malay Mail reported.

Quoting unidentified sources, the daily said Zubair knew the whereabouts of Hambali and had "revealed all" shortly after he was arrested by US and Thai authorities about a month ago. Malaysian officials were not immediately available for comment.

CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon on Thursday said the Defense Department would make available to commercial airlines the technology used by military jets to protect against shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles -- if the industry requested it.

"My guess is, if they wanted the technology we have on some of our military aircraft to defeat this threat, it would be made available. It's a widely available technology, though fairly sophisticated," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers said at a town hall meeting at the Pentagon.

The threat that those missiles could down a civilian plane has existed for several decades, Myers said, and noted that 35 to 40 such attempts have been made with some success.

More...

While we're all concentrating on the blackout, news continues in the rest of the word. The Thai Government has handed Hambali over to the Americans, who have flown him out of the country:

While authorities are not willing to say exactly where Hambali is being held, tip-offs from local residents and intelligence sharing among several nations led to his capture, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Friday.

Also known as Riduan Isamuddin, Hambali is the operations chief of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group and the suspected mastermind behind a spate of bombings in Southeast Asia and elsewhere, among them the October 2002 Bali blasts.

Full story at CNN.

[Fox News]

The U.S. has captured Hambali, the alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombing in Indonesia, the White House announced Thursday. Hambali is also suspected of being the mastermind of the Aug. 5 bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, which killed 12 people.

"His capture is another important victory in the global war on terrorism and a significant blow to the enemy," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan aboard Air Force One.

The news came as an Indonesian judge announced a court will hand down a verdict for another alleged organizer of the Bali blast on Sept. 10.

Full Story...

From The Australian :

Five people were slightly injured in an explosion at a building housing offices of the local roads department in the capital of the French island of Corsica early Thursday, a police source said.
...
Police said the explosion was caused by a 20 liter mixture of nitrate and fuel oil.
...
Corsica's ongoing separatist campaign, which has seen an upsurge since the spectacular trial and conviction last month of separatists for complicity in murder, is known for its low-level explosions in the night on symbols of France's centralized national power, like banks and police stations.

For three decades, separatists on the beautiful island, a tourist paradise visited by 2.2 million people every year, have waged a violent campaign for independence from Paris.

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Dan Darling of Regnum Crucis.

TOP TOPICS

• Indian counter-terrorism expert K. P. S. Gill recently claimed that al-Qaeda was run by a "brain trust" of Wahhabi clerics who provide the ideological underpinnings for its operations. The ever-valuable Fred Pruitt over at Rantburg has done some digging, and he appears to have uncovered at least some of it - and see also here.

• Yoni Fighel and Moshe Marzouk over at ICT have their own interpretation on how al-Qaeda operates on the Internet and exploits unfortunate accidents like the recent plane crash in Kenya to further its cause. Ray at Pseudorandom Thoughts also has an excellent link to WIRED's feature: "Forums Point the Way to Jihad?" As you already knew long ago, if you read LGF.

• Monday's Winds of War talked about SAM (Surface-to-Air Missile) warnings. Now we know why. Fresh from yesterday's sting operation, two Pakistanis are being held in Seattle after one of their names showed up on the US terrorist watch list.

Other Topics Today Include: Where's Saddam - an idea; Iraq and Iran updates; a missile smuggling sting operation; an al-Qaeda sleeper in NYC arrested; a bloody day in Afghanistan; Morocco's progress against the Salafi Jihad; shoot-outs in Saudi Arabia, Jemaah Islamiyyah and the Mariott hotel bombing in Jakarta; Muslim condemnation of the Jakarta bombing in Indonesia; Amrozi to get the death penalty; Harold Keke's surrender; another Hamburg cell trial in Germany; Fidel Castro reaffirmed as dictator of Cuba; and Saddam's magical statues.
 

"The three men accused by federal authorities in New Jersey of plotting to smuggle shoulder-fired missiles into the United States:"

(AP)

In the view of BA it's now more safe for them to fly to Basra that to Riyadh. Further, this news comes with word of the US State Dept. reiterating its travel warning to the Kingdom, "urging Americans to put off non-essential trips to the kingdom because of its increased concerns about potential terrorist attacks." Read more here at the New York Times.

Whaddaya know ... there IS justice in the world.

Two university students were killed and one wounded in Afghanistan's (search) capital on Wednesday when a bomb they were making -- apparently in preparation for a terrorist attack -- exploded by accident, police said.

Via FOXNews.

This Seattle Times story comes courtesy reader Todd Sweet:

Two Pakistani men are being held in Seattle after an airline employee at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport found one of their names on a terrorism-related no-fly list Saturday night.

One of the men, 36, carrying a British Columbia driver's license, paid cash for a one-way ticket to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. After the airline employee called 911, the man left the counter, abandoning his ticket.

The other man, 29, who had a New York driver's license, also paid cash for a one-way ticket to Kennedy Airport on a different airline, police reports show ...

... Once the identity of one of the men is confirmed, "this is going to turn into a big deal," a federal source said.

Buy a beer tonight for your local American Airlines employee, police officer, and FBI agent. And help us thank Todd for the tip by visiting his blog: Flame Turns Blue.

CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Saudi official in Washington has told reporters Iran is holding several senior al Qaeda leaders in "safe houses."

Among those in custody, the official said Tuesday, is the terror network's military chief, one of Osama bin Laden's sons and a Jordanian-born terrorist who U.S. authorities have said was behind the murder of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan.

Iran has not responded to a request by Saudi Arabia to hand over any in the group who are Saudi citizens, the official said.

More...

BBC:

A Briton has been arrested in the US after a suspected plot to supply a lethal surface-to-air missile to terrorists.

It is thought the alleged target might have been a commercial aircraft or the US President's personal aircraft.

Western intelligence officials have confirmed to the BBC it was a multinational sting operation, involving agents from the US, Russia and Britain.

It resulted in the arrest of a British arms dealer at Newark in New Jersey on Tuesday.

More...

[CNN]

Saudi authorities have arrested five Islamic extremists after Tuesday's deadly gunbattle with security forces in the capital of Riyadh, the Saudi interior minister told an Arabic satellite news channel Wednesday.

The arrests took place Tuesday in western Riyadh, Saudi authorities said.

Full story...

From the AFP via The Australian :

Two suspected student al-Qaeda militants were killed and one other injured when a bomb they were preparing exploded in a house in the Afghan capital, police said tonight.

Police said the bomb blew up at 4:00 am Tuesday morning (0830 AEST Tuesday) in the Khosh Hal Khan Meena neighbourhood of western Kabul.

"Two people were killed and one injured in a big explosion in the house," said Abdul Jamil Kohistani, director of Kabul Security Command Criminal Investigation Department.

"The explosion totally destroyed the room they were in and made a hole down into the basement; that's why we can say they were working on a big bomb," he told AFP.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A senior United States official has rejected claims by the head of Australia's domestic spy agency that Australia is a terrorist target because of its close alliance with the United States.

"I think you're a target because you're a free and open democratic society who feels that everyone should have a fair go, including women," Mr Armitage said.
"You don't ... espouse any particular religion.
"I think every facet of Australian life is a threat to what Al Qaeda stands for."

Some of us would like to think so, anyway.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Eight suspected Taliban have been killed after militants unleashed a major attack on Afghan border forces in south east Khost province, officials said.

"Early Wednesday morning at 2:00am a group of Taliban and Al Qaeda attacked our posts," Khost corps commander General Khial Baz Khan told AFP by telephone.
"Eight of them were killed and two of them who, were not Afghans, were arrested."

Afghan border guards had recovered eight bodies but they had not yet been identified.

The two captured men included a Pakistani and an Arab, Baz Khan said.

The incident occurred east of Khost city around five kilometres (three miles) from the border with Pakistan, he said.
...
Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters have been blamed by security officials in southern Helmand province for a massive minibus explosion which killed 17 people, half of them children, on Wednesday morning.

Well, this is interesting. This blog has covered Rumsfeld's Rules before... how about Rumsfeld's priorities? The U.S. Secretary of Defense allegedly used this handout during his 22 Jul 03 presentation at the Brigadier General Training Conference. As our email correspondent put it:

"Remember, ths is Rumsfeld talking to "his generals," guys who were commanding brigades in Afghanistan and Iraq at the "charm school" for Army one-star general officers."

Well, maybe and maybe not. If it isn't Rumsfeld's, it's still a fine set of talking points that fit observed trends. So it's not exactly a big secret or anything. We lay out the Top 10 list, and give readers the background to understand both the trends at work and the debates behind its items.

read the rest! »
 

FOREWORD: Usually our Wednesdays feature a Regional briefing. Yesterday was Africapundit's Africa Briefing, chock-full of good stuff on Liberia, African oil, Christian schisms, and more. Today... today I didn't know how to top Trent Telenko, and especially his comprehensive collection of links at the end of this post.

------
Sometimes things just catch your eye. In the past week I have seen the following in the Washington Post and the Weekly Standard: first Jim Hoagland's "Saving The Saudi Connection" column, then Stephen Schwartz's "The Dysfunctional House of Saud" and Max Singer's "Saudi Arabia's Overrated Oil Weapon." Then I see that the Bush Administration is filling the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the tune of nearly 11 million barrels of oil, which has the following effect:

"Energy consultant Phil Verleger, an economist, said with commercial inventories so low, any oil taken out of the market has an impact on price. Verleger estimated that the 11 million barrels "probably translates into a buck or a buck-and-a-half a barrel' price increase."

Given the above pattern, and the negative political implications for Bush re-election of higher oil prices, I'd say that the Bush Administration has a strategic psychological operations campaign active and aimed at the Al-Saud clan saying the following loudly and clearly:

"Your Services Are No Longer Required."

read the rest! »
 

I fly 120,000 miles a year, and this is my personal nightmare. The story comes from Channel News Asia, Singapore.

A British national has been arrested in New Jersey for trying to smuggle a surface-to-air missile.

The man, who was not named, was caught in an international sting operation pulled off by the FBI, British and Russian authorities on Tuesday.

Other arrests were underway.

US television networks say the man allegedly sought to smuggle a Russian-made surface-to-air missile into the US and believed he was selling missiles to potential terrorists.

"Other arrests were underway." Hmmmm ...

The Straits Times:

JERUSALEM -- An apparent suicide bomber set off an explosion outside a supermarket in central Israel on Tuesday, shattering a summer of relative calm that has prevailed since a cease-fire by Palestinian militants on June 29.

Ten people were injured, one seriously, the Zaka rescue service said. Rescue workers found a body at the scene believed to be that of the bomber.

A Nablus-based branch of the Al-aqsa Martyrs brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, calimed responsibility for the blast.

More...

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Andrew Olmsted - soon to be Major Andrew Olmsted.

TOP TOPICS

• Did the Administration inflate the Iraq threat to gain support for the war? The Washington Post has an in-depth feature that traces some of the Washington lineage of the Iraqi nuclear debate, and examines this question.

• JK: Armed Liberal discusses Iraq and the War on Terror, in terms of John Boyd's insights. We've covered Boyd a lot in our "4th Generation Warfare" category.

• JK: Trent discusses America's grand strategy in terms of "The Core, the Gap, and American Foreign Policy", a piece based on Esquire's article "The Pentagon's New Map." Some good material in the comments section, too, about the relationship between the War on Terror and The War on Drugs. Porphy's "America's 21st Century Foreign Policy Part IV" is also excellent.

Other Topics Today Include: More evidence of al Qaeda in Iraq; riots in Basra; Iran's nuclear program; Iran & Cuba; The mullahs' internal tactics; Is DHS really helping at home; SAM suspicions; From peace dividend to power projection; Israel & Hezbollah; Women & Islam in France & Afghanistan; Charles Taylor prepares to resign; Russian talks between the Koreas; cooling tensions between India-Pakistan; and an Air France pilot's comedy routine bombs.

read the rest! »

Sometimes Truth is stranger than fiction. From the Washington Times comes the story of how a very extraordinary ordinary US citizen is helping in the war against Terror :

Referred to by her spy masters only as "Mrs. Galt," she is by day an unremarkable American housewife and mother. But after her two children go to bed, she plunges into a secret world of Internet chat rooms and Web sites populated by some of the most dangerous people on earth.

Burrowing into the byzantine network of unpublicized Web sites used by al Qaeda and other terror groups for their routine communications, she sweet-talks her interlocutors into revealing their plans, often with fatal consequences for the terrorists.
...
Her most recent venture — penetrating al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Pakistan — is said to have resulted in the death and detention of several terrorists. Others are still at large, making it necessary to keep her real name and hometown secret.

The results of her latest exploits, including transcripts of her chats with suspects, have been placed on a Web site for all to see at www.pakistan-army-isi.com. Despite the name, the site has no connection to the Pakistani army or ISI, the country's intelligence service.
...
Mrs. Galt is an example of a new breed of cyber-spy — ordinary citizens who want to "do their bit" by putting their computer skills to use fighting terrorism.

She reports to London-based private intelligence consultant Glen Jenvey, who makes his research available to government services, including the FBI and the military intelligence agencies of Russia and India.

"She has brought us first-rate military counterintelligence, and the people at the top respect her very much," said her British handler, one of a loosely organized group of counterintelligence researchers who specialize in using the Internet to infiltrate militant Islamic groups.

OK, where do I sign up?

Hat Tip : Little Green Footballs

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A Russian mother says conditions in Russian jails are so awful that she would prefer her son remain in the "humane" conditions of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
...
"I am terribly scared of a Russian prison or Russian court for my son," Amina Khasanova was quoted as saying by Gazeta newspaper.

"At Guantanamo they treat him humanely, the conditions are fine."
Her son, Andrei Bakhitov, is one of eight Russian detainees and the newspaper quoted a letter he wrote to his mother.

"I think that there is not even a health resort in Russia on the level of this place," the letter said.

What's scary is that he might be right.

From the ABC(Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Saudi Arabia has released five Britons and a Canadian who had been jailed for bomb attacks in the kingdom.

All six are alleged by the Saudi authorities to have been bootleggers who used explosives as part of a turf war against rival alcohol smugglers.

However their families have always said the charges were trumped up and the bombings in November 2000 were carried out by Islamic fundamentalists.

No Sh...aria, Sherlock.

The AP reports:

U.S. investigators now believe that a hijacker in the cockpit aboard United Airlines Flight 93 instructed terrorist-pilot Ziad Jarrah to crash the jetliner into a Pennsylvania field because of a passenger uprising in the cabin.

This theory, based on the government's analysis of cockpit recordings, discounts the popular perception of insurgent passengers grappling with terrorists to seize the plane's controls.

The government's findings -- laid out deep within the report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that was sent to Congress last month -- aim to resolve one of the enduring mysteries of the deadliest terror attacks in U.S. history: What happened in the final minutes aboard Flight 93?

The FBI strenuously maintains that its analysis does not diminish the heroism of passengers who -- with the words "Let's roll" -- apparently rushed down the airliner's narrow aisle to try to overtake the hijackers.

President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft have regularly praised the courage of those aboard Flight 93, some of whom told family members by telephone they were planning to storm the cockpit.

"While no one will ever know exactly what transpired in the final minutes of Flight 93, every shred of evidence indicates this plane crashed because of the heroic actions of the passengers," FBI spokeswoman Susan Whitson said Thursday.

Thirty-three passengers, seven crew members and the four hijackers died.

Citing transcripts of the still-secret cockpit recordings, FBI Director Robert Mueller told congressional investigators in a closed briefing last year that, minutes before Flight 93 hit the ground, one of the hijackers "advised Jarrah to crash the plane and end the passengers' attempt to retake the airplane."

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Venomous Kate of Electric Venom.

TOP TOPICS

• Hossein Khomeni, grandson of the late Ayatollah Khomeni, is urging the U.S. to assist in overthrowing the country's regime with the goal of bringing about the security and contentment he says he has witnessed on his recent travels in Iraq.

• Vodkapundit says waging war the modern way makes waging war more difficult - and it makes waging the peace harder, too. Frederick W. Kagan adds a more in-depth analysis of this topic.

• Daniel Drezner, meanwhile, has lots of background links to go with his analysis of the prospects for democracy in Iraq and elsewhere. He thinks Fareed Zakaria is wrong, and explains why.

Other Topics Today Include: tightening the noose around Saddam's neck; Hans Blix singing the same ol' song; losing to Al-Jazera, illness in Iraq; various updates on Iran's nuclear program; al-qaeda's body count; Hawash pleads gilty; Israel's coming intifadeh; Indonesia; and a trend in men's fashion that may surprise you.

read the rest! »

Not for the Marriot bombing though. There've been lots of other bombings in Indonesia from JI. From The Australian :

Indonesian police have arrested two people over three recent bombings in the capital, but the pair are not suspected in this week's deadly blast at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, police said today.

Colonel Andi Chairuddin, chief of Jakarta police detectives, said the two men were arrested late yesterday at two separate locations in eastern Jakarta.

The two were allegedly involved in a bombing at Jakarta's International Airport on April 28 that injured 11 people, and two other recent smaller blasts at the parliament and near the United Nations building in Jakarta, Chairuddin said.

From The Australian :

A Muslim militant who escaped with Jemaah Islmiyah bomb maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi was killed Thursday by pursuing troops, the military said.

Abdulmukim Edris was arrested with another man while trying to pass a military checkpoint in the southern province of Lanao del Norte. But the two were shot after grappling soldiers firearms while they were being transported.

"Both of them were killed," military southern command spokesman Lieutenant General Roy Kyamko said.

In a move that surprised nobody, chief Bali bombing suspect Amrozi was found guilty several hours ago. But the summing-up before the sentencing took several hours - and was only completed 10 minutes before the 1830 news broadcasts in Australia, (just in time?).

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Thursday, August 7, 2003. 6:22pm (AEST)

Amrozi sentenced to death

An Indonesian court has sentenced Islamic militant Amrozi to death for his role in last October's Bali bombings.

It is the first conviction among a group of militants standing trial after the devastating attacks.

Amrozi, a 40-year-old mechanic from Java island, has been charged with plotting, organising and carrying out crimes of terror.

In other news, an "Industrial Accident" has claimed the life of another bomber. Again, from the ABC :

Indonesian police say a suspected bomb maker has blown himself up as he built an explosive device in the troubled district of Poso in Central Sulawesi.

Police identified the victim as Bachtiar alias Manto, aged about 20.

Provincial police spokesman Agus Sugianto told AFP: "Our initial analysis from the evidence in the field is that he was making a bomb at the time and it exploded."

Mr Sugianto said Bachtiar was on the police wanted list in connection with a July 11 bombing that wounded three people at a Poso cafe.

Bachtiar was also wanted in connection with the burning of a car in 2001.

The explosion, which happened at about 9:00am local time, blew off Bachtiar's hands and severely damaged his eyes and chest, Mr Sugianto said.
...
Bachtiar was alone at the time in his father's house, which was heavily damaged.

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on South-SE Asia, courtesy of Robi Sen.

• India continues to claim that Pakistan supports terrorist camps. The Strategypage has more on this topic, and what's going on in between India and Pakistan on a day to day basis. And have we mentioned the wall India is building in Kashmir?

• JK: Winds of Change.NET explains what's at stake politically in Kashmir, from both India and Pakistan's point of view. Not to mention the nuclear stakes involved.

Other Topics Today Include: Sharon in India; Developments in and around Kashmir; Musharraf speaks out against extremism; Islamic terrorism throughout SE Asia, from Bangladesh to the Phillipines; and a superb book that offers insights into the current War on Terror.

read the rest! »

..in the War on Terror. From The Australian :

ThE alleged leader of a dissident Irish Republican Army faction responsible for Northern Ireland's deadliest bombing was convicted today of directing terrorism and membership of an outlawed organization.

Three judges at Dublin's Special Criminal Court found Michael McKevitt, reputed leader of the so-called Real IRA, guilty on the two charges. McKevitt, 53, who earlier had dismissed his defense lawyers, did not appear in court.

The prosecution's key witness was David Rupert, an American trucker who was recruited by the FBI in 1994 to penetrate Irish extremist groups in Ireland and the United States. The Real IRA had joined with another dissident group to set off a car bomb in Omagh, Northern Ireland, on Aug. 15, 1998, killing 29 people and wounding more than 300.

Interesting timing on the FBI recruitment - 2 years after the movie Patriot Games. An unsung hero.

Updating Earlier Post, the death toll is now 13 and is expected to rise.

From Reuters/AP via the Sydney Morning Herald

Jakarta: A powerful bomb outside the Marriott Hotel in downtown Jakarta today killed at least 13 people, including one Australian, and wounded more than 100 others in what officials said was likely a suicide attack.

Indonesian police spokesman Zainury Lubis says the death toll includes three foreigners - one American, one Australian and one Malaysian. Two Australians and several New Zealanders were reported among the injured.

"The blast was caused by a car bomb,'' National Police Detective Chief Erwin Mappaseng told AFP at the scene. Indonesian Police Chief General Da'i Bachtiar later also confirmed that the blast was caused by a car bomb, a multipurpose, Indonesian-assembled Kijang van.

The SMH site has much more detail, other articles, and photos.

Philippine Daily Inquirer:

Chairperson Salamat Hashim of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) died of cardiac arrest on July 13, MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu confirmed on national television Tuesday morning.

The MILF central committee has elected Al-Haj Murad Ibrahim, vice chairperson for military affairs and the second most senior official of the rebel group after Hashim, as Hashim's replacement, Kabalu said in an interview over GMA Network's "Unang Balita" early morning newscast.

Formal peace negotiations between the government and the MILF are expected to resume shortly in Kuala Lumpur.

The two sides recently signed a ceasefire agreement in a prelude to resuming talks, with Malaysia as mediator.

Here's the same story via Yahoo/AFP.

The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio is now reporting that one Indonesian Radio station is saying that many of the victims at the Marriot were diplomats.

The Australian Military Charge D'Affairs is on the scene at the moment.

The Manager of the Marriot is quoted by one reporter as confirming that eyewitnesses have reported the explosion as due to a car bomb going off at the taxi stand outside the main entrance.

The Marriot is often used by Australian diplomats for meetings, and another Indonesian Readio station reports that a US-Australian meeting was in progress at the time of the blast.

From the ABC :

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says there is no information yet on whether any Australians have been hurt or killed in an explosion in Jakarta.

Indonesian police say a blast has torn through the Marriott Hotel in the Indonesian capital, killing five people and seriously wounding five more.

Mr Downer says embassy officials in Jakarta are seeking more information on the blast.

In the meantime, Mr Downer says Australians should avoid central Jakarta.

"The safety of Australians is our main concern and the Australian consul as well as the defence attache were at the scene within minutes of the blast," he said.

"Our officials are working closely with the hotel management to see what they can find out about whether there are any Australians involved and what caused the explosion."

Mr Downer says if any Australians have concerns about friends or relatives in Jakarta they should first try to contact them directly and if they still have concerns, they can call a new emergency hotline on (+61) 1800 00 22 14.

ABC News Radio netstreaming audio is available via the ABC News Radio page.

From CNN:

The blast occurred just before 1 p.m. (0600 GMT) on Tuesday, shattering scores of plate-glass windows all the way up to the top of the 33-floor luxury hotel.

Local radio reports quoted witnesses as saying at least four people had died in the blast.

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday.

TOP TOPICS

• LA Times: "After more than a decade of working behind layers of front companies and in hidden laboratories, Iran appears to be in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb." They've done a special investigative report. As WATCH/ notes, the NY Times has a similar investigative report.

• Fierce Highway has a great analysis of the missing 9/11 report pages, the Saudis, and U.S. policy. See also the sequel: "More Reason, Not Less".

Other Topics Today Include: Defining our enemies, defining ourselves; Duelling WMD reports; Iraq - view from the streets; German post-occupation history 1945-49; Shredders revisited; Rebuilding the oil industry; NK and the bomb; Terrorists strike in the USA; Regime decapitation; Afghanistan; Syria; Good fences in Israel and India; Chechnya; and 50 things every guy should know.

read the rest! »

From The Australian :

An Australian court has blocked an attempt by the US to repossess Nauru's only aircraft, an Air Nauru 737, saying it would contravene promises given by Washington to reward Nauru for cracking down on terrorism and for helping smuggle North Korean defectors to the West.

The summary judgment by the Victorian Supreme Court backs claims made by Nauru that the US gave private pledges of financial assistance to the impoverished island in return for abolishing its offshore banking and passport schemes, which Washington claimed were assisting terrorists.

The court's decision is an embarrassment for the US, which has strongly denied making any such promises to Nauru in return for agreeing to crack down on terrorists.

The legal judgment confirms the revelations by The Weekend Australian in April that a shadowy group of well-connected individuals, some claiming to be US intelligence officers, used a mixture of threats and promises to bring Nauru in from the cold in the war on terror.

This same group also asked Nauru to join an intelligence mission, dubbed Operation Weasel, which was to use Nauru's diplomatic facilities in Beijing to help smuggle senior North Korean scientists and military officers to the West.

Letters, documents and emails, obtained by The Weekend Australian, show this group used promises of US aid as a carrot to get Nauru to follow an identical agenda to that of the US State Department.

But when Nauru took the steps asked of it, the US State Department said that any aid promises given to Nauru by private individuals did not have the authority of the US Government and that no aid would be forthcoming.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

The British government said two Britons are being held in Morocco in connection with suicide bombings in Casablanca in May that killed 44 people and injured more than 100.

The two were identified as Perry Jensen, 37, and Abdellatif Merroun, 42, who has joint British-Moroccan nationality.

A Moroccan newspaper reported that a British man, Stewart Anthony Berry, 37, was being held in connection with the attacks. It claimed that he belonged to a cell of a banned Islamic extremist group and had fought Russian forces in Chechnya.

It was not clear whether Jensen and Berry were the same man.
...
The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the Moroccan authorities have asked British police to help trace a third man suspected of being involved in planning the Casablanca bombings.

Police want to question Mohammed Guerbouzi, alleged to have been a student of Abu Qatada, a Jordanian-born cleric held under emergency anti-terrorist powers in a London jail over his support for al-Qaeda, the paper said.

Police suspect Guerbouzi, also known as Abu Issa, of last year establishing a branch of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group in London, an organisation on the United Nations list of banned terrorist organisations, according to the Sunday Times.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Police have warned Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Army's political ally Sinn Fein, he is being targeted for assassination by republicans opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process.

A Sinn Fein spokesman said police called at Mr Adams' west Belfast home after midnight to say they had intelligence suggesting his life was in danger.
"Gerry was not at home, but the police told a family member they had information he was being actively targeted by dissident republicans," the spokesman said.

"We take all threats seriously, but this will not deflect Gerry Adams from his role in pushing forward the peace process."

Police would not confirm the details, saying they did not comment on the personal security of individuals.

The IRA declared a ceasefire in its war against British rule in 1997, paving the way for Sinn Fein to join talks which led to the signing in 1998 of the Good Friday peace agreement.

The deal aimed to end three decades of political and sectarian violence.
But two breakaway groups - the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA - accuse Sinn Fein and the IRA of turning their backs on Irish republican principles and have continued to mount sporadic attacks in Northern Ireland and Britain.

The past year has seen an apparent increase in dissident republican activity, with police foiling bomb attacks in Northern Ireland's main cities Belfast and Londonderry in recent months.

From the New York Times via the Sydney Morning Herald :

Two of the September 11 attackers met with a pair of Saudis who may have been working for Saudi intelligence, The New York Times said.
The White House struck that information from a the report of congressional investigation into the attacks that was released to the public, persons who had reviewed the 28 excised pages told the Times.
A joint House-Senate intelligence committee released the 900-page report 10 days ago - minus the 28 pages - to intense criticism from the Saudis, opposition Democrats and some Republicans who want them divulged.
Several high-ranking Saudi officials have vehemently denied any connection with the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 3,000 people.

But sources with access to the unexpurgated report told the Times the classified portion said the Saudi nationals Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassnan had convoluted and secretive financial ties with Saudi officials.
...
The Saudi Ambassador to the United States strongly denied the allegations.

BBC:

Police in the Philippines are investigating a claim that last weekend's failed coup attempt included a plot to kill President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Interior Secretary Jose Lina said the reported assassination plot was the subject of an intelligence report which had yet to be validated.

More...

CNN:

MOZDOK, Russia -- A suicide truck bomber has destroyed part of a military hospital complex in southern Russia near Chechnya, killing at least 20 people and injuring 30 others, news agencies reported.

Rescue workers were hampered by fires as they tried to pull survivors from the rubble at a major military base in Mozdok in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia, according to reports.

At least 10 bodies have been pulled from the wreckage, CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty quoted Russian media as reporting.

More...

AP:

MOMBASA, Kenya - A terrorist suspect detonated a hand grenade Friday as he was being arrested near Mombasa's central police station, killing himself and a policeman, according to witnesses and police.

Police in a pickup truck stopped a vehicle and tried to apprehend several men inside when one of them detonated the grenade, killing himself and one of the police officers, bystanders said.

Dida G. Dima, the head detective in the port city of Mombasa, said one police officer was killed and another seriously injured when "our people went to arrest a suspected terrorist."

More...