CNN

Spanish police Sunday seized more than 1,000 pounds of explosives and arrested two suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA who were planning to carry out an imminent attack in Madrid, an official said.

Civil Guards stopped the men, each of whom was driving a van, in the village of Cañaveras in Cuenca Province just east of the capital city of Madrid at 2 a.m., Interior Minister Angel Acebes told reporters.

The explosives were found in the second van, which had been readied as a car bomb, the minister said.

AP: Abu Sayyaf Claims Philippines Ferry Fire

The Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility Sunday for a ferry explosion and fire that killed at least two people, though 180 more were missing, according to a radio report.

The Radio Mindanao Network said Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sulaiman claimed Friday’s explosion was revenge for government attacks in the southern Mindanao area. Abu Sayyaf has often called the radio network in the past.

Fire raced through the Superferry 14 on Friday shortly after it left Manila for central and southern islands, killing one person and injuring 12 others. Witnesses reported a powerful explosion that sparked an inferno.

MA‘ARIV: IDF kills Palestinian responsible for attack on Jews at Joseph’s tomb

IDF soldiers on Sunday killed Iad abu Shalal the Palestinian terrorist responsible for masterminding an attack against Breslev Hassid’s at Joseph’s Tomb a couple of months ago.

CNN: Explosives intercepted in Spain

Spanish police Sunday seized more than 1,000 pounds of explosives and arrested two suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA who were planning to carry out an imminent attack in Madrid, an official said.

Civil Guards stopped the men, each of whom was driving a van, in the village of Cañaveras in Cuenca Province just east of the capital city of Madrid at 2 a.m., Interior Minister Angel Acebes told reporters.

The explosives were found in the second van, which had been readied as a car bomb, the minister said.

“The Civil Guard has prevented a tragedy. It would have been a very serious explosion, enough to make a crater of 35 meters and a blast force extending 1.5 kilometers,” Acebes said, citing the opinions of explosives experts.

JERUSALEM POST: Israel nabs Palestinian boys planning attacks

Samaria district police report the arrest Thursday of 3 youngsters age 14 to 16 from the West Bank village of Tubas.

The three had in their possession makeshift firearms, and admitted their intent to perpetrate a shooting attack in Afula.

They were apprehended at the Jalameh roadblock by military police, and told investigators that they had been recruited by a local Islamic Jihad official, who also dispatched them to Afula.

The two also fabricated makeshift handguns and confessed to throwing rocks at passing cars

The three planned to carry out a suicide attack out of anger over Israel’s West Bank barrier, relatives told Associated Press Sunday.

They are among the youngest ever arrested for planning suicide attacks.

MA‘ARIV: Hamas man and wife injured in Gaza home blast

A member of the Hamas Islamic terrorist group and his wife were critically injured Saturday afternoon from an explosion in their home in Gaza City. the Palestinian police is investigation suspicions that the man, Yussuf Shehan, 29, was preparing a bomb when he had a “work accident.”

HA‘ARETZ: Three Palestinians killed, including two Jihad militants in Gaza strike

Three people were killed, among them two Islamic Jihad militants, and fifteen were wounded when Israel Defense Forces helicopters fired missiles at a car near the Jabalya refugee camp on Saturday evening.

The air strike targeted a small gray Subaru traveling on a road linking Gaza City with the Jabalya refugee camp.

Witnesses identified two of the dead as brothers Ayman and Amin Dahduh, who they said were members of the Islamic Jihad militant group. They said Amin was decapitated in the attack.

UPDATE:

Two Islamic Jihad militants were killed, including the head of the organization’s military wing in Gaza, Mahmoud Ouda, in an Israeli helicopter strike on a car in the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening.

Decapitating a terrorist and a terrorist group in one blow!

A Pakistani suicide bomber blew up himself and little else near Islamabad yesterday:

A suicide attacker blew himself up near a Shiite Muslim mosque in a city near the Pakistani capital on Saturday, government officials told The Associated Press.
The explosives went off prematurely, and the bomber was still a distance from the mosque, said army spokesman Gen. Shaukut Sultan.

Sultan said two people were injured in the blast, and the bomber was killed.

JERUSALEM POST: PFLP, Al-Aksa Martyrs claim shooting attack

The couple murdered in the terrorist shooting on the Hebron-Beersheba road near Eshkolot in the south Hebron Hills and close to the Green Line on Friday night are Eitan Kukoi, 30, and his wife Rima Noviko, 25, residents of the Shani Livne community.

Both the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Fatah’s Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades have claimed responsibility for the attack. The PFLP said it is in response to Zionist massacres and attacks will continue.

The two were on their way to Ashdod when gunmen ambushed their car, spraying it with bullets and killing them both instantly. A resident from Meitar alerted security forces after he spotted the car with its windows smashed at the side of the road, and a Magen David Adom team that reached the site after receiving a report of the shooting at 8.24pm was forced to pronounce them dead. Security forces that reached the site combed the area for the perpetrators. Dozens of bullets from Kalashnikov rifles riddled the car.

…

The couple is survived by their 2-year-old.

Reading this I wonder … was bin Laden on the Grassy Knoll? From the Guardian / AP:

Pentagon and Pakistani officials on Saturday denied an Iranian state radio report that Osama bin Laden was captured in Pakistan’s border region with Afghanistan “a long time ago.”

The claim came at a time when Pakistan’s army was hunting al-Qaida suspects in a remote tribal region along the border with Afghanistan, believed to be a possible hiding place for the al-Qaida leader. The report was carried by Iran radio’s external Pushtun service, which is designed for listeners in Afghanistan and Pakistan where the language is widely spoken.

Iran state radio’s main news channel - the Farsi-language service for Iranian listeners - did not carry the bin Laden report. Iran state television also did not carry the report.

The director of Iran radio’s Pushtun service, Asheq Hossein, said he had two sources for the report. The radio quoted its reporter as saying bin Laden had been in custody for a period of time, but a U.S. announcement of the capture was being withheld by President Bush until closer to the November election.

Ha’aretz:

Osama bin Laden has been captured along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a report Saturday on Tehran Radio.

In the report quoting “knowledgeable sources,” the official Iranian media outlet does not specify when the al-Qaida leader was captured, and the report has yet to be confirmed elsewhere.

It said that Bin Laden was apprehended in a region populated by tribes along the border of the two countries, adding that U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visit to Pakistan on Thursday was related to capturing the al-Qaida leader.

The United States and Pakistan on Saturday denied the reports.

Two senior members of a militant Islamic group in the Philippines have been sentenced to life imprisonment for abducting an American citizen.

The two men, Hector Janjalani and Muhammad Ajijon, belong to the Abu Sayyaf group, which is fighting for a separate Muslim state in the Philippines and is said to have links with al-Qaeda.

They were found guilty of kidnapping an American man, Jeffrey Schilling, while he was visiting the island of Jolo with his Philippine fiancée in 2000.

AP: Leader of Japan Nerve Gas Attack Sentenced

Former doomsday cult guru Shoko Asahara was convicted Friday and sentenced to hang for masterminding the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway and other crimes that killed 27 people and alerted the world to the danger of high-tech terrorism.

Asahara, founder of the apocalyptic Aum Shinrikyo cult, also was convicted of ordering his followers to produce and stockpile arsenals of conventional and chemical weapons, including the sarin gas used in the subway attack.

Asahara, 48, stood in silence as the sentence was read. Asahara is the 12th person sentenced to hang for the attacks, and the decision was widely expected. None of the 12 has been executed.

JERUSALEM POST: Report: Suicide attack in Gaza Strip fails

A suicide bomber blew himself up near the greenhouse area of Kfar Daron, in the center of the Gaza Strip.

The suicide bomber died from the explosion.

No one else was wounded.

The suicide bomber reached Kfar Darom by bicycle. When he approached a military jeep near the greenouse area the bomb that he was carrying exploded.

JERUSALEM POST: Police uniforms found inside Erez tunnel

A 35-meter long arms smuggling tunnel was uncovered Friday noon by IDF forces near the Erez industrial zone, site of Thursday’s gunbattle, in which Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Amir Zimmerman, 25 was killed by two Palestinians, reports Army Radio.

Inside the tunnel, soldiers found Palestinian police uniforms and digging tools, which army sources believe was used by the gunmen.

IPC: Fateh’s Revolutionary Council Convenes For the First Time in Three Years

The meetings were called by the Secretariat-General of the council, and the senior figures included the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who is also the Chairman of the Fateh movement, as well as the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahamd Qurei’ and members of the Executive Committee and the Revolutionary Council inside and outside the Palestinian territories who were able to attend.

…

Several news reports talked also about discussions to disband the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the movement, as Mr. Jibril Al Rujoub, national security advisor to President Arafat, pointed out that the revolutionary council would discuss the possibility of disbanding the Brigades, but Ahmad Ghonaim, one of Fateh’s leaders, said that was highly unexpected. “The main problem with Fateh is not the resistance activists, but the disassembly that leads to the absence of responsibility among the movement’s ranks,” Ghonaim told reporters.

Just in case you had any confusion about the link between Arafat, Fateh, and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade because news agencies don’t often make it clear.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) must start peace talks with the government soon and win millions of dollars of development aid, or risk being declared an enemy of the United States, a US embassy official said Thursday.

US authorities are reviewing the actions of the MILF with a view to its possible inclusion in the State Department's "foreign terrorist organization" blacklist, US charge d'affaires Joseph Mussomeli said.

"It is an ongoing assessment process. It is an issue that may in the next year or two really reach a conclusion," he told a Foreign Correspondents' Association of the Philippines press forum.

CNN:

Five Afghan aid workers died in an ambush near the capital, Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said Thursday, the latest in a stream of deadly attacks on civilians.

The victims were traveling in a vehicle near Surobi, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of Kabul, on Wednesday afternoon when they came under fire, Jalali said.

Two more aid workers were injured and another is still missing.

“We’ve made no arrests, and we don’t know how many attackers there were, but there were some reports of terrorists moving back and forward in this area,” Jalali told a news conference.

HA‘ARETZ: IDF troops raid Ramallah banks on hunt for terror money trail

Security forces raided four banks in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday, seizing vast amounts of cash which Israel said was mostly sent by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah to fund Palestinian militants.

The joint operation by police, the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service marked the largest-scale effort since the start of the intifada to stop the flow of funds to militant groups, officials said.

“The purpose of this operation is to impair the funneling of funds, which oil the wheels of terror against Israel,” said an IDF statement. The operation is part of the “global war” on terrorist funding, the military said.

From The Australian :

A son of Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, has been captured by Pakistani forces, one of Pakistan’s leading newspapers reported today.

The Urdu-language Jang daily said Khalid al-Zawahri was arrested in an operation yesterday against al-Qaeda suspects in South Waziristan, a semi-autonomous area bordering Afghanistan.

The report, quoting diplomatic sources, said Khalid was handed over to US custody soon after the arrest and flown out of Pakistan.

Military and government officials declined to confirm or deny the report.

From an email:

Two men alleged to have been bodyguards and aides for Osama bin Laden have been charged with war crimes and will stand trial before the first U.S. military tribunals convened since World War II, officials announced Tuesday.

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, of Sudan, was a paymaster for al-Qaida, and Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul, of Yemen, was a propagandist for bin Laden, the government charged in military indictments unsealed at the Pentagon.

The two men are among more than 600 foreign prisoners held at the U.S. Navy’s Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba. According to the indictments, both spent time in terrorist training camps and served as bodyguards for bin Laden.

Fox has more details.

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Central Asia & the Caucasus, courtesy of Nathan Hamm of The Argus.

TOP TOPIC

• Cross-border cooperation between Pakistani, US, and Afghan forces has dramatically increased recently. Pakistani troops are confronting tribal leaders to drive al Qaeda across the border into the waiting arms of US troops in a “hammer and anvil” strategy. Every day, US and Pakistani forces appear to be on the verge of major operations along the tribal regions on Pakistan’s Afghan border. In late-breaking news, Darren Kaplan informs us that Task Force 121, Saddam Hussein’s captors, are on their way to Afghanistan.

• Georgia’s President Saakashvili sent in Special Forces to root out rebels/bandits on the Abkhaz border, and the Abkhaz leadership seems to be happy about it. But, were Russian peacekeepers the real target of Georgia’s anti-guerilla operations around the Abkhaz conflict zone? Much like in Tajikistan, Russian peacekeepers appear to be letting bandits move across borders in which they should be contained and not protecting ethnic Georgians who have returned to the area. Georgia may be trying to drive them out to take advantage of the turmoil in Abkhazia… The breakaway region has refused to participate in direct talks with Georgia.

• The IFPA says that the US should re-conceptualize its security relationships (the full report can be found here) in Central Asia. The crux of the argument is that the US should move towards a long-term vision for its military presence in the region rather than sticking with the ad-hoc arrangements made post-9/11. A quick glance shows this report well worth reading.

• Ahead of the State Department’s April review of its human rights record, Uzbekistan has shown a sudden willingness to make concrete gestures, signaling that two high-profile prisoners, Ruslan Sharipov and Fatima Mukhadirova will likely be amnestied. Oh yeah, the US may be able to make its Uzbek airbase permanent. Uzbekistan is a tough case for US diplomacy, involving baby steps and frustration.

Other Topics Today Include: Khan Wilhelm; A Bad Month for Jihadists in Turkestan; The Chicken Sandwich Transforms Kyrgyzstan; Russia Revives Soviet Ob-Redirection Plans; The Uzbek Model of Economic Reform; Afghan Militia Disarmament A Success?; Uighurs Under Siege Across Central Asia; and, Much More.

Read The Rest…

Oh, and they’re going to attack again.

Al-Jazeera aired another tape today, supposedly made by Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. In the tape, he talks of more attacks on America and France’s controversial ban on head scarfs for Mulsim school girls.

In the tape aired by the Qatar based satellite Al-Jazeera, the voice said: “The Islamic nation which sent you the New York and Washington brigades has taken a firm decision to send you successive brigades to sow death and aspire to paradise

And France’s head covering ban stems from umm…jealousy.

“The decision of the French president (Jacques Chirac) to issue a law to prevent Muslim girls from covering their heads in schools is another example of the Crusader and envy that the Westerners have against Muslims,” said the voice.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a true al-Qaeda tape brought to you by Al Jazeera without blaming the Jews:

He said al Qaeda is still waging jihad and “brandishes the banner of Islam against the Zionist-crusader campaign.”

JERUSALEM POST: Shin Bet: Hizbullah steps up Israeli-Arab activity

The Hizbullah are stepping up their operations among Israeli-Arabs, Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter warned at a meeting of the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee.

Dichter told the committee members that the Lebanese terror group has activated “terror attack contractors” who receive a “bonus” for every killing, Ynet reported.

The Shin Bet chief said however that the involvement of Israeli-Arabs in Hizbullah activity is mostly motivated by financial concerns and not ideological beliefs.

According to statistics Dichter revealed at the meeting, approximately 21 Israeli-Arabs led suicide bombers to attacks during 2003.

HA‘ARETZ: Boim: Is Palestinian terror caused by a genetic defect?

Deputy Defense Minister Ze’ev Boim, addressing the issue of why much of local, regional and world terrorism is directed by extremist Muslims, asked Tuesday, “What is it about Islam as a whole and the Palestinians in particular? Is it some form of cultural deprivation? Is it some genetic defect. There is something that defies explanation in this continued murderousness.”

Boim was speaking at a memorial ceremony for a the victims of a bus attack on the Coastal Highway 26 years ago.

MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) said in response that “whoever says that Palestinian behavior is caused by a genetic defect has a brain defect himself and the values of a racist fascist.”

George Tenet, director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, made a secret trip to Pakistan earlier this month, which could be the basis for a new anti-terrorist operation which got underway on Sunday, to hunt down members of al-Qaeda.

“There’s a major effort under way to locate al-Qaeda leaders,” a senior Pakistani official said. “The importance of George Tenet’s visit in this connection cannot be underestimated.”Neither the US nor the Pakistani government have publicly confirmed Mr Tenet’s visit. But in interviews with the Financial Times, Pakistani officials said Mr Tenet spent a day in Pakistan mainly discussing the government’s handling of recent investigations into rogue nuclear scientists, accused of selling nuclear know-how to other countries. Mr Tenet also talked about plans for a new operation along the Afghan border, the officials said.

In other news

A joint Russian-Pakistani group on combating international terrorism and other challenges started functioning in Islamabad on Monday.

This is already the second session of the group, which was set up two years ago. It will be attended by representatives of the Foreign Ministries, Interior Ministries, Justice Ministries and the Defence Ministries of the two countries.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed to RIA Novosti that Anatoly Safonov would take part in the consultations on February 23-26. “This is a working group on questions of terrorism, and appropriate problems will be discussed at this session,” a spokesman for the ministry pointed out.

The Pakistani leadership repeatedly stated its firm intention to put an end to the threat of terrorism in the country and its readiness for a broad cooperation in this sphere with other countries.

Amygdala excerpts and links to a report on the state of the CIA in Iraq & Afghanistan. It’s not a comfortable read, but it is enlightening.

This situation has been developing since the mid-70s, and post-9/11 criticisms from ex-agents like Robert Baer and Reuel Marc Gerecht were unsparing and accurate. While CIA Director Tenet’s Georgetown speech trumpeted significantly improved human intelligence capabilities, the truth is that even an incomplete fix will probably take at least five years. Until then, this is what things will often look like on the ground.

UPDATE: StrategyPage adds some further thoughts on the CIA’s “human intelligence” difficulties. It also offers a very vivid look at the moral and political challenges inherent to this kind of intelligence work, especially when viewed from a left-lib perspective. I suspect this is why my colleague Armed Liberal is always so stunned when he hears other liberals blithely propose extensive covert action, SOG teams, etc. as the preferred way to deal with al-Qaeda - so if you’re one of those, please read it.

Pakistani forces have mobilized in the tribal regions along the Afghan border, where al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar are believed to be hiding.

Government sources told CNN the Pakistani army is ready to conduct a big operation against al Qaeda and Taliban elements in the Wana area.

Government sources say. And then government sources deny.

But Pakistan’s Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad on Monday downplayed the mobilization of forces.

“The deployment of troops does not mean that a big operation is in the offing,” Rashid told reporters in the capital, Islamabad.

The Associated Press via the Washington Post reports that the Supreme Court has decided not to hear the “secret case.”

In the “secret case,” M.K.B. v. Warden, 03-6747, the Supreme Court was asked to consider whether two federal courts acted improperly in keeping a case so secret that its mere existence was revealed only by accident.

The “secret case” concerned an Algerian who worked as a waiter in South Florida and came under FBI scrutiny because September 11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan al Shehhi dined where he worked in the weeks before the attacks.

In this unprecedented case, two federal courts sealed an entire proceeding and appeal, including every court filing and ruling, with no public order giving any reason for the secrecy and without making any distinction between information that should be public and that which might justifiably be secret.

You can read what is known about the secret case here.

The Supreme Court made no comment in deciding not to hear the “secret case.” The Court’s decision is available here, at page 23.

JERUSALEM POST: Netanyahu: Palestinian terrorism should be on trial

Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday delivered a sharp message to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, currently debating Israel’s security fence.

“It is not the killers and their dispatchers who are put on trial, it is the victims. We shouldn’t be in The Hague on trial. It’s the Palestinian terror regime and terrorist organizations that should be there. That’s the right order of things,” Netanyahu said.

Speaking at a tourism conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he had a message for those sitting on the court. “You have no right to serve as the moral conscience of the Jewish people. We have our own conscience. Now our conscience tells us that saving our own lives is more important than preserving somebody else’s quality of life. Quality of life is always amenable to improvement. Death is permanent,” he said.

Netanyahu said Israel was working to save the lives of Jewish people. “However, respected judges in Europe are claiming that that the Jewish state has no right to defend itself from murderers.”

JERUSALEM POST: Israel on maximum alert following bus attack

Security forces were on high alert Monday following a suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem a day earlier in which eight Israelis were killed.

Israel also fears Palestinian terror groups might carry out attacks timed to coincide with the opening of the hearings over the West Bank security fence at International Court of Justice at The Hague, Army Radio reported.

Israel has also raised the alert level to level ‘C,’ just one stage before declaring a state of emergency, the radio reported.

Forces were spread out throughout the country with IDF troops patrolling the seam line and the Jerusalem envelope.

HA‘ARETZ: Four victims of Jerusalem sucide bombing laid to rest

Four of the eight victims of Sunday’s suicide bombing in Jerusalem were laid to rest Monday afternoon. The eighth victim of the attack was identified Monday as Rahamiam Rami Duga, 37, from Mevasseret Zion. He was to be buried Monday at 3 P.M.

Ilan Avisedris, 41, was to be buried in Be’er Sheva at 3 P.M. and Yehuda Haim, 48, was to be laid to rest at the Givat Shaul cemetery.

Yaffa Ben-Shimol, 57, was laid to rest at midday Monday in Jerusalem. Lior Azulai, 18, Benaya Jonathan Zuckerman, 18, Nathaniel Havshsush 20, and Yuval Ozana, 31, were buried Sunday.

JERUSALEM POST: Israel annoyed at weak EU response

Israel was “very disappointed” with the “mild” condemnation of Sunday’s suicide attack issued by Ireland in its capacity as rotating president of the European Union, Israeli diplomatic officials said.

Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen issued a statement that condemned the suicide bombing that murdered eight people and offered his condolences to the families.

Then the statement read: “Outrages of this kind are attacks on the hope for peace of all rational people. Firm action against the planners of these attacks is imperative and should be taken to the extent possible by the Palestinian security forces. Renewed security cooperation and political negotiation are essential if peace is ever to be achieved.”

The diplomatic officials characterized the Irish statement as “tepid.”

“What do they mean that the Palestinians should take action ‘to the extent possible?’” one asked. “What is so difficult for them to come out and condemn the attack outright and call on the Palestinians to immediately fight terror with all their might.”

JERUSALEM POST: Bombing overshadows start of Hague hearing

President Moshe Katzav issued a statement following Sunday’s bombing saying, “It is the Palestinian terrorist organizations who should be on trial before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and not the state of Israel.

“As long as they continue perpetrating acts of terrorism, Israel must build the security fence and protect the lives of its citizens. The international community must halt the double standards; nobody has the right to condemn Israel or put it on trial solely because it is taking steps to protect the lives of its citizens by means of a temporary security fence.”

AP: Cell Phones Used to Thwart Kashmir Attack

For years, Indian troops fighting Muslim separatists in Jammu and Kashmir got tips about a pending attack or a militant hide-out from locals who slipped hand-scribbled notes into innocuous gray boxes scattered around towns.

But now that Indian authorities have eased communications restrictions in the disputed region, troops employ the airwaves to solicit information — and, they say, to save lives.

Signs imploring “Call us for Help,” with white phone numbers on a blue background, adorn sandbagged bunkers and roadside security posts across the state. Almost all Indian security officers in Kashmir now carry cell phones. Often they hand out the equivalent of business cards with their e-mail addresses.

Security officials say that after fighting what appeared to be a no-win war for the past 14 years, providing easier access for Kashmiris to mobile phones, land lines and the Internet has paid off in fewer militant attacks and lower death tolls.

MAARIV: White House: PA’s condemnation of terror attack not enough

The White House issued a statement on Sunday in which it commented on the Palestinian Authority’s denunciation of the Sunday morning Jerusalem suicide bombing. “It is time the PA stop talking and begin dismantling the Palestinian terror infrastructure,” the statement said.

The full statement is not yet available at the White House News site.

This report out of the Financial Times says that CIA Director George Tenet secretly flew to Pakistan earlier this month to share information on al Qaeda with government officials there.

A Pakistani military official tells the paper that Tenet’s visit is a big deal, and describes the resulting anti-al Qaeda operations as significant.

(Cross-posted at Late Final.)

HA‘ARETZ: UN envoy: J’lem attack is war crime, but can’t let terror affect Gaza plan

The United Nations envoy to the Middle East, Terje Rode-Larsen, on Sunday condemned the suicide bombing in Jerusalem that claimed eight lives as a war crime, Army Radio reported.

But Larsen also cautioned that Palestinian terrorism should not be allowed to hijack Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to evacuate the settlements in the Gaza Strip, the radio said.

The suicide bomber, sent by Fatah-aligned Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, struck on Egged bus No. 14 at little after 8:30 A.M., killing the eight and wounding another 66 people.

JERUSALEM POST: Palestinians declare another ‘day of rage’

In Jenin, scores of Fatah gunmen took to the streets upon hearing about the Jerusalem bombing, firing shots into the air in an expression of joy. Chanting slogans in praise of the suicide bomber, the gunmen and some merchants distributed sweets to passersby.

Reuters reports: “A brigade from the Pakistani army is already in the tribal region of Waziristan adjacent to the Afghan border where for weeks authorities have been pressuring tribesmen to stop sheltering al Qaeda suspects and Taliban fighters. Saturday, political authorities governing the semi-autonomous tribal regions asked for 8,000 paramilitary soldiers to add to the 4,000 already deployed.”

JERUSALEM POST: Gaza Hamas commander killed in “work accident”

Senior Hamas comander Ahbed al Salem abu Moussa, 30 was killed Sunday morning in an explosion in his home in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

Abu Moussa was a member of the Hamas’ militant wing Al Zadin el Kassam.

Palestinian sources believe the explosion was a “work-related accident.” Sources believe he was trying to launch a mortar attack, when the shell exploded in his hands.

The Hamas web site described the event as a Jihad mission, and claim another man was wounded in the attack.

The British Sunday Express newspaper reports :”New operations aimed at cornering al-Qaeda and Taliban holdouts sheltering in the Pakistani tribal belt where Osama bin Laden may be hiding are soon to get under way, military and intelligence sources have said.The operation will be the fourth of its kind since the September 11 attacks in the US, they added.It will centre on suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda men who Pakistan believes have married Pakistani women and are living in the tribal areas — the remote and historically autonomous regions that have never really been brought under the control of Pakistan’s central government. It will be conducted in the Waziristan tribal region in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier province, intelligence sources said.”

This news spreads through the media like a virus ..

JERUSALEM POST: Egyptians condemn terrorist attack

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s adviser, Osama El-Baz condemned the terrorist attack in meetings in Cairo on Sunday with Labor MK Matan Vilna’i.

The Egyptians said that such attacks “put spokes in the wheels of advancing the peace process.” Vilna’i called upon the Egyptians to become more involved in solving the Middle East conflict.

LOST IN TRANSLATION?
Pardon my lack of ignorance, but aren’t spokes supposed to be in wheels? By adding spokes, a wheel is stabilized and the rim is more firmly attacked to the hub/axle.

I get the distinct feeling that Foreign Minister Maher, well known for recently offering up Egypt’s army to attack Israel for the mercenary sum of one hundred billion dollars, is not condemning terror, but legitimizing and justifying it with this analogy.

A translation of the actual comments in Arabic by Maher as well as the context would be greatly appreciated.

MAARIV: Visiting US congressman astounded by Israeli restraint

Gerald Nadler, US congressman from Long Island was overwhelmed by what he saw this morning: “it is simply horrifying to see it up close, to see the pieces of human flesh on the ground”, he told Maariv Online.

Israel’s restraint is remarkable to Nadler: “Any other nation on earth under attack as Israel is would have already begun bombing the Palestinian Authority. If this had happened in America, you would already see the B-52’s in the air, blowing up the place where the terrorists were sent from. It is sheer hypocrisy on the part of those who say that Israel must not build the security barrier”. Nadler added that the images of what he saw remind him of the period of the Holocaust.

JERUSALEM POST: Mofaz: Fence is potent deterrent to attacks

Despite Sunday’s suicide attack in Jerusalem, the West Bank security fence is still a potent deterrent to suicide bombings, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said.

“We did not succeed this morning but lately we have had several successful cases where we thwarted suicide attacks and there is no doubt that the fence has proven itself as a successful tool against suicide bombers,” Mofaz said.

The defense minister estimated that the reason for Sunday’s attack was “in order to show that the fence is not effective against suicide bombers.”

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at the cabinet meeting, in response to questions of the reason behind Sunday’s attack, “We don’t need to search for a reason why they kill Jews. They have been killing Jews for years and they won’t stop for one day.”

Of the 934 Israelis killed since the start of the Intifada, 584 were killed in suicide attacks.

Other ministers weigh in on the fence’s role in preventing attacks in the rest of the article.

HA‘ARETZ: Gov’t sources: there will be no harsh military response to attack

Israel will not launch a harsh military response after Sunday’s suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus that killed eight people and wounded 66, government sources in the capital said.

The remarks followed a meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz held after the weekly cabinet meeting.

Sharon and Mofaz met for two hours, during which they were updated on the details of the suicide attack and discussed possible Israeli responses. Mofaz will also convene a meeting of security officials later Sunday, to assess possible responses to the bombing.

JERUSALEM POST: Buses with security system to begin operating Mon.

Five new buses with sophisticated suicide-bomber detection devices are to start operating Monday in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

A ceremony, which was scheduled to take place Sunday to launch the new buses, was canceled following the Jerusalem bus attack.

Last month, Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman authorized the use of the security system for public buses that can detect suicide bombers and prevent them from boarding the vehicles.

The system, jointly developed by the bus manufacturing company Ha’argaz, the Transportation Ministry and TAAS-Israel Industries, consists of a barrier for the bus’s front door, explosives detectors and a back door to be used only for exiting the bus.

HA‘ARETZ: Mofaz: Terrorists were motivated by start of ICJ hearings

“On the day that the International Court opens its deliberations on the security fence, we will be burying our dead,” Health Minister Dan Naveh said Sunday from a Jerusalem hospital where he was visiting some of the wounded from a morning bus bombing in the capital, in which seven people were killed and over 60 wounded.

On Monday, the International Court of Justice is scheduled to begin deliberations on the legality of the separation fence Israel is building in the West Bank.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told government ministers that the terrorists behind the suicide bombing were likely motivated by the start of the court deliberations in The Hague.

HA‘ARETZ: Maxim restaurant in Haifa closed for security

The Maxim restaurant in Haifa, the site of an October suicide bombing in which 21 people were killed, was ordered shut Sunday for 30 days by police, citing inadequate security procedures.

According to the closure order, the restaurant will be allowed to reopen soon providing that the owners present a new security plan which is approved by police.

According to the police report, an undercover female officer was able to enter the restaurant while wearing a mock suicide belt. A security guard checked the officer, but he failed to detect the belt.

WaPo has posted the first in a two-article series detailing US attempts to capture Bin Laden, especially during the Clinton administration. Very much worth reading, which you may do here (via MSNBC).

This account, a detailed history of the pursuit of bin Laden before the terrorist attacks of 2001, describes for the first time aborted CIA plans to seize bin Laden at his Kandahar farm, another attempt to rain Katyusha rockets on him, and the final struggle to work with Massoud, all in vain. It is based on several dozen interviews with participants and officials in the United States, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, as well as documents, private records and memoirs about the CIA covert action program in Afghanistan, which was designed in the 1980s to expel occupying Soviet forces and later to capture bin Laden or disrupt his activities.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded Jerusalem bus Sunday morning, killing seven people and wounding more than 60, 11 of them seriously, police and rescue workers said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came just a day before the world court is to begin hearings on the West Bank security barrier that Israel says is crucial for keeping out bombers.

The huge blast went off around 8:30 a.m. during morning rush hour, as the bus drove past a gas station in downtown Jerusalem. The exp