ABC News reports that federal and New York City officials have credible intelligence that al Qaeda is plotting against corporations based in New York:

Sources at several law enforcement agencies tell ABC News that an “overseas source” has provided the information about the threat to New York and that it is more significant than the usual “chatter” intercepted from likely terrorists that has prompted warnings in the past.

[. . .]

Intelligence sources say al Qaeda plans to move non-Arab terrorists across the border with Mexico.

Authorities already have in custody a woman of Pakistani-origin arrested after crossing into Texas. She carried a South African passport with several of the pages torn out, $7,000 in cash and an airplane ticket to New York.

[. . .]

As to the timing of any planned attack, sources say it could take place between now and Election Day in November.

ARAB NEWS: Extremists Who Failed to Surrender Will Be Wiped Out: Abdullah

Crown Prince Abdullah yesterday warned that suspected extremists who had failed to surrender under a royal amnesty would be “annihilated.”

“We had given the deviant group a month in the name of the king and the people,” the crown prince told local dignitaries who came to visit him at his palace in Jeddah, according to Saudi Press Agency.

“Unfortunately, (just a few) turned themselves in, while others remained (at large) and, God willing, will be annihilated,” he said.

The crown prince’s warning came as security forces arrested a foreign resident in possession of weapons and explosives, including rocket-propelled grenades, in a Riyadh district.

“Security forces, in searching for members of the deviant group, succeeded in arresting a (foreign) resident in a Riyadh district,” an Interior Ministry official was quoted by the Saudi Press Agency as saying yesterday.

He did not give the man’s name or nationality.

“He was found in possession of weapons and explosives, including two rocket-propelled grenades, nine highly explosive blocks, four hand grenades, and an AK-47 machine-gun with over 1,000 bullets, in addition to forged documents and electronic devices,” the official said.

HAARETZ: Uzbekistan nabs suspects in Friday’s suicide bombings

Uzbekistani Interior Minister Zokirjon Almatov on Saturday said a number of people were arrested on suspicion of carrying out Friday’s suicide bombings in Tashkent in which three people were killed, Israel Radio reported.

The Islamic Jihad group in Uzbekistan claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside the Israeli embassy in which two local security guards died.

Explosions also struck the United States embassy and the general prosecutor’s office in city, wounding eight people. A policeman who was guarding the U.S. embassy at the time of the attack died Saturday as a result of injuries sustained in the bombing.

Israel’s ambassador to Uzbekistan, Tzvi Cohen, said no Israelis were hurt in the explosion. The embassy’s Israeli staff was holed up in the building, from where they conveyed messages to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

AL-JAZEERA: Government buildings torched in Janin

Minutes after three foreign captives were rescued by Palestinian security personnel, several armed men belonging to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades burned down the governor’s headquarters in Janin.

Zakaria Zubaidi, a Brigades leader, denied on Tuesday the burning of the governor’s building was in protest against Palestinian President Yasir Arafat’s appointment of Qaddura Musa as governor, Aljazeera’s correspondent in Janin, Ali Sumodi, reported.

Musa, 50, Fatah secretary-general for Janin, had reportedly refused to pay the salaries of Brigades’ members.

By early Saturday morning, the building housing the Palestinian intelligence services was also on fire, Aljazeera’s correspondent reported.

A prominent American Muslim leader has acknowledged his involvement in an alleged Libyan plot to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Abdurahman Alamoudi, 52, a naturalized citizen who lives near Washington D.C., pleaded guilty in a U.S. court on Friday to charges that included illegal financial transactions with Libya.

Under a plea agreement, Alamoudi admitted violating the U.S. trade and travel ban with Libya, impeding an IRS investigation and illegally obtaining U.S. citizenship.

He confirmed the accuracy of a 20-page statement of facts which described his role in the alleged assassination plot. He was not charged in the conspiracy.

JERUSALEM POST: IAF hits weapons workshop in Gaza

IAF helicopters on Friday targeted a metal workshop in Gaza City used to manufacture explosives and Kassam rockets by Palestinian terrorist.

At least two people were injured, Palestinian medics said.

A huge plume of blaze and smoke rose from the workshop, which suffered serious damages, Palestinian witnesses said.

The IDF confirmed its helicopters attacked a workshop used by Hamas to manufacture weapons, Israel Radio reported.

Reuters reports that the Islmamic Jihad Group (the guys behind the March bombings) is claiming responsibility for yesterday’s bombings. The claim, coming through a website, claims,

“God willing, such martyrdom operations by the group will continue,” said the statement from the Islamic Jihad Group in Uzbekistan.

“(These attacks) were an answer to the injustice of the apostate government and an expression of support for the jihad (holy war) of our Muslim brothers in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Hijaz (Saudi Arabia) and other Muslim lands,”

The AFP, though, reports that it is the IMU that claimed responsibility.

“A group of young Muslims from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan carried out martyrdom operations today against the embassies of America and Israel and the office of the prosecutor general, which started a few days ago to try several brethren from the group,” the statement said.

The rest of the AFP quotes are the same, so it is a little unclear who is reporting properly. The story mentions that the claim was made on this website. [Fixed AFP link? Any Arabic speakers want to translate and see if I got it right?]

Duplicate of post at The Argus.

I probably would not post this were it not for the recent bombing. The trial of those charged in the late March Tashkent bombings began their trial this week. They have all confessed and made an interesting claim.

They say that the terrorist acts were ordered by none other than the Taliban leader Mullah Omar (not to mention less important Al Qaeda functionaries).

That the general prosecutor’s office was hit along with the embassies certainly suggests that there is a connection between the start of the trial and the most recent attacks.

For those who are curious, the US embassy is located on Chilanzar Street on the SW section of this map (to the right of Khalklar Dustligi, one of the yellow, main roads). The Israeli embassy is on Shakrisabskaya Street, though I’m not quite sure what part of the city that’s in.

As more news comes in throughout the day, it, and speculation, will be posted at The Argus.

Reuters, as well as the Israeli radio, report that in addition to the explosion at the Israeli embassy, there was also one at the US embassy - no word on casualties there.

MAARIV: 3 Kassam rockets hit Sderot

Three Kassam rockets were fired at the southern town of Sderot an hour ago, landing residential areas. Four people are being treated for shock after witnessing the hits.

JERUSALEM POST: Tashkent: Explosion at Israeli embassy

At least two dead in explosions hit the U.S. and Israeli embassies in the Uzbek capital Friday, a top police official said. Another blast also hit the general prosecutor’s office and caused “deaths,” a Russian news agency reported.

Embassy officials weren’t immediately available for comment, but Israel Radio reported that a suicide bomber set off the explosion at the Israeli Embassy in Tashkent.

The victims who were killed at the Israeli Embassy were not Israeli citizens but were foreign workers employed there, Israel Radio said.

Reuters reports:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Pakistan has arrested a senior al Qaeda figure with a bounty of up to $25 million on his head, Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat told CNN television Thursday.

He said the suspect had been captured during a raid in central Pakistan a few days ago. He did not identify the captive but said he was “a person who is most wanted internationally.”

Al Arabiya satellite news channel quoted Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as saying the suspect was arrested Sunday.

“The Pakistani president said the arrested person is Tanzanian who is married to an Uzbek woman, and who is wanted by the United States,” the station said.

Al Arabiya said the suspect may be Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who is on the FBI (news - web sites)’s most wanted “terrorists” list for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings by al Qaeda of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Ghailani was among seven people about whom the United States said in May it was seeking information amid fears of a possible attack in the near future.

An FBI Web site lists Ghailani as a suspect in the African embassy bombings and says it is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to his capture.

A Pakistani official said Tuesday that Pakistani security forces were holding three Africans, including a Tanzanian, suspected of being militants after a shootout last week.

Another said the suspects had been trying to flee Pakistan along with their families, using fake documents, after living in neighboring Afghanistan (news - web sites).

Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-led “war on terror,” has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda members since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Several senior al Qaeda figures have been handed over to Washington.

JERUSALEM POST: Palestinians surrender bombs to IDF at roadblock

Palestinian security guards transferred 4 explosive devices to IDF soldiers at the Walaje roadblock south of Jerusalem Thursday.

Border Police sappers were called to defuse the devices, reports Israel Radio.

HAARETZ: IAF kills two Palestinian militants in Gaza missile strike

Two wanted Palestinian militants were killed on Thursday afternoon in an Israeli missile strike on their vehicle as it drove through the southern Gaza Strip.

Missiles were fired at the car as it neared the entrance of the Gaza town of Rafah, not far from the Egyptian border, Palestinian sources said. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed that it was behind the strike.

Residents said the two men killed in the air strike were militants wanted by Israel.

They were identified as Amr Abu Suta, the commander of the Abu Reish militant group, and his assistant, Zaki Abu Rakha.

The Abu Reish Brigade is an extreme offshoot of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction that has recently been highly critical of the chairman and claimed responsibility for a recent wave of kidnappings in Gaza last week.

Reuters carry two reports on the latest statement to come out of what is perceived to be Al Qaeda’s European branch, the Abu Hasef Al Masri brigades. In it, they vow ‘bloody war’ on Europe, after Europe declined earlier to take up Al Qaeda on its truce offer.

Reuters:

Qaeda-Linked Group Vows ‘Bloody War’ on Europe

Jul 28, 4:41 PM (ET)

DUBAI (Reuters) - Muslim militants claiming links to al Qaeda vowed in a statement on Wednesday to launch a “bloody war” on Europe after a “truce” offered by Osama bin Laden expired earlier this month.

“Today, we have declared a bloody war on you and we will not stop raids against you until you return to the correct path,” said the statement signed by Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades and posted on an Islamist Web site, which has carried previous statements from the group.

“After the truce determined by our sheik Osama bin Laden ended, and after you have not returned to the correct path, we declare a war in your faces and in the face of your silent people whose silence proves their support to you,” it added.

The authenticity of the statement could not be immediately verified.

The group had warned in an internet statement earlier this month it would launch new attacks on Europe once the truce, which expired in mid-July, ended.

Al Qaeda leader bin Laden, in an audiotape on April 15, gave European states three months to pull troops out of Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries or face new attacks like the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people on March 11.

In the same statement, they theaten Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy:

Reuters:

Qaeda-Linked Group Says Berlusconi Its First Target

Jul 28, 5:28 PM (ET)

DUBAI (Reuters) - Muslim militants claiming links to al Qaeda said in a statement on Wednesday Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was their first target for attack.

“We will shake the cities of Europe and we will start with you Berlusconi, and we will make it bloody until you return to the correct path. Wait for us Berlusconi and your other allies as well, wait for our promise which we have revealed to you and are now revealing to Europe,” said the statement signed by Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades and posted on an Islamist Web site.

More at Southern Watch

JERUSALEM POST: France bans Hizbullah’s al-Manar

The French Broadcasting Authorities (CSA) on Wednesday complied with a recommendation by the French government to ban Hizbullah’s al-Manar satellite television from broadcasting in France.

On July 12 of this year, the French Ministry of Interior sent an advisory memo to the CSA recommending al-Manar’s transmission via the European satellite operator Eutelsat be “immediately terminated due to their anti-Semitic content.”

Al-Manar is the official mouthpiece of Lebanon’s Shiite guerrilla group Hizbullah.

WTOP/Federal News Radio:

A South African woman picked up in Texas almost 10 days ago may turn out to be a key, high-level al-Qaida operative.

Her name is Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed. She was stopped at McAllen Miller International Airport on July 19 headed to New York.

Eddie Flores of the U.S. Border Patrol office in McAllen, Texas tells FederalNewsRadio.com that a review of her papers raised some concerns.

“In looking at her documents, they did not find any entry documents in her passport where she was legally admitted into the United States,” says Flores.

Ahmed produced a South African passport to the agents with four pages torn out, and with no U.S. entry stamps. Ahmed reportedly later confessed to investigators that she entered the country illegally by crossing the Rio Grande River. Ahmed was carrying travel itineraries showing a July 8 flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to London. Six days later, Ahmed traveled from London to Mexico City before attempting to travel from McAllen to New York.

Government sources tell FederalNewsRadio.com that capturing this woman could be comparable to the arrest of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of 9/11. It was revealed in court Tuesday that she was on a watch list and had entered the U.S. possibly as many as 250 times.

Tuesday, the South African government issued a warning that Al-Qaida militants and other terrorists traveling through Europe had obtained South African passports, and authorities believe they got them from crime syndicates operating inside the government agency that issues the documents.

(Via Rusty Shackelford.)

Cross-posted at Backcountry Conservative.

JERUSALEM POST: Nasrallah: Attack on Al-Aksa means end of Israel

A possible destruction of the Al-Aksa Mosque by Jewish extremists will have “lethal” repercussions for the Jewish State, Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned Wednesday.

Speaking on the Beirut-based al-Manar television, the mouthpiece for the extremist Shiite group, Nasrallah warned: “God forbid, should the Holy Al-Aksa be destroyed this will mean the destruction of the Jewish entity [Israel].”

Bloomberg:

At least six people were killed, including two United Nations workers, when a bomb exploded inside a mosque in the central Afghan province of Ghazni, the U.S. military said in a statement.

The UN workers, who weren’t identified, were registering Afghans for October’s presidential election when the bomb exploded, while two other unidentified UN personnel who were injured were flown by UN helicopters to the U.S. military base at Bagram, north of the capital, Kabul, the statement said.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the world body’s has a report that only two people were killed in the attack — an Afghan working on the joint UN-Afghan voter registration effort and an individual who was registering to vote. Haq said the UN believes no UN workers were killed in the bombing.

Cross-posted at Backcountry Conservative.

Reuters reports on a foiled terrorist attempt to strike an embassy of a North African country in Vienna.

Reuters:

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian anti-terrorism investigators found detailed plans of a North African embassy with notes on its security gaps during a raid last year and may have foiled an attack, officials said Wednesday.

The raid has only now been made public as the Federal Constitutional Protection and Anti-Terrorism Agency presented its annual report on security threats in Austria.

The agency’s head said the Vienna embassy which he declined to identify had been immediately informed and extra protection assigned while it beefed up its own security.

“These measures (the raid) may at least have prevented the planning of an attack,” Gert-Rene Polli told Reuters.

The 2003 report said there was no evidence of a direct threat to Austria, but that a latent threat hung over all of Europe and the danger of Islamic militant attacks was growing.

Investigators found the embassy drawings while serving a search warrant on suspects from North Africa, who left the country before prosecutors could take up the case.

Polli said the leads generated by the raid were more important than the fact no one was tried.

“We found very interesting material that took us further,” he said.

more on this at Southern Watch

MAARIV: Mine tunnel discovered

IDF foces have uncovered a large tunnel in the northern paret of the Gaza Strip. Military sources believe its purpose was to mount an attack on an IDF outpost similar to the one a few weeks ago, when Palestinians succesfully mined a IDF outpost by tunneling under it.

NY TIMES: Islamic Charity Says F.B.I. Falsified Evidence Against It

A shuttered Islamic charity in Dallas, accused of being a financial front for Middle East terrorists, charged Monday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation falsified evidence and “fabricated a case” against it in an effort to show that it financed Palestinian suicide-bombers.

The charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, brought a formal complaint with the Justice Department inspector general and requested an investigation, saying that the F.B.I. used as the crux of its case a “distorted” and erroneous translation of sensitive Israeli intelligence material. The Holy Land group said it hired an independent translating service in Oregon, which cited 67 discrepancies or errors in translation in a four-page F.B.I. document used in the case.

The F.B.I. and the inspector general’s office said they had not yet seen the request for an investigation and could not comment on the specifics of the accusations. But an F.B.I. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that “our investigation was based on the facts that were developed, and I’m not aware of any concerns expressed with regard to the translations used in the case.”

AP reports: A federal indictment charges a Muslim charity and seven men with conspiracy and dealing with terrorists.

BBC: Guantanamo inmates back in France

Four French nationals captured by US troops in Afghanistan have been transferred home from the US military base in Guantanamo Bay.

The detainees - among seven Frenchmen seized during the war against the Taleban in late 2001 - arrived at the Evreux air base, west of Paris.

They are expected to appear before a French anti-terrorism magistrate.

Nearly 600 prisoners from the US “war on terror” are still held at Guantanamo naval base in Cuba.

Airports in Turkey have been placed on the second highest terror alert level after officials received intelligence that the Al Qaeda terror network may be planning Sept. 11-style attacks, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

The daily Milliyet said the warning said Usama bin Laden’s terror network may either hijack a plane to crash it onto a target or detonate an explosive device on board a plane.

The report did not say where the attack might take place.

JERUSALEM POST: Palestinians digging tunnel under Rafah terminal

The Palestinian Authority is refusing to allow up to 2,000 Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side of the border in Rafah to use an alternative crossing in the Negev instead.

The Nitzana crossing was prepared by Israel after the Rafah international border crossing was closed 10 days ago do to suspicions that terrorists were digging a tunnel under the crossing and plan to rig it with explosives.

Security officials confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that after the new crossing was prepared and ready for operation, PA officials declared they would refuse to process the Palestinians seeking to return to the Gaza Strip.

The officials said Israel was trying to find ways to alleviate the situation and assist the Palestinians stranded in Egypt.

HAARETZ: Shin Bet nabs cell planning attacks in Shoham, Netanya

The Shin Bet security service and Israel Defense Forces troops arrested a Hamas cell in the West Bank city of Nablus last month that had been planning to carry out terror attacks in Shoham and Netanya, it was released for publication Tuesday.

Four students at A-Najah University in Nablus were among the Hamas members arrested.

The cell was planning a number of shooting attacks in Shoham, near Ben-Gurion International Airport. The cell planned to disguise one of the militants as a deaf and mute beggar to gain entry into the city.

Yes, it’s a new feature on Winds of Change.NET - and a new team member, too!

“We are becoming hopeful day by day. We cannot develop our country, in which the fighting existed for 23 years, within two years. We had lots of problems in the past but they are being solved day by day.”
— Ghalib Shah Azizi,
Head of Afghanistan’s Northern Chamber of Commerce

If there is one place where good news is harder to come by than Iraq, it’s Afghanistan. For that we should partly blame our poor understanding of Afghan realities, and consequently, unrealistic expectations. An isolated, poor, largely rural country with harsh landscapes and limited natural resources, Afghanistan has been for the past quarter of a century cursed with constant violence and oppression. Good news from Afghanistan will not in any foreseeable future mean mushrooming shopping malls and health care clinics in every village. For the people who have suffered so much for so long, relative peace and absence of theocracy are a good start.

But, as is the case with reporting from Iraq, we shouldn’t let the media off the hook so easily, either. For all the fashionable talk about Iraq distracting the Bush Administration from the war on terror, it’s largely been the media who have ignored Afghanistan except for the occasional story about another skirmish with the Taliban remnants or the explosion in opium cultivation.

CBS’s veteran journalist, Tom Fenton, recently had this to say about the work of his media colleagues:

“You know the old saying: No news is good news. But in the news business, it is just the opposite: Good news is no news - which is why you have been hearing so little from Afghanistan recently.

“Iraq has been grabbing the headlines. Even the most confirmed optimist would find it hard to see a ray of light there today. But there is a growing body of evidence that things are beginning to improve in Afghanistan. To see why, you need to travel around Afghanistan a bit. That’s something the media find hard to do in Iraq now - many news crews rarely venture out of their hotels in Baghdad.”

Not to mention in Kabul. If they did, they would arguably find more stories like these:

• Democracy
  
• Society
  
• Reconstruction
  
• Humanitarian Aid
  
• Security

HAARETZ: IDF: Hezbollah may have rockets that reach Tel Aviv

Hezbollah might have a few dozen long-range rockets capable of hitting the Tel Aviv area if launched from southern Lebanon, the head of Military Intelligence told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday.

IDF Intelligence Chief Major-General Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash said Hezbollah had a few dozen rockets “apparently” with a range of 115 kilometers and perhaps as great as 200 kilometers. Farkash said Israel was also investigating the possibility that the rockets might also reach as far as Be’er Sheva.

Farkash told the cabinet that over the past two years, Hezbollah has increased its supply of rockets with a 25-kilometer range, capable of hitting targets in the Galilee, from 11,000 to 13,000. The number of mid-range rockets in the hands of Hezbollah has also risen from a few hundred to 500. Israel is certain that the Iranian Fajar 3 and Fajar 5 rockets, with a range of 45 to 75 kilometers, and Syrian-made 200-milimeter rockets, with a range of 70 kilometers, are included among these rockets.

REUTERS: Palestinian Militants Vow ‘Revolutionary Justice’

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, whose masked gunmen have clashed with Palestinian security forces in Gaza, has vowed in a manifesto to mete out “revolutionary justice” to those it brands corrupt.

The militant group, part of President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, has been involved in the worst internal strife for a decade — turmoil that has stirred fears of civil war.

Militants began distributing the pamphlet titled “Dream of the Martyrs” in Gaza this week, but it was dated July 15, a day before unrest began with a wave of high-profile kidnappings. Black hooded gunmen have also attacked several police posts.

“We will put a conclusive end to those who are outside the organizational, national and moral understanding of our people, removing them from official positions and holding them to account,” the proposal said.

It said it would “implement the law of revolutionary justice against them” without giving further details.

JERUSALEM POST: Report: Six Palestinian gunmen killed in Tulkarm

Six Palestinian gunmen were reportedly killed in clashes with IDF troops and undercover Border Police units in the West Bank city of Tulkarm Sunday night.

Palestinians reported hearing gunfire in the streets, according to Arab media reports.

HAARETZ: Six children injured after missile hits Gaza settlement

Six children were injured on Sunday evening after an anti-tank missile hit a community center in the Gaza Strip settlement of Neveh Dekalim in Gush Katif.

One 10-year-old child was seriously injured and five others, also 10, suffered light injuries in the attack.

Palestinian militants fired the missile from the area of Khan Yunis.

AP: Britain to Issue Terror Information Kits

Britain’s top law enforcement official said Sunday he is preparing to issue a booklet with advice on what to do in case of a terrorist attack or a civil emergency.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said the pamphlet was inspired by information kits issued by the Australian government last year.

He said Britons should be “alert but not alarmed” about the threat from terrorism.

“I spent from Sept. 11 a lot of political energy and political clout persuading people not to over-hype what was going on,” Blunkett told British Broadcasting Corp. TV.

“Not because the threat isn’t real … but because we need to go about our daily lives. We need to keep our economy and our social life going and if people were over-frightened they would change their behavior.”

AP: Morocco Warns Spain About Militants

Moroccan authorities have warned Spain that they have lost track of 400 suspected militants who trained in al-Qaida terrorist camps in Afghanistan, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Most of the suspects in the Madrid train bombings were Moroccan, prompting that country’s government to alert Spanish anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzon of the situation during a meeting in Rabat, Morocco, in early July.

About 600 Moroccans were known to have trained in Afghanistan in camps sponsored by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the daily El Pais said, quoting unidentified sources close to police and judicial officials.

But Morocco knew the whereabouts of only 200 of them, El Pais said.

JERUSALEM POST: Laser gun against Kassams a possibility

The defense industry is considering adapting the Nautilus system, or Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL), meant for anti-Katyusha defense systems in the north, to combat lower tech Kassam rockets on the Gaza strip border. The Nautilus, which has cost hundreds of million of dollars to develop, is essentially a laser gun, has been developed over the last few years in a joint US – Israeli program.

According to security sources familiar with the design, the MTHEL will be able to fire a beam every five seconds and follow 15 targets simultaneously. It will also be able to turn glass canopies on fighter jets into opaque glass after a one-second blast. The MTHEL could also be used against helicopters.

In field tests conducted since development of the system, the Nautilus has succeeded in downing over thirty Katyusha rockets, and several artillery shells.

Advanced testing in New Mexico further improved the laser’s targeting system and enabled it to down a long-range missile.

A defense official told Israel Radio Sunday that the cost of adjusting the system to target Kassam rockets would be very high.

After all, you have to upgrade the sea bass to sharks…

Here’s a shocker:

MAARIV: Egypt foils transfer of 60 rockets to Gaza

IDF intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash, has told ministers at the weekly cabinet session that Egypt recently foiled the transfer of 60 rockets to Gaza. He also noted that Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah recently acknowledged his organization’s active involvement in Palestinian territories.

JERUSALEM POST: IAF helicopter strikes Gaza

In yet another attempt to target a senior Hamas official, an IAF Apache attack helicopter fired a number of missiles Sunday morning at the home of Hamas member Abu Malek Jundash in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood.

At the time of the attack the suspect was not home. The house, which was empty when the missiles hit it, was totally destroyed.

According to local Palestinian reports, several bystanders were lightly wounded. Two people were taken to a Gaza hospital with light wounds, and two others were treated on the spot.

Is Musharraf dragging his feet or not? Well, if this is true, then there’s some good news in Pakistan…

DAILY TIMES: Pakistanis sneak up to Bin Laden

CIA-sponsored Pakistani agents have infiltrated the outer core of Al Qaeda in the high-gear American effort to grab Osama bin Laden.

The Pakistani agents, who are joined by Afghans and Uzbeks, are “beyond foot soldiers but not in the inner circle.” These agents “are more senior than the agents (the United States had) three years ago, who were on the periphery,” a senior intelligence official told Washington Post, according to a report published Saturday.

US intelligence believes that Al Qaeda today has a far less capable team than it had before the 9/11 attacks. However, Al Qaeda would “still want to continue to attack us in the ways they did three years ago,” the official said.

According to a CIA official, “We have busted plots repeatedly” undertaken by “serious Al Qaeda players” involving both aircraft and ships, some in Northeast Asia, others in Southeast Asia. He said intelligence on the possibility of other attacks had recently been strong. “I wouldn’t characterise what we have now as chatter. I think we have some fairly specific information that Al Qaeda wants to come after us,” he added.

HAARETZ: Security services avert suicide bombing

The Israel Defense Forces, along with Shin Bet Security Services say they averted on Saturday a suicide bombing planned to be carried out in the Jordan Valley. Troops arrested three Islamic Jihad militants said linked to the planned attack in the town of Tubas, in the northern West Bank.

The three men arrested included the intended suicide bomber, his dispatcher and an assistant. During their arrest, soldiers found an explosive belt weighing 15-kilos in the attic of one of their homes.

Security forces carried out a controlled-explosion of the belt, Israel Radio reported.

An investigation of the three revealed they planned to target a gas station which also houses a restaurant.

HAARETZ: Hanegbi: Extreme right may carry out attack on Temple Mount

Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi on Saturday said that the defense establishment has identified a strengthening of intent among extreme-right groups to carry out a terror attack on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in order to thwart the peace process.

“There is no information on specific persons, otherwise the Shin Bet and the police would not have enabled them to act,” Hanegbi told Channel Two news, “but there are worrying indications pointing to a purposeful - not just philosophical - frame of mind.”

“There is a danger that they would want to make use of the most explosive target, in hope that the ensuing chain reaction would bring about the destruction of the political process,” he added.

HAARETZ: Militants set fire to Gaza police station

Masked militants set fire and destroyed a Palestinian police station south of Gaza City on Saturday, in an apparent protest against PA Chairman Yasser Arafat’s lack of reform of the security services.

Witnesses to the fire and local security officials said the unidentified militants stormed the police station in the town of Zwaida, about seven kilometers south of Gaza City, smashed furniture, then set the building alight.

No one was injured, but damage was caused to a town council building nearby. The building was sparsely occupied since the raid happened before normal working hours. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

AP: Surrender of al-Qaeda chief negotiated

Negotiations for the surrender of the man believed to be al-Qaeda’s chief in the Arabian Peninsula have begun, a Saudi cleric said Friday.

Sheik Safar al-Hawaly, speaking to The Associated Press from the southern Saudi province al-Baha, said an intermediary was sent to Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi on Thursday night. He would not say where al-Aoofi was.

Al-Hawaly said he had previously mediated with extremists on behalf of the Saudi government.

Saudi officials were not immediately available to comment Friday, the Muslim Sabbath.

REUTERS: Group May Attack Media at Democrats Convention-FBI

The FBI said on Friday it was investigating “unconfirmed information” of a possible attack on media vehicles during the Democratic National Convention, which begins on Monday in Boston.

“The FBI has received unconfirmed information that a domestic group is planning to disrupt the Democratic National Convention by attacking media vehicles with explosives or incendiary devices,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston field office said in a statement.

The FBI said members of the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force were investigating, and that it would provide more details if there is “any credible information.”

A spokeswoman for the Boston FBI told Reuters that the bureau had notified media organizations of the probe because they were potential targets.

Boston police declined immediate comment.

MAARIV: Al-Qadea mastermind planned to crash plane into Eilat

Al-Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed offered Osama Bin Laden in the spring of 2001 to perpetrate a terror attack on the Israeli resort town of Eilat, the report published by the 9/11 investigative commission reveals.

According to the report, Mohammed raised the idea of crashing an airplane on the city but the al-Qaeda leader rejected his idea.

The panel of five Republicans and five Democrats on Thursday released the findings of its 20-month investigation into the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history. They called for an overhaul of America’s intelligence agencies to stop the next terror attack. Citing multiple government failures, the report called for a national counterterrorism center headed by a Cabinet-level director to centralize intelligence efforts.

AP: U.S. seeking cleric’s extradition

Lawyers acting for the U.S. government on Friday outlined a series of alleged terrorism offenses by radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri as they sought his extradition in a British court.

But his defense attorney said al-Masri wouldn’t receive a fair hearing if he was sent to the United States and expressed fears that some American evidence against him may have been obtained from tortured witnesses.

Defense lawyer Edward Fitzgerald also told Belmarsh Magistrates Court in south London that the preacher could face the death penalty in the United States for charges relating to a hostage-taking in Yemen.

Al-Masri, 47, nodded to confirm his name and age and shook his head when asked if he wanted the charges to be repeated.

(Now put your right hand on the Ko- … oh, wait. Put your left ha- … well, how about a foot?)

What the hell … we’ll wait. From The Washington Times:

Congress will begin acting on some of the recommendations in the September 11 commission’s report when lawmakers return from summer recess, but leaders said the dramatic changes sought in yesterday’s report will be put off until after the Nov. 2 elections.

Here’s the spin:

“We will move the Faster and Smarter Funding for First Responders Act to the floor soon to ensure that our areas under the highest risk of threats are taken care of,” said Rep. Christopher Cox, California Republican and chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security Committee.

And here’s the counterspin:

Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Democratic Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Evan Bayh of Indiana suggested a special session to move more of the recommendations forward.

“Delay is our enemy, and time is important. And that’s why I think it’s so important that, what Joe and Arlen and Evan say, that if necessary, let’s do a special session,” Mr. McCain said.

Naw, let’s wait. Fundraising is MUCH more important. Go here to email your elected representatives.

HAARETZ: Palestinian killed in Beit Hanun dispute with Al- Aqsa militants

An Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades cell killed a 16-year-old Palestinian youth in Beit Hanun on Friday after his family opposed the cell’s attempt to launch Qassam rockets from their yard, security sources said.

According to a report obtained by the defense establishment from Palestinian sources, the cell, comprised of six men, arrived at Za’anun family’s Beit Hanun home in a commercial vehicle on Friday morning. The cell placed a Qassam rocket launcher adjacent to the family’s house, and one of the cell members opened fire on an armored Israel Defense Forces vehicle not far from the house.

Members of the Za’anun family came out of their house holding sticks and rocks, and tried to drive the Al-Aqsa militants from their yard, most likely fearing that their house would be demolished if Qassam rockets were launched from it.

During the clash, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades members opened fire and killed Hassan Za’anun and wounded three additional family members. The militants left the area following the incident, without firing the Qassam rockets.

BY THE WAY:
If you’re wondering about Al-Jazeera’s new ethical standards, here’s an example of how they apply to coverage of Palestinian witnesses propagandists-on-the-scene.

Fox News:

WASHINGTON — A report of a bomb aboard a Turkish merchant ship Thursday forced the U.S. Coast Guard (search) to escort the vessel away from the port of Philadelphia and anchor it near the mouth of the Delaware River, where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean, senior Defense officials told FOX News.

The ship’s master became irritated with the length of time a routine Coast Guard search was taking and made comments about a possible explosion, officials said. He refused to allow authorities to search certain portions of the vessel, called the Cenk Kaptanoglu (search).

But the captain later told authorities he’d been joking about the bomb, officials told FOX News. The ship had not yet been boarded for its second inspection.

Still, the Coast Guard took his comments “very seriously” and planned to conduct a “multi-agency” search, officials told FOX News.

HAARETZ: Two Islamic Jihad militants killed in IAF strike in Gaza

Two Islamic Jihad militants were killed Thursday evening when an Israel Air Force helicopter missile struck their car as they were traveling in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

Islamic Jihad said that one of the two was a field commander in the movement. The second was not immediately identified.

A third member of the group was wounded in the strike, which occurred in a district known as a stronghold of Islamic militants frequently targeted by the Israel Defense Forces.

UPDATE:
Three dead.

9-11 Commission Report: “[L]ess than a week after [Richard A.] Clarke’s phone call [to an Arab government] the bin Laden camp was hurriedly dismantled, and the site was deserted.”

According to the 9-11 Commission Report, the Clinton Administration had bin Laden’s camp in its sites, but the camp was “hurriedly dismantled … and … deserted” after a leak to an Arab government by Richard A.