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HavenWorks.com/intelligence/archive/2003 |
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/ 2003 Intelligence News |
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- "Ashcroft
steps aside from CIA leak probe." ... "John Ashcroft,
US attorney-general, on Tuesday stepped aside from a politically charged
investigation into the leak of the identity of an undercover Central Intelligence
Agency officer." ... "Patrick Fitzgerald, the US attorney in Chicago, will
take over the inquiry and report to James Comey, Mr Ashcroft's deputy at
the Department of Justice, which is running the investigation, and Christopher
Wray, assistant attorney-general." -By Marianne Brun-Rovet
-FT.com
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- 
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- "Iraq
arms hunt may hinder other U.S. aims." ... "In nine
months, not a single item has been found in Iraq from a long and classified
intelligence list of weapons of mass destruction which guided the work
of dozens of elite teams from Special Forces, the military, the CIA and
the Pentagon during the most secretive, expensive and fruitless weapons
hunt in history." ... "For U.S. allies, arms control experts and some involved
in the hunt, the lack of evidence in a war premised on the threat of proliferation
will have far reaching consequences in the coming year for the United States
in its efforts to curb Iran, North Korea, Syria and others." ... "While
some argue the Iraq war helped push open the doors of closed regimes such
as Libya and Iran, others say it has only strengthened convictions that
negotiations, U.N. inspections and sanctions work." -By
Dafna Linzer -AP
via -MercuryNews-BayArea
- 
- "Germany
Raises Security at Hospital." ... "Hamburg police
received the information from unidentified "security sources," a city police
statement said. It stated that authorities had "concrete indications of
people who want to carry out attacks by means of a car bomb" on the facility,
in the suburb of Wandsbek." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- "Attacks
possible during holidays; alert level raised to Orange."
... "The head of the Department of Homeland Security on Monday urged people
to "just go about your business" despite the decision to raise the national
terror-attack warning to its second-highest level." ... "After briefing
President Bush on Monday, Ridge reiterated to reporters that the intelligence
community considered the new threat "the most significant threat" to the
country since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." ... ""The information
we have indicates that extremists abroad are anticipating near-term attacks
that they believe will either rival or exceed" the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks,
Ridge had said in announcing the upgraded alert status on Sunday."
-AP via -USATODAY
-
-
- "[UK]
Intelligence officers had role in [Libya] deal."
... "MI6 officers and senior Foreign Office officials held a series of
secret meetings with Colonel Gadafy's closest advisers before agreement
with Libya was announced by Tony Blair and - soon afterwards - by George
Bush on Friday." ... "A key meeting took place at the Travellers Club in
Pall Mall, a traditional haunt of the intelligence community, last Tuesday.
It was attended by William Ehrman, director general of defence and intelligence
at the FO, David Landsman, head of the FO's counter-proliferation department,
and two MI6 officers." -By Richard Norton-Taylor
-Guardian.co.uk
- "Nation's
Threat Level Rising to Orange: Government Raising
National Threat Warning From Yellow to Orange, Federal Official Says."
... "The government is raising the national threat warning from yellow,
the midpoint on its five-color scale, to orange, a federal official said
Sunday." ... "The warning was prompted in part by a raised level of ominous
intercepted communications that has not quieted for months. The significance
of the sustained level of intelligence "chatter" is unclear, the officials
said." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- 
-
-
- 
- "EU
Agrees to Share Airline Passenger Data." ... "The
European Union has agreed to share information about its airline passengers
with the United States, in a deal announced yesterday that ends year-long
negotiations over a new U.S. law intended to fight terrorism." ... "International
airlines will turn over data about their U.S.-bound passengers, such as
a traveler's name, e-mail address, telephone number and credit card number
to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection
unit." -By Sara Kehaulani Goo
-WashingtonPost
-
-
- "A
tip, high-tech surveillance and a GI with a shovel nab Saddam."
... "Perhaps a mile from his nearest palace, Saddam spent his final minutes
of freedom in an underground chamber of hard-packed dirt, just wide enough
to permit a man to recline. After decades as self-proclaimed heir to the
iconic 12th-century warrior known in the West as Saladin, Saddam surrendered
meekly without a shot from the pistol he clutched in his lap." ... "The
clues that led to Saddam's capture emerged three weeks ago, officials said,
when intelligence analysts and Special Operations forces shifted the focus
of their hunt from Saddam's innermost circle to the more distant relatives
and tribal allies who they suspected had been sheltering the deposed president."
... "The U.S. military and the CIA had formed a task force devoted exclusively
to finding Saddam and his top allies. Called Task Force 121, it is an interagency
team of CIA paramilitaries and "black," or unacknowledged, Special Operations
forces." -By Barton Gellman and Dana Priest with contributions
from Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Bradley Graham -WashingtonPost
via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
- 
-
- "Prosecutors
get delay in case against ex-chaplain." ... "The
criminal proceedings against Captain James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain
at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, charged with mishandling classified data,
fell into confusion and stalled as prosecutors asked for extra time to
determine whether documents found in Yee's luggage when he was leaving
the base were, in fact, classified." ... "The hearing was postponed Tuesday
until Jan. 19 to give the prosecutors time to review the documents that
set off a major investigation into whether Yee was a spy, a contention
from which the government has since distanced itself." -By
Neil A. Lewis -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
- 
- "Spy
Satellites Used to Look for Damage on Space Station."
... "NASA has enlisted U.S. spy satellites and taken other measures to
inspect the exterior of the international space station for signs of any
damage that might explain a strange metallic crunching noise that was heard
by the two astronauts on board in the middle of the night of Nov. 26."
... NASA has also shifted steering control of the orbiting laboratory to
Russian-built thrusters while engineers study a new problem in the ailing
U.S.-built gyroscope system, spaceflight officials said yesterday." -By
Kathy Sawyer -WashingtonPost
- 
- -
"Officer
charged with Guantanamo security breach." ... "Col.
Jackie Duane Farr is the fourth man assigned to intelligence operations
at Guantanamo Bay accused of mishandling classified information." ... "Until
recently, Farr was director of the intelligence collection operation in
the so-called Joint Interrogations Group, said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a
Guantanamo spokeswoman. The group has teams of interrogators and analysts
who weekly question about half of the 660 prisoners being held at Camp
Delta, a sprawling prison camp for captives taken in Afghanistan in the
War on Terror." -By Carol Rosenberg-Miami/Herald
-
- 
- 
-
-
-
- "Al Qaeda’s
terror style spreading: Analysts see a form
of franchising at work around globe." ... "Leaders of the al Qaeda
terrorist network have franchised their organization’s brand of synchronized,
devastating violence to homegrown terrorist groups across the world, posing
a formidable new challenge to counterterrorism forces, according to intelligence
analysts and experts in the United States, Europe and the Arab world."
... "The recent attacks in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and Iraq show
that the smaller organizations, most of whose leaders were trained in al
Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, have fanned out, imbued with radical ideology
and the means to create or revitalize local terrorist groups. They also
are expanding the horizons of groups that had focused on regional issues."
-By Douglas Farah and Peter Finn with contributions
from Dana Priest, Dan Eggen, and Margot Williams -WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
-
- 
- "NYPD
to Have Access to Interpol Data." ... "The NYPD will
be the first police department in the United States to plug into a Interpol
database that allows access to fingerprints, passports and pictures." ...
"Ronald Noble, secretary general of Interpol, the world's largest international
police organization, said the heavily encrypted system, named I-24/7, will
put information about suspects anywhere in the world at police officers'
fingertips." -By Daryl Khan
-AP via -Newsday.com
-
- "US
Struggles to Determine Who Is the Enemy in Iraq."
... "The Pentagon is struggling to figure out who the enemy is in Iraq,
with officials saying they remain foggy about the leadership and organization
of the insurgency and analysts decrying a huge intelligence lapse." ...
"Military commanders and U.S. intelligence officials describe resistance
forces in Iraq as some combination of loyalists of toppled President Saddam
Hussein's government, criminals paid by those loyalists to carry out attacks,
Islamic militants from outside Iraq, and isolated Shiite radicals." -By
Will Dunham -Reuters
via -Wired
-
- "9/11
Victims' Relatives Want Deal Details: Relatives of
9/11 Victims Urge Commission to Disclose Details of Deal With White House."
... "Relatives of people who perished in the Sept. 11 terror attacks are
urging a federal commission to disclose the fine print of its deal with
the White House that gives the panel restricted access to sensitive intelligence
documents." ... "The Family Steering Committee, a group of victims' relatives
monitoring the work of the independent commission on Sept. 11, said the
restrictions are unacceptable." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "W.H.
to let 9/11 panel review briefings: The independent
commission investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks said Wednesday
the White House would let it review classified daily presidential intelligence
briefings." ... ""We believe this agreement will prove satisfactory and
enable us to get our job done," the commission said in a statement." ...
"But commission member Max Cleland, a former Democratic senator, said he
was "disgusted" by the deal." ... ""The White House gets to cherry-pick
how much access the nation's commission looking into 9/11 gets to crucial
documents," he said. "I'm ready to vote for subpoenas right now.""
-CNN
-
-
- "CIA
Report Says U.S. Losing Popular Support in Iraq."
... "A CIA report concludes that ordinary Iraqis increasingly are siding
with the insurgency amid doubts about the U.S. ability to stamp it out,
officials said on Wednesday, while the U.S. administrator in Iraq said
it was hard to figure out where the Iraqi public stands." ... "The report,
warning of possible failure for Bush's efforts to establish Iraq as a democracy
if the situation is not fixed, said aggressive U.S. counter-insurgency
measures were leaving many Iraqis disillusioned and pushing them to support
the insurgency, one U.S. official said." -By Will
Dunham -Reuters
via -Wired
-
- -
- "Cheney’s Long
Path to War: The Hard Sell: He sifted intel.
He brooded about threats. And he wanted Saddam gone. The inside story of
how Vice President Cheney bought into shady assumptions and helped persuade
a nation to invade Iraq." ... "Of all the president’s advisers, Cheney
has consistently taken the most dire view of the terrorist threat. On Iraq,
Bush was the decision maker. But more than any adviser, Cheney was the
one to make the case to the president that war against Iraq was an urgent
necessity. Beginning in the late summer of 2002, he persistently warned
that Saddam was stocking up on chemical and biological weapons, and last
March, on the eve of the invasion, he declared that “we believe that he
[Saddam Hussein] has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons.” (Cheney later
said that he meant “program,” not “weapons.” He also said, a bit optimistically,
“I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.”) After seven
months, investigators are still looking for that arsenal of WMD." (1, 2,
3)
-By Mark Hosenball, Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas
-MSNBC 20031117
-Newsweek
-
-
- "U.S.
Had Warning of Attack, but No Details." ... "Only
days before the bombing in Saudi Arabia on Saturday that killed at least
17 people, American intelligence agencies had been warned that such an
attack by Al Qaeda was imminent but the warnings lacked sufficient detail
to disrupt the plot, officials said Sunday." ... "The information, which
came from several sources, prompted the closing of the United States Embassy
in Riyadh, but did not provide specifics about the time or location of
an attack, officials said. It did lead American officials to conclude that
Qaeda cells were planning to go after "soft" targets "very soon," one official
said." -By James Risen
-NYTimes via -Google-News
-
-
-
-
- "White
House Promises to Hand Over Iraq Intelligence Documents."
... "The White House reversed itself and promised the Senate Intelligence
Committee access to all materials requested for its inquiry into prewar
intelligence on Iraq, the committee chairman said Sunday." ... "The committee
is examining the accuracy of intelligence about deposed Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein's weapons programs and purported contacts with terrorist
groups. That intelligence served as Bush's main arguments for the U.S.-led
war." -By William C. Mann-WashingtonPost
-
- "2
CIA Operatives Killed in Afghanistan." ... "The CIA
said Tuesday that William Carlson, 43, of Southern Pines, N.C., and Christopher
Glenn Mueller, 32, of San Diego were ambushed and killed Saturday near
the village in Shkin in Paktika province while ``tracking terrorists.''"
... "Both were veterans of military special operations forces, the agency
said, who were working for the CIA's Directorate of Operations that conducts
clandestine intelligence-gathering and covert operations." -By
Burt Herman -AP
via -AJC
-
- "Bush
Won't Commit to Giving Classified Reports to 9/11 Panel."
... "President Bush declined today to commit the White House to turning
over highly classified intelligence reports to the independent federal
commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, despite public
threats of a subpoena from the bipartisan panel." ... "The president said
in a brief meeting with reporters that the documents were "very sensitive"
and that the White House was still discussing the issue with the panel's
chairman, Thomas H. Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey."
-By Philip Shenon -NYTimes
via -Google-News
Osama
bin Laden -
"CIA
says bin Laden tape probably authentic." ... "A CIA
technical analysis has determined that the latest audio tape broadcast
over the weekend is probably the voice of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
recorded during the past six months, a CIA spokesman says."-Reuters
-
- 
-
"Six
months after Saddam, eight die as bombers prolong violence."
... "A suicide car bomber killed at least eight people at a Baghdad police
station yesterday as Iraq marked six months since the fall of Saddam Hussein's
regime with another day of bitterly familiar violence." ... "The latest
attack killed three Iraqi policemen and five civilians who had crowded
into the courtyard of the police station in the poor Shia Muslim district
now known as Sadr City. The driver of the car also died and at least 45
people were injured in the blast." ... "In a separate incident in western
Baghdad a few minutes earlier, a Spanish intelligence officer was assassinated
in front of his house." -By Rory McCarthy and Giles
Tremlett -Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Bush
Unsure if Name Leaker Will Be Caught: Bush
Expresses Doubt That Leaker of CIA Official's Name Will Be Caught." ...
"Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, urged some 2,000 White House employees
to turn over any relevant documents by Tuesday night. White House lawyers
will screen the materials and decide which ones to send to the Justice
Department as part of a criminal inquiry into the leak, Bush spokesman
Scott McClellan said." ... "Investigators are trying to determine who leaked
to columnist Robert Novak and two Newsday journalists the identity of Valerie
Plame, a CIA operations officer who has served overseas. She is married
to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who publicly accused the Bush administration
of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "British
open Iraq war inquiry." ... "The official inquiry
into what was apparently the suicide of a leading British weapons expert
[David Kelly] was told Monday that intelligence officers had registered
concern at the way Prime Minister Tony Blair's government presented the
threat from Iraq's weapons systems before going to war." ... "But senior
government officials on the first full day of testimony at the inquiry
denied that the government knowingly used false information to create a
sense of imminent threat from Baghdad." -By Alan Cowell
-NYTimes via -IHT.com
-
- 
- "Indonesia hotel
was known target: Australian FM warns of more
terror attacks in coming days." ... "Police on Wednesday said they seized
documents last month showing terrorists had planned to target the area
around Jakarta’s Marriott Hotel, where a powerful car bomb killed 10 people
and injured nearly 150 on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Australia’s foreign minister
said his government had acquired intelligence indicating there could be
further attacks in Indonesia in the coming days." ... "Jemaah Islamiyah,
blamed for last year’s deadly nightclub bombing in Bali, allegedly claimed
responsibility for the hotel bombing in remarks published by Singapore’s
Straits Times newspaper." -Ned Colt, Jim Miklaszewski,
and Tammy Kupperman with the -AP
and -Reuters via -MS-NBC
- "Report:
FBI Informant Knew 9/11 Hijackers." ... "An FBI informant
knew two of the Sept. 11 hijackers but never suspected they were terrorists,
according to a congressional report that nonetheless concludes no single
piece of information could have prevented the attacks." ... "The unidentified
informant was with Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi in San Diego during
the summer of 2000, although the nature of their relationship was unclear."
... "Almihdhar and Alhazmi recently had been linked by U.S. intelligence
officials to possible terrorist activity, but that information apparently
had not been shared with the FBI, the report said. Nothing the two men
said or did in the presence of the informant aroused suspicion." -By
Curt Anderson with contributions by Ken Guggenheim
-AP via -Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Weapons
expert had slashed wrist: Police have confirmed
that the expert at the centre of the Iraq dossier row bled to death from
a slit wrist, as Tony Blair comes under increasing pressure over the affair."
... "Dr David Kelly, 59, was the suspected mole behind a BBC report that
Downing Street communications director Alastair Campbell "sexed up" a dossier
setting out the case for war." ... "Dr Kelly disappeared two days after
being grilled by the Commons foreign affairs select committee as part of
its inquiry into the use of intelligence in the run-up to the war in Iraq."-BBC/News
-
-
- 
- "CIA asked Britain
to drop Iraq claim: Advice on alleged uranium
buywas refused." ... "The CIA tried unsuccessfully in early September 2002
to persuade the British government to drop from an official intelligence
paper a reference to Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in Africa that President
Bush included in his State of the Union address four months later, senior
Bush administration officials said yesterday." ... "“We consulted about
the paper and recommended against using that material,” a senior administration
official familiar with the intelligence program said. The British government
rejected the U.S. suggestion, saying it had separate intelligence unavailable
to the United States." -By Walter Pincus with
contributions by Karen DeYoung-WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
-
-
- "CIA approved
Bush remarks on Iraq: State of Union speech
referring to nuclear weapons claim was cleared." ... "Amid increasing criticism
and doubts cast on U.S. intelligence that led to the war against Iraq,
the Bush administration Friday continued its defense of President Bush’s
case for ousting Saddam Hussein. U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza
Rice said the CIA had cleared Bush’s January State of the Union speech
in its entirety, including a sentence — now labeled false — alleging Iraq
was looking to buy uranium from Africa." ... "If CIA Director George Tenet
had any misgivings about that sentence in the president’s speech, “he did
not make them known” to Bush or his staff, said Rice." -Contributed
to by David Gregory and -AP
via -MSNBC
-
-
- "CBS:
White House Ignored CIA Over Iraq Uranium Claim."
... "The White House ignored a request by the CIA to remove a statement
in President Bush's State of the Union address that Iraq was seeking uranium
from Africa for its nuclear weapons program, CBS Evening News reported
on Thursday." ... "The CIA checked the parts Bush's speech dealing with
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction for accuracy and CIA officials warned
White House National Security Council staff that the intelligence was not
strong enough to flatly state that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa,
CBS News said." -CBSNews-Reuters
-
- "White
House downplays role of faulty report." ... "The
Bush administration defended on Wednesday its decision to go to war against
Iraq and downplayed the role of discredited intelligence in the decision."
... "At a Washington news conference hosted by the Arms Control Association,
a former senior official in the State Department's intelligence bureau
said the problem was not bad information but the tendency of policymakers
to exaggerate intelligence on Iraq." ... ""The administration has had a
faith-based intelligence attitude: 'We know the answers, give us the intelligence
to support those answers,' " said Greg Thielmann, who resigned last September
as chief arms proliferation analyst." -By John Diamond
-USATODAY
-
- "White
House Issues Retraction of Allegations in Bush State of the Union Address."
... "The White House has issued a rare retraction of allegations from the
president's January State of the Union Address. Officials say President
Bush's accusation that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein tried to buy
uranium in Africa, was based on what turned out to be a forged document."
... "Making his case against Saddam Hussein six months ago, President Bush
said British intelligence reported that the then-Iraqi leader had tried
to buy significant quantities of uranium from Niger." ... "The United Nations
later concluded that those documents were forgeries and White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer now admits that the information should not have been included
in the State of the Union." -By Scott Stearns -VOANews.com
-
- 2004
Presidential Election
- "Sept.
11 probers complain of delays: White House
slow in providing access to key documents, federal commission says." ...
"Leaders of a federal commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
complained Tuesday that the Bush administration had been too slow to provide
access to key documents and was intimidating witnesses by insisting that
CIA and FBI "minders" attend sensitive interviews." ... "The chairman of
the commission, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, said the delays were
threatening the panel's ability to meet its congressionally imposed deadline
and produce a final report before the 2004 presidential election." ...
"Kean and commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton were particularly critical
of the administration's insistence that interviews with intelligence or
law enforcement officials be supervised." -By Greg
Miller-LAtimes
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "CIA
Calls Hussein Recording Authentic." ... "The Central
Intelligence Agency said yesterday that a taped message broadcast Friday
from Saddam Hussein appears to be authentic, the most definitive indication
that the former Iraqi president survived the war and is seeking to rally
opposition to the U.S. occupation." ... "As anti-American attacks grow
in number and sophistication, inflicting additional U.S. casualties daily,
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is reviewing whether troops are needed
beyond the 146,000 in Iraq and 63,000 in neighboring Kuwait or whether
U.S. forces can safely be reduced." ... "Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
is urging President Bush to at least keep total U.S. and international
troop levels near the current number until the danger has passed and Iraq
is stable, according to U.S. officials familiar with Powell's thinking.
They added that his preference is to recruit more forces from foreign countries."
-By Thomas E. Ricks and Walter Pincus with contributions
by Peter Slevin -WashingtonPost
-
- "British
Panel Clears Blair of Charges of Doctoring Iraq Data."
... "A House of Commons committee cleared the government today of charges
that it doctored evidence of Iraqi weapons, but the committee criticized
the government's handling of intelligence findings, saying it resulted
in Prime Minister Tony Blair's unknowingly misinforming Parliament." ...
"The committee is one of two parliamentary panels looking into allegations
that the government may have exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq before
the war. The other, an intelligence panel, will take its testimony behind
closed doors and submit its report to the prime minister for revisions
before making it public." -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
-
- "Iraq
weapons claims criticised: Claims about Iraq's
weapons were given too much weight by the government, MPs have ruled -
but they have cleared media chief Alastair Campbell of "sexing up" intelligence."
... "The all-party foreign affairs committee says a suggestion that Iraq
could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes should not
have been given such prominence by the government." ... "But in their 54-page
verdict on how ministers made the case for war in Iraq, the MPs - in a
split decision - say Mr Campbell did not make changes to a dossier on Iraq's
weapons, as alleged in a BBC report." ... "In another finding upon which
the committee were divided, the report says ministers did not mislead parliament
over Iraq's weapons."-BBC/News
-
- "Blair
furious at BBC's attack on integrity." ... "Both
Downing Street and the BBC were standing firm over their interpretation
of the Radio 4 Today programme story by defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan
on May 29, which alleged that intelligence officials were unhappy about
the September 2002 dossier." ... "Downing Street insisted it had been accused
of lying in Mr Gilligan's report by deliberately inserting information
that Saddam Hussein could launch a biological or chemical weapons strike
within 45 minutes." -FT.com
-
-
- "Nuke
component unearthed in Baghdad back yard: U.S.
officials: Find is not smoking gun." ... "The CIA has in its hands the
critical parts of a key piece of Iraqi nuclear technology -- parts needed
to develop a bomb program -- that were dug up in a back yard in Baghdad,
CNN has learned." ... "The parts, with accompanying plans, were unearthed
by Iraqi scientist Mahdi Obeidi who had hidden them under a rose bush in
his garden 12 years ago under orders from Qusay Hussein and Saddam Hussein's
then son-in-law, Hussein Kamel." ... "U.S. officials emphasized this was
not evidence Iraq had a nuclear weapon -- but it was evidence the Iraqis
concealed plans to reconstitute their nuclear program as soon as the world
was no longer looking." -CNN
-
-
- "Sources:
U.S. planned to kill bin Laden before 9/11:
When President Bush took office in January 2001, the White House was told
that Predator drones had recently spotted Osama bin Laden as many as three
times and officials were urged to arm the unmanned planes with missiles
to kill the al-Qaeda leader." ... "But the administration failed to get
drones back into the Afghan skies until after the September 11 attacks
later that year, current and former U.S. officials say."
-AP via -CNN
-
- July
4th News
- "Texas
Terror Worries: Report: Terrorists Possibly
Targeting Lone Star State." ... "Federal homeland security officials have
informed Texas law enforcement agencies of intelligence reportedly gathered
from suspected al Qaeda operatives discussing potential terrorism in the
state next month." ... "Homeland security officials are reviewing the information
eavesdropped earlier this month from two suspected al Qaeda operatives
discussing potential terrorism in Texas timed for the July Fourth weekend,
unnamed officials in Washington told the Houston Chronicle on Monday."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
- "Al Qaeda in
America: The Enemy Within: How the terrorist
organization is recruiting and planning strikes here in the U.S." ... "Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed looked more like a loser in a T shirt than a modern-day
Mephistopheles. But “KSM,” as he is always referred to in FBI documents,
held the key to unlock the biggest mystery of the war on terror: is Al
Qaeda operating inside America?" ... "The answer according to KSM's confessions
and the intense U.S. investigation that followed, is yes." ... "KSM revealed
an overhaul of Al Qaeda’s approach to penetrating America. The 9-11 hijackers
were all foreign nationals—mostly Saudis, led by an Egyptian—who infiltrated
the United States by obtaining student or tourist visas. To foil the heightened
security after 9-11, Al Qaeda began to rely on operatives who would be
harder to detect. They recruited U.S. citizens or people with legitimate
Western passports who could move freely in the United States. They used
women and family members as “support personnel.” And they made an effort
to find African-American Muslims who would be sympathetic to Islamic extremism.
Using “mosques, prisons and universities throughout the United States,”
according to the documents, KSM reached deep into the heartland, lining
up agents in Baltimore, Columbus, Ohio, and Peoria, Ill. The Feds have
uncovered at least one KSM-run cell that could have done grave damage to
the United States." -By Daniel Klaidman, Mark Hosenball,
Michael Isikoff, and Evan Thomas, with Kevin Peraino, Steve Tuttle, Holly
Bailey, Suzanne Smalley and Sarah Downey 20030623
Ed. -Newsweekvia
-MSNBC
-
-
- "U.S. stands
by Iraq intelligence." ... "A senior Pentagon official
on Wednesday pointedly dismissed mounting criticism that U.S. military
officials might have manipulated intelligence to bolster an administration
argument for war with Iraq. The reports amounted to "urban legend" based
on a "goulash of inaccuracies," he said. Those strong comments from Douglas
Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, came amid reports that the
Central Intelligence Agency had begun an internal review to see whether
a major, top-secret U.S. intelligence report last autumn had overstated
the threat from Iraqi weapons programs." ... "The agency's prewar analyses
- including the finding in the secret October report that Iraq had biological
and chemical weapons and was working to restart a nuclear program - have
been questioned by some intelligence officials and lawmakers. House and
Senate committees are planning inquiries." -By Brian
Knowlton -IHT.com
-
- "Rumsfeld
Denies 'False Pretext' for Iraq War." ... "Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied on Thursday that the Iraq war was waged
under a false pretext even though U.S. search teams have failed to find
the chemical and biological weapons cited as justification for the invasion."
... "During a radio interview, Rumsfeld expressed fresh confidence that
such weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq, and offered several
explanations for why they have not been located." -By
Will Dunham -Reuters
-
-
- "Report
links Iraqi trailers to weapons." ... "A report from
two US intelligence agencies yesterday said a pair of Iraqi trailers filled
with laboratory equipment was the best evidence that Saddam Hussein's government
had a biological weapons program." ... "Although they still lack solid
evidence of any biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons in Iraq, the Central
Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded in a
six-page ''white paper'' that each trailer was part of a larger two- or
three-trailer facility for production of the weapons." ... "But the report,
which comes more than six weeks after the Pentagon declared an end to major
combat operations in Iraq, also underscored that US officials have been
unable to prove their assertions that the Hussein regime developed weapons
of mass destruction. Although they have found circumstantial evidence to
suggest a possible program, US officials have not yet uncovered actual
weapons." -By Robert Schlesinger
-Boston/Globe
-
-
-
-
- "U.S.
and Russia Press Iran on Al Qaeda, Weapons:
Concerns Mount Over Nuclear Facilities, Influence in Iraq; Some at Pentagon
Urging Intervention." ... "The Bush administration kept up pressure against
Iran yesterday, saying that the Islamic republic's claims of cracking down
on al Qaeda within its borders were inadequate and expressing continued
concern about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons." ... "Some administration
officials, especially at the Pentagon, are urging the administration to
adopt steps to destabilize the Iranian government in the wake of unconfirmed
intelligence reports that suggested al Qaeda operatives in Iran helped
plan the May 12 suicide bombing attacks against residential compounds in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia." -By Glenn Kessler-WashingtonPost
-
-
- "Arms teams
seek new information: Frustrated hunters move
away from outdated Iraqi intelligence." ... "Frustrated weapons hunters
are turning away from outdated U.S. intelligence leads, which have failed
to turn up any evidence of chemical, biological or nuclear arms in Iraq
after 10 weeks. Teams are now moving toward their own intelligence gathering,
based on interviews with Iraqi scientists, factory workers and even neighbors
who lived near shadowy operations once run by Saddam Hussein." -AP
via -MSNBC
-
-
-
-
- "Prewar
Views of Iraq Threat Are Under Review by C.I.A.."
... "The Central Intelligence Agency has begun a review to try to determine
whether the American intelligence community erred in its prewar assessments
of Saddam Hussein's government and Iraq's weapons programs, several officials
say." ... "The director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, has named
a team of retired C.I.A. officers to scour the classified intelligence
reports that were circulated inside the government before the war on a
range of issues related to Iraq, including those concerning Bagdhad's links
to terrorism and unconventional weapons, officials said. The team plans
to compare those reports with what has actually been discovered in Iraq
since the war ended." ... "The review will encompass reports produced by
the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Intelligence Council, the
Defense Intelligence Agency and other agencies, and is the first internal
review of Iraq-related intelligence since the war ended in April, officials
said." -By James Risen
-NYTimes
-
-
- 
- 
- "Iraqi
Documents on Israel Surface on a Cultural Hunt."
... "What began today as a hunt for an ancient Jewish [Talmud] text at
secret police headquarters here wound up unearthing a trove of Iraqi intelligence
documents and maps relating to Israel as well as offers of sales of uranium
and other nuclear material to Iraq." ... "In one huge room in the flooded
basement of the building, American soldiers from MET Alpha, the "mobile
exploitation team" that has been searching for nuclear, biological and
chemical
weapons in Iraq for the past three months, found maps featuring terrorist
strikes against Israel dating to 1991." -By Judith
Miller -NYTimes
via -AltaVista-News
-
-
- "Failed
hostage rescue raises worries: 'I fear for
my son's life,' mom says of man held in Colombia." ... "Rosano, whose son,
Marc Gonsalves, of Big Pine Key [Florida], is one of three Americans kidnapped
by Colombian rebels three months ago, said in a telephone interview with
The Herald that she feared for her son's life because hostages have been
told that attempts to free them will be fatal -- just as it was for the
victims of the botched operation." ... "Gonsalves and the two other American
defense contractors taken Feb. 13 are apparently alive. But the body count
from Monday's rescue operation for other captives -- 10 hostages dead,
including a governor -- has mothers around Colombia clamoring for the government
to approve prisoner swaps that could free dozens of captives held by the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia." -By France
Robles with contributions by Tim Johnson-Miami/Herald
-
-
-
- "White
House refuses to release Sept. 11 info." ... "The
Bush administration and the nation's intelligence agencies are blocking
the release of sensitive information about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, delaying publication of a 900-page
congressional report on how the terrorist assault happened." ... "Intelligence
officials insist the information must be kept secret for national security
reasons.
But some of the information is already broadly available on the Internet
or has been revealed in interim reports on the investigation, leading to
charges that the administration is simply trying to avoid enshrining embarrassing
details in the report." -By Frank Davies with contributions
by James Kuhnhenn -Knight Riddervia-Miami/Herald
-
-
-
- "From
Iraq's secret files, a trail of mass murder." ...
"Over the past few days, the US Army has taken custody of hundreds of thousands
of Iraqi secret-police files. The dossiers - an impeccable detailing of
two decades of mass murder reminiscent of the meticulous recordkeeping
of Hitler's Germany or Stalinist Russia - could contain crucial evidence
in any trial that former President Saddam Hussein or his top officials
might face." ... "Already the files have yielded fragments of Iraq's secret
past. The group of former prisoners who gathered the documents have so
far gleaned the names of more than 5,500 prisoners who were executed, according
to the files. The Committee of Free Prisoners has posted them on the walls
of its makeshift headquarters by the Tigris River. Every day, thousands
of ordinary men and women crowd around the rosters, seeking names of missing
relatives." -By Peter Ford
-CSMonitor
-
- "Patterns
of Global Terrorism 2002." ... "Patterns
of Global Terrorism." -Counterterrorism
Office -Releases -State.gov
- 
- 
- "Higher
Espionage: The CIA finds a warmer reception
on campus since 9/11, as it openly seeks scholars' expertise. But critics
say such close ties compromise academic values." ... "The promise of closer
university/CIA ties is a better-informed government, perhaps resulting
in a US foreign policy that is wiser or more grounded. But concerns abound
- especially when it comes to preserving the standard of scholarly objectivity
and meeting the CIA's demand for secrecy." ... "... many on campus voice
concern about the lifetime secrecy agreements scholars must sign in order
to see classified material. From then on, they must submit for agency review
anything that bears on the topics covered by the pact." -By
Mark Clayton -CSMonitor
-
-
- "Evidence
of Al Qaeda spy ring in key Afghan roles: US
and Afghan forces raided Amniat offices in Khost in March. The ensuing
investigation shows key papers are in Al Qaeda hands." ... "For the past
year, Hazratuddin Habibi has been the intelligence chief of Khost, appointed
by President Hamid Karzai to keep an eye on Taliban or Al Qaeda activities
in this crucial province along the Pakistani border." ... "Hazratuddin,
a former intelligence chief for the Taliban known by his first name, was
certainly qualified for the job. But colleagues in the central government's
intelligence agency, Amniat, and in other military departments began to
notice that raids on Taliban hideouts were coming up empty. Arrests of
Al Qaeda suspects went awry. It occurred to local political leaders as
well as intelligence and military officials that Hazratuddin may be a double
agent." -By Scott Baldauf
-CSMonitor
 |
-
-
- "US
seizes Saddam's deputy." ... "Tariq Aziz, the most
internationally recognised face of the fallen Iraqi regime after Saddam
Hussein himself, was in US custody last night after surrendering to American
forces, Pentagon officials said." ... "Mr Aziz, the eight of spades in
the Pentagon's deck of cards, is unlikely to possess information about
weapons of mass destruction or Saddam's current whereabouts, intelligence
experts said." ... "However, the fact that Mr Aziz had been found alive
increased the chances that Saddam and his sons were also still alive. He
might also possess explosive information on the extent of past support
for the regime in the west." -By Oliver Burkeman
-Guardian.co.uk
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
 |
 |
|
-
-
- "Spymaster
among 4 officials arrested." ... "The detentions
of Muzahim Sa'b Hassan Tikriti, who headed Iraq's air defenses, General
Zuhayr Talib Abdul Sattar Naqib, the former military intelligence chief,
and Mohammed Mahdi Salih, the former trade minister, bring to 14 the number
of former officials on the 55-name wanted list who are in custody or believed
killed." ... "A fourth Iraqi captured Wednesday is not on the list but
will be of keen interest to U.S. investigators - Salim Said Khalaf Jumaylia,
former director of American operations for Iraq's intelligence agency.
He is suspected of having knowledge of Iraqi intelligence activities in
the United States, including names of people spying for Iraq, said the
U.S. Central Command spokesman, Jim Wilkinson." ... "As Baghdad struggles
to recover from war, U.S. officials bluntly denied [Mohammed Mohsen] Zubaidi's
claims that he has U.S. military support for his quest to serve as unelected
mayor." -AP,
-Reuters, and -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
-
-
- "Al
Qaeda Fractured: Sources: U.S. Intelligence
Finds Bin Laden’s Network Splintered, Ineffective." ... "Analysts who track
al Qaeda for the intelligence community believe that evidence is mounting
that the terrorist organization may lack the command and control, the resources
and coordination to conduct an operation of the same magnitude as 9/11."
... "The assessment is not unanimous within the intelligence and law enforcement
communities, though. Some U.S. national security officials have told ABCNEWS
that they believe that, despite the arrests of top operatives such as Shaikh
Mohammad, al Qaeda remains a potent force and a threat to American citizens."
-ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Iraqi Shiite
strength surprises U.S.: Rise of anti-U.S.,
fundamentalist government a possibility." ... "As Iraqi Shiite demands
for a dominant role in Iraq’s future mount, Bush administration officials
say they underestimated the Shiites’ organizational strength and are unprepared
to prevent the rise of an anti-American, Islamic fundamentalist government
in the country." ... "Some U.S. intelligence analysts and Iraq experts
said they warned the Bush administration before the war about vanquishing
Hussein’s government without having anything to replace it. But officials
said the concerns were either not heard or fell too low on the priority
list of postwar planning." -By Glenn Kessler and Dana
Priest -WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
-
-
- "U.S. warns
Iran about interference: White House alleges
agents operating in Iraq." ... "The White House on Wednesday warned Iran
not to interfere with U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq after the downfall of
Saddam Hussein. “We have concerns about Iranian agents in Iraq,” White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. “We have made clear to Iran we oppose
any outside interference in Iraq’s road to democracy.”" ... "Shiites, who
comprise 60 percent of the Iraq population, already have asserted de facto
control over several cities in the south, filling an administrative vacuum
and nimbly moving ahead of the U.S. drive to form a transitional central
government." -By Robert Windrem, Ron Allen with -AP,
-Reuters via -MS-NBC
-
-
-
- "US
warns Syria over Iraq: United States Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has once again attacked Syria, this time accusing
it of helping Saddam Hussein's key supporters escape Iraq." ... "He said
the US has "scraps of intelligence" Damascus is helping some Iraqis move
to Syria, from where a number are moving on to other places." ... "On Wednesday,
Mr Rumsfeld also repeated earlier charges that Syria had facilitated the
movement of military equipment and people into Iraq to help fight US and
British forces." -BBC/News
-
- "Marines
find bloodstained U.S. uniforms." ... "U.S. Marines
raiding an Iraqi military prison in Baghdad found bloodstained uniforms
belonging to at least two American prisoners-of-war, officers here said
Tuesday." ... "The Marines attacked a sprawling 54,000 square foot compound
at Rashid airfield in the southeastern corner of the city after receiving
intelligence reports that up to seven POWs were being held there." -By
David J. Lynch -USATODAY
-
-
- "Saddam’s
Voice? Intercept Believed to Be of Saddam’s
Voice Led to Airstrike; Heavy Fighting in Baghdad." ... "U.S. intelligence
intercepts, including one believed to be of Saddam Hussein talking to his
advisers about how to flee the capital city, led to a U.S. "leadership
strike" on an upscale Baghdad neighborhood, ABCNEWS has learned." ... "One
intelligence intercept, believed to have been carried out by the NSA (National
Security Agency), indicated that a person who may have been the Iraqi leader
was having a conversation with his advisers about how and when they could
leave Baghdad." -Contributions by Richard Engel, John
Donvan, John McWethy, Martha Raddatz, and Don Dahler -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Troops ignore Saddam
death report: Marines: ‘Sure — Osama and Jimmy
Hoffa were there, too!’" ... "U.S. officials said they had intelligence
information from an extremely reliable source Monday that Saddam and other
top Iraqi leaders, including at least one of his sons, were meeting at
a building in the upscale Al Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad." ... "Acting
on the tip, a lone U.S. B-1 bomber dropped four 2,000-pound “bunker buster”
bombs on what U.S. officials described as a residence." -By
Chip Reid -MSNBC
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- "Ex-CIA
director: U.S. faces 'World War IV': Former
CIA Director James Woolsey said Wednesday the United States is engaged
in World War IV, and that it could continue for years." ... "He said the
new war is actually against three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran,
the "fascists" of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists like al Qaeda."
... "Singling out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of Saudi
Arabia, he said, "We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for
the fourth time in a hundred years, this country and its allies are on
the march and that we are on the side of those whom you -- the Mubaraks,
the Saudi Royal family -- most fear: We're on the side of your own people.""
-By Charles Feldman and Stan Wilson
-CNN /World
-
-
- "11
bodies found with rescued U.S. POW." ... "Eleven
bodies -- some of them believed to be Americans --were found with prisoner
of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch when she was rescued in a U.S. commando raid
on an Iraqi hospital, a military spokesman said Wednesday." ... "Acting
on an intelligence tip about Lynch's whereabouts, U.S. special operations
forces slipped behind enemy lines and seized Lynch from the Saddam Hospital
under cover of darkness Tuesday, military officials said." -By
Doug Mellgren -AP
via -Salon/-news
-
- "11
September inquiry opens: The first public hearing
into the 11 September attacks is under way in New York." ... "The inquiry
- taking place not far from Ground Zero - is hearing accounts from members
of the emergency and security services and relatives of those who died
in the attack." ... "The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks in the
United States was established by Congress late last year." ... "The Bush
administration had for months resisted the creation of such a body, but
was forced to bow to pressure from families of the victims."-BBC/News
-
- "Coalition
forces increase pressure: But Iraq insists
U.S. campaign 'being defeated on all fronts'." ... "Intense airstrikes,
targeted raids and sporadic battles pounded away at Iraqi forces Monday,
coalition military officials said." ... "U.S. and British warplanes continued
to strike targets Monday, hitting Republican Guard positions around Baghdad
and the Karada Intelligence Complex believed to be the headquarters of
the Fedayeen Saddam, the paramilitary group known for its guerrilla tactics."
-Contributions by Christiane Amanpour, Bob Franken,
Art Harris, Tom Mintier, Walter Rodgers and Nic Robertson, Mike Mount -CNN
/World
-
- "Supreme
Court rejects wiretap case: Secret tapings
in war on terrorism at issue." ... "The Supreme Court rebuffed an attempt
yesterday by civil liberties lawyers to challenge the secret wiretapping
that has been one of the Bush administration's main legal weapons in the
war against terrorism." ... "Without saying anything about the constitutional
issues at stake, the court refused a request by four organizations to clear
the way for immediate review of the electronic search powers granted the
government under the USA Patriot Act, which Congress passed after the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks." -By Lyle Denniston
-Boston/Globe
-
- "Ashcroft
accelerates use of emergency spy warrants in anti-terror fight."
... "Since the 2001 terror attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft has
approved more than 170 emergency domestic spying warrants, triple the number
used in the previous 23 years." ... "The emergency warrants, authorized
under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, permit authorities to
tap telephones and fax numbers and conduct physical searches for up to
72 hours before they are subject to review by the special, secret Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court." -By Curt Anderson-AP
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Search
at Najaf yields no sign of chemical weapons." ...
"Department of Defense officials said on Monday that no evidence of chemical
weapons production had been found at a facility close to the southern Iraqi
town of Najaf occupied by US forces on Sunday." ... "Intelligence officers
and military officials believe that Iraq has succesfully hidden a substantial
amount of its WMD arsenal and research, much of it buried and sealed. They
are working on the basis that only the occupation of substantial parts
of the country will give them the opportunity to prove that the WMD arsenal
exists." -By Mark Huband, Security
-FT.com
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
-
- "Powell
Cites Report That Iraq Plans Chemical Attack." ...
"Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday the United States had heard
reports that the Iraqi authorities planned to use chemical weapons against
Iraqis in the south and blame it on the United States."-Reuters
via -ABCNEWS.com
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
- 
- "Troops
uncover chemical weapons factory - report." ... "US
troops have found a suspected chemical factory in Iraq, according to unconfirmed
reports." ... "The plant is near the city of An Najaf, which US troops
reached yesterday on a push to Baghdad. Coalition soldiers are said to
be questioning the general in charge of the facility, about 100 miles south
of Baghdad. Weapons experts are also reported to have arrived at the site."
... "Were the plant to be confirmed as a chemical weapons factory, the
discovery would be a major boost to coalition morale after a series of
military setbacks." ... "However, US Central Command said in a statement
that troops were examining "sites of interest," refusing to confirm or
deny the speculation over the An Najaf site, and describing reports that
the site was a chemical weapons factory as "premature.""
-Guardian.co.uk
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
-
- 
-
- "Hunting
for Iraq's Terror Weapons." ... "America will not
be able to claim victory in Iraq until it secures Saddam Hussein's missing
troves of unconventional weapons, the ingredients for making them and the
network of scientists able to produce them. This is a long-term challenge.
But over the next days and weeks, American commanders face an urgent task:
to make sure that none of this deadly arsenal leaks out to terrorist groups
or neighboring states like Syria or Iran." ... "Some experts believe that
to avoid detection, Iraq may have retained only seed stocks, growth media
and the technical know-how to be able to start up production again quickly.
These basic ingredients are likely to be hidden at locations known only
to a very select group of leading scientists and top regime loyalists."
... "This means that the main tools for tracking down Iraq's hidden weapons
caches must include offers of financial bounties to ordinary Iraqis and
a pragmatic openness to plea bargaining with detained Iraqi security officials
and scientists. These include leaders of such notorious formations as the
Special Republican Guard and the Special Security Organization. Some of
the sadistic members of the Iraqi Baath leadership may have to be offered
a measure of leniency." -NYTimes
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
-
-
-
- "Germany
to quit AWACS patrols if Turkey joins war." ... "Germany
said on Saturday it would withdraw its aircrews from NATO AWACS planes
patrolling the airspace over Turkey if Ankara became a belligerent force
in northern Iraq." ... "[German Foreign Minister Joschka] Fischer and [German
Defence Minister Peter] Struck said that they had so far received no information
that Turkey's position had changed from a defensive posture. They said
Germany's BND intelligence agency had not uncovered any evidence Turkish
soldiers had advanced." -By Erik Kirschbaum-Reuters
via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
-
-
- "Officials
Authenticate Video of Saddam." ... "Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein may have been wounded in an American air attack, but U.S.
officials cautioned Friday that reports on his fate were circumstantial
and uncorroborated." ... "Intelligence officials also have determined it
was almost certainly Saddam, not a look-alike, who appeared in a video
recording on Iraqi television Wednesday, a few hours after he was targeted
by an American air strike." ... ""The CIA's assessment of the tape is that
it does appear to be the voice of Saddam, but there is no conclusive evidence
about whether that was taped before or after the operation began," said
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer." -By John Solomon
-AP via -Newsday.com
-
- "U.S.
launches cruise missiles at Saddam: Saddam
denounces attack as 'criminal'." ... "U.S. and coalition forces launched
missiles and bombs at targets in Iraq as Thursday morning dawned in Baghdad,
including a "decapitation attack" aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
and other top members of the country's leadership." ... "The "decapitation
attack" to take out Saddam was approved by Bush during an urgently called
meeting at which the CIA director voiced concern that a prime opportunity
could be lost, U.S. officials said." ... "One U.S. official said the attack
was launched on the basis of fresh intelligence on the location of "very
senior Iraqi leadership" -- including Saddam. One of the targets was in
Baghdad and another south of the capital, the sources said."
-CNN /World
-
- 
- "Marines
See Iraqi Army Bound by Fear, Not Loyalty." ... "The
marines who will lead the charge toward Baghdad believe that the Iraqi
Army will crumble before them, but worry that Saddam Hussein will barricade
himself in the city to force a siege and a humanitarian crisis to play
to world public opinion." ... ""That is my fear, quite frankly," the colonel
in charge of intelligence here at the First Marine Division's forward headquarters
[Camp Matilda, Kuwait] said. "That he pulls back into Baghdad."" ... "He
and other Marine officers here described an Iraqi Army that was poorly
equipped and disciplined, but above all, held together only by fear of
retribution rather than any sense of loyalty." -By
John Kifner -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
-
-
- "National
Threat Level Raised: Statement by Homeland
Security Secretary Tom Ridge." [Excerpt] ... "The Department of Homeland
Security in consultation with the Homeland Security Council, has made the
decision to raise the national threat level from an Elevated to High risk
of terrorist attack or Level Orange. The Intelligence Community believes
that terrorists will attempt multiple attacks against U.S.and Coalition
targets worldwide in the event of a U.S led military campaign against Saddam
Hussein. A large volume of reporting across a range of sources, some of
which are highly reliable, indicates that Al-Qaida probably would attempt
to launch terrorist attacks against U.S.interests claiming they were defending
Muslims or the Iraqi people rather than Saddam Husseins regime." ... "While
the March 1 arrest of senior Al Qaida operative, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad
(KSM) has put the Al-Qaida senior leadership on the defensive and will
be debilitating in the long term -- the Intelligence Community believes
that KSMs capture will not necessarily affect operations that are ready
or nearly ready for execution. There are many recent indications that Al-Qaidas
planning includes the use of chemical, biological, and/or radiological
materials." ... "Intelligence reporting also indicates that while Al-Qaida
and those sympathetic to their cause are a principal threat, Iraqi state
agents, Iraqi surrogate groups, other regional extremist organizations,
and ad hoc groups or disgruntled individuals not connected to existing
organizations or state agencies, may use this time period to conduct terrorist
attacks against the U.S., or our interests abroad."
-WhiteHouse.gov/
Homeland
Security Actions
-
-
- "U.S. raises
terror alert to ‘orange’: Intelligence indicates
attacks by al-Qaida, allies, officials say." ... "Fears of possible attacks
in retaliation for U.S. military action in Iraq led the Homeland Security
Department to raise the nation’s terror threat assessment Monday night
to “orange,” the second highest of five levels, NBC News has learned. The
new threat level went into effect after President Bush addressed the nation."
... "Concerned about a potential attack from Iraqi sleeper cells, the FBI
was sending agents fanning out to interview as many as 10,000 Iraqis now
in the United States, urging them to report anything suspicious in the
Arab community. FBI evidence specialists were to begin a 24-hour-a-day
watch to analyze information U.S. troops found in Iraq." -By
Pete Williams and Robert Windrem -MSNBC
-
-
-
- "U.S.:
Iraq may use chemical warfare: U.S. officials
tell CNN there is "recent" and "fresh" evidence that Iraq is planning to
use chemical weapons, perhaps against U.S. forces or Iraqi citizens." ...
"Officials stress they have not yet seen Iraq move any chemical munitions
but say they have "information" that Republican Guard units south of Baghdad
have been issued chemical munitions." -By Barbara
Starr -CNN
-
-
- "Senator
Wants Fake Iraq Documents Probed: Sen. Jay
Rockefeller Wants FBI Investigation of Forged Documents That Were Used
Against Iraq." ... "The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee
asked the FBI on Friday to investigate forged documents the Bush administration
used as evidence against Saddam Hussein and his military ambitions in Iraq."
... "Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said he was uneasy about a possible
campaign to deceive the public about the status of Iraq's nuclear program."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
-
-
- "Fake
Iraq documents 'embarrassing' for U.S.: Intelligence
documents that U.S. and British governments said were strong evidence that
Iraq was developing nuclear weapons have been dismissed as forgeries by
U.N. weapons inspectors." ... "The documents, given to International Atomic
Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, indicated that Iraq might
have tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger, but the agency said they
were "obvious" fakes." -By David Ensor
-CNN
-
- "Hard to pin
a bull's-eye on Saddam: Elusive target dims
U.S. hopes for 'hit'." ... "For regime change in Iraq, a presidential assassination
would appear to be quicker, cheaper and more humane than all-out war, and
when U.S. officials are asked why they are not considering this option
they answer that they have indeed been considering it and still are." ...
""That's what we're talking about every time Washington dangles the possibility
that Saddam Hussein could be allowed to go into permanent exile," an official
said. "Exile" is a kind of code word for "death," he said." -By
Joseph Fitchett -IHT.com
-
- "Iraq reportedly
opens suicide camp: Volunteers trained to attack
U.S. forces, Al-Jazeera says." ... "Saddam Hussein has opened a training
camp for Arab volunteers willing to carry out suicide bombings against
U.S. forces in case they invade Iraq, Arab media and Iraqi dissidents said
Tuesday." ... "A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
the United States has no information that would corroborate reports of
Iraqi intelligence training suicide bombers at camps northeast of Baghdad,
or anywhere else." -AP
via -MSNBC
-
- Osama
bin Laden
- "Aide met bin
Laden in December, Pakistan says." ... "A top Al
Qaeda planner captured in Pakistan nine days ago told interrogators that
he met with Osama bin Laden in December, but he refused to describe the
location, Pakistan's top intelligence officials said Monday as they gave
the first detailed, official account of the arrest and questioning of the
terror planner, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed." ... "The officials spoke Monday
night at an unusual press conference inside the halls of Interservices
Intelligence, or ISI, the secretive and powerful military intelligence
agency that now leads the country's anti-terror efforts." -By
Eric Eckholm -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
-
- "Al-Qaida
Remains Epicenter of Terrorism: Al-Qaida Still
Remains Epicenter of Anti-Western Terrorism Even After Arrests and Deaths."
... ""Al-Qaida as we know it today is not the al-Qaida that we knew prior
to Sept. 11. It has metastasized," said Dan Mulvenna, a professor at the
Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies outside Washington.
"The organization, post-Sept. 11, has been forced to rely more and more
on the broader network of fundamentalist groups. In a sense, it has become
a holding company for worldwide Islamic Jihad.""
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "North
Korea MIG's Intercept U.S. Jet on a Spy Mission."
... "Four North Korean fighter jets intercepted an unarmed United States
Air Force spy plane on a surveillance mission over the Sea of Japan on
Saturday, and came within 50 feet of the American aircraft, military officials
said today." ... "The fighters shadowed the spy plane, an RC-135S Cobra
Ball, for 22 minutes in international airspace about 150 miles off the
North Korean coast, said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. No
shots were fired, officials said." (1, 2)
-NYTimes via -Google-News
-
-
-
- "US
anger at N Korean jet incident: The US will
lodge a formal protest with North Korea over an incident in which it said
four Korean fighter jets intercepted a US reconnaissance plane in international
air space." ... "The US plane broke off its mission and returned to its
base in Kadena, Japan, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Commander Jeff Davis
said." ... "He said it was the first such incident since August 1969, when
North Korean jets shot down a US reconnaissance plane, killing 31 people
aboard."-BBC/News
-
- 
-
- "Japan
fears N. Korea near point of no return: The
North appears ready to start up a reprocessing plant." ... "Satellite photos
indicating that North Korea is cranking up its nuclear program - turning
on its Yongbyon reactor and testing equipment that reprocesses spent-fuel
rods - are deepening worries in Japan that Kim Jong Il is approaching a
point of no return in his self-styled standoff with the US." -By
Robert Marquand -CSMonitor
- "US
lowers terror threat alert level." ... ""Today's
decision was based on a careful review of how this specific intelligence
has evolved and progressed over the past three weeks as well as counter-terrorism
actions we have taken to address specific aspects of the threat situation,"
Tom Ridge, secretary of homeland security, and John Ashcroft, US attorney-general,
said in a joint statement." -By Kamau High
-FT.com
-
- "Colombia
Rebels Admit Kidnapping 3 Americans After Crash."
... "Marxist rebels confirmed today that they had kidnapped three American
government employees after their plane crash-landed in a jungle thicket,
and described them as C.I.A. employees." ... "American officials have refused
to divulge details about the mission the men were on, but they have said
the plane was used in counternarcotics operations and that the Americans
were working for the Pentagon." -By Juan Forero -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- Law
Enforcement News
- "FBI
Bulletin Warns of 'Lone Extremists'." ... "The FBI's
weekly bulletin to local law enforcement agencies, issued on Thursday,
said that there was a potential threat from extremists who acted on their
own and were not closely tied to any group and cited as an example Oklahoma
City bomber Timothy McVeigh." -Reuters
- 
- "Shin
Bet takes US lawyer's computer." ... "Israel's intelligence
service confiscated a computer from a controversial American lawyer this
week as he left the country after gathering evidence for a legal action
in the US courts against Ariel Sharon, George Bush and weapons manufacturers."
... "Members of Shin Bet stopped Stanley Cohen as he was flying out of
Tel Aviv on Tuesday and told him to hand over his computer for a routine
security check. They refused to return the machine even when he said he
would rather keep it and not fly." -By Chris McGreal
-Guardian.co.uk
-
-
-
- "Pre-war
action already under way: Stepped-up bombing
attacks in no-fly zones and Special Forces operations in Iraq are part
of growing preparations." ... "In important ways, the Gulf War of 2003
has already begun." ... "From armed attacks on opposing forces to covert
preparations, both the United States and Iraq are heavily involved in military
actions: •Twice last week, American and British
jets attacked Iraqi missile sites, part of stepped-up allied activity in
the southern no-fly zone. •On the ground,
Special Forces soldiers and CIA operatives already are inside Iraq, working
with Iraqis who oppose Saddam Hussein, preparing airstrips and communications
facilities, and taking note of potential targets for air attack." -By
Brad Knickerbocker -CSMonitor
- "Terror
Alert May Soon Be Lowered." ... "The government is
not yet ready to lower the "high risk" terrorism alert it ordered 10 days
ago but could do so at any time, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge
said yesterday." ... "Based on current intelligence information, Ridge
said on CNN's "Late Edition" that "there's still enough out there today
for us to remain at an orange [or second-highest risk] level."" -By
Helen Dewar -WashingtonPost
-
- "Military’s
abilities, burdens grow: A technological revolution
and a constant call to do more." ... "Many military analysts and historians
believe that U.S. precision-strike capabilities, first seen in the 1991
Persian Gulf War, represent the third “revolution in military affairs”
of the 20th century, during which emerging technologies and new war-fighting
concepts changed the nature of war." ... "The first took place between
1917 and 1939, with the combination of internal combustion engines, improved
aircraft design, radio and radar; it produced the German blitzkrieg, carrier
aviation and strategic aerial bombardment. The second came at the end of
World War II, with the advent of nuclear weapons. The third is all about
precision strikes, information dominance and near-real-time targeting as
the U.S. military leads to the way from Industrial Age warfare to Information
Age operations." -By Thomas E. Ricks and Vernon Loeb-WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
Law
Enforcement News
- "False
Alarm? Terror Alert Partly Based on Fabricated
Information." ... "A key piece of the information leading to recent terror
alerts was fabricated, according to two senior law enforcement officials
in Washington and New York." ... "The officials said that a claim made
by a captured al Qaeda member that Washington, New York or Florida would
be hit by a "dirty bomb" sometime this week had proven to be a product
of his imagination." ... "Despite the fabricated report, there are no plans
to change the threat level. Officials said other intelligence has been
validated and that the high level of precautions is fully warranted." -By
Brian Ross, Len Tepper and Jill Rackmill -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "Ashcroft
proposes vast new surveillance powers: Proposed
legislation leaked to the Internet on Friday would criminalize some uses
of encryption, and dramatically increase federal law enforcement's domestic
spying powers." ... "A sweeping new anti-terrorism bill drafted by the
Justice Department would dramatically increase government electronic surveillance
and data collection abilities, and impose the first-ever federal criminal
penalties for using encryption in the U.S." ... "A draft of the Domestic
Security Enhancement Act of 2003 dated January 9th was obtained by the
non-partisan Center for Public Integrity and released Friday. The 120-page
proposal would further expand many of the surveillance powers Congress
granted federal law enforcement in the USA-PATRIOT Act in 2001, while increasing
the secrecy surrounding some government functions." -By
Kevin Poulsen -BusinessWeek/Daily
Law
Enforcement News
- "Hundreds
in U.S. Have Ties to Al Qaeda, F.B.I. Director Says."
... "F.B.I. Director Robert S. Mueller III said today that several hundred
Islamic extremists linked to Al Qaeda are in the United States, with some
organized in cells that could be ordered to carry out terrorist attacks
in this country." ... "In his most definitive statement to date about the
presence of extremists in the United States, Mr. Mueller told the Senate
Intelligence Committee that the effort to identify these cell members is
the country's most serious law enforcement challenge." -By
David Johnston -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- "[CIA
director George] Tenet: Terror attacks could occur this week."
... "Tenet said on Tuesday that new intelligence information led to last
week's raising of the national terror alert level to "orange," the second
highest level of five. The information came from "multiple sources with
strong al-Qaeda ties," Tenet said without providing details." ... ""The
intelligence is not idle chatter on the part of terrorists and their associates,"
Tenet said Tuesday. "It is the most specific we have seen, and it is consistent
with both our knowledge of al-Qaeda's doctrine and our knowledge of plots
this network and particularly its senior leadership
has been working on for years."" -AP
via -DallasNews.com
-
- "Pyongyang
[North Korea] has untested missile capable of reaching U.S., Congress told."
... "North Korea has an untested ballistic missile capable of reaching
the western United States, intelligence officials said Wednesday." ...
"The North Korean missile is a three-stage version of the Taepo Dong 2,
Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said
to reporters. It has not been flight-tested, Jacoby said, leaving some
questions about North Korea's capability to successfully launch the missile."-AP
via -USATODAY
-
-
-
- Law
Enforcement News
- "Blair
authorised terror alert troops." ... "The prime minister
gave his personal authorisation for soldiers to be drafted in to boost
security at Heathrow airport and other sites in London, says Downing Street."
... "A total of 450 troops have joined 1,000 extra police officers in patrolling
the airport as part of a tightening of security at sites across the capital."
... "The heightened security is linked to intelligence concerns that al-Qaeda
may try to use surface-to-air missiles in the UK or US this week." ...
"It is compounded by US security chiefs warning of possible terrorist attacks
in the US and Middle East towards the end of the week, including the use
of poisons, chemicals and a device to spread radioactivity[.]"
-BBC/News
Law
Enforcement News
- "U.S.
had data hinting of Oklahoma City bombing." ... "Two
federal law enforcement agencies had information before the 1995 Oklahoma
City bombing suggesting that white supremacists living nearby were considering
an attack on government buildings, but the intelligence was never passed
on to federal officials in the state, documents and interviews show." ...
"FBI headquarters officials in Washington were so concerned that white
separatists at the Elohim City compound in Muldrow, Okla., might lash out
on April 19, 1995 the day Timothy McVeigh did choose
that a month earlier they questioned a reformed white supremacist familiar
with an earlier plot to bomb the same Alfred P. Murrah federal building
McVeigh selected." -AP
via -USATODAY
- 
- Osama
bin Laden
- "Powell
briefs Senate panel on Iraq." ... "Secretary of State
Colin Powell told a Senate panel Tuesday that what appears to be a new
statement from Osama bin Laden shows why the world needs to be concerned
about Iraqi ties to terrorism." ... "Powell said he read a transcript of
"what bin Laden or who we believe to be bin Laden" will be
saying on the Al-Jazeera Arab satellite station later Tuesday, "where once
again he speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle and
how he is in partnership with Iraq."" -AP
via -USATODAY
-
- "Iraq
Approves U-2 Surveillance Flights: Baghdad Approves
U-2 Surveillance Flights but Bush Administration Dismisses Iraqi Concession."
... "Iraq agreed Monday to allow U-2 surveillance flights over its territory,
meeting a key demand by U.N. inspectors searching for banned weapons as
European opposition to American military action mounted." ... "President
Bush, however, brushed aside Iraqi concessions as too little, too late."
... "The [Iraqi] announcement came days after five Iraqi scientists gave
private interviews to the U.N. weapons inspectors."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "What
Powell Achieved: He may not have swayed doubters,
but the Secretary of State shortened the odds on a UN resolution authorizing
force against Iraq." ... "Powell's presentation began with U.S. evidence
purporting to show Iraq systematically evading and deceiving UN inspectors.
Then he restated for the record the known and chilling inventory of Iraq's
unaccounted-for stocks of biological and chemical weapons, presented allegations
by defectors of continuing programs and offered a circumstantial argument
pointing to a clandestine nuclear program. Finally, he tried to make a
case that such weapons programs represent an imminent threat to the West
on the basis of an alleged link between Iraq and al-Qaeda." -By
Tony Karon -TIME.com
-
- "Powell
faces tough sell to a skeptical UN: He addresses
the UN Security Council on Wednesday." ... "Secretary of State Colin Powell
has addressed many tough crowds - but he'll be facing one of the most difficult
tasks of his career this Wednesday when he presents evidence of Iraq's
concealment of weapons to a skeptical UN Security Council audience." ...
"In part that's because the evidence itself is likely to be ambiguous.
While Mr. Powell will have a few declassified photos and intercepts that
hint at Saddam Hussein's malfeasance,reports indicate he won't have the
sort of substantiation that could make his audience gasp." -By
Peter Grier and Faye Bowers -CSMonitor
-
-
- "UN
report on Iraq: grist for many mills: UN releases
its interim report on weapon inspections." ... "United Nations weapons
chiefs Monday report to the Security Council on Iraq's compliance to disarm
- providing a document that is unlikely to resolve any debates." ... "Nuclear
inspectors say they have uncovered no evidence so far that Iraq has tried
to reconstitute its bomb program. But wide gaps in Iraq's accounting of
missing WMD material remain." ... "One reason for the discrepancy - and
therefore Baghdad's unwillingness to give up residual WMD capabilities,
analysts say - may be Iraq's calculation that Washington will carry out
regime change regardless. "What [the Iraqis] have is some scrappy bits
of chemical and biological [material], but it's enough to strap to a dirty
bomb," says a British analyst who asked not to be named. "They believe
they are going to be invaded anyway, so they would rather it happen with
opposing troops in chemical-weapons suits, and with a Samson option overshadowing.""
-By Scott Peterson
-CSMonitor
- "Blix
Repeats Iraq Smuggled Arms-Related Goods." ... "Chief
U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix has reiterated that his teams in Iraq
have uncovered weapons-related smuggling but it was unclear if the goods
were linked to weapons of mass destruction."-Reuters/World
- "UN
team in Iraq gears for long haul: Help from
defector, more data sought." ... "Even with a fleet of helicopters and
a new northern Iraq base, United Nations weapons inspectors will probably
need months more of hunting to find any suspected weapons of mass destruction
unless they get better intelligence or access to a high-ranking Iraqi defector."
... "The inspectors have received reinforcements and some fresh intelligence,
allowing them to pick up the pace and scope of their inspections, UN officials
said. Their work will soon be supported by high-altitude surveillance.
But without information that points them to arms caches or other evidence
of weapons, a breakthrough could prove elusive." -By
Elizabeth Neuffer -Boston/Globe
- "Execution
Possibility Intensifies Spy Trial: Jury Selection
Opens In Landmark Case." ... "On the quiet shuttle from the Dulles International
Airport terminal to its midfield gates, where there's really no place to
run, FBI agents arrested intelligence analyst Brian P. Regan in August
2001 before he boarded a plane to Germany. He faced charges of trying to
sell classified documents to Iraq, Libya and China." ... "The indictment
didn't allege any large security leaks, but Sept. 11 came three weeks later,
and soon Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said Regan should face the death
penalty. With that announcement, Regan became the first espionage defendant
in the United States to face execution since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
were convicted more than 50 years ago. Jury selection in his trial begins
today." -By Tom Jackman-WashingtonPost
- "U.S. shares
data on Iraq with Blix: Some intelligence withheld
from inspectors, Powell says." ... "After weeks of delay, the United States
within the past several days has begun providing United Nations inspectors
with “significant” intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs that has enabled
inspectors to become “more aggressive and to be more comprehensive in the
work they’re doing,” Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday."
... "The increased U.S. assistance to the inspectors comes less than three
weeks before Hans Blix, head of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission (UNMOVIC), and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director
General Mohamed ElBaradei are scheduled to provide the U.N. Security Council
with their first formal assessment of Iraqi compliance with U.N. disarmament
demands." -By Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus-WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
-
-
- "Slain
Woman's Family Fights Internet Brokers: The
family has filed a lawsuit against Docusearch, an Internet information
broker that sold information to the woman's killer." ... "... Amy Boyer,
was 20 when she was shot to death Oct. 15, 1999, by a former high school
classmate, Liam Youens." ... "Invasion Of Privacy." ... "Youens
had paid an Internet information broker to track her down. For the three
years since the murder, Boyer's parents have fought to protect other potential
victims, most recently by suing the broker for negligence and invasion
of privacy." -By Holly Ramer
-AP via
-GovTech.net/news
- "U.N.
accused of engaging in 'intelligence work'." ...
"President Saddam Hussein accused U.N. inspectors on Monday of engaging
in "intelligence work" instead of searching for weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq." ... ""They went to collect names of Iraqi scientists and ask
irrelevant questions and search military camps and other things and all
or most of it is purely intelligence work," Saddam said in a televised
speech marking Iraq's Army Day." -AP
via -USATODAY
-
-
- "US
operatives are said to be active in Iraq: Agents
target sites, gather intelligence." ... "About 100 US Special Forces members
and more than 50 Central Intelligence Agency officers have been operating
in small groups inside Iraq for at least four months, searching for Scud
missile launchers, monitoring oil fields, marking minefield sites, and
using lasers to help US pilots bomb Iraqi air-defense systems, according
to intelligence officials and military analysts who have talked with people
on the teams." ... "The operations, which also have included small numbers
of Jordanian, British, and Australian commandos, are considered by many
analysts to be part of the opening phase of a war against Iraq, even though
the Bush administration has agreed to a schedule of UN weapons inspections."
-By John Donnelly
-Boston/Globe
-
- TIA:
Total Information Awareness
- OPINION
- "Bush's
Year of U.S. Surveillance: It may seem unreasonable,
unfair and downright mean-spirited to compare the Bush administration to
the minions of Sauron, the granddaddy of evil in The Lord of the Rings
trilogy." ... "But here goes." ... "The executive branch's attempts in
2002 to peer into the lives of Americans were more than a little similar
to the exploits of Middle Earth's
would-be rulers." ... "Take, for example, the Bush team's most notorious
proposal of the year: the Total Information Awareness system. TIA is an
"ultra-large, all-source
information repository" (PDF) meant to track citizens' every move,
from Web surfing to doctor visits, travel plans to university grades, passport
applications to ATM withdrawals." -By Noah
Shachtman -Wired
