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Barack
Obama
- 
John
McCain
- 
US
- 
Iraq
- 
Military
- 
Osama
bin Laden
- 
Terrorism
- 2008
Election - 
Ohio-
"Obama
also has news for McCain." ... "[2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama departed from his regular stump speech
today in Columbus [Ohio's capital] to respond to [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate] John McCain." ... ""John McCain may like to say
he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but so far all
he’s done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq," he said."
... ""McCain thought that he could make a clever point by saying, 'Well
let me give you some news, Barack, Al Qaeda is in Iraq,' like I
wasn’t reading the papers, like [I] didn’t know what was going on." Obama
said, leaning into his developing McCain impression." ... "He then described
the context -- a hypothetical question from Tim Russert -- and said, "First
of all, I do know Al Qaeda is in Iraq, and that’s why I said we should
continue to strike Al Qaeda targets."" ... ""I have some news for John
McCain," Obama continued, "That’s there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq until George
Bush and John McCain" began the Iraq war, he said." ... ""They took their
eye off the people who really were responsible for 9/11," he said." -By
Ben Smith -Politico.com
Rudy
Giuliani
- Terrorism
- 
Money
- 
Politics
- US
- 
Qatar
- Military
- 
Intelligence
- Osama
bin Laden
- 
Law
- 
Enforcement
- 2008
Election - "Giuliani's
Ties to Qatar Raise Questions for Mr. 9/ll." ...
"Contracts awarded to [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]
Rudy Giuliani's private security firm in the Gulf state of Qatar were overseen
by a government minister suspected of harboring the al Qaeda terrorist
who planned the 9/ll attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, according to security
consultants in the region." ... "Since 2005, Giuliani Partners and its
Giuliani Security & Safety (GS&S) unit has provided security consulting
and advice in Qatar through contracts overseen by the country's Interior
Ministry, which is currently run by a member of the royal family who has
long been accused of supporting al Qaeda, according to security consultants
familiar with the area." ... "The current interior minister, Sheik Abdullah
Bin Khalid al-Thani, was suspected of sheltering Mohammed at his farm and
tipping him off to the arrival of CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] and
FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] teams coming to arrest the al Qaeda
strategist back in 1996, according to the National Security Council's former
chief counterterrorism adviser and ABC News consultant Richard A. Clarke,
former CIA agent Robert Baer and a 2004 Congressional Research Service
report." ... "Khalid al-Thani is also believed to have welcomed Osama bin
Laden on two visits to the farm, according to an Oct. 10, 2007 CRS study."
... "The firm's work in Qatar was too close for comfort to former law enforcement
agents familiar with the country." ... ""We have a guy who could be president
who's taking money from the same accounts that harbored terrorists," said
Baer, the former CIA agent." -By Marcus Baram
-ABCNEWS.com
Saudi
Arabia - 
Oil
- Industry
- Terrorism
- Osama
bin Laden
- US
- Politics
- "Saudi
builds security force of 35,000 to guard oil." ...
"Saudi Arabia is building up a special 35,000-strong rapid reaction force
to protect its energy installations from attacks by militants targeting
the world's largest oil exporter." ... "The kingdom started recruiting
and training the industrial security force a year ago, after a failed al
Qaeda attack on the world's largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq in February
2006." ... "The network's Saudi branch vowed more strikes on oil facilities
after the attack, the first to directly target the kingdom's oil sector
since militants began a campaign against the U.S.-allied Saudi royals in
May 2003." ... "Al Qaeda's Saudi-born leader, Osama bin Laden, has called
for it to take aim specifically at oil." ... "The new force already has
around 9,000 personnel either in training or already active, and will reach
full strength of up to 35,000 in three to four years, Mansour said." (1,
2,
3)
-By Simon Webb with contributions by Samira Kawar
-Reuters
Secret
- Osama
bin Laden
- 
TV
- 
Web
- 
Communications
- Terrorist
- 
Surveillance
- Company
- Military
- Intelligence
- Politics
- "Leak
Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets: Firm Says [Republican
President Bush's] Administration's Handling of Video Ruined Its Spying
Efforts." ... "A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic
terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official
release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush
administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials
access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until
the al-Qaeda release." ... "Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence
agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon
that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked
from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast
worldwide." ... "The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group
[Search for International Terrorist Entities], says this premature disclosure
tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance
operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret
messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist
group's communications network." ... ""Techniques that took years to develop
are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old
founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and
videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy
over the secrecy of SITE's methodology. Her firm provides intelligence
about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private
firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and
several other countries." ... "She spoke first with White House counsel
Fred F. Fielding, whom she had previously met, and then with Joel Bagnal,
deputy assistant to the president for homeland security. Both expressed
interest in obtaining a copy, and Bagnal suggested that she send a copy
to Michael Leiter, who holds the No. 2 job at the National Counterterrorism
Center." (1, 2)
-By Joby Warrick -WashingtonPost
United
States - 
Afghanistan
- 
Pakistan
- Osama
bin Laden
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Law
- Enforcement
- Politics
- "Intelligence
officials contradict White House on bin Laden." ...
"Contradicting [Republican] President Bush's counter-terrorism adviser,
U.S. intelligence and law enforcement chiefs and a Cabinet member said
Monday that Osama bin Laden remained the most dangerous terrorist threat
to the United States six years after the 9-11 attacks." ... "Eliminating
the threat that the al Qaida leader and his inner circle pose from their
sanctuary in Pakistan's remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan "is
our number one priority," Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell
told a Senate committee." ... "The assessments by McConnell, Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff and FBI Director Robert Mueller came a day after
White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend called bin
Laden "a man on the run from a cave who is virtually impotent other than
these tapes."" ... "Townsend was commenting on the release of the first
bin Laden video in nearly three years, which surfaced Friday on the Internet."
... "McConnell recalled that a comprehensive U.S. intelligence assessment
issued in July warned that the gravest terrorist threat to the United States
for the next three years is bin Laden and the plots to attack American
targets that he and his lieutenants are hatching in their sanctuary in
Pakistan." -By
Jonathan
S. Landay -McClatchyDC.com
US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Pakistan
- Osama
bin Laden
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Political
- Analysis
- "Intelligence
Puts Rationale For War on Shakier Ground." ... "The
White House faced fresh political peril yesterday in the form of a new
intelligence assessment that raised sharp questions about the success of
its counterterrorism strategy and judgment in making Iraq the focus of
that effort." ... "Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush
has been able to deflect criticism of his counterterrorism policy by repeatedly
noting the absence of any new domestic attacks and by citing the continuing
threat that terrorists in Iraq pose to U.S. interests." ... "But this line
of defense seemed to unravel a bit yesterday with the release of a new
National Intelligence Estimate that concludes that al-Qaeda "has protected
or regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability" by reestablishing
a haven in Pakistan and reconstituting its top leadership. The report also
notes that al-Qaeda has been able "to recruit and indoctrinate operatives,
including for Homeland attacks," by associating itself with an Iraqi subsidiary."
... "These disclosures triggered a new round of criticism from Democrats
and others who say that the administration took its eye off the ball by
invading Iraq without first destroying Osama bin Laden's organization in
Afghanistan." ... "Some terrorism analysts say Bush has used inflated rhetoric
to depict al-Qaeda in Iraq as part of the same group of extremists that
attacked the United States on Sept. 11 -- noting that the group did not
exist until after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. These analysts
say Bush also has overlooked the contribution that U.S. actions have made
to the growth of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has been described as kind of
a franchise of the main al-Qaeda network headed by bin Laden." -By
Michael Abramowitz -WashingtonPost
Saudi
Arabia - Iraq
- US
- 
Syria- 
Iran
- 
Lebanon
- Afghan
- 
Foreign
- Military
- Intelligence
- Politics- Religious
- Terrorism
- 
History
- Osama
bin Laden
- "Saudis'
role in Iraq insurgency outlined: Sunni extremists
from Saudi Arabia make up half the foreign fighters in Iraq, many suicide
bombers, a U.S. official says." ... "Although [Republican President] Bush
administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran,
accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number
of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor,
Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers."
... "About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi
civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria
and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S.
military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly
half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis,
he said." ... "Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out
more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior
U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's
sensitivity. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given
such a breakdown on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's Sunni
Arab insurgency." ... "He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here
as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or
injured 4,000 Iraqis." ... "The situation has left the U.S. military in
the awkward position of battling an enemy whose top source of foreign fighters
is a key ally that at best has not been able to prevent its citizens from
undertaking bloody attacks in Iraq, and at worst shares complicity in sending
extremists to commit attacks against U.S. forces, Iraqi civilians and the
Shiite-led government in Baghdad [Iraq's capital]." ... "In the 1980s,
the Saudi intelligence service sponsored Sunni Muslim fighters for the
U.S.-backed Afghan mujahedin battling Soviet troops in Afghanistan. At
the time, Saudi intelligence cultivated another man helping the Afghan
fighters, Osama bin Laden, the future leader of Al Qaeda who would one
day turn against the Saudi royal family and mastermind the Sept. 11 attacks
on New York and the Pentagon. Indeed, Saudi Arabia has long been a source
of a good portion of the money and manpower for Al Qaeda: 15 of the 19
hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were Saudi." (1,
2)
-By Ned Parker with contributions by Paul Richter
and Greg Miller -LAtimes
US
- Pakistan
- Afghanistan
- Osama
bin Laden
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Money
- Communications
- Politics
- 
Nev
- "U.S.
Warns Of Stronger Al-Qaeda: Administration Report
Cites Havens in Pakistan." ... "Six years after the Bush administration
declared war on al-Qaeda, the terrorist network is gaining strength and
has established a safe haven in remote tribal areas of western Pakistan
for training and planning attacks, according to a new Bush administration
intelligence report to be discussed today at a White House meeting." ...
"The report, a five-page threat assessment compiled by the National Counterterrorism
Center, is titled "Al-Qaida Better Positioned to Strike the West," intelligence
officials said. It concludes that the group has significantly rebuilt itself
despite concerted U.S. attempts to smash the network." ... "Although the
officials declined to discuss the assessment's content because it is classified,
the CIA's deputy director for intelligence, John A. Kringen, told a House
committee yesterday that al-Qaeda appears "to be fairly well settled into
the safe haven in the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan."" ... ""We see more
training. We see more money. We see more communications," Kringen said."
... "Citing news reports about the intelligence assessment, Senate Majority
Leader [Nevada Democratic Senator] Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement
that "it is a travesty that Osama bin Laden remains at large . . . and
appears to have found new sanctuary to operate freely in the Afghanistan-Pakistan
border regions." Several House" (1, 2)
-By Spencer S. Hsu and Walter Pincus with contributions
by Dan Eggen, Joby Warrick and Alice Crites
-WashingtonPost
US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Pakistan
- Terrorism
- Money
- Military
- Intelligence
- Osama
bin Laden
- "Influx
of Al Qaeda, money into Pakistan is seen: U.S. officials
say the terrorist network's command base is increasingly being funded by
cash coming out of Iraq." ... "A major CIA [Central Intelligence Agency]
effort launched last year to hunt down Osama bin Laden has produced no
significant leads on his whereabouts, but has helped track an alarming
increase in the movement of Al Qaeda operatives and money into Pakistan's
tribal territories, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials familiar
with the operation." ... "In one of the most troubling trends, U.S. officials
said that Al Qaeda's command base in Pakistan is increasingly being funded
by cash coming out of Iraq, where the terrorist network's operatives are
raising substantial sums from donations to the anti-American insurgency
as well as kidnappings of wealthy Iraqis and other criminal activity."
... "The influx of money has bolstered Al Qaeda's leadership ranks at a
time when the core command is regrouping and reasserting influence over
its far-flung network. The trend also signals a reversal in the traditional
flow of Al Qaeda funds, with the network's leadership surviving to a large
extent on money coming in from its most profitable franchise, rather than
distributing funds from headquarters to distant cells." ... "Al Qaeda's
efforts were aided, intelligence officials said, by Pakistan's withdrawal
in September of tens of thousands of troops from the tribal areas along
the Afghanistan border where Bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman Zawahiri,
are believed to be hiding." ... "Little more than a year ago, Al Qaeda's
core command was thought to be in a financial crunch. But U.S. officials
said cash shipped from Iraq has eased those troubles." ... ""Iraq is a
big moneymaker for them," said a senior U.S. counter-terrorism official."
-By Greg Miller -LAtimes
2008
Election - Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Money
- Osama
bin Laden
- Religion
- 
North
Carolina - "AP
Interview: Romney says he's not the only one switching positions, [Republican]
rivals do it too." ... "[Republican Mitt Romney]
said the country would be safer by only "a small percentage" and would
see "a very insignificant increase in safety" if al-Qaida leader Osama
bin Laden was caught because another terrorist would rise to power. "It's
not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying
to catch one person," Romney said. Instead, he said he supports a broader
strategy to defeat the Islamic jihad movement." ... "The Romney campaign
said Thursday that a former counterterrorism chief who served during the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has joined the campaign as a senior adviser."
... "Cofer Black served as the director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center
during the attacks and was singled out for especially harsh criticism by
the agency's inspector general in a 2005 report on faulty intelligence
efforts before the attacks." ... "Black has worked for the past two years
as vice chairman of Blackwater USA, a North Carolina-based security firm
which specializes in private security and private military services." ...
"Earlier this year, Black announced he had formed a new company called
Total Intelligence Solutions, which focuses on providing intelligence gathering
to companies." -By Liz Sidoti with contributions by
Michael R. Baker -AP
via -SFGate.com
Noteworthy
- Pakistan
- Afghanistan
- US
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- bin
Laden
- "Al
Qaeda Chiefs Are Seen to Regain Power." ... "Senior
leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant
control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the
past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near
the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism
officials." ... "American officials said there was mounting evidence that
Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building
an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan.
Until recently, the Bush administration had described Mr. bin Laden and
Mr. Zawahri as detached from their followers and cut off from operational
control of Al Qaeda." ... "The United States has also identified several
new Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan, including one that officials said
might be training operatives for strikes against targets beyond Afghanistan."
... "American analysts said recent intelligence showed that the compounds
functioned under a loose command structure and were operated by groups
of Arab, Pakistani and Afghan militants allied with Al Qaeda. They receive
guidance from their commanders and Mr. Zawahri, the analysts said. Mr.
bin Laden, who has long played less of an operational role, appears to
have little direct involvement." ... "The new warnings are different from
those made in recent months by intelligence officials and terrorism experts,
who have spoken about the growing abilities of Taliban forces and Pakistani
militants to launch attacks into Afghanistan. American officials say that
the new intelligence is focused on Al Qaeda and points to the prospect
that the terrorist network is gaining in strength despite more than five
years of a sustained American-led campaign to weaken it." (1, 2)
-By Mark Mazzetti and David Rohde with contributions
by David Johnston and Carlotta Gall -NYTimes
US
- Afghanistan
- Iraq
- Pakistan
- Osama
bin Laden
- Religious
- Terrorism
- Money
- Politics
- Military
- Intelligence
- "Afghanistan,
5 years later: U.S. confront Taliban's return." ...
"Afghanistan has become Iraq on a slow burn. Five years after they were
ousted, the Taliban are back in force, their ranks renewed by a new generation
of diehards. Violence, opium trafficking, ethnic tensions, official corruption
and political anarchy are all worse than they've been at any time since
the U.S.-led intervention in 2001." ... "By failing to stop Taliban leaders
and Osama bin Laden from escaping into Pakistan, then diverting troops
and resources to Iraq before finishing the job in Afghanistan, the Bush
administration left the door open to a Taliban comeback. Compounding the
problem, reconstruction efforts have been slow and limited, and the U.S.
and NATO didn't anticipate the extent and ferocity of the Taliban resurgence
or the alliances the insurgents have formed with other Islamic extremists
and with the world's leading opium traffickers." ... "There are only 42,000
U.S. and NATO-led troops to secure a country that's half again the size
of Iraq, where 150,000 U.S.-led coalition troops are deployed. Suicide
bombings have soared from two in all of 2002 to about one every five days.
Civilian casualties are mounting." ... "James Dobbins, who was President
Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan, said that the administration dismissed
European offers of a major peacekeeping force after the U.S. intervention
and almost immediately began shifting military assets to invade Iraq."
... "The White House "resisted the whole concept of peacekeeping," said
Dobbins. "They wanted to demonstrate a different approach, one that would
be much lower cost. So the decision to skimp on manpower and deploy one-fiftieth
the troops as were deployed in Bosnia was accompanied by a decision to
underplay economic assistance." ... ""We invaded Afghanistan in October
2001. We conquered the country in December, and Congress was not asked
to provide any (reconstruction) money until the following October," he
continued. "Much of the money didn't show up for years. And not only were
the actual sums relatively small, but with the failure to establish even
a modicum of security in the countryside, there was no way to spend it.""
... "There are 22,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But there are only 5,000
U.S. combat soldiers in eastern Afghanistan bordering Taliban refuges in
Pakistan, a 27,000-square-mile area of vast deserts and mountains nearly
the size of South Carolina." ... "ISAF [International Security Assistance
Force led by NATO], with 20,000 troops from 36 nations, has only 8,000
troops for 77,000 square miles - slightly smaller than Minnesota - in the
south." ... "The insurgents and their leaders operate from Pakistan, aided
by Pakistani officials, radical Islamic parties and al Qaida. They're flush
with recruits from Islamist seminaries on both sides of the border that
offer religious instruction and combat training." ... "Taliban extremists
also have been to Iraq for training in combat and bomb-making, and Iraqi
insurgents have traveled to Pakistan to forge closer ties with Afghan and
Pakistani extremists, according to U.S. intelligence officials." ... "The
Afghan army has about 30,000 troops who participate in operations with
U.S. and ISAF forces. But they lack basic equipment - helmets, radios and
armored vehicles - and rely on U.S. and other foreign funds for their salaries."
-By Jonathan S. Landay
-McClatchy-RealCities
Noteworthy
- US
- Iraq
- Military
- Terrorism
- Religion
- Osama
bin Laden
- Dick
Cheney - Politics
- "Intelligence
Didn't Back Bush Iraq Claims, Senate Reports Say."
... "Bush administration claims justifying the war against Iraq were based
on fragmented, conflicting, and at times unreliable intelligence, according
to two reports released today by the Senate Intelligence Committee." ...
"Administration statements that Saddam Hussein was allied with Osama bin
Laden and was helping al-Qaeda obtain chemical and biological weapons proved
wrong and misleading and weren't based on solid intelligence in its possession,
the declassified Senate reports said." ... "Contrary to assertions by Vice
President Dick Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials, Hussein
didn't have links to al-Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorist plot, the reports
said." ... "``Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qaeda and viewed Islamic
extremists as a threat to his regime,'' one of the reports said. Hussein
refused all requests from al-Qaeda to provide material or operational support,
said the reports." ... "Allegations that Hussein provided chemical and
biological weapons training to al-Qaeda operatives also turned out to be
false, the reports said. The Defense Intelligence Agency said in 2002 that
it was unlikely Iraq gave Bin Laden any useful weapons assistance." ...
"While Bin Laden's al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was in Iraq
in 2002, he was traveling under cover and eluded efforts by Hussein to
capture him, the reports said." -By William Roberts
and James Rowley -Bloomberg
Pakistan
- Afghanistan
- US
- Military
- Terrorism
- Osama
bin Laden
- "Bin
Laden Gets a Pass from Pakistan." ... "Osama bin
Laden, America's most wanted man, will not face capture in Pakistan if
he agrees to lead a "peaceful life," Pakistani officials tell ABC News."
... "The surprising announcement comes as Pakistani army officials announced
they were pulling their troops out of the North Waziristan region as part
of a "peace deal" with the Taliban." ... "If he is in Pakistan, bin Laden
"would not be taken into custody," Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan told
ABC News in a telephone interview, "as long as one is being like a peaceful
citizen."" ... "Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the tribal
areas of Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, but U.S. officials say
his precise location is unknown." ... ""What this means is that the Taliban
and al Qaeda leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside
Pakistan," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House
counter-terrorism director." -By Brian
Ross and Gretchen Peters -ABCNEWS.com
Pakistan
- US
- Afghanistan
- Osama
bin Laden
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "White
House backing new plan to defuse insurrection in Pakistan."
... "A U.S.-backed plan to defeat Islamist militants in Pakistan's autonomous
tribal areas has backfired badly, and the Bush administration is working
with Pakistan to come up with a new strategy to defuse the insurrection."
... "Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf "sees that what he was doing
wasn't working," said one U.S. official who's familiar with the new plan.
"He really has a mess."" ... "Now Musharraf's government is attempting
to negotiate truces in the areas, expand local police forces and introduce
development projects to reward tribal leaders who break with the militants.
The Bush administration has pledged millions of dollars to the new effort,
said the official, who, like others familiar with the plan, spoke only
if granted anonymity." ... "Ending the uprising by Islamist militants aligned
with Osama bin Laden and Taliban rebels is crucial to American-led efforts
to contain the worst surge in Taliban violence in Afghanistan since 2001.
The bloodshed is adding to the Bush administration's woes in the Middle
East and other fronts in the war on terrorism." ... "Pakistan deployed
80,000 troops in the areas, which border Afghanistan, at Washington's behest
to hunt down bin Laden and his sympathizers and secure Pakistan's side
of the border. The Bush administration reportedly has spent nearly $1 billion
since 2003 to underwrite the Pakistan army's operations." ... "But the
army's use of artillery and helicopter gunships - as well as U.S. airstrikes
on suspected al-Qaida hideouts - has killed numerous civilians and stoked
popular ire." -By Jonathan S. Landay
-McClatchy-RealCities
Osama
bin Laden
- Military- Terrorism
- "C.I.A.
Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden." ...
"The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had
the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence
officials confirmed Monday." ... "The unit, known as Alec Station, was
disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A.
Counterterrorist Center, the officials said." ... "The decision is a milestone
for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household
name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President
Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."" ... "Agency
officials said that tracking Mr. bin Laden and his deputies remained a
high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit was not a sign
that the effort had slackened. Instead, the officials said, it reflects
a belief that the agency can better deal with high-level threats by focusing
on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals."
-By Mark Mazzetti -NYTimes
US
- Iraq
- Osama
bin Laden
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- 2006
Election - "Democrats
Pledge to 'Eliminate' Osama." ... "Congressional
Democrats promise to "eliminate" Osama bin Laden and ensure a "responsible
redeployment of U.S. forces" from Iraq in 2006 in an election-year national
security policy statement." ... "In the position paper to be announced
Wednesday, Democrats say they will double the number of special forces
and add more spies, which they suggest will increase the chances of finding
al-Qaida's elusive leader. They do not set a deadline for when all of the
132,000 American troops now in Iraq should be withdrawn." ... "Overall,
the Democratic position paper attempts to make the case that the Bush administration's
"inadequate planning and incompetent policies have failed to make Americas
as safe as we should be."" -By Liz Sidoti
-AP via -Forbes
-
-
-
-
-
- Osama
bin Laden
- "The
New Head of Jihad Inc.? Intelligence Officials Say
Jordanian Terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi May Be Emerging as Osama Bin Laden
Successor." ... "However big a shock a recent suicide bombing in Doha was
to the Qataris, it was far from unexpected in Western capitals, where intelligence
agencies had discreetly put out a travel warning through their respective
embassies." ... "The emirate, a key ally in the Bush administration's war
on terror, has been high on the terrorist target list ever since it became
home to the U.S. Central Command's operational headquarters in early 2003."
... "What did surprise intelligence officials was the name of the
group which claimed responsibility for the bombing: Jund al-Sham ("Soldiers
of the Levant")." ... "Although the group said that this was its first
statement, Jund al-Sham is the same name as a group started by the Jordanian
terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Intelligence officials believe it may be
a sign that Zarqawi is beginning to attack targets outside Iraq, and may,
in fact, be emerging as a replacement to Osama bin Laden as the operational
leader of the global jihad. Analysts are concerned that Zarqawi may now
begin to redeploy his cadre of militants who, having gained important combat
experience in Iraq, are capable of carrying out deadly missions elsewhere."
(1, 2,
3,
4)
-By Alexis Debat -ABCNEWS.com
-
- 
-
-
-
- "Document
suggests bin Laden escaped at Tora Bora: Military
brief appears to contradict past Pentagon statements." ... "A document
from the U.S. military appears to contradict the Pentagon's previous statements
that it does not know whether al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden escaped U.S.
forces at Tora Bora in Afghanistan in December 2001." ... "The legal document,
which summarizes evidence against a terror suspect in U.S. custody at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, states the prisoner "assisted in the escape of Usama Bin Laden
from Tora Bora."" -By
Mike Mount -CNN
-
-
-
-
- "Bin
Laden Aide Urged to Attack Outside Iraq, U.S. Reports."
... "Osama bin Laden recently asked the Jordanian militant Musab al-Zarqawi
to consider planning attacks outside Iraq and possibly on American soil,
a United States intelligence official said Monday." ... "Mr. Zarqawi is
the suspected mastermind behind kidnappings, beheadings and bombings that
followed the United States invasion of Iraq. Until late last year, terrorism
experts had questioned just how closely Mr. Zarqawi was aligned with Mr.
bin Laden and Al Qaeda, despite their mutual animosity toward the United
States. But a statement in October attributed to Mr. Zarqawi urged the
unification of their two efforts." -By Eric Lipton
-NYTimes
-
-
-
-
- Religion
- "9/11:
The Iran Factor: The final report of the 9-11 Commission
reveals troubling new evidence that Tehran was closer to Al Qaeda than
Iraq was." ... "U.S. intelligence believes that in faraway Tehran, the
hard-line Islamist clerics who now exercise near total control over Iran
directed their border guards to help jihadists coming from Afghanistan.
And sometime between October 2000 and February 2001, according to the forthcoming
final report of the 9-11 Commission, eight to 10 of the "muscle" hijackers
of the September 11 plot were among those who benefited from this Iranian
good-fellowship." ... "According to a December 2001 memo buried in the
files of the National Security Agency, obtained by the commission, Iranian
officials instructed their border inspectors not to place Iranian or Afghan
stamps in the passports of Saudi terrorists traveling from Osama bin Laden's
training camps through Iran. Such "clean" passports undoubtedly helped
the 9/11 terrorists pass into the United States without raising alarms
among U.S. Customs and visa officials, sources familiar with the report
told NEWSWEEK." -By Michael Isikoff and Michael Hirsh
with contributions by Mark Hosenball and Steve Tuttle
-Newsweek 20040726
ed. via -MSNBC
- "Intelligence
failures cited in 9/11 report: Doesn't conclude whether
attacks were preventable." ... "The report, to be released publicly tomorrow,
includes a list of 10 ''operational opportunities" that the government
missed to potentially unravel the Sept. 11 plot, according to a government
official who has read the document. Six of the incidents listed came during
the Bush administration and four were during the Clinton years, the official
said." ... "Another government official who has been briefed on the report
said the tally of missed opportunities includes the CIA's failure to add
two hijackers' names to a terrorism watchlist; the FBI's handling of the
August 2001 arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been accused of conspiring
in the plot; and several failed attempts to kill or capture Osama bin Laden."
-By Dan Eggen and Mike Allen
-Boston/Globe
via -WashingtonPost
-
-
- 
-
- "9/11
Panel's Report to Offer New Evidence of Iran-Qaeda Ties."
... "The final report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks
will offer new evidence of cooperative ties between Iran and Al Qaeda,
including information drawn from intelligence reports suggesting that Iran
provided several of the hijackers with safe passage in the year before
the attacks, government officials said yesterday." ... "The officials emphasized
that the commission had no evidence to suggest that Iranian officials knew
of the Sept. 11 plot. But they said the evidence raised new questions about
why the Bush administration focused on the possibility of Iraqi ties to
Osama bin Laden's terror network after Sept. 11, 2001, when there may have
been far more extensive evidence of an Iranian connection." -By
Philip Shenon -NYTimes
-
-
- "'Bin
Laden' tape offers peace deal with Europe." ... "Osama
bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, sought to split the US-led coalition
in Iraq by offering European countries a three-month respite from terrorist
attacks if they withdrew their forces and left the US to fight alone."
... "The statement said: "I offer a truce to them (Europe), with a commitment
to stop operations against any state which vows to stop attacking Muslims
or interfere in their affairs, including (participating) in the American
conspiracy against the wider Muslim world."" ... "It went on to say that
the truce would start "with the withdrawal of the last soldier from our
land," and said that the offer to implement it would last for three months
from the date of Thursday's statement. "Whoever rejects this truce and
wants war, we are its [war's] sons and whoever wants this truce, here we
bring it," it said." -By Mark Huband
-FT.com
-
- "C.I.A.
Says Voice on Tape Likely bin Laden." ... "The CIA
said Thursday that a tape of a man identifying himself as Osama bin Laden
probably is an authentic recording of the al-Qaida leader." ... "The official,
speaking on condition of anonymity, said the tape was probably recorded
in the past several weeks because of its reference to Israel's killing
last month of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. In the tape, the speaker
vows revenge against the United States for the killing."
-AP via -NYTimes
via -AltaVista-News
-
- -
- "Panel
probing terrorism faults 2 administrations: Says
efforts feel short; officials defend actions." ... "The US government had
substantial intelligence about key Al Qaeda figures indicating the possibility
of a catastrophic terrorist attack beginning in the mid-1990s, but failed
to act forcefully enough to thwart the Islamic terrorist network, the bipartisan
commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said in an interim report
yesterday." ... "Diplomatic initiatives urging other countries to bring
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to justice were unsuccessful, yet the Clinton
administration could not reach a consensus on a sustained military effort
to kill the terrorist leader or disrupt the organization's home base in
Afghanistan, according to the report released yesterday, at the start of
two days of public testimony from Bush and Clinton administration leaders."
-By Bryan Bender -Boston/Globe
- "CIA:
Voice on tape "likely" bin Laden's: Early analysis
indicates al-Qaida leader is alive." ... "CIA analysts have concluded that
the voice on an audiotape sent to an Arab television network is "likely"
that of Osama bin Laden, sources told NBC News on Monday. Meanwhile, British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told an interviewer that it is safe to assume
that the fugitive al-Qaida leader is alive." ... "If authenticated, the
tape would appear to indicate that bin Laden was alive at least as late
as last month, because it includes references to the capture of
topped [sic] Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein." -Contributed
to by Tammy Kupperman, Mike Brunker and the
-AP via -MSNBC
- "Saudi
says may strip bin laden sons of citizenship." ...
"Saudi Arabia would revoke the citizenship of any of Osama bin Laden's
sons if they were found to be involved in terror acts, the Saudi interior
minister said in remarks published on Friday." -Reuters
via -AlertNet.org
-
- "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
Osama
bin Laden
- "Bin
Laden urges suicide attacks on US." ... "Osama bin
Laden last night returned to haunt America in the midst of preparations
for a war in Iraq, when a new tape attributed to the al-Qaida leader was
broadcast on the leading Arab television network, urging Iraqis to carry
out suicide attacks against the United States." ... "The audio tape was
played on al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite channel that has been the
conduit for previous Bin Laden declarations. Al-Jazeera journalists said
the tape appeared to be authentic." -By Julian Borger
and Brian Whitaker -Guardian.co.uk
-
- "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
- "Feds
Zero In on 9-11 Mastermind." ... "Investigators believe
they have identified a Kuwaiti lieutenant of Osama bin Laden as the likely
mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a senior U.S. counterterrorism
official said Tuesday." ... "Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, designated one of
the FBI's most-wanted terrorists, is at large in Afghanistan or nearby,
the law enforcement official told The Associated Press."
-By John J. Lumpkin -AP
via -WashingtonPost
- "Bin
Laden fled to Iran, cook says: An Al Qaeda
chef, captured and tortured by Afghans, begged Tuesday to be handed over
to US officials." -By Philip Smucker
-CSMonitor/buy
Osama bin Laden - Wikipedia - http://www.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden
Osama
bin Laden News, Osama bin Laden, Osama, Usama, bin Laden, bin Ladin, News,
Terrorist, Terrorism, Al Qaeda, UBL, Ussamah, ben Ladin, Usamma, Aliases,
Usama Bin Muhammad Bin Ladin, Shaykh Usama Bin Ladin, the Prince, the Emir,
Abu Abdallah, Mujahid Shaykh, Hajj, the Director
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