Today's Terrorist News
· Some 9/11 families back NYC mosque Some family members of 9/11 victims will rally Wednesday in support of a controversial mosque and Islamic center that is scheduled to be built near New York City's ground zero. 
· NY man pleads guilty in plot to bomb NYC subway A New York man said Friday that a plan to attack the city subway system was ordered by al-Qaida leaders two years ago while he was in Pakistan with a friend, a former airport shuttle driver who has admitted to building the homemade explosives in the plot.
· Mueller: Home-Grown Extremists as Threatening as Al Qaeda Fifteen years after the Oklahoma City bombing, the specter of domestic terrorism has returned to haunt the Obama administration, with a warning from the FBI that “home-grown and lone-wolf extremists” now represent as serious a threat as Al Qaeda and its affiliates.
· Britain raises international terror threat level Britain raised its international terrorism threat level to 'severe' - its second highest level of terror alert - from 'substantial' on Friday, Home Secretary (interior minister) Alan Johnson said.
· Grim Obama says terror attack 'dots' not connected A grim-faced President Barack Obama declared Tuesday there was a deep failure of national intelligence in the botched Christmas Day airliner terror attack over Detroit, telling the nation the government had enough information to thwart potential disaster but could not "connect those dots." "The information was there," Obama said, blistering agencies and analysts for not figuring out the threat — but without singling any out by name.
· Explosives enough to blow hole in jet. CNN has learned the amount of explosive allegedly held by airline bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab could have blown a hole in the Detroit-bound aircraft.
· Explosive in Detroit Flight Is Easily Detectable. The explosive device used by the would-be Detroit bomber contained a widely available - and easily detected - chemical explosive that has a long history of terrorist use, according to government officials and explosive experts.
· Second Detroit plane scare draws tough response. When the first emergency alert from Detroit's airport went out just before noon on Sunday, it looked oddly like a mistaken repeat of the scare from two days earlier: "Nigerian national caused disturbance on Flight 253."
· Bomb suspect came from elite family, best schools. As a member of an uppercrust Nigerian family, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab received the best schooling, from the elite British International School in West Africa to the vaunted University College London.
· Father of Nigerian would-be plane bomber warned US. U.S. government officials tell The Associated Press that the Nigerian man charged with trying to destroy a jetliner came to the attention of U.S. intelligence in November when his father went to the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, to express his concerns about his son.
· Nigerian charged with trying to blow up US airliner. A 23-year-old Nigerian man was charged Saturday with trying to blow up a packed airplane as it descended toward Detroit on Christmas Day, US officials said.
· Al-Qaida link in failed plane attack. U.S. officials say a Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria said he was acting on behalf of al-Qaida when he tried to blow up a flight Friday as it landed in Detroit. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., identified the suspect as Abdul Mudallad, a Nigerian.
· Explosive device ignited aboard Delta Flight to Detroit. A Nigerian passenger ignited an explosive device Friday on a flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, federal authorities say.
· It's OK to call them terrorists again. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who drew criticism for not mentioning the word "terror" during her first appearance before Congress in February, has reinserted the term into her lexicon.
· Officials to probe color-coded terror alert system. The Homeland Security Department will review and possibly replace the often-ridiculed multicolored terror alert system created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Since it was created in 2002, the system has been confusing and became the butt of jokes by late-night television comics.
· Federal buildings get 'F' after bombs smuggled in. Plainclothes investigators sent to test security at federal buildings in four U.S. cities smuggled bomb components through guard posts at all 10 of the sites they visited.
· Passengers on Air France Jet Had Terror Links. Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on board the Air France flight that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board.
· Bin Laden threatens Americans in new tape. Osama bin Laden has threatened Americans in a new audio tape, saying President Barack Obama inflamed hatred toward the U.S. by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in Swat Valley and block Islamic law in the area.
· Small explosive device goes off outside New York City Starbucks. A small improvised explosive device detonated outside an Upper East Side Starbucks early Monday morning, shattering the coffee shop's windows and raising fears of terrorism.
· NYC police: Terror suspects wanted to commit jihad. Four men arrested after planting what they thought were explosives near two synagogues and plotting to shoot down a military plane were bent on carrying out a holy war against America, authorities said Thursday.
· Hackers broke into FAA air traffic control systems. Hackers have broken into the air traffic control mission-support systems of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration several times in recent years, according to an Inspector General report sent to the FAA.
· Napolitano blames Canada for 9/11 hijackers. Canada was rushing to defend its border security on Tuesday amid a diplomatic scuffle with the U.S., which erupted after Washington's homeland security chief suggested that the 9-11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada.
· 'How did she get her job?' In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack. All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas. Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: "I can't talk to that. I can talk about the future.
· Congressman escapes injury in Somali mortar attack. Assailants fired mortar shells at Mogadishu airport as a plane carrying a U.S. congressman took off, a police officer said. The plane departed safely, but 19 Somalis from surrounding residential areas were reported injured.
· Navy SEALs rescue ship captain unharmed; kill three pirates. The American captain of a cargo ship held hostage by pirates on a lifeboat off the coast of Somalia was rescued today by Navy SEALs. "We saw the captain was in imminent danger," a U.S. official said. The SEALs shot and killed three of his captors, the official said. Capt. Richard Phillips is uninjured and in good condition.
· Pirate: "We never kill people. We are Muslims." Covering their exploits is a near-daily task for reporters in Somalia and foreign correspondents in East Africa. One told a reporter: "We never kill people. We are Muslims. We are marines, coastguards - not pirates."
· Hostage dies as French attack pirates. A French hostage and two pirates died Friday in a rescue operation off Somalia, the French president's office in Paris said. Four hostages, including a child, were freed from the hijacked yacht after almost a week of captivity, Nicolas Sarkozy's office said.
· UK's top anti-terror officer resigns after blunder. Britain's top counterterrorism officer resigned Thursday after appearing in front of photographers with clearly visible secret documents about an operation against what Prime Minister Gordon Brown called a "very big terrorist plot."
· Stolen Cessna Pursued by Jet Fighters Lands on Highway. A Cessna stolen from a Canadian flight school landed on a Missouri highway late today, after being pursued for hours across the Midwest by fighter jets ready to shoot it down if it was determined to be a threat.
· 61 ex-Guantanamo inmates return to terrorism. The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.
· Homeland Security forecasts 5-year terror threats. The terrorism threat to the United States over the next five years will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security and increasing Internet savvy, says a new intelligence assessment.
· Bank bomb kills Oregon police officer. A bomb exploded at a Woodburn, Oregon, bank branch early Friday evening, killing a police officer and injured the town's police chief and a state bomb technician, Oregon State Police said. Authorities said they found a suspicious device outside the bank and decided to move it inside where it detonated.
· Mumbai Gunman Was Promised Cash for Family if Killed. The only gunman captured during the terror attack on Mumbai says he was promised that his impoverished family would get $1,250 if he died fighting for militant Islam, security officials said.
· International hotels draw elites and terror threat. Consider how a city looks to a terrorist seeking targets. There's the airport — inviting, but heavily secured. There's the U.S. Embassy, perimeter guarded by crack local forces and Marines. And there's the plush international hotel, open to anyone with a decent outfit and money for a cup of coffee.
· Captured terrorist's account of Mumbai massacre reveals plan was to kill 5,000. The only terrorist captured alive after the Mumbai massacre has given police the first full account of the extraordinary events that led to it – revealing he was ordered to ‘kill until the last breath’. Azam Amir Kasab, 21, from Pakistan, said the attacks were meticulously planned six months ago and were intended to kill 5,000 people.
· Taj Mahal hotel owner: We had warning. The Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, India, temporarily increased security after being warned of a possible terrorist attack, the chairman of the company that owns the hotel said Saturday. But Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said those measures, which were eased shortly before the terror attacks, could not have prevented gunmen from entering the hotel.
· Indian forces kill last gunmen in Mumbai. Indian commandos killed the last remaining gunmen holed up at a luxury Mumbai hotel Saturday, ending a 60-hour rampage through India's financial capital by suspected Islamic militants that killed 195 people and rocked the nation.
· NY subway terror threat emerges on busy travel day. Police bolstered security in subways and trains Wednesday after the government warned that al-Qaida suicide bombers were contemplating an attack on New York's mass-transit systems during the holiday season. An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system.
· Carnage in India; hotels under siege. Gunmen have targeted nine locations in south Mumbai, including two luxury hotels. A state spokesman put the death toll at 78. Gunmen are holding hostages at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, police said. One witness told reporters gunmen had tried to find people with U.S. or British passports.
· FBI Warns of 'Anthrax' Letters Sent to Media Outlets. The FBI is warning media outlets to be vigilant about opening their mail after a California man was arrested on suspicion of sending more than 100 hoax letters labeled "anthrax" to newspapers and TV stations.
· TSA uniforms, badges often go missing. The Transportation Safety Administration isn't doing enough to track down security badges and uniforms of former employees, according to a new report. A government watchdog group's report found dozens of examples of former employees keeping their uniforms and security badges long after they've left the job.
· 11 tourists kidnapped in Egypt desert. A group of 11 European tourists and four Egyptians were kidnapped Monday in the southern Egyptian desert, according to officials and media reports.
· Dinner plans save Pakistan's rulers from hotel bomb attack. Pakistan's president, prime minister and other Cabinet members were supposed to have been at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad when a massive truck bomb detonated outside, killing 57 and injuring 266, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Monday.
· Flights Grounded Thanks To Bumbling TSA Inspector. ABC News reports an overzealous TSA employee attempted to gain access to the parked aircraft by climbing up the fuselage... reportedly using the Total Air Temperature (TAT) probes mounted to the planes' noses as handholds. As a result, nine American Eagle jets were grounded at Chicago's O'Hare Airport Tuesday.
· Pound Of Cyanide Found In Denver Hotel. Police confirmed Wednesday that they found about a pound of sodium cyanide in a Denver hotel room where the body of a Canadian man was discovered earlier this week.
· ‘Fakeproof’ e-passport is cloned in minutes. New microchipped passports designed to be foolproof against identity theft can be cloned and manipulated in minutes and accepted as genuine by the computer software recommended for use at international airports. In the tests, a computer researcher cloned the chips on two British passports and implanted digital images of Osama bin Laden and a suicide bomber. The altered chips were then passed as genuine.
· Bin Laden's ex-driver guilty in terror trial. A U.S. military jury today found Osama Bin Laden's former driver guilty of five counts of material support to a terror organization in the September 11, 2001, attacks. In a split verdict, jurors found Salim Hamdan not guilty of conspiracy to aid a terror organization, in this case, al Qaeda.
· Chinese border assault kills 16. Sixteen Chinese policemen have been killed in an attack on a border post in the restive Muslim region of Xinjiang, state media say. Two attackers reportedly drove up to the post in a rubbish truck and threw two grenades, before moving in to attack the policemen with knives.
· Anthrax suspect kills self as FBI closes in. A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailings that traumatized the nation in the weeks following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
· Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border. Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
· Bali bombers seek 'execution without pain.' Three militants awaiting execution for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, plan to challenge the legality of death by firing squad. Mahendradatta, who goes by a single name, said he would file a petition next week at the Constitutional Court arguing that convicts who go before a firing squad sometimes do not die immediately, causing unnecessary suffering.
· Chertoff: European terrorists trying to enter US. European terrorists are trying to enter the United States with European Union passports, and there is no guarantee officials will catch them every time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
· Alleged 9/11 mastermind: I want to be martyred. The man who said he was responsible for the 9/11 attacks "from A to Z" told a military tribunal today he wants to be executed. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said, "That is what I wish, I wish to be martyred," when asked if he realized he faced the death penalty. Mohammed and four others are being arraigned on charges at Guantanamo Bay.
· Gaps found in federal port-security program. A Department of Homeland Security program to strengthen port security has gaps that terrorists could exploit to smuggle weapons of mass destruction in cargo containers, congressional investigators have found.
· Bin Laden urges Muslims to liberate Palestine. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden - in a blunt new message that coincides with Israel's 60th anniversary - urged his followers to liberate Palestine, a terrorism analyst told CNN on Friday. In a message titled "The Causes of Conflict on the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israeli Occupation," bin Laden reiterated jihadist opposition to the existence of the Jewish state and its policies.
· Pilot's Missing Laptop Causes Airport Security Scare. A pilot's laptop, filled with top secret security information was reported missing at Dulles Airport and the ripple effects were felt across the country. The Mesa Airlines employee couldn't find the personal laptop he brought with him while co-piloting a United Express flight from Birmingham, Alabama to Dulles International Airport. 17 airports were forced to make emergency changes to access codes at Dulles, Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago's O'Hare and San Antonio.
· Afghan president escapes deadly Taliban attack. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other dignitaries quickly scrambled toward safety when the sound of gunfire and explosions in the distance interrupted a military ceremony they were attending in Kabul Sunday morning.
· Man gets prison for paintball terror training. A former teacher at a Muslim school in Maryland was again sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday for providing support to a Pakistani terrorist group.
· Oklahomans Pause To Remember Victims Of 1995 Bombing. Oklahomans paused Saturday morning at the Oklahoma City National Memorial to remember the 168 people who died 13 years ago in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The attack on April 19, 1995, remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
· Man arrested in Las Vegas ricin case. A man at the center of a mysterious case of exposure to the deadly biological agent ricin has been arrested, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Wednesday. Roger Bergendorff was taken into custody Wednesday morning in Las Vegas, Nevada, Kolko said.
· What TSA Says Are The Latest Terrorists' Threat. The Transportation Security Administration says terrorists' latest tactics to bypass airport security include hiding explosive materials in common items such as watches, electric toothbrushes and braces.
· Passenger Detained At Orlando Airport Had Bomb Materials In Bag. A man behavior specialists spotted acting suspiciously was detained after components used to make pipe bombs were found in his luggage at Orlando International Airport. "He looked rather crazy," a passenger said. "He was rocking left and right and up and down. He looked a little wacko."
· FBI Focusing on 'About Four' Suspects in 2001 Anthrax Attacks. The FBI has narrowed its focus to "about four" suspects in the 6 1/2-year investigation of the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, and at least three of those suspects are linked to the Army’s bioweapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland, FOX News has learned. Among the pool of suspects are three scientists — a former deputy commander, a leading anthrax scientist and a microbiologist — linked to the research facility.
· Bin Laden warns EU over Prophet cartoons. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened the European Union with grave punishment on Wednesday for publication of cartoons mocking Islam's Prophet Mohammad. In an audio recording posted on the Internet coinciding with the birthday of Islam's founder, bin Laden said the drawings, considered offensive by Muslims, were part of a "new crusade" in which Pope Benedict was involved. "It's only ominous when he says 'don't listen to our words, watch for our actions' ... that means they clearly are intending to attack in Europe."
· 'Suspicious liquids' used in plane crash attempt. Passengers carrying suspicious liquids on board a Chinese airliner were involved in what officials have called an attempted terror attack last week, the national aviation authority saidMonday. A government official from the Muslim-dominated region of Xinjiang had said the flight crew had foiled Friday's alleged attempt to deliberately crash a plane flying from the region's capital of Urumqi to Beijing.
· Police investigate Times Square blast. An explosive device caused minor damage to an empty military recruiting station in Times Square early Thursday, shaking guests in hotel rooms high above "the crossroads of the world."
· $2 million homes burn on 'Street of Dreams.' Five luxury homes burned today north of Seattle in what could be a case of ecoterrorism, officials said. A sign with the letters "ELF" was found in the "Street of Dreams" development. ELF may stand for Earth Liberation Front, which the FBI has called an ecoterrorist group.
· Update: Man in critical condition after deadly toxin ricin found in his Las Vegas motel room. Police say a man is in critical condition after the deadly toxin ricin was found in his Las Vegas motel room. Las Vegas police Lt. Lewis Roberts says the man has been in a coma since he was found in his room at the Extended Stay America Motel on Thursday. He's one of seven people hospitalized after the ricin was discovered.
· Deadly toxin found at Las Vegas hotel. Police in Las Vegas, Nevada, are investigating the discovery of ricin at a hotel room on Thursday. Authorities were called to an Extended Stay America hotel around 3 p.m. after a man brought a bag holding a small container to the manager's office. The man said he found it while retrieving items from a hotel room. It's "100 percent ricin," said Capt. Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
· Airline Passenger Had Box Cutter In Hollowed-Out Book. A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said. Officers also found books in the man's backpack titled "Muhammad in the Bible," "The Prophet's Prayer" and "The Noble Qur'an."
· Amtrak will screen passengers' bags. Amtrak will start randomly screening passengers' carry-on bags this week in a new security push that includes officers with automatic weapons and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains.
· Super Bowl evades mass shooting. A would-be bar owner angry at being denied a liquor license threatened to shoot people at the Super Bowl and drove to within sight of the stadium with an AR-15 assault-style rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition before changing his mind, federal authorities said. Kurt William Havelock, who ultimately turned himself in, had vowed to "shed the blood of the innocent" in a manifesto mailed Sunday to media outlets, according to court documents.
· Flight instructor gets $5 million for catching '20th' hijacker. A Minnesota flight instructor who notified his bosses of student Zacarias Moussaoui's suspicious behavior received a $5 million reward Thursday from the State Department, two government officials told CNN. Clarence "Clancy" Prevost was an instructor at the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan, Minnesota, when Moussaoui was a student there.
· Teenager arrested in suicide hijacking plot. Authorities have charged a teenage boy who said he planned to hijack a commercial jetliner in an attempt to commit suicide, an FBI spokesman told CNN late Thursday. The teen wanted to crash the plane into a Hannah Montana concert in Lafayette, Louisiana.
· Jose Padilla is sentenced to 17 years. Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to blow up a radioactive "dirty bomb," was sentenced Tuesday to 17 years and four months on terrorism conspiracy charges that don't mention those initial allegations. The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke marks another step in the extraordinary personal and legal odyssey for the 37-year-old Muslim convert, a U.S. citizen who was held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant after his 2002 arrest amid the "dirty bomb" allegations.
· Ugly Bride Was Iraqi Insurgent in Disguise. Suspicious Iraqi soldiers thwarted terror suspects disguised as a bride and groom trying to pass through a checkpoint along with their "wedding procession" outside the Iraqi capital, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said Monday.
· Bomb parts smuggled past airport security. Investigators with bomb-making components in their luggage and on their person were able to pass through security checkpoints at 19 U.S. airports without detection, according to the Government Accountability Office.
· FBI warns of uncorroborated threat to malls. In what one FBI spokesman described as "almost an annual ritual," the bureau has obtained uncorroborated intelligence indicating al Qaeda would like to strike shopping malls during the holiday shopping season, two law enforcement sources said. Those sources confirmed there is intelligence dating back to August that al Qaeda would like to attack malls in Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois.
· 23 charged in O'Hare immigration bust. Nearly two dozen illegal immigrants were arrested, accused of using fake security badges to work in critical areas of O'Hare International Airport, including the tarmac. The 23 illegal workers were employed by Ideal Staffing Solutions Inc., whose corporate secretary and office manager also were arrested after an eight-month investigation that involved federal, state and Chicago authorities.
· Nuclear plant employee stopped with explosive device. A contract employee of an Arizona nuclear plant was stopped at a plant entrance Friday with an explosive device in his truck, officials told CNN. There was no threat to the public, said Jim McDonald, spokesman for Arizona Public Service Company, which owns the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Wintersberg, Arizona, 34 miles west of Phoenix. The employee works for the plant -- the largest nuclear plant in the nation.
· TSA Exposed Own Undercover Operation. The Transportation Security Administration touts its programs to ensure security by using undercover operatives to test its airport screeners. In one instance, however, the agency thwarted such a test by alerting screeners across the country that it was under way, even providing descriptions of the undercover agents.
· Renewed Shoe Bombing Threat? The FBI is issuing a new warning about shoe bombs. The alert follows the discovery of a pair of hollowed out shoes with bomb detonators inside on a bus in Europe last month. Intelligence analysts say the shoes were being used to smuggle blasting caps across a border.
· Justice Department 'dismayed' over release of USS Cole bombing leader. U.S. law enforcement officials Friday blasted Yemen's release of one of the leaders of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 U.S. soldiers. "We have communicated our displeasure to Yemeni officials," a Justice Department statement said. The statement pointedly referred to al-Badawi as one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists and noted prosecutors in New York City want to get their hands on him.
· U.S. terror 'watch list' may be getting too long. A new government report says there are now more than three quarters of a million names on the U.S. government's terrorist "watch list," raising concerns the list may be becoming too large. A Government Accountability Office study out Wednesday said the Terrorist Screening Center's watch list contained approximately 755,000 names.
· Screeners miss 75% of fake bombs at LAX. Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY. Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.
· Questions Raised Over Terror Exercise. The nation is preparing for its biggest terrorism exercise ever next week when three fictional "dirty bombs" go off and cripple transportation arteries in two major U.S. cities, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press. Yet even as this drill begins, details from the previous national exercise held in 2005 have yet to be publicly released - information that's supposed to help officials prepare for the next real attack.
· Airport screeners scrutinizing remote-controlled toys. Airport screeners are giving additional scrutiny to remote-controlled toys because terrorists could use them to trigger explosive devices, the Transportation Security Administration said Monday. The TSA stopped short of banning the toys in carry-on bags but suggested travelers place them in checked luggage.
· Crossing U.S. Border as Easy as a Stroll. The Government Accountability Office, the congressional watchdog group, will release a scathing report on border security today. "In three out of four locations on the U.S.-Canada border, investigators crossed into the United States from Canada … to simulate the cross-border movement of radioactive materials," states the report.
· Video Shows Hacker Hit on Power Grid. A government video shows the potential destruction caused by hackers seizing control of a crucial part of the U.S. electrical grid: an industrial turbine spinning wildly out of control until it becomes a smoking hulk and power shuts down. The video, produced for the Homeland Security Department and obtained by The AP on Wednesday, was marked "Official Use Only." It shows commands quietly triggered by simulated hackers having such a violent reaction that the enormous turbine shudders as pieces fly apart and it belches black-and-white smoke.
· Nuclear Plant Guards Asleep On The Job. A three-month investigation into security issues at our nation's nuclear power plants found something disturbing at Peach Bottom nuclear facility outside of Philadelphia - security guards charged with protecting the plant sleeping on the job. And not just one of them. Several were caught on tape snoozing during their shifts.
· New York Drops Citizenship Proof For Driver's Licenses. They were celebrating outside the New York governor's office Friday as Eliot Spitzer handed a landmark victory to a half-million illegal immigrants. The state will no longer require proof of citizenship for driver's licenses.
· Bin Laden Wants 'Caravan' of Martyrs. Osama bin Laden urged sympathizers to join the "caravan" of martyrs as he praised one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers in a new video that emerged Tuesday to mark the sixth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Al-Qaida traditionally issues a video every year on the anniversary, with the last testament of one of the 19 hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. This year's video showed hijacker Waleed al-Shehri addressing the camera and warning the U.S.: "We shall come at you from your front and back, your right and left."
· Justice Department report tells of flaws in terrorist watch list. Twenty known or suspected terrorists were not correctly listed on the government's consolidated watch list, preventing their records from being available to the nation's front-line screening agents, according to a U.S. Justice Department report.
· Bin Laden Plans Video on 9/11. Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden plans a new video addressing the American people regarding the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, terror monitoring groups said.
· NY hikes security on dirty bomb Internet chatter. New York police stepped up security throughout Manhattan and at bridges and tunnels on Friday in response to an Internet report - which authorities said they could not verify - that al Qaeda might be plotting to detonate a dirty bomb in the city.
· TSA to police: Look out for possible terrorist attack 'dry runs.' Police should be on the lookout for possible "dry runs" for a terror attack, the TSA advised after series of suspicious incidents at U.S. airports. In one case, a couple checked a plastic bag with a block of cheese taped to a bag with a cell phone charger.
· Serious Security Questions at Sky Harbor Airport. ABC News discovered a 4.5 hour time frame each night when virtually anything can be brought into the secure side of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. There's no metal detector, no X-ray machine, and it's apparently not a problem.
· Bogus company got license for nuke materials. Government investigators created a bogus company to obtain a license for radioactive materials that could have been used to build a dirty bomb.
· U.S. Intel Warns al-Qaida Has Rebuilt. U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned. The conclusion suggests that the network that launched the most devastating terror attack on the United States has been able to regroup along the Afghan-Pakistani border despite nearly six years of bombings, war and other tactics aimed at crippling it.
· Fake bomb eludes airport test. TSA inspectors hid the components of a fake bomb in carry-on luggage that also contained a bottle of water. Passengers are prohibited from carrying containers holding more than three ounces of liquids, gels or aerosols through airport checkpoints. The screeners at Albany International confiscated the water bottle but missed the bomb.
· Militant: 'Those who cure you will kill you.' An Iraqi militant said to be close to al Qaeda allegedly warned a British cleric: "Those who cure you will kill you." The warning - or threat - is now taking on new meaning after last week's UK terror plot, believed to have been hatched by health professionals.
· Jordanian doctor held in UK bombing probe. A Jordanian medical doctor, Mohammed Jamil Abdelqader Asha, has been identified as a suspect in the U.K. terror plot, according to British police sources.
· Secret Document: U.S. Fears Terror 'Spectacular' Planned. A secret U.S. law enforcement report, prepared for the Department of Homeland Security, warns that al Qaeda is planning a terror "spectacular" this summer, according to a senior official with access to the document. "This is reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001," the official told ABCNews.com.
· U.S. terrorism trial ponders meaning of "eggplant". Since the start of accused American "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla's trial in May, onlookers have heard about conspiracies to maim and kill, but also picnics, eggplants and lazy Miami postal workers. Prosecutors say some of those seemingly innocuous terms are actually code words for violent "jihad," or "holy war," and acts of terrorism.
· Britain on 'Critical' Terror Alert Level. Police searched several houses near Glasgow International Airport on Sunday in connection with a fiery attack on its main terminal and a foiled car bomb plot in London. In a nationally televised interview, Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, said the country was clearly dealing with terrorists associated with al-Qaida.
· Flaming Car Rams U.K. Airport; 2 Arrests. Two men rammed a flaming sport utility vehicle into the main terminal of Glasgow airport Saturday, crashing into the glass doors at the entrance and sparking a fire, witnesses said. Police said two suspects were arrested.
· London Surveillance Caught Terror Suspect On Tape. One day after authorities prevented two car bombs from exploding near Piccadilly Circus, London police turning their attention to a terror suspect caught on tape. Scotland Yard reportedly has a crystal clear picture from a surveillance camera of a man running from one of the cars filled with gas canisters and nails.
· Explosive material found in second car on London street. As authorities were investigating an explosives-packed car discovered outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus on Friday, a second vehicle was found in London that had similar explosive material inside, security sources said. Inside the first car near Piccadilly Circus, a device was found to be loaded with fuel, gas cylinders and nails, said security sources, and it was set up for remote detonation.
· London police investigate suspected bomb. Police defused an explosive device found in a parked car in central London on Friday, and the new government called an emergency meeting of senior security chiefs to investigate what many feared could have been a planned terror attack. Police said the car — parked near busy Piccadilly Circus — contained a "potentially viable explosive device" but would not give further details.
· Lockerbie "Bomber" Could Go Free. Only one person has been convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. Now a three-year investigation into that conviction will reportedly say he did not have a fair trial and should be released. CBS News correspondent Larry Miller reports that the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission is expected to say Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi may not have planted the bomb that brought down the 747, killing 259 people on board and 11 more on the ground when debris rained down upon the Scottish countryside.
· 4 charged in plot to blow up NYC airport. Federal authorities said a plot by a suspected Muslim terrorist cell to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport, its fuel tanks and a jet fuel artery could have caused "unthinkable" devastation.
· Edwards: Move Past 'War on Terror.' Democrat John Edwards Wednesday repudiated the notion that there is a "global war on terror," calling it an ideological doctrine advanced by the Bush administration that has strained American military resources and emboldened terrorists.
· Pizza shop suffers terror arrest backlash. The father of one of the six men charged with plotting to massacre soldiers at Fort Dix says the business that he's nurtured near the base for years is all but ruined since his son's arrest. Muslim Tatar, who has owned Super Mario's Pizza for five years, said his lunchtime crowd from nearby McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix has largely disappeared, replaced by empty tables and nasty words from passing motorists. "Now I am a target," Tatar, 52, said, adding that his business is "99 percent dead."
· Teachers stage fake gunman attack on sixth graders. Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.
· Severed head greets new troops in Mexico drug war. Drug cartel hitmen dumped a severed head outside a military base in the Mexican port of Veracruz to warn newly arrived troops of more violence in an escalating war on drug traffickers, authorities said on Saturday.
· U.S., Germans Fear Imminent Terror Attack. U.S. and German officials fear terrorists are in the advanced planning stages of an attack on U.S. military personnel or tourists in Germany. Law enforcement officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com that U.S. air marshals have been diverted to provide expanded protection of flights between Germany and the United States. "The information behind the threat is very real," a senior U.S. official told ABC News.
· Store clerk tip key to Fort Dix plot. One drove a cab, three were roofers. Another worked at a 7-Eleven and a sixth at a supermarket. Their alleged plot to attack Fort Dix was foiled by another blue-collar worker: a video store clerk. The unidentified clerk is being credited with tipping off authorities in January 2006 after one of the suspects asked him to transfer a video to DVD that showed 10 men shooting weapons at a firing range and calling for jihad, prosecutors said.
· Terror Suspects Arrested In N.J. After FBI Foils Fort Dix Attack. A tip helped authorities arrest six men in New Jersey in connection to an apparent terror cell. Five of them were arrested in Cherry Hill, according to reports. Investigators said the men planned to use AK-47s to storm Fort Dix and open fire on soldiers and civilians stationed at the New Jersey base, noting that other military locations were scouted by the terrorist cell.
· U.S. says terrorist in Jill Carroll kidnapping killed. A U.S. military commander said Thursday that an al Qaeda in Iraq militant believed to be involved in last year's kidnapping of journalist Jill Carroll has been killed. He is Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri and was identified as the senior minister of information for al Qaeda in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.
· Report says terror attacks up sharply. Terrorist attacks worldwide shot up 25 percent last year, particularly in Iraq where extremists used chemical weapons and suicide bombers to target crowds, according to a new State Department report. In its annual global survey of terrorism, the State Department says about 14,000 attacks took place in 2006, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan. These strikes claimed more than 20,000 lives - two-thirds in Iraq. That is 3,000 more attacks than in 2005 and 5,800 more deaths.
· Five guilty in UK bomb plot. Five Britons have been found guilty of plotting to carry out al Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain on targets ranging from a nightclub to a shopping mall. The gang planned to use 600 kg (1,300 lb) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer to make explosives to be used in bombings in revenge for Britain's support the United States in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, prosecutors said.
· Saudi Arabia arrests 172 in anti-terror sweep. Police have arrested 172 militants who were plotting to attack Saudi Arabia’s oil fields, storm its prisons to free the inmates and use aircraft in their attacks, the Interior Ministry said Friday. The militants planned to carry out suicide attacks against “public figures, oil facilities, refineries ... and military zones,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that some of the military targets were outside the kingdom, but it did not elaborate
· Boy beheads blindfolded man in Pakistan video. The boy with the knife looks barely 12. In a high-pitched voice, he denounces the bound, blindfolded man before him as an American spy. Then he hacks off the captive's head to cries of "God is great!" and hoists it in triumph by the hair.
· Jailed preacher of hate in court battle to stay in Britain. A hate preacher blamed for indoctrinating one of the July 7 bombers is using human rights law to fight deportation from Britain, it emerged today. Sheikh Abdullah El-Faisal - a Jamaican-born Muslim convert who urged followers to kill Jews, Hindus and Americans - is due to be freed from prison within weeks after serving two thirds of a seven-year sentence for inciting murder. The Home Office has begun legal moves to deport the fanatic, who Ministers say is a continuing threat to national security.
· U.S. man accused of plot to bomb resorts. A federal grand jury indicted a U.S. citizen on charges of joining al-Qaida and conspiring to bomb European tourist resorts and U.S. government facilities and military bases overseas, officials said Thursday.
· Taliban behead Afghan translator. The kidnapped translator for an Italian journalist was beheaded in southern Afghanistan, Afghan authorities and a purported spokesman for the Taliban said. Ajmal Naqshbandi, a freelance journalist and translator, was kidnapped along with a driver and Daniele Mastrogiacomo of the Italian daily La Repubblica, in southern Helmand province on March 5. The driver, Sayed Agha, was beheaded, and Mastrogiacomo was released March 19 in a much criticized swap for five Taliban militants.
· American Taliban Seeks Reduced Sentence. The lawyer and parents of American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh asked President Bush on Wednesday to commute his 20-year prison term, citing the case of an Australian man who was sentenced to less than a year for aiding terrorism. Lindh, 26, was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 by American forces sent to topple the Taliban after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
· Tot pushed to be like bomber mom. The next wave of Palestinian suicide bombers could include little girls with ribbons in their hair. Three years after Reem Saleh al-Riyashi blasted into infamy as the first Palestinian mother to launch a suicide bomb attack, her 4-year-old daughter is being primed to follow in her fanatical footsteps. And in an apparent bid to sell another generation on mad martyrdom, a shocking new music video that depicts little Duha Riyashi serenading her mommy while she suits up for her suicide mission is being aired repeatedly on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV - the official station of the new Palestinian prime minister.
· Mastermind of USS Cole attack confesses. A Yemeni portrayed as an al-Qaida operative and a member of a terrorist family confessed to plotting the bombings of the USS Cole and two U.S. embassies in Africa, killing hundreds, according to a Pentagon transcript of a Guantanamo Bay hearing.
· FBI: Foreign extremists sign up to drive school buses. Members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said "parents and children have nothing to fear."
· Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses 9/11 role. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, admitted to those attacks and numerous others during a U.S. military hearing on Saturday, according to an edited transcript released by the Pentagon. In a statement from him, read by a U.S. military representative, Mohammed said, "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z."
· Chiquita Charged in Terror Investigation. Banana company Chiquita Brands International was charged Wednesday with doing business with a terrorist organization. Federal prosecutors said the company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers did business with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. The company also did business with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, according to prosecutors.
· Judge rules against Sudan in bombing. A federal judge said Wednesday that Sudan is responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole but he needs more time to determine damages for the families of the 17 sailors killed when terrorists bombed the ship in 2000.
· Insurgent Leader Nabbed in Iraq Raid. The leader of the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq has been captured in a raid west of Baghdad, an Iraqi military spokesman said Friday. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was captured Friday in a raid in Abu Ghraib on the western outskirts of Baghdad, said Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman of the Baghdad security operation. U.S. officials had no confirmation of the capture.
· If alive, Osama bin Laden turns 50. Osama bin Laden, if he's alive, celebrated his 50th birthday, and his friends in the Taliban prayed for his long life. The al Qaeda leader's long silence has fueled speculation that the world's most-wanted fugitive may have died, though many in the international intelligence community reckon Islamist militant Web sites would circulate word of his death. "He is alive. I am 100 percent sure," Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayatullah Khan told Reuters, adding that senior leaders were in touch with bin Laden, reinforcing a widely held view that he is hiding near the rugged Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
· Mosque Leaders Sentenced in Terror Sting. Two leaders of an Albany mosque who were snared in an FBI sting involving a fictional terror strike were sentenced Thursday to 15 years in federal prison. The former imam, Yassin Aref, professed innocence before his sentencing and criticized the government's treatment of Muslims.
· Plane diverted due to wire, magnet concealed in Iraqi's rectum. An Iraqi immigrant with a suspicious device lodged in a body cavity was detained Tuesday at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities said. A jetliner bound for Philadelphia, meanwhile, was diverted to Las Vegas because while the man was detained, they forgot to pull his luggage from the plane.
· Former sailor arrested on terror charges. Police in Arizona arrested a former U.S. Navy sailor on charges of spying and providing material support to terrorists, authorities said on Wednesday. The U.S. Attorney's office in Connecticut said Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul Hall, 31, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint in Phoenix. He is suspected of providing classified information to a London-based organization called Azzam Publications and knowing that it was to be used in a conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens. Azzam was part of a conspiracy to provide material support and communications links to people engaged in terrorism, prosecutors said.
· Senate: Airport screeners can unionize. The Senate voted Tuesday to give 45,000 airport screeners the same union rights as border patrol, customs and immigration agents, despite a veto threat from the White House. "It's absolutely absurd," said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. "Terrorists don't go on strike. Terrorists don't call their union to negotiate before they attack."
· Cheney unhurt in blast outside Afghan base. A suicide bomber attacked the entrance to the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan Tuesday during a visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, killing up to 23 people and wounding 20 more. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney was the target.
· Cleric loses deportation appeal in UK. Radical Islamic cleric Abu Qatada has lost his appeal against a UK move to deport him to Jordan. The home secretary welcomed the ruling, seen as the first test of a policy that seeks assurances deportees in terror cases will not be abused on return. The alleged al-Qaeda figure's lawyers said he could face torture at home.
· Iraqi lawmaker is embassy bomber. A man sentenced to death in Kuwait for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies now sits in Iraq's parliament.
· Letter Bomb Explodes In London. A letter bomb has exploded at the London HQ of congestion charge firm Capita, according to reports. A female employee at the office in Victoria Street was slightly injured - she is understood to have opened the envelope.
· Radicals vs. moderates: British Muslims at crossroads. At a recent debate over the battle for Islamic ideals in England, a British-born Muslim stood before the crowd and said Prophet Mohammed's message to nonbelievers is: "I come to slaughter all of you." "We are the Muslims," said Omar Brooks, an extremist also known as Abu Izzadeen. "We drink the blood of the enemy, and we can face them anywhere. That is Islam and that is jihad."
· Judge Dismisses Anthrax Libel Case. A federal judge on Friday dismissed a libel lawsuit filed against The New York Times by a former Army scientist once identified as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton in Alexandria dismissed the case a week after lawyers for the Times argued that Steven Hatfill should be considered a public figure under libel law, which makes it much more difficult for a public figure to win a judgment than a private citizen.
· Scientists prepare to move Doomsday Clock forward. The keepers of the "Doomsday Clock" plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world. The symbolic clock, maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, currently is set at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight marking global catastrophe. The group did not say in which direction the hands would move. But in a news release previewing an event next Wednesday, they said the change was based on "worsening nuclear, climate threats" to the world.
· Blast at U.S. Embassy in Greece Called 'Terrorism.' A rocket struck the U.S. Embassy early Friday, exploding inside the modern, glass-fronted building and shattering hopes that Greece's leftist anti-American militant networks had been dismantled. Greek authorities said the attack, which caused no injuries, was probably carried out by a domestic terrorist group.
· U.S. Hits Al Qaeda In Somalia. Two U.S. airstrikes in Somalia killed large numbers of Islamic extremists, government officials and witnesses said. A U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship conducted the strikes against suspected members of al Qaeda.
· Mystery smell settles over Manhattan. New York officials evacuated a number of buildings and shut down some trains after a mysterious gaslike odor was reported Monday. A New York Police Department spokesman said an air quality test determined that the air is not hazardous, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said there is no indication terrorism was involved.
· Port of Miami on Heightened Alert. The Port of Miami on Sunday was in a heightened state of security after police discovered two men hiding in a cargo truck and a bomb squad was summoned to the scene.
· Congress Rebukes Okla. City Probe. The FBI failed to fully investigate information suggesting other suspects may have helped Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, allowing questions to linger more than a decade after the deadly attack, a congressional inquiry concludes.
· Records detail missing TSA badges, uniforms. More than 3,700 identification badges and uniform items have been reported lost or stolen from Transportation Security Administration employees since 2003.
· French film raises fresh fears over airport safety. A French television reporter managed to smuggle explosive material and knives onto American and French passenger planes apparently revealing serious flaws in security at French airports.
· Florida professor admits he was Cuban spy. A Florida professor admitted Tuesday he had been a Cuban spy for nearly 30 years, and his wife - also a professor - admitted she knew of his conduct, authorities said. Authorities said U.S. agents eavesdropped as Alvarez received sophisticated communications equipment from Cuban intelligence designed to keep his activities secret.
· Freedom Tower takes root with steel beams and iron will. Two 25-ton steel columns - one bearing signatures of American steelworkers who helped make it - rose at ground zero Tuesday, a milestone in the prolonged effort to build the skyscraper that will replace the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
· Britain: Christmas terror attempt highly likely. An attempted terrorist attack in Britain in the run-up to Christmas is "highly likely", the home secretary, John Reid, warned yesterday. "The threat in this country is very high indeed. It is at the second highest level and people now know that publicly, because we publish it on the web. And that means that it is highly likely that there'll be a terrorist attempt," Mr Reid said.
· Feds bust truck trainee who balks at back up. A truck-driving student is in custody in Boston after raising suspicions when he wasn’t interested in learning how to back up his rig. WLVI-TV reported last night that the would-be trucker is a 28-year-old Muslim from India and had overstayed his visa. An investigation is under way to see whether there is any connection between his unusual behavior and a terrorism plot.
· Man charged with shopping mall bomb plot. A man was arrested Friday by federal agents on charges of planning to set off hand grenades in garbage cans at a shopping mall. Derrick Shareef, 22, of Rockford, was arrested when he met with an undercover agent in a parking lot to trade a set of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a handgun.
· Phoenix Airport to Test X-Ray Screening. Sky Harbor International Airport here will test a new federal screening system that takes X-rays of passenger's bodies to detect concealed explosives and other weapons. The TSA said it has found a way to refine the machine's images so that the normally graphic pictures can be blurred in certain areas while still being effective in detecting bombs and other threats.
· Airport Arrest Turns Up Nuclear Info. A man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after officials say they found him carrying more than $78,000 in cash and a laptop computer containing information about nuclear materials and cyanide.
· Immigrants May Be Held Indefinitely. Immigrants arrested in the United States may be held indefinitely on suspicion of terrorism and may not challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts, the Bush administration said Monday, opening a new legal front in the fight over the rights of detainees.
· Hamas to Call for Attacks Against U.S. Hamas' military wing called Wednesday on Muslims around the world to attack American targets and abandoned their truce with Israel following reports that an Israeli tank strike killed 18 people in the Gaza Strip.
· Al Qaeda Briton 'plotted to kill thousands.' Al Qaeda terrorists planned to use "dirty bombs" to blow up the Heathrow Express or a Tube train passing under the Thames, a court heard today.
· Iran ready to share missile systems with others. Iran is ready to share its missile systems with friends and neighbors, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards said, after he showed off missiles including some he said had cluster warheads.
· Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging. The Iraqi High Tribunal on Sunday sentenced a combative Saddam Hussein and two other defendants to death by hanging for a brutal crackdown in 1982 in the Shiite town of Dujail. Iraqis under a curfew in Baghdad spilled out into the streets in celebration of the verdict. But protests were held in Saddam Hussein's hometown.
· Texas puts 'virtual border watch' online. Texas has started broadcasting live images of the U.S. border on the Internet in a security program that asks the public to report signs of illegal immigration or drug crimes. A test Web site went live Thursday at texasborderwatch.com with views from eight cameras and ways for viewers to e-mail reports of suspicious activity.
· Nuclear Lab Breach Could Be 'Devastating.' The recent security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory was very serious, with sensitive materials being taken out of the facility — possibly including information on how to deactivate locks on nuclear weapons, officials said.
· 'Al Qaeda school' attack: 80 dead. Pakistani troops backed by missile-firing helicopters on Monday struck a religious school purportedly being used as an al Qaeda training center, killing 80 people in what appeared to be the country's deadliest-ever attack against suspected militants.
· Drug Bust Leads To Los Alamos Docs. Authorities in northern New Mexico have stumbled onto what appears to be classified information from Los Alamos National Laboratory while arresting a man suspected of domestic violence and dealing methamphetamine from his mobile home.
· New searches planned after remains found at WTC. Human remains, possibly belonging to victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, have been found at the World Trade Center site. The Medical Examiner's office said 18 pieces of human remains were found Sunday, days after other remains were found in lower Manhattan. Searchers will burrow into at least 12 subterranean areas in coming days.
· Muslims takes on travel scrutiny. A New Jersey Muslim group is launching a nationwide effort to record complaints about Muslims being wrongfully detained or questioned at airports. The group has received several complaints from Muslims using airports in New Jersey and New York that they were detained and questioned for hours when attempting to return to the country from abroad.
· Baggage handlers at Paris airport lose clearance. Authorities rescinded the security clearance of 43 baggage handlers at France’s main international airport due to suspicions they were connected with radical organizations, a top government minister said Saturday.
· The Un-Holy Month Of Ramadan. Fasting from sunrise to sunset is a struggle for Muslims during this month of Ramadan. The month will present a more dangerous struggle for non-Muslims in Iraq, against whom Islamic terrorists promise increased violence.
· 2nd warning for Muslims to leave U.S. before attack. Another Pakistani journalist is reporting receiving another threat – this one from a senior Taliban leader – warning all Muslims to leave the U.S. in anticipation of a major terrorist attack before the end of Ramadan. The head of the Islamabad-based al-Quds Center reported receiving an audio message from Mullah Masoom Afghani urging U.S. Muslims to get out of the country "because Allah's punishment would fall on America in the month of Ramadan." Muslims are observing Ramadan this year Sept. 24 to Oct. 23.
· North Korea Threatens War Against U.S. North Korea stoked regional tensions Wednesday, threatening more nuclear tests and saying additional sanctions imposed on it would be considered an act of war, as nervous neighbors raced to bolster defenses and punish Pyongyang.
· Unlikely Terrorists On No-Fly List. The former FBI agent, Jack Cloonan, knew the list that was hastily assembled after 9/11, would be bungled. The "data dump" of names from the files of several government agencies, including the CIA, fed into the computer compiling the list contained many unlikely terrorists. These include Saddam Hussein, who is under arrest, Nabih Berri, Lebanon's parliamentary speaker, and Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. It also includes the names of 14 of the 19 dead 9/11 hijackers.
· NYPD: Beware the tiny six-shooter. Police and other law enforcement agencies have been told to be on the lookout for two new gadgets -- a tiny gun that looks like a key chain trinket and easily could be smuggled onto a plane, and a plastic handcuff key that looks like a pendant.
· Fatah militants set Palestinian parliament building on fire. Militants from the opposition Fatah Party set the Palestinian Cabinet building on fire Sunday to protest the Hamas-led government. The torching of the building in the West Bank city of Ramallah came after Hamas militiamen fought running gunbattles with Fatah-allied security forces in Gaza City in violence that killed three people.
· Atta martyrdom tape images. NBC News has obtained exclusive new images of Sept. 11 hijackers Mohammed Atta and Ziad Jarrah delivering what is apparently their last will and testament in Afghanistan on Jan. 18, 2000, as well as images of a rogue's gallery of other terrorists and senior al-Qaida leaders listening to a speech days earlier by bin Laden at his Tarnak Farms compound in Afghanistan on Jan. 8, 2000.
· 'Idiot' barb gets passenger detained. A Wisconsin man who wrote "Kip Hawley is an Idiot" on a plastic bag containing toiletries said he was detained at an airport security checkpoint for about 25 minutes before authorities concluded the statement was not a threat. Ryan Bird, 31, said he wrote the comment about Hawley - head of the Transportation Security Administration - as a political statement. He said he feels the TSA is imposing unreasonable rules on passengers while ignoring bigger threats.
· Iraq Terrorist Calls Scientists to Jihad. In a new audio message Thursday, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq called for explosives experts and nuclear scientists to join his group's holy war against the West. "We are in dire need of you," said the man, who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir - also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri - the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. "The field of jihad (holy war) can satisfy your scientific ambitions, and the large American bases (in Iraq) are good places to test your unconventional weapons, whether biological or dirty, as they call them."
· Intelligence analysts puzzled over NIE release. National Intelligence Estimates are notorious for being watered down, partly because analysts spread across 16 different spy agencies often have difficulty settling on just the right words. That’s what makes the tough language in this week’s terrorism analysis all the more striking. And it has left many puzzling over why the White House decided to release it. To almost any reader, the assessment of trends in global terror for the next five years looks grim. It warns that most jihadist groups “will use improvised explosive devices and suicide attacks” on “soft targets.” It cautions that extremists still seek chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons. And it contemplates whether other types of leftist or separatist groups, such as anti-globalism factions, could adopt terrorist methods.
· After 5 years, mystery of anthrax attacks widens. Five years after the still-unsolved anthrax mail attacks killed five people and panicked the nation, the mystery is widening instead of narrowing. Scientists now say the anthrax wasn't "weaponized" after all - meaning the substance was less sophisticated than first believed and, thus, could have been concocted by a much broader pool of suspects.
· Rules relaxed for carry-on liquids. The government is partially lifting its ban against carrying liquids and gels onto airliners, instituted after a plot to bomb jets flying into the United States was foiled, officials said today. "We now know enough to say that a total ban is no longer needed from a security point of view," said Kip Hawley, head of the Transportation Security Administration.
· Abbas says unity effort 'back to zero.' Efforts to form a Palestinian government acceptable to the West have gone "back to zero," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday, a day after Hamas said a coalition government that recognizes Israel is unacceptable.
· Bill Clinton: I got closer to killing bin Laden. In a contentious taped interview that aired on "Fox News Sunday," former president Bill Clinton vigorously defended his efforts as president to capture and kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
· France to probe bin Laden death report leak. France's Defense Ministry said on Saturday it could not confirm a newspaper report quoting French secret services as saying al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had died but would launch an inquiry into the leak of secret papers. The Defense Ministry issued the statement after the French regional newspaper L'Est Republicain said Saudi Arabia was convinced bin Laden had died of typhoid in Pakistan last month.
· FedEx to equip aircraft with anti-missile technology. A FedEx MD-10 freighter, equipped with Northrop Grumman's Guardian infrared laser jammer, is slated to become the first wide-body commercial aircraft in scheduled service flying with technology to counter terrorist missile attacks. Eventually, FedEx plans to fly 11 MD-10s with the directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) technology over the next 18 months, testing whether the equipment - developed for the military - is cost-effective and reliable for commercial aircraft operations.
· Muslim general takes control of Thailand in overnight coup. Thailand's army commander staged a coup Tuesday night and ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra while he was in New York at the U.N. General Assembly, circling his offices with tanks, declaring martial law and revoking the constitution. Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin is a Muslim in this Buddhist-dominated nation.
· Al-Qaida to pope: Islam will take over the world. Al-Qaida warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran's supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff's remarks on Islam. Ansar al-Sunna challenged "sleeping Muslims" to prove their manhood by doing something other than "issuing statements or holding demonstrations."
· Fish is used to detect terror attacks. A type of fish so common that practically every American kid who ever dropped a fishing line and a bobber into a pond has probably caught one is being enlisted in the fight against terrorism. San Francisco, New York, Washington and other big cities are using bluegill — also known as sunfish or bream — as a sort of canary in a coal mine to safeguard their drinking water. Small numbers of the fish are kept in tanks constantly replenished with water from the municipal supply, and sensors in each tank work around the clock to register changes in the breathing, heartbeat and swimming patterns of the bluegill that occur in the presence of toxins.
· Jet passenger tries to open door in midair. A man wearing military fatigues and throwing punches into the air tried to open the exit door of a jet during a cross-country flight on Tuesday night, airline officials and passengers said.
· U.S. lauds Syrian forces in embassy attack. U.S. officials praised Syrian security forces for thwarting Tuesday's attack on the U.S. Embassy in Damascus despite the usually tense relationship with the Middle Eastern country. The Syrians killed three attackers and apprehended a suspect outside the embassy after a car exploded near the walls of the American compound, the Syrian Information Ministry said.
· Al-Zawahri: Gulf, Israel Next Targets. Osama bin Laden's deputy warned that Persian Gulf countries and Israel would be al-Qaida's next targets, according to a new videotape aired by Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera on Monday, the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Ayman al-Zawahri also accused the governments of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia of supporting Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
· Nation reflects, mourns on 9/11 anniversary. Five years after the terror attacks of September 11, the nation is observing a solemn anniversary with plans for silent reflection and fresh mourning for the nearly 3,000 lives lost. On the 16-acre New York City expanse where the World Trade Center once stood, four moments of silence were planned Monday for 8:46, 9:03, 9:59 and 10:29 a.m., the times when jetliners struck each of the twin towers, and when each tower fell. Spouses and partners of the 2,749 people who died at the trade center were to read the names of the victims as families of the victims descend to roam the site and lay flowers.
· Video shows Osama and killers. In its own sinister commemoration of 9/11, Al Qaeda released a celebratory video yesterday purporting to show Osama Bin Laden mingling with two of the hijackers in an Afghan terror camp before the attacks. The video, aired by the Al Jazeera satellite channel, also shows Bin Laden with 9/11 tactician Ramzi Binalshibh. This comes a day after President Bush announced that Binalshibh had been transferred from a secret CIA prison to the Guantanamo Bay prison for eventual trial.
· Islamic Militant Gets 8-Year Sentence for 2005 Bali Blasts. Judges sentenced an Islamic militant to eight years in prison Tuesday for harboring the alleged mastermind of last year's homicide bombings on Indonesia's resort island of Bali — the first verdict in the terrorist attack. Twenty people were killed in near-simultaneous strikes on three crowded restaurants, and nearly 200 others wounded.
· Missile fired at McCain escort helicopter during European visit. A missile was fired at a helicopter escorting Sen. John McCain during a visit to the Republic of Georgia last week. A statement from that nation’s interior ministry says the surface-to-air missile was aimed at a chopper involved in a visit of a U.S. Senate delegation to the former Soviet republic. McCain was mentioned as the leader of the group.
· TSA pulls plug on explosives detectors. The Transportation Security Administration is suspending installation of the only airport checkpoint device that automatically screens passengers for hidden explosives due to problems with the system’s reliability, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions. “We are seeing some issues that we did not anticipate” with the devices known as “puffers,” the Times quoted Randy Null, the agency’s chief technology officer as saying.
· Top al-Qaida in Iraq leader arrested. Iraqi authorities have arrested the second most senior figure in al-Qaida in Iraq, the national security adviser said Sunday. Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was arrested a few days ago, Mouwaffak al-Rubaie said. He was the No. 2 in al-Qaida in Iraq after slain leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Rubaie said.
· Police Searching For Semi Possibly Packed With Explosives. Police across Florida are searching for a semi after receiving a tip that the vehicle may be on its way to Central Florida packed with explosives. Authorities said a man called a crisis center in Georgia and said the tractor-trailer is traveling to Orlando. He told a worker that it is a brown 18-wheeler with an eagle on its side, the report said.
· 14 Arrested in U.K. Anti-Terrorism Raids. Fourteen people were arrested in London overnight on suspicion they were involved in training and recruiting for acts of terrorism, police said Saturday. Police said the arrests were not linked to last month's alleged plot to bomb U.S.-bound passenger jets or to the July 2005 attacks on London's transport network. Twelve suspects were arrested at a Chinese restaurant in south London that caters to Muslims, the British Broadcasting Corp. said.
· Brutal Ugandan rebels to stop fighting. leaders of a shadowy rebel movement that has terrorized Ugandans for nearly two decades went on local radio with a special announcement: As of Tuesday, their war is over — the Lord's Resistance Army will stop fighting. The rebels, notorious for cutting off the tongues and lips of innocent civilians, enslaving tens of thousands of children and driving nearly 2 million people from their homes, have agreed to end one of the most brutal, but least known conflicts in the world.
· Report: U.S. Secretly Negotiated with Gaza Kidnappers. The U.S. secretly agreed to the "real demands" set by the group behind the August 14 kidnapping of two Fox News journalists in Gaza, according to a report in the pan-Arab newspaper al Hayat.
· Student With Dynamite on Plane Released. A college student who packed a stick of dynamite on a flight to Houston from Argentina was granted bond Monday on a federal charge of carrying an explosive aboard an aircraft. Howard MacFarland Fish had been in federal custody since early Friday when agents found a stick of dynamite — as well as a black powder-based fuse and a blasting cap — in his checked luggage upon his arrival to Houston on a Continental Airlines flight that originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
· Kidnapped Fox journalists released. Two Fox journalists kidnapped two weeks ago in Gaza were released Sunday and appeared to be in good health, video from the Palestinian news service Ramattan TV showed. Fox reporter Steve Centanni and photographer Olaf Wiig were released shortly after noon and dropped off at the Beach Hotel in Gaza City, where they were greeted by a swarm of people offering hugs, video from Ramattan showed. The hotel is a popular place for journalists.
· Dynamite traces found in bag at Bush airport. A college student's checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight from Argentina to Houston contained traces of dynamite, authorities said, in one of six security incidents today involving U.S. flights.
· Iran Opens Nuclear Reactor, Defying U.N. Iran's hard-line president on Saturday inaugurated a heavy-water production plant, a facility the West fears will be used to develop a nuclear bomb, as Tehran remained defiant ahead of a U.N. deadline that could lead to sanctions. The U.N. has called on Tehran to stop the separate process of uranium enrichment - which also can be used to create nuclear weapons - by Thursday or face economic and political sanctions.
· Video Discloses Alleged Plot To Target Sears Tower. Undercover video acquired by CBS 2's Miami sister station, WFOR-TV CBS 4, reveals an inside look at a suspected terror group leader accused in a plot to target U.S. landmarks, including the Sears Tower. The suspected group was based in Miami and was allegedly led by a former Chicagoan.
· New rules let air marshals dress how they want. Air marshals were told Thursday they will be allowed to dress the way they want and choose their own hotels in order to protect their anonymity while on missions. Air marshals had complained that Brown's predecessor, Thomas Quinn, insisted on a too-formal dress code that allowed people to pick them out. The marshals said, for example, that being forced to wear a jacket and collared shirt made them stand out. Air marshals also won an agreement from Brown to let them choose their own hotels "within economic and related guidelines" to help keep their identities secret.
· Syria opposes U.N. force on its border. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has expressed strong opposition to the deployment of U.N. troops along his country's border with Lebanon, saying such a move would be "hostile" to Syria and create problems between the two nations. "This negates the sovereignty of Lebanon," Al-Assad said in an interview Wednesday with Dubai TV. "No country in the world accepts having soldiers of another nationality patrolling its border."
· 12 Arrested After Northwest Jet Diverted. A dozen passengers were under arrest Wednesday after their flight got a fighter jet escort back to the Amsterdam airport. Dutch police said 12 people are in custody, although it was not immediately clear what the charges are. A police spokesman also declined to release the nationalities of the suspects.
· State Department Rejects Demands by Journalists' Kidnappers. The State Department rejected on Wednesday demands by a Palestinian group for the release of all Muslim prisoners in U.S. prisons in exchange for the release of two kidnapped Fox News journalists.
· Video of Kidnapped Journalists Released. A previously unknown Palestinian group released video Wednesday of two kidnapped Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men, a Palestinian news agency broadcast by Al-Jazeera reported. The video was the first sign of American correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, of the San Francisco area, and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, since they were kidnapped Aug. 14.
· Charges Over Terror Plot. Eleven suspects in the alleged UK airport terror plot have been charged, it has been revealed. Police said eight people were charged with conspiracy to murder and preparing acts of terrorism. The three other suspects have been charged with other offences under the anti-terrorism Act. One of these is a 17-year-old. One woman has been released without charge and eleven others are still in custody.
· Terrorists uses Michael Moore film to mock Bush. An Iraqi militant group has produced an elaborate video of what it said were attacks on U.S. troops, in the latest example of the increasingly sophisticated propaganda war being waged by Iraqi insurgents.
· UK cops find martyr tapes. Several martyr videos were reportedly discovered on at least six laptops owned by some of the 23 suspects being questioned in the foiled terror plot to bomb as many as 10 jetliners bound for the United States. The British Broadcasting Corp., citing an unofficial police source, said Friday that several videos of the type that suicide bombers sometimes leave had been found as part of the intense investigation into the alleged plot.
· Israeli Troops Criticize Army, Equipment. Israeli soldiers returning from the war in Lebanon say the army was slow to rescue wounded comrades and suffered from a lack of supplies so dire that they had to drink water from the canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas. "We fought for nothing. We cleared houses that will be reoccupied in no time," said Ilia Marshak, a 22-year-old infantryman who spent a week in Lebanon.
· Letter threatens to blow up Taj Mahal. Police in northern India have heightened security around the Taj Mahal after receiving a letter threatening to blow up the monument, officials said Friday. Sandbag bunkers have been set up outside the towering entrance gates leading to the 17th century monument and soldiers belonging to an anti-terrorist squad have been posted on 24-hour duty, said Ashok Kumar, a senior government official in Uttar Pradesh state where the Taj Mahal is located.
· Hizbollah hands out cash to Lebanese. Hizbollah handed out bundles of cash from Iran on Friday to people whose homes were wrecked by Israeli bombing, consolidating the Iranian-backed group's support among Lebanon's Shi'ites and embarrassing the Beirut government. "This is a very, very reasonable amount. It is not small," said Ayman Jaber, 27, holding a wad he had just picked up from Hizbollah of $12,000 in banknotes wrapped in tissue.
· Explosives Detected In Passenger's Bottle. A West Virginia airport terminal was evacuated Thursday afternoon after a bomb-sniffing dog reacted to a bottle filled with a liquid in a passenger's luggage, an airport official said. The Transportation Security Administration said the contents of the water bottle have twice tested positive for explosives. Agency spokeswoman Amy von Walter said security checkpoint screeners got a positive test on a machine that uses swabs to find traces of explosives. A canine team then got a positive hit for explosives as well.
· Mystery 9/11 rescuer reveals himself. For years, authorities wondered about the identity of a U.S. Marine who appeared at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, helped find a pair of police officers buried in the rubble, then vanished. Even the producers of the new film chronicling the rescue, "World Trade Center," couldn't locate the mystery serviceman, who had given his name only as Sgt. Thomas.
· FBI: No Indication of Terror Ties for Muslim Men in Cell Phone Arrest. The FBI said Monday it had no information to indicate that the three Texas men arrested with about 1,000 cell phones in their van had any direct connection to known terrorist groups.
· Jet evacuated at LAX after toy spooks crew. An Alaska Airlines flight was evacuated on landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday after the flight crew became suspicious of a toy found on board. Alaska Airlines Flight 281 from Guadalajara, Mexico, landed normally at LAX but taxied to a remote part of the airport, where passengers were quickly taken off while police using bomb-sniffing dogs investigated, an FBI spokesman said. The device was identified as a type of toy transmitter and a thorough search of the plane and cargo hold for explosives came up negative.
· Gunmen kidnap Fox News journalists in Gaza. Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two foreign journalists working for the Fox News Channel in Gaza on Monday, a witness and the U.S. television network said. A Fox spokeswoman in New York named the two journalists as correspondent Steve Centanni, an American, and cameraman Olaf Wiig, from New Zealand.
· Hezbollah still firing - on Lebanon. After a tenuous cease-fire ended 34 days of vicious combat between Israel and Hezbollah overnight, Hezbollah guerrillas fired at least 10 Katyusha rockets that landed in southern Lebanon early Tuesday, the Israeli army said, adding that nobody was injured. The army said that none of the rockets, which were fired over a two-hour period, had crossed the border and so it had not responded.
· Mich., Texas airports see disturbances. Customs area at a Detroit airport was briefly shut down Saturday after a passenger claimed he had contaminated everyone on a flight with a biological agent, officials said. At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a man got of a Northwest Airlines flight and implied to the crew he had a biological agent of some sort and had contaminated the flight. Airport emergency medical technicians examined the man and decided that he did not pose a health risk. He was allowed to leave, U.S. Customs agent Ron Smith said.
· Hezbollah leader agrees to cease-fire, with reservations. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that his militia will agree to a U.N. call for a cease-fire with Israel once a deal on timing is reached. But he said the Security Council resolution passed Friday is biased toward Israel, neglecting to blame it for what he described as "massacres" and "war crimes" during the month-long conflict.
· Judge: Unabomber Items to Be Sold Online. A federal judge has ordered personal items seized in 1996 from Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski's Montana cabin to be sold online. U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. ruled Thursday that items belonging to Kaczynski - including books, tools, clothing and two checkbooks - should be sold at a "reasonably advertised Internet auction." The auction will not include 100 items the government considers to be bomb-making materials.
· Security Council OKs Mideast Peace Deal. The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution seeking a "full cessation" of violence between Israel and Hezbollah, offering the region its best chance yet for peace after a month of fighting that has killed more than 800 people and inflamed Mideast tensions. The resolution, adopted unanimously, authorizes 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israeli forces that have occupied the area withdraw.
· Suspected London Plane Terrorists Have Al Qaeda Connection. Police arrested 40 people in cities throughout Italy in raids on Muslim gathering places in a security crackdown after Britain thwarted an alleged terror plot, the Interior Ministry said Friday, as Pakistani intelligence agents claimed there was an Al Qaeda connection with ties to Afghanistan to the group of suspected terrorists arrested Thursday. The arrests in Italy were made Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples and other cities on Thursday and Friday "as part of an extraordinary operation that followed the British anti-terrorist operation," the ministry said in a statement.
· Bush's 'Islamic fascist' remark upsets Muslim groups. President George Bush's remark blaming "Islamic fascists" for the plot in London to blow up US-bound flights has caused an uproar among American Muslim groups. In a letter to Bush, Parvez Ahmed, board chairman of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, wrote, "The use of ill-defined hot button terms such as 'Islamic fascists,' 'militant jihadism,' 'Islamic radicalism,' or 'totalitarian Islamic empire,' harms our nation's image and interests worldwide, particularly in the Islamic world."
· Mike Wallace gushes over Iranian president. CBS let Mike Wallace humanize Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an interview that clearly left the "60 Minutes" star awestruck. Veteran TV questioner Mike Wallace, now 88 years of age, could hardly contain himself talking about his hour-and-a-half meeting with Iran's Islamofascist leader, excerpts of which were telecast Thursday night with the full interview set to be shown Sunday. "He's an impressive fellow, this guy," Wallace said. "He's obviously smart as hell."
· Undercover UK Agent Infiltrated Suspected Terror Cell That Plotted to Blow Up 10 Jetliners. America may have been just days away from another Sept. 11, Department of Homeland Security officials said. That dire assessment came hours after British police swooped in and arrested 24 people in London Thursday, busting up an alleged terrorist plot to blow 10 packed U.S.-bound jetliners out of the sky over the Atlantic.
» ‘World Trade Center’ ads may be scaled back. Following the news early Thursday of a terrorist plot to blow up in-flight passenger airplanes, executives at Paramount Pictures considered scaling back advertising for the new Oliver Stone film, “World Trade Center,” which opened nationwide Wednesday.
» Bank Of England Releases List Of 19 Terror Suspects. The Bank of England froze the assets of 19 people early Friday, naming them as people arrested Thursday in connection with an alleged terror plot to bomb British passenger jets. The oldest person on the list, Shamin Mohammed Uddin, is 35. The youngest, Abdul Muneem Patel, is 17.
· TSA: Failures OK. The Transportation Security Administration recently announced it is changing the way it grades airport screeners on performance tests. While the TSA will still give annual tests to screeners, it will not fire screeners for failing.
· Terrorists planned to stage dry run within two days. The terrorist attack foiled by British authorities on Thursday was aimed at blowing up as many as 10 airplanes on trans-Atlantic flights, and plotters hoped to stage a dry run within two days, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The actual attack would have followed within days.
· Three Alleged Ringleaders ID'd - Explosives planned in sports drink. Three of the alleged ringleaders of the foiled airplane bomb plot have been identified by Western intelligence agencies involved in unraveling the plot. Sources identify the three, who are now in custody, as: Rashid Rauf, Mohammed al-Ghandra, and Ahmed al Khan. The suspected terror plotters arrested in Britain had planned to conceal their liquid or gel explosives inside a modified sports beverage drink container and trigger the device with the flash from a disposable camera.
· Michigan men held on terror charges. Two men were charged Wednesday with money laundering in support of terrorism after authorities said they found airplane passenger lists and information on airport security checkpoints in their car. Deputies stopped Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, 20, and Ali Houssaiky, 20, both of Dearborn, Michigan, on a traffic violation Tuesday. They found the flight documents along with $11,000 cash and 12 phones in the car. Abulhassan and Houssaiky admitted buying about 600 phones in recent months.
· Bomb plot causes worldwide airline chaos. Air travel to and from Britain has been plunged into chaos in the wake of the discovery of a plot to blow up airlines on transatlantic flights. Many airlines said they were cancelling all flights to Britain and to the epicentre of the threat, London Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports.
· Plot had "footprint to Al Qaeda." A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said authorities believe dozens of people — possibly as many as 50 — were involved in the plot, which "had a footprint to Al Qaeda back to it." Another U.S. source in Washington said the plot had a "serious Al Qaeda connection." The terrorists were targeting United, American, and Continental airlines, two U.S. officials said.
· UK foils "mass murder on an unimaginable scale." British police say they have arrested 21 people in connection with a terrorist plot to blow up aircraft flying from the United Kingdom to the United States. Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said the plot was "intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale," and the UK's threat warning level was raised to "critical" - meaning "an attack is expected imminently."
· Terrorists planned to blow up planes headed for U.S. A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said. It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled in hand luggage on to as many as 10 aircraft. According to MI5's website, critical threat level - the highest - means "an attack is expected imminently and indicates an extremely high level of threat to the UK."
· “Liquid chemical” explosive device planned for multiple planes. British police thwarted on Thursday what they said was a plot to blow up aircraft in mid-flight between Britain and the United States and arrested more than 15 people. Both countries stepped up security, causing severe delays at airports following the revelation of the plot, which a police source said was believed to involve a “liquid chemical” device.
· US raises air security alert to "RED" or "Severe" for first time. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it was taking an unprecedented step by raising the threat level for commercial flights originating in the United Kingdom to "severe," or red. The threat level for all other commercial aircraft operating in or destined for the United States would be raised to "high," or orange, from "elevated," or yellow, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a statement. The threat level for the country as a whole remained at yellow, according to the department's Web site.
· Suicide Bomber Dies in Pakistan When Belt Explodes Prematurely. A suicide bomber was killed early Sunday in southwestern Pakistan when the explosives belt he was wearing exploded prematurely, police said. "This man was riding a cycle. He had strapped explosives to his body for a suicide attack and they exploded," police said of the blast in Hub's Zehri Street neighborhood.
· Iran: We supplied long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hizbullah. Iran admitted for the first time on Friday that it did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hizbullah. Secretary-general of the "Intifada conference" Mohtashami Pur told an Iranian newspaper that Iran transferred the missiles so that they could be used to defend Lebanon.
· Big Break In Phoenix Shootings. Authorities arrested two men Friday in their investigation of a series of shootings that have terrorized people throughout the Phoenix area, according to police. The so-called "Serial Shooter" has held Phoenix in a grip of fear for months, with six people killed and 18 wounded.
· Investigation: U.S. borders perilously porous. Along the northern and southern borders, undercover federal investigators tried to enter the United States using fake driver’s licenses and fake birth certificates. The results? Staggering. At all nine border crossings tested, investigators got in easily. Not a single border agent detected the phony IDs. In fact, at two crossings, agents didn't even check any IDs at all. "Well, this is totally unacceptable,” says Thomas Kean, former chairman of the 9/11 commission.
· Man Straps Device To Woman's Body, Demands Pills. Police in Daytona Beach, Fla., are searching for a man who ambushed a woman outside a pharmacy, strapped an apparent explosive device to her body, and demanded pills from inside the store.
· Court posts 9/11 trial exhibits online. Exhibits from the trial of convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, including photographs of September 11 carnage and tape-recorded final phone calls from World Trade Center victims, were posted Monday by a federal court. The U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, said it is the first criminal case for which a federal court has provided access to all exhibits online. The videos, photographs and taped phone calls on the court's Web site were graphic in some cases, leading the court to mark 18 of the 1,202 exhibits "discretion advised."
· Muslim man shoots six women at Seattle Jewish center. One woman was killed and five others were wounded, three critically, in a shooting at the Jewish Federation in downtown Seattle. Police have detained Naveed Afzal Haq who is a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent. All of the shooting victims - including the one killed - were women. The Seattle Times reports that one of the victims is described as 17 weeks pregnant.
· Al-Zawahri calls for holy war on Israel. Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader issued a worldwide call Thursday for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq." In the message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri, second in command to Osama bin Laden, said that al-Qaida now views "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us."
· Bogus Names Feared on New Jersey Sept. 11 Monument. A 100-foot-tall bronze sculpture evokes the twins towers that once soared from the Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, but some question whether all the names etched into the base are of people who died in the 2001 terrorist attacks. The memorial lists 3,024 names, according to the artist's attorney. That's 45 more than the official list, which includes six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the 2,973 killed on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
· Project to protect airliners in doubt. Nearly three years after the government began $100 million worth of tests on lasers that could thwart missiles aimed at planes, the Homeland Security Department says the systems are too fragile and expensive to put on commercial jets. "Any two-bit terrorist can buy a shoulder-fired missile for $5,000 and fire it tomorrow at a plane," says Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., an authority on the issue in Congress. "More than 750,000 of these (missiles) are proliferating around the world in the hands of 27 separate terrorist organizations, and we're still studying the complexity of the problem."
· United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hizbullah. The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources. US strategy in allowing Israel this freedom for a limited period has several objectives, one of which is delivering a slap to Iran and Syria, who Washington claims are directing Hizbullah and Hamas militants from behind the scenes.
· Iran's Hizbollah says ready to attack US, Israel. Iran's Hizbollah said on Tuesday it stood ready to attack Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide. "We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year," said Iranian Hizbollah's spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli. "They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardise Israel and America's interests. We are only waiting for the Supreme Leader's green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War Three ... we welcome it," he said.
· As stocks sank after attacks, some companies rushed to issue options. On Sept. 21, 2001, rescuers dug through the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center. Across town, families buried two firefighters found a week earlier. And boards of directors of scores of American companies were also busy. They handed out millions of bargain-priced stock options to their top executives.
· Jolie, Pitt Producing Movie About Murder of Daniel Pearl. Actress Angelina Jolie will star in a movie about murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, while Brad Pitt, her longtime steady, will produce it. Jolie will star as Pearl's wife, Mariane Pearl, in an adaptation of her book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl."
· Alabama petting zoo off list of potential terrorist targets. Sherry Lewis was baffled to learn that her Old MacDonald's Petting Zoo was on a federal list of potential terrorist targets and thankful it's no longer listed that way. "We've never had a bomb threat or anything that would possibly come close to terrorism," Lewis told The Huntsville Times for a story Thursday.
· Homeland Security: Indiana leads all states in targets for terrorism. It reads like a tally of terrorist targets that a child might have crafted: Old MacDonald's Petting Zoo, the Mule Day Parade, Sweetwater Flea Market and an unspecified "Beach at End of a Street." But the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, in a report released Tuesday, found that the list is not child's play: All these "unusual or out-of-place," sites "whose criticality is not readily apparent," are inexplicably included in the official federal anti-terrorism database.
· US unveils emergency alert system for mobile phones, computers. The US government unveiled a communications system that in case of emergency should soon allow it to send SMS alerts to Americans' mobile phones and computers. The Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS) will include the participation of television networks and public radio stations and be based on an existing alert system built in the Cold War era for use in the event of a nuclear attack.
· Washington D.C. Declares Crime Emergency. Two groups of tourists were robbed at gunpoint on the National Mall, just hours after the police chief declared a crime emergency in the city in response to a string of violence that included the killing of a British activist.
· 70 killed in Mumbai train blasts. At least 70 people have been killed in seven explosions on crowded rush-hour commuter trains in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, police said. Officials said more than 300 people were injured in the blasts. At least one train was split in half by the explosion.
· Two Border Patrol agents plead guilty to helping smugglers. Two former US Border Patrol agents have pleaded guilty here to helping illegal immigrants cross into the United States in return for bribes from smugglers, US authorities confirmed. Mario Alvarez, 45, and Samuel McLaren, 44, were veteran agents who operated out of El Centro in the US state of California, across the border from the Mexican city of Mexicali. They acknowledged receiving a total of 186,000 dollars in bribes from smuggling groups ferrying illegal immigrants into US territory.
· Houston Police, airport security at odds over incident. A man with a Middle Eastern name and a ticket for a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta shook his head when screeners asked if he had a laptop computer in his baggage, but an X-ray machine operator detected a laptop. A search of the man's baggage revealed a clock with a 9-volt battery taped to it and a copy of the Quran, the report said. A screener examined the man's shoes and determined that the "entire soles of both shoes were gutted out." A police officer was summoned and questioned the man, examined his identification, shoes and the clock, then cleared him for travel, according to the report.
· Landmark al Qaeda trial collapses. The trial of 19 alleged al Qaeda members had been designed to showcase how serious Yemen was in the fight against terror. But the Islamic militants, accused of plotting to assassinate Westerners and blow up a hotel frequented by Americans, were all acquitted. Several of the defendants did confess to having been in Iraq to fight U.S. troops there and had Iraqi stamps on their passport, the court heard. "Islamic Sharia law permits jihad against occupiers," the Yeman judge said.
· Security Workers Pepper-Sprayed At Airport. Two workers with the Transportation Security Administration had to be rushed to the hospital when they were accidentally pepper-sprayed at a security checkpoint Sunday morning. A total of four workers felt the stinging effects of the spray. Authorities said a passenger realized he had the vial in his possession and tried to hand it over. That’s when, authorities say, it accidentally went off.
· FBI Busts 'Real Deal' Terror Plot Aimed At NYC-NJ Underground Transit Link. FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms smashed an Al Qaeda terrorist plot to attack New York City's underground transit link with New Jersey, law enforcement officials said. Eight suspects — including an Al Qaeda loyalist arrested in Lebanon and two others in custody elsewhere — had hoped to pull off the attack in October or November of this year, federal officials said. But federal investigators working with their counterparts in six other countries intervened.
· N.Y. tunnel plot uncovered. A man is being held in Beirut, Lebanon, in connection with a plot to blow up tunnels in New York, counterterrorism sources told CNN. In its Friday editions, the New York Daily News first reported that the FBI had revealed a plot to bomb New York's Holland Tunnel and flood the financial district in lower Manhattan.
· 'There will be more terror attacks' warns chilling video. A new suicide video from one of the four London bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, was released today. The video has emerged on the eve of the first anniversary of the attacks and is likely to cause further distress to the scores of bereaved families and survivors who were preparing to honour the victims of the blasts.
· Subway Rider Critically Injured In Power-Saw Attack In New York. A man grabbed two cordless power saws off a subway station workbench and went on a rampage Thursday, swinging the saws at riders and slicing open a man's chest before running away, police said. Police were searching for the suspect, described by witnesses as a thin man in his 30s, who had earrings in both ears and was possibly carrying a teddy bear.
· Target any white person: the chilling guidelines for Bali suicide bombers. Any white person is a target. Avoid hotels because they are too well protected. Carry the bombs in small knapsacks to avoid suspicion. And don't worry about your escape route because you will become a "martyr." These guidelines for suicide bombers were found on a computer captured by Indonesian police.
· 2nd Message: Bin Laden Endorses al-Zarqawi's Successor. Osama bin Laden endorsed the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq in an Internet posting Saturday, and he warned Shiites there against collaborating with the United States in its fight against Sunni insurgents. In his fifth audio message this year and his second in two days, bin Laden also warned nations not to send troops to Somalia, where Islamic militants have taken control of the capital and much of the south.
· California Denies Tracking Political Rallies. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's anti-terror office said Saturday that it has never monitored the activities of political groups in California, in response to a newspaper report that it had tracked rallies and protests. Matthew Bettenhausen, director of the state Office of Homeland Security, did not dispute a report in the Los Angeles Times that two security
· Bin Laden praises al-Zarqawi, defends attacks. Osama bin Laden defended attacks by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi against civilians in Iraq, purportedly saying in a taped Web message Friday that the slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader was acting under orders to kill anyone who backs American forces. Bin Laden paid tribute to al-Zarqawi in a 19-minute audio message posted on an Islamic militant Web site. The message has narration by a voice resembling bin Laden’s as a video shows an old photo of him in a split-screen next to images of al-Zarqawi taken from a previous video.
· Seven held over 'Sears Tower plot.' Seven people were in custody Friday after FBI agents and police carried out raids against an alleged terrorist plot that may have included the Sears Tower in Chicago and Miami's FBI offices as possible targets, law enforcement sources said. Sources also told CNN that the suspects believed they were dealing with an al Qaeda operative who was actually a government informant. Other law enforcement sources said the seven suspects were radical Muslims, and at least one of them had taken an oath to serve al Qaeda.
· Homemade Destructive Devices Found In Mailboxes. Authorities in Lake County, Fla., are investigating five incidents where homemade destructive devices were found in mailboxes.
· Al Qaeda-linked group claims it kidnapped 2 U.S. soldiers. An al Qaeda-affiliated group claimed it kidnapped two U.S. soldiers south of Baghdad, although the captives were not named.
· Book: Al Qaeda's cyanide plot against N.Y. subway. An al Qaeda plot to fill the New York subway system with a lethal gas was called off by a deputy to Osama bin Laden, according to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind. The author details the plot and how U.S. intelligence found out about it. When the CIA followed directions found on a captured computer for the gas delivery system, their worst fears were confirmed, Suskind writes.
· Homeland Security accepts fake ID. A man using a fake identification card was able to enter the Homeland Security Department headquarters in Washington, he said, even though the United States government considers the type of Mexican-issued card he used invalid. Undocumented Mexicans can use the cards at banks and other institutions that accept them. The cards are not valid for entry into federal government buildings.
· Al-Zarqawi Lived for 52 Mins. After Strike. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi lived for 52 minutes after a U.S. warplane bombed his hideout northeast of Baghdad, and he died of extensive internal injuries consistent with those caused by a bomb blast, the U.S. military said Monday.
· Critics say Canada too immigrant-friendly. Canada has long prided itself for opening its doors wider than any nation to immigrants and asylum-seekers, but that tradition is coming under intense scrutiny — at home and across the border — after the arrests of 17 men from Muslim immigrant families in an alleged terror plot.
· Update: $25 million bounty to be paid on Al-Zarqawi. "We will meet our promise," al-Maliki told al-Arabiya television without elaborating. The United States had put forth the $25 million bounty for information leading to the death or capture of al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi, a 39-year-old Jordanian-born terrorist, was killed in a U.S. airstrike Wednesday.
· Iraqi Leader: Terror Leader al-Zarqawi Is Dead. According to the prime minister of Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - the leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq who has led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings – has been killed in a U.S. air raid north of Baghdad.
· Canadian Terror Suspects Arrested in U.S. Last Year. Two men believed to be part of a terrorist ring in Canada were arrested last summer while trying to smuggle guns and ammunition from the United States, authorities said. Mohammed Dirie, 22, and Yasin Abdi Mohamed, 24, were both in jail serving two-year sentences for weapons smuggling when they were hit with new Canadian terrorism charges Friday.
· Man arrested trying to jump White House fence. The Secret Service arrested a man who was trying to jump the White House fence carrying a suspicious package on Sunday. Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur said the man, 44-year-old Roger Witmer, was arrested before he made it over the fence.
· Toronto terror plot foiled. Canadian police said on Saturday they had halted a "real and serious" terror threat in and around Toronto. Twelve men and five youths said to have been inspired by al Qaeda were arrested in the operation involving hundreds of officers, authorities said. The group was "planning to commit a series of terrorist attacks against solely Canadian targets in southern Ontario," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell said at a news conference.
· Reporter's dangerous trip to secret rocket factory. Masked gunmen blindfolded CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman and his cameraman to take them to a location rarely seen by journalists covering the violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After a tense trip in two vehicles surrounded by men in full battle gear, the CNN pair were driven into a cramped compound covered in green plastic sheeting to protect it from the prying eyes of Israeli aircraft - a rocket factory where one man was proud that it was his missile which hit an Israeli school.
· Homeland Security grants rile D.C., NYC. The Homeland Security Department said Wednesday that the cities of New York and Washington will get less money in this year's allocation of grants, drawing harsh criticism from politicians in both areas. The department announced the recipients of $1.7 billion distributed through various programs to help states and cities help prepare for potential terror attacks and natural disasters.
· Jury Convicts Muhammad in 2nd Sniper Trial. John Allen Muhammad's conviction for six more murders in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper spree gives prosecutors the insurance they sought - that there is little chance he will leave prison alive. Muhammad, 45, was convicted Tuesday after a monthlong trial in which he acted as his own attorney. The verdict adds to the death sentence Muhammad previously received for a sniper shooting in Manassas, Va.
· Bin Laden: Moussaoui Not Linked to 9/11. Osama bin Laden purportedly said in an audio tape Tuesday that Zacarias Moussaoui - the only person convicted in the U.S. for the Sept. 11 attacks - had nothing to do with the operation. "He had no connection at all with Sept. 11," the speaker, claiming to be bin Laden, said in the tape posted on the Internet.
· Update: Saudi School Bus Riders Released From Jail. Two Saudi men accused of boarding a school bus full of students were released from jail Tuesday after federal officials determined they don't pose a security threat. Through an interpreter, Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, told investigators that they got on the bus Friday morning because they wanted to visit the school and didn't know it was just for students.
· Saudis Held After Boarding Fla. School Bus. Two Saudi men who boarded a school bus full of children and gave conflicting reasons why there were there were arrested and held without bail, authorities said Sunday. Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, were charged with misdemeanor trespassing and were jailed after a judge said Saturday she wanted more background information on them.
· Warship built out of Twin Towers wreckage. In a city still emerging from the floods of Hurricane Katrina, a ship has begun to rise from the ashes of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Bringing together America’s two great calamities of the 21st century, the USS New York is being built in New Orleans with 24 tons of steel taken from the collapsed World Trade Center.
· Former NYC Deputy Mayor Fights Sept. 11-Related Illness. top aide to former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is among those suffering the health effects of weeks spent at Ground Zero. Former deputy mayor Rudy Washington has debilitating asthma. A friend and fellow former deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, said Washington has made several emergency visits to the hospital.
· A New Tack for Airport Screening: Behave Yourself. Airport screeners plan to shift tactics, focusing less on scissors and more on passenger behavior. Here's how it works: Select TSA employees will be trained to identify suspicious individuals who raise red flags by exhibiting unusual or anxious behavior, which can be as simple as changes in mannerisms, excessive sweating on a cool day, or changes in the pitch of a person's voice.
· AT&T loses bid for a closed court. AT&T was turned down by a federal judge Tuesday in its 11th-hour attempt to bar the public from a San Francisco court hearing today about documents that allegedly show the company's involvement in a secret government electronic surveillance program.
· Pentagon Releases Video of Plane Hitting Building on 9/11. Conspiracy theorists may or may not be disappointed Tuesday when they see footage released from the Pentagon showing two angles of American Flight 77 hitting the western wall of the building on Sept. 11, 2001. One of the tapes is from a security camera that was used to produce five still shots on that day. That video, which takes pictures in half-second increments, shows the nose cone of the plane clearly entering the picture, then a blur and then a fireball.
· Moussaoui 'saved by lone juror.' Only one juror prevented Zacarias Moussaoui from being sentenced to death for his role in the 9/11 attacks, the Washington Post has reported.
· Some 200 pounds of stolen explosives surface in Riverside. A few hundred pounds of explosives stolen from a storage bunker in Big Bear City surfaced Wednesday when someone left two containers filled with dynamite in front of a fire station here, authorities said. Investigators were still searching for the remainder of the 500 pounds of explosives and a 30-pound bag of ammonium nitrate reported stolen from the mine company.
· Flying robot attack "unstoppable": experts. It may sound like science fiction, but the prospect that suicide bombers and hijackers could be made redundant by flying robots is a real one, according to experts. The technology for remote-controlled light aircraft is now highly advanced, widely available - and, experts say, virtually unstoppable. Models with a wingspan of 16 feet, capable of carrying up to 110 pounds, remain undetectable by radar. And thanks to satellite positioning systems, they can now be programmed to hit targets some distance away with just a few metres (yards) short of pinpoint accuracy. Security services the world over have been considering the problem for several years, but no one has yet come up with a solution.
· Bush Orders Darfur Aid; Translator Hacked To Death. President Bush called for more U.N. peacekeepers for the Darfur region of Sudan on Monday and pledged an increase in U.S. food aid. He also welcomed a proposed peace accord as "the beginnings of hope" for Darfur's poverty-stricken population, while residents of a Darfur refugee camp hacked a translator to death.
· Hate groups use U.S. Internet servers. Hate groups around the world, including Islamic militants, often use Internet servers based in the United States to send propaganda and instructions to followers, according to a report released Thursday by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
· Woman Doing Nails Causes Flight To Be Diverted. A woman doing her nails caused a United Airlines flight to be diverted on Saturday. Authorities said United Flight 787 from Chicago to San Diego landed in Denver after the flight crew detected a funny odor. Nail polish is allowed on commercial flights.
· Men detained 3 hours for school materials. Five airline passengers speaking in foreign languages and carrying "aircraft flight materials" were briefly detained Saturday until authorities determined they were simply returning to their home countries after attending a U.S. helicopter training school.
· Moussaoui curses America but judge gets final word. Publicly blasting the United States one last time, al Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui said: "God curse America. God bless and save Osama bin Laden - you will never get him," he told a packed federal courtroom that included family members of people killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema responded: "You came here to be a martyr and die in a big bang of glory. But instead you will die with a whimper," she said.
· Movie Promotion Confused With Bomb in L.A. newspaper promotion for Tom Cruise's upcoming "Mission: Impossible III" got off to an explosive start when a county arson squad blew up a news rack, thinking it contained a bomb. The confusion: the Los Angeles Times rack was fitted with a digital musical device designed to play the "Mission: Impossible" theme song when the door was opened. But in some cases, the red plastic boxes with protruding wires were jarred loose and dropped onto the stack of newspapers inside, alarming customers.
· A grave oversight. For more than four years, the 40-story Deutsche Bank tower in New York has stood silently at the edge of Ground Zero, a graveyard waiting to be found. The building was searched in 2002 and pronounced clear of all human remains. In the last few weeks, however, nearly 700 bone fragments have been found on the roof at 130 Liberty St. Along with a piece of human scalp. And a pair of plastic wings that airlines give to young passengers.
· Freedom Tower finally a go. World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein will finally begin living up to his mandate today - starting work on the Freedom Tower after months of acrimony and delays. As a result, the biggest building planned for the 16-acre site - a heavily secured, 1,776-foot office tower with a projected cost of more than $2.1 billion - will begin an estimated five-year-long rise into the sky.
· Somber night for '93' flight. A wrenching reminder of 9/11 was surrounded with red-carpet hoopla at the world preempreem of "United 93," which kicked off the fifth edition of the Tribeca film fest Tuesday at GothamGotham's Ziegfeld theater. After the film's devastating final scene, the screen abruptly went dark and a cacophony of loud, uncontrollable sobs could be heard coming from the back of the theater, where many of the nearly 100 family members of 9/11 victims were seated.
· 'Pregnant' suicide bomber kills 8 in Sri Lanka. A female suicide bomber disguised to look pregnant blew herself up in front of a car carrying Sri Lanka's top general, killing eight people in a brazen attack on the heavily fortified grounds of the country's army headquarters.
· Blasts Kill 22 in Egyptian Resort City. Three nearly simultaneous explosions rocked the Egyptian resort city of Dahab on Monday, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 150 in a terror attack at the height of the tourist season. The attackers struck a day after al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden issued a taped warning that ordinary Western citizens had become legitimate targets of his terrorist organization.
· Moussaoui lawyer asks for 'long slow death.' Zacarias Moussaoui's lawyer pleaded with jurors Monday to send his client to prison for life - "the long slow death of a common criminal" - rather than give him the martyrdom he seeks through execution.
· Al-Jazeera airs purported bin Laden tape. Parts of audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden aired Sunday on an Arabic-language TV network in which the al Qaeda leader attacks the West for cutting off funds to the Palestinian Hamas-led government.
· 6 arrested in Alaska school shooting plot. Six middle school students in a small Alaska town were arrested Saturday on suspicion of plotting to bring guns and knives to school to kill their classmates and faculty. The seventh-graders wanted to seek revenge for being picked on by other students, Lindhag said.
· FBI Says 2 in Ga. Plotted Terrorism. A 21-year-old Georgia Tech student and another man traveled to Canada to meet with Islamic extremists to discuss "strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike," according to an affidavit made public Friday.
· Passenger's Bomb Threat Diverts Flight. A man who claimed to have a bomb aboard a United Airlines flight was subdued by fellow passengers as the California-bound plane was diverted to Denver International Airport, airport officials said. Two F-16 fighter jets from Buckley Air Force Base scrambled to escort the plane as it flew into Denver Friday, according to Lt. Commander Sean Kelly, a spokesman for NORAD. Three Secret Service agents traveling between assignments who happened to be on the plane helped detain the passenger, said Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren.
· Homeland Security grants spent on clowns and gyms. Fire departments are using Homeland Security grants to buy gym equipment, sponsor puppet and clown shows, and turn first responders into fitness trainers.
· TSA: Computer glitch led to Atlanta airport scare. A bomb scare that led authorities to evacuate security checkpoints at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Wednesday was the result of a "software malfunction," Transportation Security Administration Director Kip Hawley said. While screening carry-on luggage, a TSA employee identified the image of a suspicious device but did not realize it was part of routine testing for security screeners because the software failed to indicate such a test was under way, Hawley said.
· TSA Uniform Mysteriously Appears In Woman's Luggage. An airline passenger who arrived in Florida from New Jersey opened her suitcase and found a uniform belonging to a Transportation Security Administration officer. Debra Sanders found the TSA uniform folded and packed with her items. Sanders said she hopes the incident was just a mistake by a screener but fears someone was trying to pass off the TSA uniform to someone else and put it in the wrong piece of luggage.
· Ex-professor pleads guilty to aiding Islamic Jihad. Former university professor Sami al-Arian has pleaded guilty to aiding the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad and agreed to be deported, according to documents made public on Monday by a U.S. court in Florida. Al-Arian and three co-defendants were arrested in 2003 and charged with helping the group carry out attacks in Israel. In December, a federal jury found al-Arian not guilty on eight charges and failed to reach a verdict on nine others after a six-month trial.
· Terrorists Recruiting 'White Muslims.' Terrorists have been working to recruit non-Arab sympathizers - so-called "white Muslims" with Western features who theoretically could more easily blend into European cities and execute attacks - according to classified intelligence documents obtained by The Associated Press.
· Moussaoui Mocks His Own Defense. Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui suffered a traumatic childhood that transformed him from a boy with a sense of humor who made friends easily to a man who spurned his family and embraced radical Islam, a defense witness testified Monday. Jan Vogelsang, a clinical social worker, said at Moussaoui's death-penalty trial that the 37-year-old Frenchman was in and out of orphanages the first six years of his life. As a teenager, she said, he was rejected as a "dirty Arab" by the family of his longtime girlfriend, with whom he lived briefly and won dance contests. Moussaoui was dismissive of the social worker's analysis. He shouted, "It's a lot of American B.S.," as he left the courtroom for the lunch recess.
· Suicide Bomber Kills 9 at Tel Aviv Eatery. A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up outside a fast-food restaurant in a bustling area of Tel Aviv during the Passover holiday Monday, killing nine other people and wounding dozens in the deadliest Palestinian attack in more than a year. The new Palestinian government, led by Hamas, called the attack a legitimate response to Israeli "aggression."
· 'I'm glad their families suffer ... I wish they'd suffer more.' Zacarias Moussaoui scoffed yesterday at the 9/11 families who broke down as they told their tragic stories in court, mocking their grief as "disgusting." saying he has "no remorse" for 9/11 and only regrets more Americans weren't slaughtered in the terror attacks.
· Moussaoui Jurors Hear Flight 93 Tape. Federal prosecutors seeking the execution of Zacarias Moussaoui figuratively placed the jury aboard doomed Flight 93 for its last searing moments, playing a recording in which a passenger begs the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, "Please, don't hurt me" and another cries "I don't want to die."
· TSA officer charged in boy's kidnap attempt. Authorities in Idaho say they aren’t sure of the true identity of a Transportation Security Administration officer charged with attempting to kidnap a 10-year-old boy because they found personal identification documents — including Social Security numbers — for five separate individuals in his possession.
· 'Ground Zero' air killed cop. An autopsy of a retired NYPD detective confirmed yesterday what his family and fellow cops long suspected - that James Zadroga's death was "directly related" to the Ground Zero cleanup. The stunning findings are believed to mark the first time the death of a cleanup worker has been officially tied to the aftermath of the terror attacks.
· Video Shows Burned U.S. Pilot Dragged By Enemy. A video posted on the Internet Wednesday in the name of an extremist group claimed to show Iraqi insurgents dragging the burning body of a U.S. pilot on the ground after the crash of an Apache helicopter.
· British spy tortured and killed, says Irish minister. A former senior official of Sinn Fein recently exposed as a British spy has been found fatally shot in northwest Ireland, police said - an act certain to send shock waves through Northern Ireland's peace process at a critical moment. Denis Donaldson, Sinn Fein's former legislative chief in the failed power-sharing government of Northern Ireland, admitted in December he had been on the payroll of the British secret service and the province's anti-terrorist police for two decades.
· HIV blood theft stumps officials. Police and medical officials are scratching their heads over a bizarre, but eerie theft of 19 vials of HIV-tainted plasma from a locked freezer at a downtown Vancouver hospital.
· Jury: Moussaoui is eligible for death. Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty, a federal jury decided Monday in the first U.S. trial about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
· Major attack on N.Y. seen costing insurers $778 billion. A major terrorist attack on New York City using chemical, biological or radioactive weapons could cost $778 billion in insured losses, according to the American Academy of Actuaries.
· N.Y. Releases 911 Calls From 9/11; Cries Left Out. City 911 operators caught up in the chaos of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks offered calm compassion but little help to callers trapped in the doomed World Trade Center, partial transcripts of several calls released Friday show. "The Fire Department, EMS, is crawling all over the place," a fire department operator assures a caller who is trapped with more than 100 people the 106th floor. "They're trying to help everybody as much as they can, OK?"
· U.S. Hostage Jill Carroll Released In Iraq. Kidnapped U.S. reporter Jill Carroll has been released after nearly three months in captivity, Iraq police and the leader of the Islamic Party said Thursday. Her editor said she was in good condition.
· Teens Arrested in Water Facility Break-In. Authorities charged two teenagers in connection with a break-in at a water facility in Blackstone, Mass. and expected to charge a third as more than 9,000 area residents waited Wednesday to hear if their drinking water had been contaminated. A 5-gallon container with an odor was found on top of the tank, but authorities do not yet know what, if anything, was put into the water.
· Government investigators smuggled radioactive materials into U.S. Two teams of government investigators using fake documents were able to enter the United States with enough radioactive sources to make two dirty bombs, according to a federal report made available Monday. The investigators posed as employees of a fictitious company and brought the materials into the United States through checkpoints on the northern and southern borders, the report stated.
· Moussaoui: I was part of plan. Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified today that he knew about plans to crash planes into the World Trade Center. "I had knowledge that the two towers would be hit, but I did not have the details," Moussaoui told jurors. He said he and convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid were supposed to fly a plane into the White House.
· Bombs In Colorado Resemble Device Exploded In Tennessee. Three explosive devices detonated at the homes of aviation industry employees in western Colorado were similar to a device that exploded at a company's corporate office in Tennessee last month, authorities said Sunday.
· Bomb defused amid Thai tensions. A police squad defused a bomb at the headquarters of the opposition Democrat Party, six days before Thais head to the polls in a snap election called by the beleaguered prime minister. The tissue-sized box found on Monday contained enough TNT to take down the office building, said party spokesman Ongard Klampaiboom.
· Al Qaeda Tested Poison Beer, Burger Plot. An alleged al Qaeda terrorist plotting a bomb attack on Britain told accomplices to sell contaminated beer at soccer games or poisoned hamburgers from street vending stalls, an FBI informant told a court Friday.
· Bombs planted around Grand Junction, Colorado. At least three crude bombs exploded today and two more were disarmed outside Grand Junction homes, prompting warnings from authorities as they fanned out across this western Colorado city looking for suspects and more devices.
· FBI Agent Testifies at Moussaoui Trial. If Zacarias Moussaoui had confessed his al-Qaida membership and his terrorist plans to federal agents in the weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the bureau could have stepped up its investigation on multiple fronts, a former FBI agent testified.
· American and his girlfriend arrested in hotel bombings. An American man and his Uruguayan girlfriend were arrested Wednesday, accused of killing two people and injuring at least seven with bombs that severely damaged two hotels. Police puzzled over their motive, discounting terrorism but saying they had religious reasons and that the American appears to be mentally ill.
· Airline screeners fail government bomb tests. Imagine an explosion strong enough to blow a car's trunk apart, caused by a bomb inside a passenger plane. Government sources tell NBC News that federal investigators recently were able to carry materials needed to make a similar homemade bomb through security screening at 21 airports.
In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials.
· Sears Tower Incident Leads To Terrorism Investigation. City and federal authorities are investigating an incident in which three men appeared to be studying the Sears Tower and taking pictures. The incident happened three weeks ago when the men got out of their car and took several photographs, according to the Chicago Tribune. Security guards questioned the men, but allowed them to leave. The guards did note the car's license plates, which were traced to a rental company. After the car was returned, the Joint Terrorism Task Force learned it was rented with a fake name, the Tribune reported.
· Starbucks Plans To Increase Cargo Security. Starbucks plans to install high-tech sensors to detect tampering with its cargo containers filled with coffee beans shipped from Guatemala. A study by the Homeland Security Department warned such containers can be opened secretly during shipment to add or remove items without alerting authorities.
· High Court Justice Feels Threat From 'Irrational Fringe.' Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she is being threatened by society's "irrational fringe." Ginsburg said she believes the death threats that also targeted retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor have been spurred by conservative criticism of the high court.
· Moussaoui judge: Death penalty still on table. A federal judge decided to let the government continue to pursue the death penalty against al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, though she gutted about half of the prosecutors' case by barring six witnesses.
· FBI: No Credible Terror Threat For Basketball Tournaments. attack aimed at college basketball arenas or other sports stadiums. But the bureau acknowledges alerting law enforcement to a recent Internet posting discussing such attacks. A spokesman said the FBI and Homeland Security Department distributed an intelligence bulletin Friday to state and local law enforcement nationwide. The bulletin describes the online threat against sporting venues.
· Dubai firm gives up stake in U.S. ports. United Arab Emirates-owned DP World said Thursday it would transfer its operations of American ports to a U.S. "entity" after congressional leaders reportedly told President Bush that the firm's takeover deal was essentially dead on Capitol Hill.
· Suspected Bombs Turn Out To Be Movie Props. Clermont County, Ohio, authorities spent Friday morning investigating possible explosive devices found in a barn. However, the "bombs" turned out to be movie props. Officers were called to a residence outside of Cincinnati just after 6 a.m. Friday. A bottle collector told officers that he had found what appeared to be pipe bombs inside an abandoned barn.
· Bush Signs Renewal Of Patriot Act. President George W. Bush has signed a renewal of the anti-terrorist Patriot Act, saying its provisions have "saved American lives." The renewal finally cleared Congress this week after months of debate on how to fight terrorism - while protecting civil liberties. Passed in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the act gives police and intelligence agents more power to hunt information - and share it with each other.
· Midway to beef up security after embarrassing breach. Aviation security officers will undergo "comprehensive retraining" and Midway Airport's three perimeter checkpoints will be redesigned in response to an embarrassing breach that allowed an intoxicated man to sneak onto the tarmac, officials said.
· Abdul Causes Security Breach at Airport. Paula Abdul was allowed to board a plane at the Las Vegas airport without passing through a security checkpoint, prompting all passengers and luggage to be screened when they landed in California, officials said.
· Muslims urged to make West 'bleed for years.' A taped message attributed to Osama bin Laden's deputy calls on Muslims to attack the "economic infrastructure" of the West and stop Western countries from "stealing" Mideast oil, according to recordings posted on Islamist Web sites Sunday. The statement calls on al Qaeda's followers to launch attacks that will make Western powers "bleed for years."
· Ferrari Case Takes New Twist With Possible Tie to Bus Agency. As sheriff's detectives investigate last week's crash that destroyed a $1-million Ferrari, they are now looking into an obscure nonprofit organization that provides disabled people with transit in the San Gabriel Valley. The car's owner, a former video game executive from Sweden, told Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at the scene of the Feb. 21 accident in Malibu that he was deputy commissioner of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority's police anti-terrorism unit, detectives said.
· Band Sticker on Bike Causes Bomb Scare. A sticker on a bicycle that said "this bike is a pipe bomb" caused a scare Thursday at Ohio University that shut down four buildings before authorities learned the message was the name of a punk rock band, a university spokesman said.
· 20 Calif. Students Suspended Over Web Site. A middle school student faces expulsion for allegedly posting graphic threats against a classmate on the popular MySpace.com Web site, and 20 of his classmates were suspended for viewing the posting, school officials said.
· Update: Authorities now say powder in dorm not likely ricin. Authorities doubt that the whitish-brown powder found in a roll of quarters at the University of Texas at Austin is ricin because no one has shown symptoms of exposure to the powerful poison, an EMS spokesman said late Saturday afternoon.
· Ricin discovered in University of Texas dorm. A substance discovered by a student in a University of Texas dormitory has tested positive for ricin, a potentially deadly poison, officials said. The chunky powder was found at the Moore-Hill dormitory Thursday and reported to university police, officials said.
· Al-Qaida Threatens to Hit More Saudi Sites. Al-Qaida suicide bombers will attack more Saudi oil facilities, the terror group purportedly threatened Saturday in an Internet statement that claimed responsibility for the foiled attack on the Abiqaiq plant in eastern Saudi Arabia. Two suicide bombers tried to drive cars packed with explosives into Abiqaiq, the world's largest oil processing facility, on Friday afternoon, but security guards opened fire and the vehicles exploded outside the gates, killing the bombers and fatally wounding two guards.
· Pentagon Told to Release Gitmo Transcripts. A federal judge ordered the Pentagon on Thursday to release the identities of hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to The Associated Press, a move which would force the government to break its secrecy and reveal the most comprehensive list yet of those who have been imprisoned there.
· Osama bin Laden watches Larry King. It may seem a rather trite observation considering the numbing frothiness of King's CNN talk show compared with the gravity of all that surrounds the world's most hunted terrorist. But it may reveal much about the role al-Qa'ida's leader sees the Western media playing in his bloody war against the infidel.
· High school senior discovers ironing deactivates anthrax. Protecting yourself from biological weapons might be as simple as using a hot clothes iron. Through a project for a statewide science competition, Central Catholic High School senior Marc Roberge discovered truth in the urban legend that ironing can kill anthrax spores in contaminated mail.
· Bin Laden Vows Never to Be Captured Alive. Osama bin Laden promised never to be captured alive and declared the U.S. had resorted to the same "repressive" tactics used by Saddam Hussein, according to an audiotape purportedly by the al-Qaida leader that was posted Monday on a militant Web site.
· U.S. Rep.: 9/11 Leader ID'd Repeatedly Before Attack. The vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said a secret U.S. security unit identified terrorist Mohamed Atta more than a dozen times before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon also said the secret military team - code-named "Able Danger" - found "a problem" in Yemen two weeks before the deadly al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole in 2000. But Weldon said the ship commander was not told.
· Arab company poised to control six U.S. ports. company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.
· Bush: U.S. thwarted al Qaeda attack on L.A. Shortly after 9/11, al Qaeda began planning to use shoe bombers to hijack a commercial airplane and fly it into the tallest building in Los Angeles, President Bush said Thursday. The details were the first about the West Coast airliner plot, which was thwarted in 2002 and initially disclosed by the White House last year, Bush said. The plot was set in motion by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, a month after those happened, Bush said.
· Jury selection opens in Moussaoui trial. Proclaiming "I am al-Qaida," Zacarias Moussaoui was removed from a federal courtroom in Alexandria on Monday at the outset of jury selection in his terrorist conspiracy trial.
· USS Cole plotter escapes prison. Interpol has issued "an urgent global security alert" after 23 "dangerous individuals" - including a man identified as the mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 - escaped from a Yemeni prison. The international crime-fighting organization said Sunday at least 13 of the 23 who escaped Friday were "convicted al Qaeda terrorists, some of whom were involved in attacks on U.S. and French ships in 2000 and 2002."
· Negroponte: Al Qaeda, Iran Top Concerns. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said Thursday that the Al Qaeda terror network remains the "top concern" of the U.S. intelligence community, followed closely by the nuclear activities of Iran and North Korea. Negroponte told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a relatively rare public session that Iran probably does not yet have nuclear weapons, nor the fissile material needed for producing them.
· 'Flight 93' Draws Record A&E Audience. A television movie about one of the doomed Sept. 11 airplanes was A&E's most-watched program ever, a sign that audiences may be ready for a coming spate of movie and TV projects dramatizing the terrorism of five years ago. "Flight 93," about the hijacking of the United Airlines plane and passengers' efforts to retake it, drew 5.9 million viewers when it premiered Monday, the cable channel said.
· Some US troops question Woodruff coverage. The American media stood up and took notice when an improvised explosive device grievously injured an ABC News crew Sunday. In Iraq, and throughout the military, there is sympathy and concern for anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt, but there is also this question: "Why do you think this is such a huge story?" wrote an officer stationed in Baqubah, Iraq via e-mail. "It's a bit stunning to us over here how absolutely dominant the story is on every network and front page. I mean, you'd think we lost the entire 1st Marine Division or something.
· Palestinian government resigns in wake of Hamas win. In a stunning development ahead of official election results, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorie said he and the rest of the Palestinian Authority government will resign in the wake of militant group Hamas' apparent victory in historic elections.
· Lawyers: Moussaoui possibly schizophrenic. Defense attorneys said Tuesday they are prepared to present witnesses who will say Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person in the U.S. convicted in connection with the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, may be schizophrenic. The revelation comes two weeks before jury selection in Moussaoui's sentencing hearing, in which jurors will have to determine whether the 37-year-old will die by injection or spend the rest of his life in prison with no possibility of parole.
· 11 indicted on ecoterror charges. The Justice Department on Friday announced a 65-count indictment against 11 environmental activists accused of ecoterrorism attacks in five states. The charges include conspiracy to commit arson; arson; use of a destructive device; and destruction of an energy facility.
· Bin Laden Tape Won't Raise Security Level. .The United States has no plans to raise the security threat level because of a new tape of Osama bin Laden saying al-Qaida is planning attacks, counterterrorism officials said.
· bin Laden warns Americans of impending attacks. An audiotaped message purported to be from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warns the American people that plans for terror attacks in the United States are under way. "I would also like to say that the war against America and its allies will not be confined to Iraq."
· Ted Koppel was wooed by Al Jazeera. Ted Koppel, an icon of U.S. broadcast journalism, said on Friday Arabic television news channel Al Jazeera was one of many news outlets that sought to hire him when he left ABC News in November, but he never seriously considered working there.
· Security ordeal for Qantas boss. The female head of Australia's major air carrier was suspected of being a terrorist at a U.S. airport because a security guard refused to believe a woman could run an airline. Qantas Airways chairman Margaret Jackson has said she was detained and frisked at Los Angeles airport last year after a search revealed she was carrying aircraft diagrams in her briefcase.
· Officials discover tunnel under U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego. Border Patrol agents discovered a 10 1/2-metre tunnel beneath the U.S.-Mexico border after it caved in and the asphalt roadway above it collapsed, officials said. The tunnel ended in a patch of vacant land near the San Ysidro port of entry, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The reinforced, one-metre-diameter tunnel appeared to have been used recently, she said.
· Bomb found at Starbucks. An explosive device was found in a Starbucks coffee shop in central San Francisco on Monday. The building was evacuated and a police bomb squad disarmed the device, authorities said.
· Baghdad boy met with Hezbollah. The Florida teen who sneaked off to Iraq over winter break also finagled a sitdown in Lebanon with a big shot from Hezbollah, one of the Mideast's top terrorist organizations.
· FBI Tracks Radiation At Mosques, Other Sites. A classified radiation monitoring program, conducted without warrants, has targeted private U.S. property in Seattle and other cities in an effort to prevent an al-Qaida attack, federal law enforcement officials confirmed Friday. While declining to provide details including the number of cities and sites monitored, the officials said the air monitoring took place since the Sept. 11 attacks and from publicly accessible areas - which they said made warrants and court orders unnecessary.
· Senate Passes Patriot Act Extension. The terror-fighting USA Patriot Act may have a new lease on life. The GOP-controlled Senate on Wednesday approved a six-month extension of the USA Patriot Act to keep the anti-terror law from expiring on Dec. 31. President Bush gave it his grudging blessing.
· High-Tech Visa Plan Dropped From Bill. A Senate-passed measure to add more visas for foreign workers in high-tech and specialty fields was dropped from a budget bill that passed the House early Monday, disappointing high-tech and manufacturing firms in search of skilled workers. The Senate plan would have allowed 30,000 more of the popular H1-B visas each year, and increased fees for those visas to help trim the budget deficit.
· Federal Investigators Probe High-Tech Explosives Theft. About 400 pounds of explosive material was stolen from a research facility in New Mexico, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed today. ATF agents are investigating the large theft from Cherry Enginering, a company owned by Chris Cherry, for decades the senior explosives scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. Also, 2,500 detonators were missing from a storage explosive container, or magazine, in the name of Cherry Engineering.
· Planned Billboard Angers Arab-Americans. A proposed billboard that would go up near the state Capitol in North Carolina is sparking controversy. The group behind the billboard is trying to tighten standards for obtaining driver's licenses. The billboard shows a man wearing a traditional Arab head scarf, clutching a grenade and a North Carolina license. The message on the billboard reads: "Don't license terrorists, North Carolina." A spokeswoman for the Arab American Institute said the ad sends the message that "Arabs are dangerous and violent people."
· Al-Zarqawi caught, released. Iraqi security forces caught the most wanted man in the country last year, but released him because they didn't know who he was, the Iraqi deputy minister of interior said Thursday. Hussain Kamal confirmed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - the al Qaeda in Iraq leader who has a $25 million bounty on his head - was in custody at some point last year, but he wouldn't provide further details.
· Police Find Assault Weapon In Parking Lot Near Supreme Court. Police in the nation's capital are investigating the discovery of a loaded assault weapon found in a parking lot a block from the Supreme Court in Washington. The gun is said to be a MAC-10 assault weapon, capable of firing many bullets over a wide area in a few seconds.
· Shoe Bomber Alert Preceded Airport Shooting. Federal law enforcement sources tell ABC News they had been on the alert for a possible shoe bomber when a federal air marshal opened fire at the Miami International Airport today.
· Passenger killed after claiming to have bomb. Federal air marshals shot and killed a 44-year-old U.S. citizen on a boarding bridge at Miami International Airport after he said he had a bomb, two sources familiar with the incident told CNN. Flight 924 was in Miami on a stopover during a flight from Medellin, Colombia, to Orlando, Florida, when the man said there was a bomb in his carry-on luggage, a Department of Homeland Security official said.
· Jury Reaches No Convictions Against Accused Terrorist Supporter. In a stinging defeat for prosecutors, a former Florida professor accused of helping lead a terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel was acquitted on nearly half the charges against him Tuesday, and the jury deadlocked on the rest. The case against Sami Al-Arian, 47, had been seen as one of the biggest courtroom tests yet of the Patriot Act's expanded search-and-surveillance powers. After a five-month trial and 13 days of deliberations, the jury acquitted Al-Arian of eight of the 17 counts against him, including a key charge of conspiring to maim and murder people overseas.
· Ex-Sept. 11 Commissioners: U.S. at Risk. The U.S. is at great risk for more terrorist attacks because Congress and the White House have failed to enact several strong security measures, members of the former Sept. 11 commission said Sunday. "It's not a priority for the government right now," said the former chairman, Thomas Kean, ahead of the group's release of a report Monday assessing how well its recommendations have been followed. "More than four years after 9/11 ... people are not paying attention," the former Republican governor of New Jersey said. "God help us if we have another attack." Added Lee Hamilton, the former Democratic vice chairman of the commission: "We believe that another attack will occur. It's not a question of if. We are not as well-prepared as we should be."
· Pilot Reports 'Missile' Fired at Jetliner Near LAX. FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport. Sources tell ABC News the pilot of American Airlines Flight 621, en route to Chicago, radioed air traffic controllers after takeoff from LAX. He told them a missile had been fired at the aircraft and missed.
· TSA to unveil new security procedures. The Transportation Security Administration will announce changes in screening procedures at the nation's commercial airports Friday, allowing passengers to take small scissors and tools on planes but increasing random passenger checks and the thoroughness of pat-down searches.
· New death threats against Mohammed cartoonists. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned Danish travellers to Pakistan of increased hazard after a Danish newspaper's decision to publish cartoons of Muslim prophet Mohammed escalated into a bounty being placed on the heads of the cartoonists. Daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoon drawings of Mohammed in September, sparking angry reactions from Denmark's Muslim population and a number of Muslim countries.
· White House: 'Highly Unlikely' Terror Leader Dead. The White House said it's "highly unlikely" that terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is among those who died during a gunfight with U.S. forces in Mosul. Saturday's raid was launched after Iraqi police said they received a tip that top al-Qaida operatives were hiding in the house.
· Most airline cargo isn't checked for explosives. Nearly all of the cargo in the nation's aviation system goes unchecked for explosives, and policies aimed at thwarting cargo bombs on passenger planes are flawed, according to a government report. Terrorists could foil the government's strategy for keeping bombs out of cargo holds by meeting a few basic requirements that would allow them to put an explosives-laden package on a jet, the Government Accountability Office said.
· Lawmakers say New York to lose 9/11 aid for sick workers. Congressional budget negotiators have decided to take back $125 million in Sept. 11 aid from New York, which had fought to keep the money to treat sick and injured ground zero workers, lawmakers said Tuesday.
· Fla. Professor's Terrorism Trial Goes To Jury. After five months of testimony, the terrorism trial of a former Florida professor goes to the jury Tuesday. Sami Al-Arian and three co-defendants are charged with raising money in the United States to support the murderous mission of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
· Police Make Arrest in Jordan Bombings. Jordanian police have arrested a woman who accompanied a suicide bomber to one of the targeted Amman hotels and failed to detonate her own explosive device, King Abdullah II said Sunday.
· 'Halloween' Producer Dies After Jordan Bombings. The producer of the "Halloween" movies starring Jamie Lee Curtis is among those killed by Wednesday's bombings in Jordan. >
· Deadly explosions rock hotels in Jordan. Three nearly simultaneous explosions occurred Wednesday night at hotels frequented by westerners in downtown Amman, killing at least 67 people and wounding more than 100 others, the deputy prime minister of Jordan said. There have been no claims of responsibility, Karim Kawar, the Jordanian ambassador to the United States, told CNN. The blasts occurred at the Radisson, the Days Inn Hotel and the Grand Hyatt Hotel between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. (2 p.m. and 3 p.m. ET). The three hotels are within a few hundred yards of each other.
· Osama's Aussie offspring. Amassive terrorist attack on Australian soil has been narrowly averted after sweeping raids across Sydney and Melbourne led to the arrest of 17 members of a suspected terrorist cell. One of those arrested, Melbourne man Abdulla Merhi, 20, is said to have been impatient to carry out Australia's first suicide bombing but was refused permission by the group. Another, a former bit-part actor in a TV drama, Omar Baladjam, 28, was shot in the neck after allegedly firing on Sydney police.
· Miami-Based Cruise Liner Attacked By Pirates. Pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade and machine guns Saturday in an attack on a luxury cruise liner off the east African coast, the vessel's owners said. Two armed boats approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the coast of Somalia and fired as the boats' occupants attempted to get onboard, said Bruce Good, a spokesman for Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.
· Top Al Qaeda Operative Escaped From U.S. Detention Facility. A man once considered a top Al Qaeda operative escaped from a U.S.-run detention facility in Afghanistan and cannot testify against the soldier who allegedly mistreated him, a defense lawyer involved in a prison abuse case said Tuesday.
· Colorado Springs testing radiation detectors at intersections. Monitors designed to detect and help track down radiation sources such as "dirty bombs" will be installed on traffic-light poles in an early test of a homeland security system. "I think this could change the way we do homeland security," said John Merrick, the city's lead traffic engineer.
· School Evacuated After Pipe Bomb Explodes. A middle school in Orlando, Fla., was evacuated Monday after a pipe bomb exploded in the girls' locker room. Investigators said the device was thrown though the window of the locker room at Memorial Middle School and caused a small fire sometime over the weekend.
· Homeland Security Misses Many Deadlines. The Bush administration has missed dozens of deadlines set by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks for developing ways to protect airplanes, ships and railways from terrorists. A plan to defend ships and ports from attack is six months overdue. Rules to protect air cargo from infiltration by terrorists are two months late. A study on the cost of giving anti-terrorism training to federal law enforcement officers who fly commercially was supposed to be done more than three years ago.
· Islamic Militants Claims Responsibility For India Blasts. A caller claiming to represent a small militant group said the organization is responsible for three deadly bombings in India Saturday.
· 3 New Delhi Explosions Kill at Least 49. Coordinated explosions in India's capital ripped through at least two markets jammed with evening shoppers ahead of an upcoming Hindu festival and a bus, killing at least 49 people.
· Jury Faults Port Authority in '93 WTC Bomb. A jury ruled Wednesday that the Port Authority was negligent in the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 — a long-awaited legal victory for victims of an attack that killed six people and wounded 1,000.
· Threat Prompts Closure of Calif. Airports. Airports in Long Beach and Orange County were shut down early Tuesday because of bomb threats, officials said. The bomb threats were made by telephone.
· U.S. security chief strives to expel all illegal immigrants. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department aims without exception to expel all those who enter the United States illegally. "Our goal at DHS (Homeland Security) is to completely eliminate the 'catch and release' enforcement problem, and return every single illegal entrant, no exceptions.
· Baltimore tunnel reopens after threat. Federal agents were questioning "a couple" of people Tuesday in connection with a terror threat that prompted Baltimore authorities to temporarily close one of two downtown tunnels under Baltimore Harbor and restrict traffic through the other, U.S. officials said. The restrictions were put in place out of what a state police official called "an abundance of caution," although the FBI said it had not been able to corroborate the reported threat.
· Al Qaeda letter called 'chilling.' Senior U.S. intelligence officials call a letter from al Qaeda's No. 2 man to its leader in Iraq "chilling" because of how "calm, clear and well argued" it is in urging preparation for a U.S. departure from Iraq. According to a translation of the 6,300-word letter provided by the U.S. government, Ayman al-Zawahiri predicts "the Americans will exit soon" from Iraq and says "things may develop faster than we imagine."
· Tip on N.Y. subway threat a hoax. Information that led to heightened security for the New York City transit system was a hoax, government sources said Tuesday. The sources said an informant in Iraq who provided the tip had told investigators there was a terrorist plot involving New York's subway system. That informant admitted he gave false information, the sources said.
· Explosives Found Near Tech Dorms. Three explosive devices found in a courtyard between two Georgia Tech dormitories on the East Campus Monday morning were part of a "terrorist act," an Atlanta police official said. One of the devices exploded, injuring the custodian who found them inside a plastic bag. Two others were detonated by a bomb squad.
· Memo: NYC Attack Was Scheduled for Sunday. Details emerged about an alleged plot to attack the city's subways with bombs hidden in bags and possibly baby strollers as local and federal officials jostled over the credibility of the threat. A Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by The Associated Press said the attack was reportedly scheduled to take place on or around Sunday, with terrorists using timed or remote-controlled explosives hidden in briefcases, suitcases or in or under strollers.
· Intelligence From Iraq Prompts Warning of NYC Terror Plot. A recent U.S. military raid on a terrorist group's hideout south of Baghdad, Iraq, netted intelligence that prompted New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to warn Thursday that the metropolis' sprawling subway system faced an explicit threat of terrorist attacks. U.S intelligence and law enforcement officials in Washington, however, cautioned that the information that triggered Bloomberg's warning was shaky. "The intelligence community believes that, although the information is specific, it is of doubtful credibility," said Russ Knocke, the spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.
· Al Qaeda puts job ads on Internet. Al Qaeda has put job advertisements on the Internet asking for supporters to help put together its Web statements and video montages, an Arabic newspaper reported. The London-based Asharq al-Awsat said on its Web site this week that al Qaeda had "vacant positions" for video production and editing statements, footage and international media coverage about militants in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Chechnya and other conflict zones where militants are active.
· Al Qaeda's No. 2 in Iraq killed. A man believed to be al Qaeda's No. 2 operative in Iraq has been killed, a U.S. Defense Department official confirmed to CNN. The military official said Abu Azzam, a "significant" figure in the al Qaeda network in Iraq, held senior positions in the al Qaeda in Iraq network in Baghdad and Falluja and had a personal relationship with the most-wanted militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
· Jewish militant sentenced in US bomb plot. A militant Jewish activist was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday for his role in a 2001 bomb plot that targeted a Los Angeles-area mosque and the office of a U.S. congressman. Earl Krugel admitted his guilt in a plea deal after his co-defendant, Jewish Defense League chief Irv Rubin, died in an apparent suicide while awaiting trial in 2002.
· Terror Suspects Planned Raids On Calif. Recruitment Centers. There are new details about three men charged in a terror investigation in Los Angeles. A court document said the trio planned shooting rampages at local military sites to retaliate for what they called the oppression of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. An indictment last month mentioned potential military and Jewish targets such as synagogues and El Al Airlines. However, an FBI affidavit unsealed earlier this month mentions only military targets.
· Ice Cream Shop Owner Convicted of Funneling $22 Million. A Yemeni immigrant ice cream shop owner was found guilty Wednesday of illegally funneling $21.9 million overseas in a case stemming from a major terrorism investigation. Abad Elfgeeh, 50, was accused of transmitting money around the world without a license from bank accounts linked to his tiny storefront in Brooklyn.
· Students slip past visa check. In its first year alone, the program detected more than 36,000 potential violations of student visas nationwide, of which only 1,600 were investigated, according to the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which operates the system.
· Muslim groups outraged by Romney comments. Muslim groups and civil libertarians demanded an apology from Gov. Mitt Romney on Friday for his comments about wiretapping mosques and monitoring foreign students. But the governor refused, saying he was only advocating for improved homeland security.
· Student Arrested After Pilot Uniform Found. A university student from Egypt was ordered held without bond after prosecutors said they found a pilot's uniform, chart of Memphis International Airport and a DVD titled "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act" in his apartment. The FBI is investigating whether Mahmoud Maawad, 29, had any connection to terrorists. He is awaiting trial on charges of wire fraud and fraudulent use of a Social Security number.
· Laser pointing dad can be prosecuted under Patriot Act. Federal prosecutors can use the Patriot Act against a Parsippany man accused of shining a hand-held laser at two aircraft. David Banach's lawyers said the post nine-eleven law was not intended to be used against someone who is not a terrorist.
· Atta Papers Destroyed on Orders. A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday.
· Al-Zarqawi: Katrina an answer to prayers. An Islamist Web site on Sunday posted a recording from al Qaeda's leader in Iraq saying Hurricane Katrina was an answer to the prayers of Iraqis and Afghans who have suffered under U.S. occupation.
· American al Qaeda Member Warns of Attacks. In an apparent Sept. 11 communiqué broadcast on ABC News, an al Qaeda operative threatens new attacks against cities in the U.S. and Australia. "Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, God willing. At this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint or compassion," the tape warns. "We are Muslims. We love peace, but peace on our terms, peace as laid down by Islam, not the so-called peace of occupiers and dictators."
· Moments Of Silence To Mark 9/11 Anniversary. As dawn breaks on the East Coast Sunday, Americans are pausing to mark the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.
· Muslim Anti-Terrorism Ads To Coincide With 9/11 Anniversary. A Muslim civil liberties group plans to denounce terrorism in a paid television commercial airing in the Tampa market this weekend to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The 30-second spot, produced by the nonprofit Council on American-Islamic Relations, features two American Muslims, a man and a woman, denouncing violence in the name of Islam and vowing to "not to allow our faith to be hijacked by criminals."
· Minnesota uses 9/11 disaster loans for businesses. An Associated Press review of more than 300 approved recipients in Minnesota found a bowling alley in Brainerd received $1.3 million; a hobby store in Blaine, $800,000; a packaging and labeling service in Maple Grove, $1.3 million; a bar in Mahtomedi, $325,000; and many other examples. The loans range in size from as little as $5,000 to as much as $1.7 million.
· 'London bomber' video aired on TV. A video of a man claiming to be one of the four bombers behind the 7 July Tube attacks which killed 52 people has been shown on Arab TV. The man, who said he was Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, talked about his motives on a tape on al-Jazeera.
· Four indicted in alleged L.A. terror plot. Four men were charged Wednesday in connection with what the Justice Department calls a terrorist plot to attack U.S. military and Jewish facilities in the Los Angeles area. Those targets included military bases and recruitment centers as well as the Israeli consulate, the offices of the Israeli national airline and several synagogues, according to a federal indictment.
· U.S., Taliban bargained over bin Laden, documents show Declassified State Department papers detail 1998 meetings. During secret meetings with U.S. officials in 1998, top Taliban officials discussed assassinating or expelling Osama bin Laden in response to al Qaeda's deadly bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa, according to State Department documents. The newly declassified documents, posted Thursday on the National Archives Web site, provide a fascinating glimpse into U.S. diplomacy exerted on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban - a regime officially unrecognized by Washington - nearly three years before the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the United States.
· 'Able Danger' Barred From Informing FBI. An Army intelligence officer says his unit was blocked in 2000 and 2001 from giving the FBI information about a U.S.-based terrorist cell that included Mohamed Atta, the future leader of the Sept. 11 attacks. Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer said the small intelligence unit, called "Able Danger," had identified Atta and three of the other future Sept. 11 hijackers as al-Qaida members by mid-2000. He said military lawyers stopped the unit from sharing the information with the FBI. The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks left the Able Danger claims out of its official report.
· TSA Stops Babies Whose Names Match No-Fly Lists. Infants have been stopped from boarding planes at airports throughout the United States because their names are similar to those of possible terrorists on the government's "no-fly list." It sounds like a joke, but it's not funny to parents who miss flights while scrambling to have babies' passports and other documents faxed.
· Secret Service leaves behind 'suspicious package.' A training device mistakenly left by a Secret Service agent at a Washington hotel was the "suspicious package" that prompted a building evacuation Sunday afternoon, law enforcement sources said. The FBI and Secret Service sent teams of investigators to the Mayflower Hotel, a few blocks from the White House, after the package was found.
· TSA May Loosen Ban on Razorblades, Knives. The federal agency in charge of aviation security is considering major changes in how it screens airline passengers, including proposals that an official said would lift the ban on carrying razorblades and small knives as well as limit patdown searches. An initial set of staff recommendations drafted Aug. 5 also proposes that passengers no longer have to routinely remove their shoes during security checks. Instead, only passengers who set off metal detectors, are flagged by a computer screening system or look "reasonably suspicious" would be asked to do so, a TSA official said.
· 'They were choosing to die and I was watching them.' In thousands of pages of oral histories released Friday, firefighters describe in vivid, intimate detail how they rushed to save fleeing civilians from churning smoke and fire before the World Trade Center collapsed in a monstrous cloud of debris and choking dust.
· When Ordered To Evacuate, Don't Take 'Bomb' With You. Employees at the Coors Credit Union in Golden called police Thursday morning when they received a call about a suspicious package that could be a bomb, police said. Police ordered employees to evacuate the building and then initiated reverse-911 calls to other homes and businesses in the area, asking them to evacuate as a precaution. When the bomb squad arrived with its dog, the dog couldn't find the suspicious package in the building. It turned out that someone carried the package with them to the evacuation area.
· 15-year old Palestinian boy whose suicide bombing attempt failed, would try again. Fifteen-year-old Abdel Kareem Mohammed Abu Habel sits in an Israeli prison after he tried and failed to martyr himself last year. Would he do it again? Without a doubt, he says. Abdel Kareem Mohammed Abu Habel agrees with Israeli critics who say that next week's disengagement from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank will do nothing to stop Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel. Sitting in his jail cell in the Sharon Detention Center in central Israel, he also said he would never accept peace with the Jewish state, even if Israel eventually pulled back to its pre-1967 borders.
· Chertoff: Threat level for mass transit lowered to "Yellow." Since raising the threat level for mass transit systems on July 7, the Department of Homeland Security has been working closely with our federal, state and local partners to develop and implement sustainable mass transit security measures tailored to the unique design of each region’s transit system. In light of these increased long-term measures, DHS is lowering the national threat level for the mass transit portion of the transportation sector from Code Orange, or “high,” to Code Yellow, or “elevated.”
· FBI Warns Of Possible Terrorist Attacks In LA, NY, Chicago. The FBI has warned police that al-Qaida cells might use fuel trucks as weapons to attack Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, but officials stressed Thursday the warning was based on uncorroborated intelligence. The warning was distributed Tuesday via a computer network by FBI officials in Los Angeles to law enforcement agencies primarily in California, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
· Oklahoma man says he forgot he had pipe bomb in his luggage. An Oklahoma man told federal investigators he forgot a pipe bomb he built for fun was in his luggage when he tried to board an airplane, according to court documents released Thursday.
· Britain bars cleric from returning. Britain said Friday it has barred cleric Omar Bakri from returning to the country from Lebanon, where he was detained by police after traveling there last week. Bakri had faced possible charges in Britain for comments he made in the wake of the July 7 bombings. "The Home Secretary has issued an order revoking Omar Bakri Mohamed's indefinite leave to remain and to exclude him from the UK on the grounds that his presence is not conducive to the public good," a Home Office spokesman said.
· 9/11 Documents to Be Released. Families and colleagues of firefighters lost on Sept. 11, 2001, were preparing to revisit the chaos and loss of the day with the release of hours of radio transmissions and thousands of pages of firefighters' oral histories. Compelled by a New York Times lawsuit, the Fire Department of New York planned to make public Friday 15 hours of radio transmissions and more than 500 oral histories recounting the rush to the World Trade Center towers that saved an unknown number of civilians but cost 343 firefighters their lives
· Oklahoma man held before boarding plane with bomb. An Oklahoma man was taken into custody after he tried to carry a bomb on board an airplane on Wednesday in Oklahoma City, an FBI spokesman said.
· Texas Man Arrested in Southwest Bomb Prank. FBI agents arrested a San Antonio man Tuesday accused of planting a note on a Southwest Airlines flight claiming there was a bomb on board. The note read, "There's a bomb on the plane!" Another note asked whoever found it to call a phone number and tell them. It was accompanied by a drawing of a happy face. The threat forced a temporary shut down at Houston's Hobby Airport, and the plane had to be evacuated and then searched after a passenger found the note during a flight from Dallas to Houston on Friday.
· Report: 9/11 Hijackers ID'd In '99. Sept. 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers were identified by defense intelligence officials more than a year before the attacks, but information about possible al Qaeda connections never was sent to law enforcement, Rep. Curt Weldon said Tuesday. Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, said the hijackers were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence unit known as “Able Danger,” which determined they could be members of an al Qaeda cell.
· Why suicide attackers haven't hit U.S. again. After the bombings in London and Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, the question that rivets America is one that has no sure answer: Why haven't Muslim militants executed another suicide terror attack on the U.S. home front? There are theories about why the United States still hasn't had a homegrown attack like the ones last month in London. Suicide bombing isn't that easy. The USA isn't that vulnerable. American Muslims aren't that militant. Foreign terrorists aren't focused, not yet, on a domestic strike.
· Written Threat Found on Plane in Houston. A note found in a Southwest Airlines seat pocket claiming a bomb was on the plane prompted a landing and evacuation of 136 passengers at an isolated end of Houston's Hobby Airport.
· Britain will deport hate advocates. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced new measures to deport and exclude from UK for those advocating hatred and violence. Blair said Friday the UK's Human Rights Act would be amended if necessary to counter Islamic extremists in Britain. The government also plans to draw up a list of extremist Web sites, book shops and organizations that promote these extremists. "Let no one be in any doubt that the rules of the games are changing," Blair told a news conference in London.The measure is seen as an effort to crack down on extremist Islamic clerics who glorify acts of terrorism.
· NYC Officials Call for Racial Profiling. Middle Easterners should be targeted for searches on city subways, two elected officials said, contending that police have been wasting time with random checks in efforts to prevent terrorism in the transit system. Assemblyman Dov Hikind said police should be focusing on those who fit the "terrorist profile." "They all look a certain way," said Hikind. "It's all very nice to be politically correct here, but we're talking about terrorism."
· Mexico Leads World in Kidnappings. Mexico has overtaken Colombia and Brazil to become the world leader in reported kidnappings, a leading, private anti-crime group said Wednesday. Investigators across the country reported 194 kidnappings during the first six months of 2005.
· Israeli 'helped suicide bomber.' An Israeli Jew has been charged with helping a Palestinian suicide bomber enter Israel, where he blew himself up last month, killing five people. Kfir Levy, 25, has been charged with manslaughter, along with two Israeli Arabs also suspected of helping the attacker to reach the city of Netanya.
· Man Admits Role in Failed London Attack. A suspect in the failed London transit bombings admitted Saturday to a role in the attack but said it was only intended to be an attention-grabbing strike, not a deadly one, a legal expert familiar with the investigation said. Osman Hussain told interrogators he wasn't carrying enough explosives even to "harm people nearby."
· Violence leads U.S. to close consulate. The United States is closing its consulate in this violence-wracked border city for a week following a shootout in which assailants used machine guns, grenades and even a rocket launcher to attack a home, the U.S. Ambassador said Friday evening. Late Thursday, a group of armed men arriving in several vehicles used machine guns and explosives to attack a home on Mexicali street in southern Nuevo Laredo.
· All July 21 London bombers now captured. suspected member of the July 21 suicide bombing team was under arrest last night after an extraordinary day of police operations stretching from a West London housing estate to the backstreets of Rome. While police are jubilant following a series of successful armed raids across London they believe that the masterminds behind the London terror campaign are still at large.
· Stun guns to arrest bombers a huge risk-UK police. London's police chief said detectives took "an incredible risk" using a stun gun to arrest a suspected suicide bomber wanted for trying to attack the British capital's transport system.
· Hatfill's Suit Against NY Times Reinstated. A federal appeals court has reinstated a libel suit against the New York Times filed by a former Army scientist who claims one of the paper's columnists unfairly linked him to the deadly anthrax mailings in 2001. Steven Hatfill sued the Times for a series of columns written by Nicholas Kristof that faulted the FBI for failing to thoroughly investigate Hatfill for the anthrax mailings that left five people dead.
· UK 'blocked bomb plotter' arrest. A month before the London bombings, British authorities denied a request by their counterparts in the United States to apprehend a man now believed to have ties to the July 7 bombers, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, of Indian heritage, is currently in custody in Zambia, U.S. and Zambian officials told CNN. U.S. authorities wanted to capture Aswat, who was then in South Africa, and question him about a 1999 plot to establish a "jihad training camp" in Bly, Oregon. According to the sources, U.S. officials had Aswat under surveillance in South Africa weeks before the July 7 attacks that killed 52 commuters and the four bombers. U.S. authorities had asked Britain if they could take Aswat into custody but they refused because he was a UK citizen, the sources said. Later British authorities said they suspected Aswat lent support to the July 7 bombers.
· Would-be airport bomber gets 22 years. The man convicted of plotting to blow up the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium was sentenced Wednesday to 22 years in prison.
· 2 McDonald's Employees Kidnapped, Terrorized. A man attempted to rob a northeast Houston McDonald's Wednesday morning before kidnapping two female employees and sexually assaulting one of them, police said.
· Authorities Arrest Men With NYC Maps, Video. Five Egyptian men with maps of the New York City subway system and video of New York landmarks have been arrested by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark, N.J. the five men — four illegal immigrants and one fugitive — were arrested Sunday night, police said today.
· Amnesty International: Armed groups show utter disdain for basic principles of humanity. Armed groups opposed to the US-led multinational force and Iraq's government are showing utter disdain for the lives of Iraqi civilians and others, continuing a pattern of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Amnesty International said in a new report published today.
· U.K. Police Release Names Of Suspected Terrorists. Police on Monday released the names of two of the four men suspected of taking part in the failed July 21 bombings and said a fifth device similar to others used in the botched attacks was found in a west London park. They have been identified as Muktar Said Ibraihim, also known as Muktar Mohammed Said, 27, and Yasin Hassan Omar, 24.
· Shooting victim's kin: Sorry not enough. Police said they regret the death of a Brazilian national shot and killed Friday by armed officers in a London Underground subway station, after determining he "was not connected" with last week's string of attempted bombings. He challenged police and refused to obey orders, before he was shot and killed in front of horrified commuters Friday morning, Blair said. A cousin of Menezes, Alex Alves Pereira, said his family was upset and angry over the death, and he challenged police statements that he failed to obey orders, and jumped a ticket barrier.
· Egyptian resort town blasts kills at least 74. Three deadly explosions that rocked the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday may be linked to a series of bomb blasts last October in the Red Sea resort of Taba, Egypt's interior minister said. At least 74 people were killed and 111 wounded when at least three explosions early Saturday rocked Sharm el-Sheikh. It was the country's deadliest bombing in recent years.
· House reauthorizes USA Patriot Act. The House of Representatives, ignoring protests from civil liberties groups, renewed the USA Patriot Act on Thursday mostly along party lines, to make permanent the government's unprecedented powers to investigate suspected terrorists.
· London Police Shoot, Kill Suspected Bomber. Police shot and killed a man wearing a thick coat at a London subway station Friday, a day after the city was hit by its second wave of terrorist attacks in two weeks.
· Mich. Teen Gets Prison Time for Threats. A teenager accused of plotting a massacre at his suburban Detroit high school was sentenced Thursday to at least 4 1/2 years in prison for threatening terrorism and amassing an arsenal in his home.
· Police to Check Bags on NYC Subways. New York City police will begin random searches of bags and packages carried by people entering city subways, officials announced Thursday after a new series of bomb attacks in London. Passengers carrying bags will be selected at random before they pass through turnstiles, and those who refuse to be searched won't be allowed to ride, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
· Latest London bombers failed. Two weeks to the day after the July 7 London bombings, attackers tried - and failed - to set off explosive devices at three Tube stations and on a double-decker bus. Police said evidence left behind in Thursday's attempted bombings has given them what may be a "significant breakthrough" in their investigation.
· Smoke, Evacuations in Three London Subway Stations. The London Underground station was evacuated at 1:25 p.m. Thursday afternoon in London after smoke was seen coming from the train, Sky News has reported. "The entire area has been closed off," Simon Marks said. Emergency officials were said to be attending incidents at three stations, the Associated Press has reported.
· Update: Man confesses to throwing grenade near Bush. A man has confessed to throwing a live grenade near where U.S. President George W. Bush was speaking during the American leader's visit to Georgia in May, a government official says. Vladimer Arutiniani, 27, was wounded then detained in former Soviet nation Georgia on Wednesday, following gunfire in which a policeman was killed, Interior Minister Ivane Merabishvili told reporters.
· Georgian Police Detain Grenade Suspect. Georgian police on Wednesday detained a man suspected of throwing a live grenade during a rally at which President Bush spoke in May, the Interior Ministry said. The capture came after a shootout in which one officer was killed and another wounded.
· Moderate Muslims Split on Suicide Bombings. The two meetings by Muslim leaders occurred only three days apart, one in Birmingham and one in London. Both condemned the terrorist attacks in the British capital, but they couldn't agree on one key issue: Are suicide attacks forbidden by religious law? The fact that one group said "yes" and the other group said "not always" could be one reason Muslim radicals sometimes succeed in recruiting disaffected young people as suicide bombers, even in Western democracies such as Britain.
· Father of 9/11 hijacker praises London attack. The father of one of the hijackers who commandeered the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, praised the recent terror attacks in London and said many more would follow.
· Suspicious note diverts flight. An American Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan, Puerto Rico has been diverted after a passenger found a suspicious note written on a napkin behind her tray table, an FBI spokeswoman told CNN. About 40 minutes into the flight, a note saying, "Bomb, bomb, bomb ... meet the parents," was found on a crumpled napkin with a wad of chewing gum in it.
· Killer used posh perfume in bomb. One of the London terrorists bought more than $2000 worth of designer perfume as a deadly napalm-style ingredient in the bombs. Just three days before the carnage, Jamaican-born Jermaine Lindsay bought dozens of bottles of scent that investigators believe were to make the bombs more flammable.
· Discovery Airing Re-Creation of Flight 93. The Discovery Channel will air a re-creation of the terrorist hijacking of Flight 93 on the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The program will be called "The Flight That Fought Back" and will include about 45 minutes of re-created scenes depicting what happened before the plane crashed in a Southwestern Pennsylvania field. Forty passengers and crew members were killed.
· American Confirmed Dead In London Terror Bombings. The family of an American presumed missing in the London bombings has received official confirmation of his death. A childhood friend, speaking on behalf of the family, said the remains of 37-year-old Michael Matsushita were positively identified as being among the victims.
· Chemistry student held in Egypt. An Egyptian chemistry student sought by police over last week's London bombings has been arrested in Cairo. Magdi Mahmoud al-Nashar, 33, had not been seen by colleagues in Leeds since early July.
· London Muslim scholar: Killing civilians OK. Responding to questions about the terrorist attack on London, a Muslim scholar in the British capital asserted Islam makes no distinction between civilians and military targets. "The term 'civilians' does not exist in Islamic religious law," said Hani Al-Siba'i, head of the Al-Maqreze Centre for Historical Studies in London. Al-Siba'i, in an interview with the Arab news channel al-Jazeera, elaborated, "There is no such term as 'civilians' in the modern Western sense. People are either of Dar Al-Harb or not." Dar Al-Harb refers to the Muslim concept of the world being divided into two "houses," the House of Islam and the remaining territories, the House of War, or Dar Al-Harb.
· Airliners may get missile defenses. The government will begin testing anti-missile equipment on three airliners next month, a first step toward what could be the most expensive security upgrade ever ordered for the nation's aviation system.
· Homeland Security gets a makeover. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will announce a major restructuring of his 180,000-employee department today, changing how the two-year-old agency handles intelligence, sets policy and manages key law enforcement operations in response to criticism that domestic security remains unfocused and poorly coordinated.
· Fla. City Officials Regret Using 911 Calls of 9/11 In July 4 Show. City officials apologized for playing a song during Fourth of July celebrations that was mixed with voiceovers of 911 calls from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. About 70,000 people had gathered to celebrate Fourth of July when the song "God Bless the U.S.A." was played, but this version had voices of people recorded during the terror attacks on the World Trade Center. One of the voices on the mix said "Oh my God, another plane has just hit." Another said, "Some of the casualties are in the collapsed building."
· Details Emerge on London Terror Suspects. Details have emerged about three of the four suspected homicide bombers who carried out the deadly terrorist attacks on London last week. According to British media reports, three of the four are described as British nationals of Pakistani origin, all of whom lived in and around Leeds in the English Midlands, which is heavily populated with lower- and lower-middle-class blue-collar workers.
· Canada a perfect terrorist destination. The perception of Canada as an immigrant-friendly place with myriad ethnic backgrounds makes it a perfect destination for would-be terrorists, a former FBI agent said Tuesday at an international conference on disaster management. Ty Fairman, who has interviewed several of the world's most notorious terrorists, said Muslim radicals looking to travel to the western world look at settling in Ontario because of the high concentration of Muslims already living there. Fairman, who helped conduct raids of al-Qaida safe houses in Afghanistan and Pakistan, said training manuals compiled by the infamous terrorist network outline how aspiring insurgents can best infiltrate western nations.
· Muslim Extremist Confesses to Van Gogh Slaying. The Muslim extremist on trial in the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh confessed Tuesday, saying he was driven by religious conviction. "I don't feel your pain," he told the victim's mother. Mohammed Bouyeri stunned the courtroom when, in the final minutes of his two-day trial he declared: "If I were released and would have the chance to do it again … I would do exactly the same thing."
· London bus attack believed to be suicide bomber. Scotland Yard says that they identified the body of a suspected suicide bomber thought to have been responsible for the bus blast in Tavistock Square. Reports have previously quoted eye-witnesses on the bus who said he saw an "agitated" olive-skinned man rummaging in a backpack.
· Spanish power plant bombed. Four small bombs exploded Tuesday near a power plant in the Basque region after a warning call from the separatist group ETA, the Basque Interior Ministry said. The explosions occurred in the town of Amorebieta in Vizcaya province, the ministry said, adding that there were no casualties.
· Spain: Bomb explodes at Italian center. A bomb exploded outside the Italian Cultural Institute in Barcelona Tuesday, injuring one police officer, El Mundo reported online. The bomb exploded while police were examining a suspicious looking object on the front steps, a metal can with wires coming out of it. A bomb sniffing dog was killed when the device went off.
· London Back in Business After Bombings. Commuters returned to work in London on Monday, the start of the first full week since bombers killed at least 49 people on a bus and subway trains. Many travelers said they would defy the attackers by using public transportation as normal, but some were too afraid and took taxis instead.
· London Police Release 3 Nabbed at Airport. Britons gathered in churches Sunday and piled bouquets of flowers at an Underground station to mourn victims of last week's bomb attacks on London's transport system as police sorted through hundreds of tips from the public. Three men arrested at Heathrow airport on Sunday under anti-terrorist laws were released later in the day without charge, police said.
>> London Terrorist Attacks: Latest unconfirmed reports indicate at least 37 people dead, and up to 700 injured by at least four simultaneous terrorist blasts that rocked London's subways, and at least one packed double-decker bus during rush hour. Developing...
· London's mayor may have stated it best. London Mayor Ken Livingstone said "This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty or the powerful, it is not aimed at presidents or prime ministers, it was aimed at ordinary working-class Londoners," Livingstone told reporters. "That isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith, it's mass murder," Livingstone said. "We know what the objective is. They seek to divide London." Continuing, Livingstone said "Black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindus and Jews, young and old," he said. It was an "indiscriminate attempt to slaughter irrespective of any considerations for age, class, or religion."
· NY transit on alert. New York City was on heightened alert this morning following the London blasts. Increased police coverage of subways, buses and transit stations was ordered throughout the city. About 4.5 million passengers use New York's subways daily. In Washington, police sent bomb-sniffing dogs and armed police officers to patrol subways and buses.
· Al-Qaida group claims responsibility. A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" has posted a claim of responsibility for the series of blasts in London, saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
· Blair Leaving Summit After London Blasts. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said deadly explosions in London were the work of terrorists "designed and aimed to coincide" with a summit of world leaders. Blair said he was leaving the summit for the day to return to London, while the other leaders continued the meeting.
· Financial markets tumble after London explosions. Stock markets across Europe suffered steep losses and futures trade in the U.S. indicated similar falls when Wall Street opens after London’s transport system was hit by a series of explosions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average could fall by as much as 200 points at the Wall Street open.
· ‘The back of the bus was missing.’ Shocked eyewitnesses recall horror in the aftermath of London blasts. “I was on the bus. I looked round and the seats behind me were gone.” The middle-aged survivor of the bus blast in central London could not say any more. Shocked, disorientated, and with oil and pieces of debris in her hair and clothes, she asked for directions, but refused all help.
· NBC: Multiple blasts hit London transport system. Near simultaneous explosions rocked the London subway and three double-decker buses at the morning rush hour Thursday, police and news reports said. Authorities said the six blasts caused at least two deaths and nine injuries. The near simultaneous explosions came a day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics and as the G-8 summit was getting underway in Scotland. Initial reports blamed a power surge, but officials were not ruling out an intentional attack.
· London Media: Terror attacks rock London. A series of terrorist blasts ripped through central London today leaving scores of casualties. Eye-witnesses reported seeing bodies piled in the wreckage of damaged Tube trains. A double decker bus packed with people forced off the underground when the network was shut down was ripped apart by a massive blast. The terror attacks began with a series of co-ordinated blasts on the Tube network. Emergency services rushed to rescue trapped passengers. At Liverpool Street Station in the City, the wounded were treated by medics as they lay on the concourse. The Hilton Metropole on the Edgware Road was used as a makeshift treatment centre.
· BBC: Multiple blasts paralyze London. Large numbers of casualties have been reported after at least six explosions on the Underground network and a double-decker bus in London. Scotland Yard confirmed one of several reports of explosions on buses in the city - in Tavistock Place - but said the cause was not yet known. UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke said several explosions in central London had caused "terrible injuries."
· Fatalities as bomb blasts rock London. A number of people have been killed in a series of terror blasts which rocked the London Tube and bus network during the morning rush hour. Commuters have 'streamed out' of stations 'covered in blood' and the Tube network has been totally suspended with all stations evacuated. Police are reported to have confirmed blasts on three buses in central London, one at Tavistock Place near Holborn, in central London.
· Bin Laden’s half brother: I'll pay for defense One of Osama bin Laden’s half brothers said he would pay for the terror mastermind’s defense should he ever be captured, Yeslam Binladin said in a broadcast interview. “For sure,” Yeslam Binladin responded when asked if he would help pay. “Everyone has the right to defend himself, anyone who is accused of doing something.” Yeslam and Osama are among 54 sons and daughters of the late Saudi construction magnate Mohammed bin Laden, who had 22 wives.
· Crack security at Phoenix airport has police in car chase on runway. America's fifth largest airport saw a major security lapse when a pickup truck burst through a small security gate to enter the runway area of the airport. The pursuit ended when the man crashed through another fence and was rammed by two police cars. The ordeal halted several flights and undoubtably surprised many travelers waiting to take off.
· 'No-fly' procedures still plague air travelers. Thousands of airline travelers a day are wrongfully identified as being on the government’s “no fly” list of known or suspected terrorists due to the failings of the airline industry’s pre-screening process, experts told a congressional panel Wednesday. Meanwhile, the government system intended to take over that screening process is so underfunded it might not get off the ground, a government official warned.
· Milk study labeled 'road map for terrorists' published. The National Academy of Sciences is proceeding with publication of a study outlining how terrorists could contaminate the U.S. milk supply with botulism - despite complaints that the article is a "road map for terrorists." The article theorizes that hundreds of thousands of people could be poisoned if terrorists exploited vulnerabilities in milk processing.
· New WTC tower design made public. A revised design for the signature new tower at the World Trade Center site was made public Wednesday. The building, dubbed the "Freedom Tower" by New York Gov. George Pataki, will remain 1,776 feet high, making it the world's tallest building.
· Experts predict 'High risk' of WMD attack within decade. The chance of an attack with a weapon of mass destruction somewhere in the world in the next 10 years runs as high as 70 percent, arms experts have predicted in a U.S. survey.
· Report cites FBI’s pre-9/11 intelligence lapses. The FBI missed at least five opportunities before the Sept. 11 attacks to uncover vital intelligence information about the terrorists, and the bureau didn’t aggressively pursue the information it did have, the Justice Department’s inspector general says in a newly released critique of government missteps.
· Feds Charge Father, Son With al-Qaida Link. A father and son in California were charged with lying to federal agents about the son's training at an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan for potential attacks on U.S. hospitals and supermarkets. The arrests and the related detention of two Muslim leaders on alleged immigration violations are part of an investigation that is trying to determine whether authorities have uncovered a network of al-Qaida supporters in Lodi, Calif., according to federal law enforcement officials who spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because the probe is ongoing. Lodi is an agricultural town 40 miles south of Sacramento.
· Customs Lets Man In U.S., But Takes Bloody Chainsaw, Sword. Gregory Despres hitchhiked to the Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained by what appeared to be blood. Customs officials confiscated the cache of weapons and fingerprinted Despres, but allowed him to enter the United States - not knowing the gruesome scene about to unfold in the hitchhiker's hometown.
· False alarm in flight to New York. Canadian law enforcement officials took charge of a passenger jet that was escorted by fighter jets to Halifax International Airport on Friday after it sent out a false hijacking alarm en route from London to New York.
· House passes bill to curb terrorism color codes. The Homeland Security Department would be forced to scale back its color-coded alert system for nationwide terrorism threats and tailor public warnings to specific, targeted locations under a House bill approved Wednesday. The color-coded system, introduced in March 2002, has been widely criticized for being too vague to help the public understand what kind of threat it faces. Under the House legislation, Homeland Security would have to give specific information about an attack’s target and how to respond to the threat. It would also make the color system optional.
· Upskirt subway camera causes bomb scare. A small digital camera apparently planted by an unidentified voyeur to shoot up passing skirts caused a brief bomb scare near a Manhattan subway station, police said Wednesday.
· Update: Grenade 'could have injured Bush.' A hand grenade found close to George W Bush during his visit to the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia was armed and could have gone off, an FBI agent has said.
· Update: Officials Weighed Shooting at Errant Plane. As a wayward Cessna flew deep in restricted airspace, national security officials were on the phone discussing whether to implement the last line of defense: shooting it down. One senior Bush counterterrorism official said it was "a real finger-biting period because they came very close to ordering a shot against a general aircraft."
· Time Bomb cologne gets airline passenger plenty of attention. It may have sizzled with the ladies, but a bottle of cologne shaped like a bomb fizzled with airport security who detained Daniel Jensen as he tried to board a plane to Calgary.
· Diverted Air France Flight Lands in Maine. An Air France jetliner en route from Paris to Boston was diverted Thursday to Maine so U.S. authorities could check on a passenger, officials said. Flight 332 was sent to Maine because one of its 169 passengers had the same name as someone on the U.S. government's no-fly list, said Ann Davis, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration in Boston.
· Errant Flight Prompts Capitol Evacuations. A small plane strayed within three miles of the White House on Wednesday, leading to frantic evacuation of the executive mansion and the Capitol with military jets scrambling to intercept the aircraft and firing flares to steer it away. A pilot and student pilot, en route from Pennsylvania to an air show in North Carolina, were taken into custody after their flight sparked a frenzy of activity that tested the capital's post-Sept. 11 response system.
· Forgetfulness can cost you at airports. TSA fines: $250 for a knife; $10,000 for explosives. Forgetfulness isn’t a crime, but these days it could get you fined and your name placed on a government security database.
· Rethink Freedom Tower? The sudden plan to redesign the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero is giving rise to lots of blame-gaming, but a more important issue is this: Do we need the Freedom Tower? Do we still want it? That the questions can fairly be asked now shows how far we've come since 9/11. The immediate impulse to fight back against terrorism by building a dramatic building, or two, was understandable. But coming up on four years since the attacks, does that impulse still make sense?
· Grenade near Bush 'was inactive.' A grenade found near the site where U.S. President George W. Bush made a speech in Tblisi was an inactive Soviet-era device, Georgian officials said Wednesday.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Guram Donadze described the device as a "non-combative" grenade used in military training and said it did not contain explosives. The device was placed in the crowd about 200 feet from where Bush was speaking. It was not thrown, as was previously believed, Donadze said.
· Grenade Allegedly Lobbed At Bush During Georgia Visit. Georgia's security chief said Wednesday that an inactive grenade was found near the site where President George W. Bush made a speech in Tbilisi.
· Police nab activists seeking Bush's nuke suitcase. Dutch police arrested six activists on Sunday who said they wanted to enter President Bush's Netherlands hotel and look for the suitcase which allows him to activate nuclear weapons.
· Police probe blasts in New York City. No injuries reported in explosion caused by makeshift grenades. Two small makeshift grenades exploded outside the British Consulate in New York early Thursday, causing slight damage to the building but injuring no one, officials said.
· Nichols accuses third man in 1995 bombing. Saying he wanted to set the record straight, Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols has accused a man never charged in the 1995 attack with providing some of the explosives, according to a letter he wrote from prison.
· WTC site's Freedom Tower must be redesigned. Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg met Wednesday with World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein and agreed that the Freedom Tower must be redesigned to address security concerns raised by the New York Police Department.
· al-Qaida Suspect Arrested in Pakistan. Authorities arrested the nation's most-wanted militant, the head of al-Qaida operations in Pakistan who had a $10 million bounty on his head, and said Wednesday they now were "on the right track" to catch Osama bin Laden.
· Woman With Gun Almost Boards Plane at Louisville Airport. A serious security lapse Saturday at Louisville International Airport is raising concerns about airport safety. A Kentucky woman, carrying a handgun made it past security screeners and almost boarded a plane with the weapon. Airport police were alerted to the situation only after she reported it herself.
· Burrito Leads To School Lockdown, Armed Officers On Roof Tops. A 911 call about a possible weapon at a middle school prompted police to put armed officers on rooftops, close nearby streets and lock down the school. All over a giant burrito.
· Internet posting stirs bin Laden mystery. A posting on an Islamist Web site stirred speculation over the fate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and prompted a flurry of denials on Friday that the world’s most wanted man was dead.
· Akbar Sentenced to Death for Grenade Attack A military jury sentenced a soldier to death Thursday for a grenade and rifle attack on his own comrades during the opening days of the Iraq invasion, a barrage that killed two officers and that prosecutors said was driven by religious extremism.
· 'Radar Anomaly' Prompts Bush Protection. President Bush was rushed to a secure underground White House bunker and Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked outside the compound Wednesday because of a "radar anomaly" — perhaps a flock of birds or pocket of rain — that was mistaken for a plane flying in restricted airspace.
· Shocking find at supermarket. Firefighters found more than 200 vehicle airbags believed to be stolen in the back room of a Brooklyn supermarket, where materials were found to make pipe bombs, and newspaper clippings about Osama bin Laden and beheadings in Iraq covered the walls, authorities said. The biggest shocker: The FBI says it doesn't believe it is related to terrorism.
· Judge delays sentencing of would-be millennium bomber. A federal judge Wednesday postponed the sentencing for Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian intent on blowing up part of Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium, saying it was possible Ressam may further help the government in its anti-terrorism investigations.
· Moussaoui Pleads Guilty In 9/11 Case. Zacarias Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to helping carry out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He told a judge in Alexandria that he understands he could face the death penalty for his role in the conspiracy. The judge accepted the plea, making the French citizen the lone person to be convicted or plead guilty in a U.S. court in the 2001 attacks.
· 'Shoe bomber' jailed for 13 years. A British man was sentenced to 13 years in jail on Friday for conspiring with convicted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid to blow up an aircraft in 2001.
· Rice accused of suppressing terror info. A senior House Democrat who has been sharply critical of State Department reporting on terrorism is accusing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of denying Congress and the public important information about the number of incidents.
· Air Marshal Sues Homeland Security Chief. A federal air marshal sued Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to block government rules that prevent him from speaking out about possible security lapses.
· TSA official spent $500K on decorations. A Transportation Security Administration official spent $500,000 on art, silk plants and other decorations for a new operations center and then went to work for the vendor after leaving the agency, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general.
· Moussaoui Planning To Admit 9/11 Role. Zacarias Moussaoui has notified the government that he intends to plead guilty to his alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and could enter the plea as early as this week if a judge finds him mentally competent, sources familiar with the case said yesterday.
· Oklahoma City bombing victims struggle on. What is the value of an American life claimed by terrorists? The answer, it turns out, depends on where and when you die. Congress gave the families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks generous federal compensation payments. Most ended up millionaires. Congress gave the families of victims of the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing a two-year reprieve on their federal income taxes.
· Lasers to fence off Washington airspace. The U.S. government will launch a system next month that uses a ring of laser lights around the Washington area to alert all pilots who breach restricted airspace.
· Reports to Say Airport Baggage Screening Still Poor. Two upcoming government reports will say the quality of screening at airports is no better now than before the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a House member who has been briefed on the contents.
· U.S. indicts 3 men in alleged terrorist plot. Federal authorities unsealed an indictment Tuesday against three men in connection with the scouting of U.S. financial targets in preparation for a possible terrorist attack.
· Kansas City Threat Forces Evacuations, Road Closures. Authorities have evacuated the federal building at 601 E. 12th St. They're at the scene using a bomb robot to investigate a suspicious suitcase or duffel bag. A man drove up to the federal building on a bicycle Monday afternoon with a bag on the back and told a security guard in a courtyard that he was a terrorist, federal officials said.
· Suspicious Man Tackled At Capitol. All employees inside the U.S. Capitol are being evacuated because a suspicious person with what appeared to be two suitcases was standing on the west side of the building.
· U.S. bars KLM flight entry into airspace. Flight 685 from Amsterdam to Mexico City was denied permission to fly south across the Canada-U.S. border on Friday because the names of two passengers aboard were included on a U.S. "no-fly" terrorist watch list, KLM spokesman Bart Koster said.
· TSA director asked to step down. The Transportation Security Administration, once the flagship agency in the nation's $20 billion effort to protect air travelers, is now slated for dismantling. The TSA has been plagued by operational missteps, public relations blunders and criticism of its performance from both the public and legislators.
· Rome braces for terrorist attack during Pope's funeral. Anti-aircraft rocket launchers are in place around Rome, and a navy warship armed with torpedoes is patrolling the coastline near the capital. Those and other security measures are Italy's menacing message to terrorists ahead of Pope John Paul II's funeral.
· Another UCF professor arrested - accused of stealing DNA. A University of Central Florida biology professor has been arrested and held without bail for allegedly stealing potentially deadly DNA. Police say 33-year-old Singh Meena took eight vials of cloned DNA pieces from a tuberculosis organism that could be used as a weapon for bioterrorism.
· 9/11 evacuation slower than expected, report concludes. Investigators have concluded that new thinking is needed on how to evacuate people from endangered skyscrapers and how to get rescuers into them more quickly, according to a federal report released Monday on the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
To underline the importance of the finding, NIST estimated that had the buildings been hit at a time when they were full, as many as 14,000 people may have died.
· States hold largest anti-terror drill. The largest anti-terror drill ever undertaken in the United States started Monday morning with police officers investigating a fake car accident on a college campus and health officials on the lookout for a mock biological attack.
· FBI finds explosives in bomber's former home. Pursuing a tip that they missed evidence a decade ago, FBI agents searched the former home of convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols and found blasting caps and other explosive materials related to the 1995 attack, officials said Friday.
· Sears Tower signs 1st new leases since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Sears Tower has signed its first leases since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, small steps forward after a prolonged slump. Nearly a quarter of Sears Tower's 3.8 million square feet is on the market, though most of that is available for sublease.
· Former Detroit and D-C school official accused of terrorist ties. A former assistant school superintendent for the city of Detroit will be in federal court there this morning on terrorism charges. Kifah Wael Jayyousi (kee-FAH' WAH'-eel jy-OO'-see) is accused of conspiring with a Florida man in the 1990's to recruit Muslim extremists to fight in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Somalia. A criminal complaint in Florida also accuses them of conspiracy to raise money for terrorists and with plotting to kill, kidnap and main. The co-defendant is now a fugitive in Lebanon.
· N.Y. Student Arrested in School Bomb Plot. A 15-year-old boy who had shown strong interest in the Columbine school shootings has been arrested for allegedly plotting to blow up his high school, authorities said Thursday.
· FBI rejects Islamic terror link to Texas refinery blast. The Federal Bureau of Investigation rejected claims purportedly from two Islamic extremist groups of responsibility for an oil refinery explosion in Texas that left 15 people dead.
· Court prevents release of most September 11 emergency calls. The emergency phone calls made by people trapped inside the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, need not be released to the public, a New York court ruled.
· U.S. Report Lists Possibilities for Terrorist Attacks and Likely Toll. The Department of Homeland Security, trying to focus antiterrorism spending better nationwide, has identified a dozen possible strikes including blowing up a chlorine tank, killing 17,500 people and injuring more than 100,000; spreading pneumonic plague in the bathrooms of an airport, sports arena and train station, killing 2,500 and sickening 8,000 worldwide.
· D.C. Investigates Anthrax in Mail. The mayor of the nation's capital offered all workers at a local postal facility a three-day course of antibiotics Tuesday after it was determined that the post office had been the source of anthrax-tainted mail sent to two military mail facilities in Virginia a day earlier.
· Report: Airlines Still Vulnerable to Terror. A confidential government report issued last month, which states that the nation's aviation system remains vulnerable to terrorist attacks, reveals nothing new, a Department of Homeland Security official said.
· 'Bomb Device' Unearthed At Orlando Airport. Authorities are investigating the discovery of what they called a "bomb device" unearthed during construction at the Orlando-Sanford International Airport.
· Spain Marks Train-Bombing Anniversary. Spaniards lit candles, laid flowers and observed a long, mournful silence Friday to mark the first anniversary of the country's worst-ever terror attack, when 10 Al Qaeda bombs ripped through crowded commuter trains, killing 191 and wounding more than 1,500.
· Security Gaffes Cited in Courthouse Spree. The deputy, a 51-year-old woman just 5 feet tall, was simply no match for the inmate she was escorting to the courtroom, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound former college linebacker on trial for rape. Authorities say Brian Nichols overpowered deputy Cynthia Hall, took her gun, and easily gained access to the courtroom, where he went on to kill the judge and a court reporter. Security cameras captured images of him overpowering the deputy, but no one, it turned out, was watching the screens.
· 'Rent-a-cops’ threatening security. In the aftermath of 9/11, private security officers are being asked to step into the breach and fill gaps in the nation's homeland security plans. But experts warn that most of this 2 million person workforce receives little or no training, aren’t subjected to rigorous background checks for previous criminal behavior and are paid so poorly that many quickly leave for better paying jobs.
· 1,700 blank licenses stolen from Nev. DMV. Thieves rammed a vehicle through the back wall of a Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles office and stole 1,700 blank driver's licenses. "This could be anything from a bunch of juveniles who want to be able to make IDs to buy beer, to major criminal activity or even terrorism," police spokesman Tim Bedwell said Tuesday. "We don't know what they took them for."
· Terror Suspects Passed Firearm Background Checks. More than 40 terror suspects on federal watch lists were allowed to buy firearms in the United States last year because background checks found no reason to stop them, says a government report released Tuesday.
· Airline Ticket Agent Recalls Atta on 9/11. Michael Tuohey, a ticket agent for U.S. Airways recently discussed his issuing a boarding pass to Mohamed Atta, "I said to myself, 'If this guy doesn't look like an Arab terrorist, then nothing does.' Then I gave myself a mental slap, because in this day and age, it's not nice to say things like this," Tuohey told the Maine Sunday Telegram.
· Texas man indicted over bin Laden bounty hunt. A man who told authorities he was headed to Syria to try to collect a $25 million bounty on Osama bin Laden faces charges of attempting to smuggle more than $13,000, a Taser stun device, ammunition and radiation detectors.
· Madrid Train Bombers Also Targeted New York. The Madrid train bombers had detailed plans of New York's Grand Central Station, indicating they also planned to attack there, a Spanish newspaper reported Wednesday. Hand-made drawings and other "highly specialized technical information" about the station were found on a computer disk seized from the home of one of the suspects, El Mundo reported, citing sources close to the investigation.
· Bin Laden message to al-Zarqawi intercepted. U.S. intelligence has intercepted a communication from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq that "reiterates the desire by al Qaeda to target the homeland," U.S. officials said.
· Fanatic was primed to kill. A British terrorist admitted plotting with shoe bomber Richard Reid to blow two crowded jets from the sky. Saajid Badat, 25 — dubbed Shoe Bomber Two — carried a deadly device identical to Reids.
· Identification of 9/11 remains comes to an end. Saying it has exhausted all DNA technology, the New York City Medical Examiner has halted the process of identifying human remains from the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center site.
· Upping The Ante In Bin Laden Hunt. U.S. officials are blanketing Pakistani television with more "Most Wanted" ads for Osama bin Laden and his terrorists. "You may get a reward of up to $25 million (and) be resettled to any new place with your family," the ads offer.
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