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WASHINGTON, May 24, 2006 – Though suicide bombings continue to take innocent lives in Iraq, the country's political progress is a truer measure of success in U.S. efforts there, President Bush said here yesterday. Bush met with reporters at the White House along with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Asked why the world's most powerful military force has been unable to quell the violence in some Iraqi provinces, Bush pointed out that suicide bombings are difficult to prevent and said the tactic has become the "main weapon of the enemy." "If one were to measure progress on the number...

LONDON - The suicide bombers who killed 52 passengers on London's transit system last year contacted someone in Pakistan just before striking, Britain's top law enforcement official said Thursday. Home Secretary John Reid also told the House of Commons that police and intelligence agencies had thwarted three attacks since the July 7 bombings, but did not say who was behind them or where and when they were to take place. Reid's statement indicated that a third bombing attempt had been stopped since February when Peter Clarke, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said two attacks had been thwarted since...

Egypt Bombings Linked to Earlier Attacks Wednesday April 26, 2006 11:31 PM By WILLA THAYER Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Two suicide attackers targeting international peacekeepers and police blew themselves up Wednesday, two days after nearly simultaneous bombings killed at least 21 people at a resort in the Sinai Peninula. Egyptian Interior Minister Habib el-Adly said all the blasts this week were linked to terror attacks against Sinai resorts last year and in 2004. ``The information we have indicates that (the perpetrators) are Sinai Bedouin, and the latest operations are linked to the previous attacks,'' el-Adly told state...

Jordan: "State Security To Begin Trial of Terrorist Sajidah al-Rishawi on Monday" Al-Dustur (Internet Version-WWW) Tuesday,April 18, 2006 The State Security Court will begin on Monday (24 April) the trial of the 35-year old Iraqi terrorist Sajidah al-Rishawi who took part in the Amman hotel bombings, in which seven other terrorists headed by the leader of Al-Qa'idah in the Land of the Two Rivers, Ahmad Fadil Nazzal al-Khalayilah (Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi) took part, and three Iraqi dead, including Ali Husayn and Ali al-Shammari, Sajidah's husband. The members of the terrorist group, which managed last November to carry out three terrorist operations...

A Spanish judge has charged 29 people over the Madrid train bombings of March 2004 which claimed 191 lives and left nearly 2,000 injured. Most of those charged are Moroccan nationals, and the indictments run to almost 1,500 pages. The trial is expected to go ahead early next year and to last 12 months. So far, more than 100 people have been arrested in the course of the investigations into the attacks, which have been blamed on Islamic radicals. Judge Juan del Olmo has accused five Moroccan men - Jamal Zougam, Abdelmajid Bouchar, Youssef Belhadj, Rabei Ousman Sayed Ahmed and...

Hamas in call to end suicide bombings Conal Urquhart in Gaza City Sunday April 9, 2006 The Observer (UK) Hamas is to abandon its use of suicide bombers, who have killed almost 300 Israelis, in any future confrontations with Israel, its activists have told The Observer. The Islamic group, which leads the Palestinian Authority, says, however, that it may resort to other forms of violence if there is no progress towards Palestinian statehood. Yihiyeh Musa, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said Hamas had moved into a 'new era' which did not require suicide attacks. 'The suicide bombings...

Leak reveals official story of London bombings · Al-Qaeda not linked, says government· Internet used to plan 7/7 attack Mark Townsend, crime correspondent Sunday April 9, 2006 The Observer (UK) The official inquiry into the 7 July London bombings will say the attack was planned on a shoestring budget from information on the internet, that there was no 'fifth-bomber' and no direct support from al-Qaeda, although two of the bombers had visited Pakistan. The first forensic account of the atrocity that claimed the lives of 52 people, which will be published in the next few weeks, will say that attacks...

"While we-are-the-world politically correct naifs, including President Bush, babbled that September 11 was merely the work of a few disgruntled, unrepresentative Moslems and that most Moslems are really and truly willing to accept others and live in peace, such events as the bombings in London and Spain, riots in Paris and the violent reaction to the mild Danish cartoons are indicative of a harsher, another world mind set analyst Martin Kramer argues."

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - At least four people were killed and over 15 wounded in three explosions on Tuesday in the Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi in northern India, police said. Television reports said up to 12 may have died. "So far four people have died, 17 are hospitalised with injuries," V.N. Rai, inspector-general of police in Uttar Pradesh state, where Varanasi is located, told Reuters. "All entry points to the area have been sealed."

The importance of a calendar (of events) in the war on terror Chronology of events VS Islamo Arab radicalism & bloodshed Crime-analogy. Putting radical Islam's crimes against humanity, in historically order, thus into clarity perspective. In "light" of dark confusion --at times-- that occur in face of the trendy excuses of Goliath Arab Muslim industry to cover for their militants' crimes, let's all REVIEW the historic events, the like of the following: General ABC 1) Islamo Arabs have led their Jihadi massacres on the British in Africa and in Egypt, already in the 1880's. 2) Islamic genocide on Armenian Christian...

When Col. Ken DeVan goes to work at his Army office southeast of Tucson, the prayers of thousands of military families go with him. He's part of a new Pentagon push to bring troops back from war alive. DeVan, head of combat development at Fort Huachuca's military intelligence school in Sierra Vista, is involved in a growing national effort to neutralize the threat posed by IEDs, military-speak for "improvised explosive devices" — the top killer of U.S. troops in Iraq. Simply put, IEDs are the makeshift bombs -------

An alleged al-Qaeda operative accused of serving as a key link between the group's leaders and suicide bombers hid his tracks so well that even fellow militants thought he was dead. Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, wanted by Turkey for 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 58 people, is said to have eluded intelligence services by using an array of fake IDs, employing aliases even with his al-Qaeda contacts and finally faking his death in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004. The Syrian radical didn't surface until last August, when an accidental explosion forced him to flee his safehouse in the...

This year's Queen's honours list in Britain includes the rescue workers who braved the devastation after the London bombings in July But there were also awards for people involved in happier events. The emergency services, medical staff and transport workers are all honoured today after the terrible bomb attacks of July 7. Twenty-three awards in all for those who helped the injured, or coordinated the rescue operation. In sport there is an OBE for the England cricket captain Michael Vaughan after the Ashes triumph. The rest of the team become MBEs. There are knighthoods for the singer Tom Jones and...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28, 2005 – Task Force Band of Brothers soldiers disrupted two terrorist bombing operations yesterday in Baqubah, a city about 20 miles north of Baghdad, killing two terrorists and detaining another at a new checkpoint, U.S. military officials in Baghdad reported. Just before noon, soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team stopped a suspicious car and detained the driver after discovering the vehicle was being prepared as a car bomb. An explosives ordnance disposal team found no explosives, but the car was laced with wiring used to detonate explosives. Later, soldiers fired at a second...

TIKRIT, Iraq, Nov. 18, 2005 – More than 150 Iraqi civilians were reported killed or wounded in terrorist attacks that destroyed two Shiite mosques in Khanaqin during prayer services today, military officials here said. Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division, were assisting Iraqi security forces in response to the twin bombings. Iraqi authorities conducted medical evacuation of bombing victims. U.S. forces sent medical specialists and supplies to assist the Iraqis. Media reports said terrorists entered the mosque and detonated explosive belts. Khanaqin is near the Iran border in Diyala province. Iraqi explosive ordnance disposal teams searched the...

India Arrests Militant for Delhi Bombings 2 hours, 1 minute ago NEW DELHI - India has arrested a Kashmiri militant who allegedly planned and funded the triple bombings in New Delhi last month that killed 60 people, police said on Sunday. ADVERTISEMENT Delhi Police commissioner K.K. Paul said Tariq Ahmad Dar, a key member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militant group, was arrested Thursday in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar and brought to the capital New Delhi on Friday for interrogation. Paul alleged Dar was the chief conspirator and financier in the attacks though he was not accused of participating in...

ast update - 18:37 12/11/2005 Jordan's King: Bombings mark turning point in anti-terror policy By The Associated Press Jordan's King Abdullah II threatened Saturday to crackdown on supporters of terrorists following this week's triple hotel bombings that killed at least 57 people. "The Black Wednesday crime marks a major turning point in our dealings with those who support or back terrorism," Abdullah told the state-run Petra news agency. "Whoever justifies terror acts or instigates them is a partner in the crime and we will never accept anyone who defends any ideology that supports violence and harming innocent people." Abdullah also...

WASHINGTON -- The United States created the myth around Iraq insurgency leader Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi and reality followed, terrorism expert Loretta Napoleoni said. Zarqawi was born Ahmed Fadil Al Khalayleh in October 1966 in the crime and poverty-ridden Jordanian city of Zarqa. But his myth was born on February 5, 2003, when then-Secretary of State Colin Powell presented to the United Nations the case for war with Iraq. Napoleoni, the author of Insurgent Iraq, told reporters last week that Powell's argument falsely exploited Zarqawi to prove a link between then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. She said that...

AMMAN, Jordan - Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Friday that four Iraqis, including a husband and wife, carried out the suicide bombings against three Amman hotels, and police arrested 120 Jordanians and Iraqis in the hunt for anyone who might have aided them. Thousands of Jordanians protested in Amman for a second straight day, condemning the attacks that killed 57 people, excluding the bombers, and denouncing al-Qaida in Iraq's leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "Al-Zarqawi, you are a coward! Amman will remain safe!" chanted 3,000 protesters who marched through the capital, past its al-Husseini Mosque after midday prayers. The toll rose...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - In an apparent response to Jordanians who took to the streets to call for its leader to "burn in hell," al-Qaida in Iraq took the rare step Thursday of trying to justify the triple suicide bombings that killed 56 people, mostly Arabs. Earlier Thursday, the group posted a Web statement claiming responsibility for Wednesday's attacks. Then a second al-Qaida statement appeared on the Internet "to explain for Muslims part of the reason holy warriors targeted these dens." That statement appeared after Arab-wide expressions of outrage. "Let all know that we have struck only after becoming confident...

"Oh my God, oh my God. Is it possible that Arabs are killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims? For what did they do that?" screamed 35-year-old Najah Akhras, who lost two nieces in the attack.

BRITISH forces had thwarted attempts to carry out more terror attacks since the July 7 London bombings and a botched bid to repeat them on July 21, the capital's police chief said in remarks published today. "The security service and the Met have prevented other attacks in the last few weeks," Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said in an article in The Sun newspaper. "The sky is dark. Intelligence exists to suggest that other groups will attempt to attack Britain in the coming months," he said. Sir Ian said it could take weeks or months to understand material that...

THE alleged ringleader of the July 7 London bombers was tracked by intelligence services last year, the BBC reported today. Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, was secretly filmed and recorded speaking to a British-based terror suspect, a source told the British Broadcasting Corporation. The investigation suggested that he was in contact with activists from Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's global terror network for five years before the blasts which killed 52 commuters and the four bombers themselves. He featured in a surveillance operation by intelligence services, the investigation, aired on radio and television today, said. The terror suspect he was talking to...

Bali bombings were Allah's warning, says jailed terror leader By Sebastien Berger in Denpasar (Filed: 05/10/2005) The spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah, the terror group blamed for the weekend's suicide bombings in Bali, condemned the attacks yesterday from his prison cell. A multi-faith blessing is held near one of the bomb sites But Abu Bakar Bashir, who is serving a 30-month sentence for conspiracy linked to the 2002 Bali bombs, also said victims of Saturday's outrage should "accept this fate from Allah". Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network, seeks to establish a caliphate across...

Bashir's term to be cut further JAILED extremist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is set to have his sentence further reduced, despite his call for jihadists to embrace nuclear weapons in the lead-up to the weekend's Bali bombings. As Indonesian police continued their investigations into the suicide attacks that killed at least 22 people, including four Australians, prison officials confirmed that the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah was likely to receive a further cut to his 30-month sentence for conspiracy in connection with the October 2002 Bali bombings. Australia has lobbied hard to keep Bashir in prison, but it now seems...

Stirring fears al-Qaida's much-heralded "Ramadan Offensive" was beginning early, three near-simultaneous bomb blasts ripped through crowded restaurants on the Indonesia resort island of Bali almost three years to the day of the devastating Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202. At least 25 have been reported killed.

Agents of the FBI joined Lebanese authorities on Wednesday in the hunt for those behind recent bombings in and around Beirut after Lebanon turned to the US for help seeking those responsible. The most recent of the politically motivated attacks targeted anchor woman May Chidiac last Sunday. Chidiac, who suffered severe burns and whose hand and leg were lost in the attack, worked for the one of the most prominent anti-Syrian media outlets in Lebanon. US authorites declined to discuss the matter with journalists according to the AP, but an unnamed US Embassy official told reporters that "the US is...

by Leah Kaminsky Special to World Defense Review The first email message I received from Mom after the second attacks on London read: "So Leah, what are the alternatives to mass transit to-and-from your work? A bike? A scooter?" At first I laughed: Does Mom actually think it's safer for me to "scoot" in-and-out of rush-hour London than it is to ride the tube? Then the thought of me in my work clothes with a helmet strapped to my head, frantically zipping down the major highways that wind into the city, yelling, "Bloody English!" at honking, speeding cars along my...

One of the most-repeated observations in the British media since the tragic events of 7th July is ‘we were all asleep or we would have noticed these radicals in our midst.’ Other publications and broadcast media have noted that new generations of young Muslims are now even more alienated than were their immigrant parents. Many writers are identifying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iraq war as catalysts that inspired the terror attacks on London. What has become crystal clear over these difficult weeks since the bombings of 7th July is that the verbal attacks many of us unfortunate enough to...

Jerusalem, August 11: US President George W. Bush says a planned pullout of Jewish settlers from occupied Gaza 'will be good for Israel'. Bush's remarks, in an interview given to Israel's Channel One television and aired on Thursday, appeared to be an attempt to boost Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against Jewish rightists seeking to thwart the withdrawal due to start on Aug 17. "I believe the decision that Prime Minister Sharon has made and is going to follow through on will be good for Israel," Bush said, interviewed at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Asked why he thought Israel's 'disengagement'...

Tony Blair thinks that European human-rights laws prevent Britain from dealing with supporters of terrorism. But the real obstacles lie closer to home WHAT makes a suicide-bomber? Long before the attacks in London, Britain's security services had a clear pattern in their minds. A man who may drink beer, play football, chase girls and lead a life that is indistinguishable from those of most other young Brits starts looking around for something less ordinary. At that point, he comes under the influence of a charismatic imam, who rails against the ill-treatment of Muslims around the world and suggests a straightforward...

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish police detained a Syrian who is believed to have been a go-between for al-Qaida and a Turkish cell that carried out deadly 2003 bombings in Istanbul and said Wednesday they are pursuing other militants. Turkish media said the Syrian was one of 10 people detained who were plotting to attack Israeli cruise ships docking at vacation resorts on the Mediterranean coast, but police later denied the reports. Israel on Monday urged its citizens not to visit beach resorts on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey and five cruise liners carrying some 5,000 people were diverted from Turkey...

French intelligence issued a report shortly before the London suicide bombings saying al Qaeda planned to attack Britain and would use Britain's large Pakistani community to strike, Le Figaro reported on Monday. A report by the Direction centrale des renseignements generaux (DCRG), the equivalent of the Special Branch of the British police, said monitoring France's Pakistani community was vital if the country was to avoid violence, the newspaper said. Written in late June, the 20-page report on the Pakistani community in France said "the United Kingdom remains threatened by plans decided at the highest level of al Qaeda... "They will...

Last week, in a village not far from Lahore, Pakistan, Shehzad Tanweer was memorialized for his role in the July 7 bombings in London. The village, home to Tanweer’s ancestors, swelled that day, as thousands came to pay their respects to a man they dubbed “a hero of Islam.” Tanweer’s bomb at London’s Aldgate Station killed seven people and injured dozens more. Simultaneous explosions elsewhere in downtown London killed 45 others. Defenders of Islam are fond of reminding Westerners that the mad bombers are not acting on behalf of Islam, and represent a twisted faction of extremists bent on random...

COULD THE RESORT to the suicide bomb in European cities be just another craze? Could it pass? Might there be an element of fashion — a grisly sort of terrorist-chic — about the tactic? I think so. We could one day look back on the era of al-Qaeda and the suicide bomb as we now look back on the Bader-Meinhoff gang and the Red Brigades in West Germany, student riots or the wave of aeroplane hijackings in the 1970s: cults and practices which at the time we thought might dominate the decades ahead, but which in the event never did....

ECONOMIC TERRORISM: THE RADICAL MUSLIM WAR AGAINST THE WESTERN TAX BASE INTRODUCTION: This paper outlines a theory concerning why Muslim terrorists attacked the World Trade Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, bombed London’s subway during the G-8 economic summit on July 7th, and detonated blasts in an Egyptian resort on 23rd July. The reason for these attacks was to create ‘Economic Terrorism.’ Economic Terrorism is defined here as the attempt to assault and destroy a foe through decimation of the enemy’s tax base via rank economic sabotage. Such attacks on economic infrastructures lower net tax yield, thereby shrinking the capital pool...

LONDON (AP) - British police filed their first charges in the London terror investigations Wednesday, accusing a 23-year-old man of withholding information about the July 21 transit bombers. Police say that in the week after the attack, Ismael Abdurahman of southeast London had information he knew might help police capture suspects involved in "the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism."

he public support the police over the killing of an innocent man LAST Friday morning Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician from Brazil, walked out of a block of flats in south London. He took a bus to the Tube, perhaps a little late for work. When he ran on to a train he was pinned to the floor of the carriage by men in plain clothes who fired eight shots at close range—seven to the head and one to the shoulder. From the police's point of view, the story is rather different. They were watching Mr de Menezes's...

30 July Update: The UK police statement Saturday, July 30, that Hussein Osman left London by Waterloo Station for a journey that ended in Rome indicates that he took the Eurostar to Paris and then crossed France to Rome by TGV. They claim to have tracked his route from London across France by his mobile phone. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror experts find this account hard to credit. While warning the British public that the four escaped terrorists had access to more explosives, the London police would hardly have let a dangerous suicide bomber slip out of their hands if they knew his...

Group Authoring Fatwa Has Links to Bin Laden Ally By Sherrie Gossett July 29, 2005 (CNSNews.com) - Thursday's religious edict condemning terrorism was authored and issued by the Fiqh Council of North America, an association of Muslim jurists who interpret Islamic law. The edict was signed by 18 council scholars. The Fiqh Council of North America traces its origins to the early 1960s and the Religious Affairs Committee of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) of the United States and Canada, according to the council's website. This Religious Affairs Committee evolved into the Fiqh Committee of the Islamic Society of North...

Focus: How can we stop this happening again? David Cracknell consults politicians, academics, lawyers and security experts on the options The London bombings and their aftermath have sparked unprecedented calls for government action to prevent future attacks. In overwhelming numbers, people say they are willing to accept seeing civil liberties curtailed to secure long-term security. A YouGov poll in the aftermath of the July 7 bombings found that seven out of 10 people believed it was sometimes necessary to restrict civil liberties in order to combat terrorism.

"Mohammed," shouted the police. "Take your clothes off! Come out with your hands on your head and you will be all right!" "I have rights!" came the reply. "I have rights."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- British authorities denied a U.S. request to apprehend a man believed to have ties to the July 7 London bombings weeks before the deadly attacks, sources familiar with the investigation said Thursday.Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, a British-born citizen of Indian heritage, is 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...

I happened upon a piece in last Sunday’s Washington Post, which was written by Muslim journalist Mona Eltahawy. Having moved to London with her parents when she was 7 years of age, Ms. Eltahawy wrote that “the London bombings did it for me” and that she has reached the end of her patience with the terrorists’ excuses that US President Bush and/or British PM Tony Blair ‘made them do it’. Also, Eltahawy correctly advises that Islam does not mean peace. Rather, it means submission. And if we people of the world still have any capability of believing what we see...

Taxi-Cab Home-Truths It took two mini-cab drivers, one Indian, one Pakistani, to explain the sudden wall of ice that has come between Indians and Pakistanis in London, post-7/7, and the further freeze after 21/7. All this, in an island of black cabs, where prudent English cabbies caution you against rogue mini cabs — get robbed, cheated or dumped, they warn. But then, who wants to stand bleary-eyed in a queue at the airport, and so, it was comforting to be greeted by the rotund Mr Alvares Almeida, at Terminal Four. By the time we hit the A4, Mr Almeida...

The Vatican has reacted sharply to a verbal attack on Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) launched by the Israeli foreign ministry. In a harsh public statement released on July 25, the Israeli government expressed outrage that the Pope had not explicitly included Israel among the countries he listed as recent victims of terrorism. The Pope, during his public audience the previous day, had condemned all terrorism, but particularly mentioned the "execrable terrorist attacks" that had occurred in recent days in England, Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq. The Israeli government statement charged that the Pontiff had deliberately failed to mention a...

LONDON. Question: What happens in politics when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? Answer: An innocent Brazilian is shot by nice London "Bobbies." To explain the above exchange, the irresistible force is Muslim terrorism in Britain and the immovable force is democratic British public opinion. Two commonplaces of antiterrorist scholarship are (a) a terrorist movement is hard to defeat in proportion to its support among the population, and (b) terrorism cannot gain its objectives against the firm convictions of a majority in a democracy. What therefore happens if terrorism is supported by a substantial minority of the population for...

By Paul Majendie 33 minutes ago British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday much of the world had dropped its guard after the initial shock of the September 11 attacks and urged that "not one inch" be given to terrorists. With police intensifying their hunt for four would-be bombers who tried to attack London's transport system last week, Blair also sought agreement from political leaders on tougher anti-terror legislation. On Tuesday, police said they might have found material for making explosives at a house connected to one of the suspects wanted over attempts to set off bombs on three...

British authorities have identified suspects in the July 7 and July 21 subway and bus bombings, but the bombers' instigators and motives remain a mystery. In Egypt, authorities are searching for a group of Pakistani men thought to have been in Sharm el-Sheik before a series of bombs devastated the resort, but that's not much to go on. Perhaps the London bombings and attempted bombings were to protest Britain's alliance with the United States and the presence of British troops in Iraq. But the withdrawal of U.S. and British troops will come fairly quickly if the insurgents and foreign terrorists...

The July 7 London bombings did it for me. Perhaps it was because my parents moved us from Cairo to the British capital when I was 7 years old, and so London was my childhood "home." Or maybe it was because our route to work and school every morning crisscrossed those same Underground stations that were targeted. I'm sure it was also those dog-eared statements that our clerics and religious leaders read out telling us that Islam means peace — it actually means submission — and asking us to please forget everything they had ever said before July 6, because...