WASHINGTON - The number of experts who believe that terrorists could obtain the apparatus for a nuclear bomb is impressive and growing.
The Sept. 11 Commission described in 2004 the relative ease with which terrorists could conceal the needed weapons-grade plutonium or highly enriched uranium, which it said would be ``about the size of a grapefruit or an orange.'' Since 2001, law enforcement officials have developed training exercises on how terrorists might smuggle eight components for an improvised 10-kiloton bomb into the United States and then detonate it near the White House.
Experts in and out of the government worry that the most likely source of nuclear material is Russia and the former Soviet bloc nations, where stocks of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium are stored at loosely guarded sites.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/nation/16832204.htm
Five "terrorists" detained crossing into Pakistan from Iran
Saturday March 3, 2007
Islamabad- Pakistani authorities on Saturday detained five foreign nationals attempting to enter the country from Iran with the intent of carrying out terrorist attacks, the Online news agency reported.
Border police said they arrested one Turk, two Afghans and two Russians in the Taftan area and seized sensitive documents. Both countries have intensified security along their border in the wake of illegal movement of people and kidnapping of security personnel.
Iran is in the process of fortifying stretches of the frontier with a ten-foot wall.
http://rawstory.com/news/dpa/Five_terrorists_detained_crossing_i_03032007.html
Mass arrests in Iran over security fears (Iran)
March 4, 2007
Tehran: More than 32 women and several Iranian journalists were arrested on Sunday for "endangering national security", the state media reported. The women were protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran to demand a fair trial for five women arrested last June. The five women on trial had met to demand equal rights for women. They were charged with endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering.
The Iranian journalists were arrested for charges including "acting against national security foreign backing", Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported. "They were spreading reports to create divisions among Iran's ethnic groups. They were getting significant amounts of dollars from abroad," IRNA quoted a ministry statement as saying.
IRNA’s report did not name the journalists or cite any other countries. The arrests came as Iranian and Saudi leaders meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss the security situation in Iraq and Lebanon, and to prevent Iran from sliding further into isolation.
SAN'A, Yemen - A hundred jailed Muslim extremists, including some who allegedly fought for al-Qaida in Iraq, were released by authorities, a Yemeni security official said.
The official, speaking Saturday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said that some of the released completed serving their sentences, while some of the others were acquitted for lack of evidence. He said the release of the 100 prisoners had been carried out in stages, with the last set free in late February.
The official added that 19 of the released fought under the command of al-Qaida in Iraq's previous leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, prior to his death in a U.S. airstrike last June. Some of the 19 had been convicted of plotting terrorist attacks after they were handed over to Yemen by Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
Among the released were four Saudis and also members of a Yemeni extremist group — the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that had kidnapped four tourists — three Britons and an Australian, in 1998. The tourists were killed in a botched rescue attempt by Yemeni security forces.
An interior ministry official, who said that the released members of Aden-Abyan Islamic Army were given $1,000 to help them restart life outside bars.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070304/ap_on_re_mi_ea/yemen_prisoner_release
Unknown militant considered to lead al-Qaida-linked group in RP (Phillipines)
Sunday, March 04, 2007
JOLO, Sulu -- A little-known Filipino militant is being considered to lead the violent al-Qaida-linked group Abu Sayyaf after U.S.-backed troops killed its two top leaders, security officials said.
Citing intelligence information, Philippine Army Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo said Saturday that Yasser Igasan has been tipped as a possible replacement. Cedo is overseeing a massive U.S.-backed offensive against the Abu Sayyaf on the southern Philippine island of Jolo.
Igasan, who had been to Libya and the Middle East, was being considered because of his terror training abroad, his good education and his crucial connections with possible foreign financiers - traits which other Abu Sayyaf commanders lack - two security officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, citing policy. The Abu Sayyaf, which is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, has been blamed for deadly bombings, beheadings and high-profile ransom kidnappings, including of Americans.
Not much is known about Igasan's background. His name cropped up during intelligence operatives' monitoring of goings-on within the Abu Sayyaf following the separate killings of its chieftain, Khaddafy Janjalani, and presumed successor, Jainal Antel Sali Jr. or Abu Sulaiman, the two security officials said.
Igasan, an explosives expert, may have already returned to Jolo island in Sulu province, Cedo told The AP. "He's from abroad," Cedo said. "He has the connections." Military and police intelligence officials have speculated that the next most likely leader of the Abu Sayyaf would be chosen from among its most senior commanders, led by Radulan Sahiron, a one-armed militant based in the mountain jungles near Jolo's Patikul town.
Despite the emergence of possible successors, it may take time for the Abu Sayyaf to anoint a new leader because its remaining 400 armed members, mostly on Jolo and in nearby Basilan island, were struggling to run away from relentless military assaults, the two security officials said. Hundreds of U.S. troops wound down two weeks of military exercises on Jolo Saturday that focused on development work. Other U.S. military personnel training and arming Filipino troops would stay as long as the Philippine government needed them, U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney told reporters.