Egyptian anti-terrorist police have foiled a second wave of suicide hijacker attacks - this one against "various world capitals." The plot was thwarted through the arrest of 12 al Qaeda-linked suspects in Egypt, according to local press reports. The suspects were part of a terrorist cell that was conspiring to commit "simultaneous attacks in various world capitals," said the report, in the weekly journal Al Mussawar ... Islamic terrorism has a firm footing in Egypt; the Egyptian Islamic Jihad - of which Atta was a member - is headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor believed to be the brains behind al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Saudi Arabia, whose leaders had until yesterday refused to join U.S. efforts to freeze terrorist assets, may be an ongoing source of financial support for Osama bin Laden, the reputed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Some of Saudi Arabia's richest families, including at least one member of the ruling al-Saud family, have had dealings with banks, charitable organizations and other financial institutions linked to bin Laden's complex funding network, according to public records, intelligence reports and terrorism experts.
Key Muslim voices silent on Bin Laden
'We're losing the war of ideas," an Arab-American acquaintance told me. He meant the war to dissuade Arabs and other Muslims from public or private endorsement of Osama bin Laden's call for jihad against America. No matter how many U.S. officials deliver the message that we aren't warring on Islam, it doesn't seem to resonate with Egyptian, or Indonesian, or Pakistani masses.