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http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48039

Coalition, Iraqi Forces Detain 17 Suspects in Iraq

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2007 – Coalition and Iraqi forces detained 17 suspects during recent operations in Iraq, military officials said.

In a raid yesterday morning, soldiers of the 11th Iraqi Army Division entered the Abu Hanifa Mosque in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah neighorhood and detained 12 suspects, including two known terrorists who were using the mosque as a base.

The captured individuals are suspected of emplacing improvised explosive devices, kidnapping and murdering Iraqi civilians, and attacking coalition and Iraqi forces across Baghdad. The suspects also are linked to al Qaeda members, military officials said.

Acting on tips provided by local citizens, Iraqi army soldiers requested proper permission to enter the mosque compound. The Iraqi army then came under fire from inside the building. The troops returned fire and wounded one insurgent. Iraqi troops pursued the attackers throughout the mosque compound, eventually detaining the 12 insurgents.

As U.S. soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, secured the perimeter, they also came under small-arms fire and grenade attacks. U.S. troops suffered no injuries during the operation.

Army Lt. Col. Jeff Broadwater, the battalion’s commander, said he and Iraqi Col. Adel, commander of the 11th Iraqi Army Division’s 1st Battalion, 1st Regiment, considered all tactical options before requesting permission to conduct the operation due to the mosque’s religious significance.

In other operations, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers detained five suspected extremists Nov. 2 in the Iraqi capital’s Rashid District.

Soldiers of 1st Infantry Division’s Company A, 1st Battalion, 77th Armored Regiment, raided two homes where tipsters said two terrorists were hiding. Military officials believe the two individuals were involved in weapons trafficking, mounting attacks against coalition forces and murdering translators. Troops captured both suspects.

Later that morning, “Warriors” from Company C, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, attached to the 1st Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, captured a man who was identified by two sources as having emplaced improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

During a patrol a few hours later, the “Warriors” detained a man suspected of attacking Multinational Division Baghdad troops with small arms and IEDs. Fifteen minutes later, while raiding a house in the Doura region of Baghdad, Company C troops detained a suspect who allegedly led IED attacks, military officials said.

The five suspects were taken into custody and are being held for further questioning.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)

CIA Information Sources
Nov.2.2007

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden revealed this week, in defending agency interrogations of terrorists, that more than 70 percent of the intelligence used in a recent national estimate came from questioning captured terrorists.

"The last six years have shown us that the best sources of information on terrorists and their plans are the terrorists themselves," Mr. Hayden said in a speech Tuesday in Chicago. Calling the intelligence "simply irreplaceable," he also noted that the elicited information "is the sole reason we have rendition, detention and interrogation programs." Fewer than 100 of the most hardened captured terrorists have been put through interrogation since 2002. "Of those, less than a third have required any special methods of questioning," Mr. Hayden said.

The CIA director said the National Intelligence Estimate confirmed that the danger of another major al Qaeda attack against the U.S. is real. Al Qaeda aims "to execute a spectacular attack that would cause mass casualties, massive destruction and economic harm," he said. Mr. Hayden noted that the estimate was less certain about one key element of al Qaeda plans: the presence of group operatives inside the U.S. The CIA director's comments are a tacit admission that the agency continues to have a difficult time planting spies inside or close to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071102/NATION/111020088/1008&template=nextpage

Saudi Arabia is hub of world terror
November 4, 2007

It was an occasion for tears and celebration as the Knights of Martyrdom proclaimed on video: “Our brother Turki fell during the rays of dawn, covered in blood after he was hit by the bullets of the infidels, following in the path of his brother.” The flowery language could not disguise the brutal truth that a Saudi family had lost two sons fighting for Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The elder brother, Khaled, had been a deputy commander of a crack jihadist “special forces” unit. After his “glorious” death, Turki took his place. “He was deeply affected by the martyrdom of his brother,” the Knights said. “He became more ambitious and more passionate about defending the land of Islam and dying as a martyr, like his brother.”

Turki’s fervent wish was granted earlier this year, but another Saudi national who travelled to Iraq had second thoughts. He was a graduate from a respectable family of teachers and professors who was recruited in a Saudi Arabian mosque and sent to Iraq with $1,000 in travel expenses and the telephone number of a smuggler who could get him across the Syrian border. In Iraq he was ordered to blow himself up in a tanker on a bridge in Ramadi, but he panicked before he could press the detonator. He was arrested by Iraqi police. In a second lorry, another foreign fighter followed orders and died.

King Abdullah was surprised during his two-day state visit to Britain last week by the barrage of criticism directed at the Saudi kingdom. Officials were in “considerable shock”, one former British diplomat said.

Excerpted

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2801017.ece