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Coiffed, groomed and impeccably suited, Mithal al-Alusi cuts an imposing figure at this trendy hotel. In the empty bar lounge, he makes himself at home to a breakfast of fresh fruit, strong coffee and a constant flow of cigarettes. The leader of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation is in town to promote his vision for a new Iraq and accept an accolade from an unlikely sponsor – the American Jewish Committee – who honored him with a Moral Courage award at their annual dinner last week. His act of courage was an attempt to break Iraq's long-standing taboo...

Scores of masked gunmen went on an audacious daylight rampage through the flashpoint Iraqi town of Fallujah yesterday morning, launching twin attacks on a police station and civil defence compound that left at least 23 people dead and 35 wounded. At least 14 of the dead were lightly-armed police officers, recently recruited to the force, who could offer little resistance to the heavily-armed gunmen, suspected of being foreign fighters. About 70 raiders shouting "God is great" fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machineguns at policemen, throwing grenades as they cleared the police station room by room and released at least 20...

FBI hazardous material experts searched a home where police found pipe bombs and a jar containing the potentially deadly poison ricin, federal agents said Friday. The ricin was found in a baby food jar in a shed of the home owned by a man who went to jail last week for violating protection orders taken out by his estranged wife, according to local and federal officials. The jar was sealed, and officials don't believe the middle-class neighborhood in east Nashville was threatened, although the one-story brick house and part of the street remained cordoned off. Investigators found three blasting caps...

THREE STAFF TAKEN ILL Police are checking one of BP's offices in Moscow after three female workers fell ill when they opened a bag of letters. Officers in the Russian capital said the employees "got sore throats, their eyes watered and one of them got red spots on her skin". A police spokesman added: "They packed the letters back in the bag and called emergency workers and chemical experts, who are now studying the letters." Russia's Emergencies Ministry said it had sent experts to BP's oil trading office. It was not clear what caused the employees to feel ill. But...

Scientists stirred to ridicule ice age claims   19:00 15 April 04   NewScientist.com news service   Climate scientists have been stirred to ridicule claims in an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster that global warming could trigger a new ice age, a scenario also put forward in a controversial report to the US military.The $125-million epic, The Day After Tomorrow, opens worldwide in May. It will show Manhattan frozen solid after the warm ocean current known as the Gulf Stream shuts down.The movie's release will come soon after a report to the US Department of Defense (DoD) in February predicting that such a shutdown...

BOSTON - A pharmacy college graduate conspired with two other men on a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq, prosecutors said Wednesday. But their plans — in which the men used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said. Tarek Mehanna worked with the men from 2001 to May 2008 on the...

Grounded By Val MacQueenFrontPageMagazine.com | February 4, 2004 At the beginning of January, BA 223 from London to Washington was canceled two days in a row due to “security concerns”.  On the third day, it was allowed to fly, but was held on the ground in DC for three hours after arrival before passengers were allowed to disembark.  Air France also had flights canceled at the 11th hour – specifically to Los Angeles -  probably at the demand of the American government, which had information that would have precluded allowing the flights to fly over American airspace. The truth dawned...

Nuradin Abdi was convicted in 2007 of planning to blow up an Ohio shopping mall. Iyman Faris was convicted in 2003 of planning to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. Christopher Paul was convicted in 2008 of conspiring to use explosives against targets in the U.S. and Europe. All three terrorists worshiped and socialized at a small mosque in Columbus, Ohio, and, according to David B. Smith, an attorney for Faris, were part of a larger group of jihadists and extremists who frequented the mosque. The FBI now is investigating reports of links to that same mosque by Muslim-convert Abdulhakim Muhammad...

£2.8m railway ransom By Philip Delves Broughton in Paris (Filed: 04/03/2004) A terrorist group is blackmailing the French government, threatening to explode 10 bombs it says are already planted beneath railway lines throughout France unless it receives a £2.8 million ransom. French gendarmes patrol railway lines after bomb threats The group, which calls itself AZF after a chemical factory that exploded in Toulouse in September 2001 killing 31 people, has been in contact with the interior ministry since December when it sent its first letter. As a demonstration of intent, on Feb 21 the group directed the police to a...

Barack Obama's real thinking about Israel and the Middle East continues to be an enigma. The words he chose in an address to AIPAC create a different impression than the composition of his foreign policy advisory team. Several advisors have evidenced a history of suspicion and worse toward Israel. One of his advisors in particular, Robert Malley, clearly warrants attention, as does the reasoning that led him to being chosen by Barack Obama. A little family history may be in order to understand the genesis of Robert Malley's views. Normally, one should be reluctant in exploring a person's family background...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Audiotapes purported to be from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant aired on Arabic TV stations Tuesday, one taunting President Bush and threatening more attacks on the United States, the second criticizing France's decision to ban Islamic headscarves in schools. Portions of separate audiotapes attributed to Ayman al-Zawahri were broadcast a few hours apart on Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, competing pan-Arab satellite channels based in the Persian Gulf. Officials at both stations said they had aired only excerpts judged newsworthy. The two stations said they had received different tapes. In Al-Jazeera's tape, the voice believed to be...

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia (AP) - A chat with a Buddhist monk. An encounter with a gift horse named Montana. A peek inside a yurt, the traditional felt tent home. A word with Mongolian veterans of the war in Iraq. No outpost is too distant, no audience too small for U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, globe-trotting to bolster support for Iraq, Afghanistan and the wider fight against terrorism. The roaming Rumsfeld dropped in Saturday for an official visit with senior leaders of this once communist nation of about 2.7 million, home of the legendary horseman-warrior, Genghis Khan. Rumsfeld wound up...

The son of Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General, lobbied for business contacts at gatherings of UN officials on behalf of a company in the same year as it won an oil-for-food programme deal, it has emerged. The second disclosure in a week about Kojo Annan's role with the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection Services, which secured the $4.8 million (£2.46 million) UN contract to monitor goods entering and leaving Iraq in 1998, has raised embarrassing questions for his father. The details were revealed in Cotecna company documents handed over under subpoena to US congressional scrutineers who are investigating the oil-for-food...