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When Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States in al-Qaeda's name in the late summer of 1996, he outlined ambitious worldwide Islamist goals but noted that al-Qaeda could not accomplish them on its own. He said that al-Qaeda could, at best, serve as the vanguard that would attack the United States, assist Muslim insurgencies around the world and generally try to incite Muslims to join the jihad against the United States, Israel and the police states that govern much of the Arab and Muslim world. At the time, Bin Laden was very clear in saying that the ultimate...

US intelligence officials fear al-Qaeda currently training white Europeans in Pakistani camps to carry out terror attacks in Europe, North America. Intelligence director: Europeans can enter US without passport, blend in more easily

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2008 – Use silenced guns to kill coalition forces at Iraqi security checkpoints, smuggle weapons in gradual shipments to reduce the risk of detection, and poison Iraq’s water supply with nitric acid to spread disease and death. Coalition forces found a chart showing senior al-Qaida leaders recently killed or captured and several pages of a letter found on the body of a terrorist. The items were released April 16, 2008, in Baghdad, Iraq, during a media briefing by U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman.  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Such...

The head of the main US spy agency has warned that Al-Qaeda is training operatives who "look western" and could enter the United States undetected to conduct terrorist attacks. Central Intelligence Agency Director General Michael Hayden also said the terror network, which over the past 18 months has established a "safe haven" in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghanistan border, has shed its operational reliance on mastermind Osama bin Laden. "They are bringing operatives into that region for training -- operatives that, a phrase I would use, wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at...

Baghdad, 21 March (AKI) - Al-Qaeda has decided to enlist widows to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq, according to a study by the Voices of Iraq news agency. During the last three months, six suicide attacks were carried out by women. A total 10 women have carried out suicide attacks in Iraq since April 2003 , according to statistics from the United States army. As recently as Wednesday, a woman blew herself up in volatile Diyala province, killing five people. On Monday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up among a group of civilians in the holy Shia city...

WASHINGTON, March 18, 2008 – Information culled from 48 foreign fighters in custody of Multinational Force Iraq yields a profile for al Qaeda foreign terrorists, a senior military official said yesterday. When analyzed, officials found that foreign terrorists had comparable recruitment stories, including why they joined al Qaeda and what they did once they were smuggled into Iraq, said Air Force Col. Donald Bacon, chief of special operations and intelligence information for Multinational Force Iraq. Bacon spoke with online journalists and “bloggers” during a conference call. All of the captured or surrendered foreign terrorists were single men, and they averaged...

BAGHDAD — Iraq has captured an Al Qaida-aligned cell that recruited and deployed women for suicide operations. On March 1, Iraqi and U.S. troops raided a suspected Al Qaida safe house in Al Makhesa, in northeastern Diyala. Officials said scores of suspected women operatives recruited as suicide bombers were arrested. The women suicide cell was said to have consisted of 100 operatives. Officials said Al Qaida has increased its use of women for suicide operations. The women cell was said to have operated in the Diyala province. Officials said some of the women were recruited by their husbands for suicide...

A poll by satellite TV Al Jazeera on the attacks in Algiers on December 11 has aroused bitter controversy in the Algerian media. "Are you in favour of Al Qaedàs attacks in Algeria?". This is the "scandalous question", daily Liberte writes, proposed by Qatar's channel Al Jazeera, "which makes of the terrorist apology one of the main editorial lines". The daily adds that more serious are the results: a total 54% of the TV audience has answered to be in favour of the double suicide bomb attack in Algiers against the seat of the UN and the Constitutional Court, "...

In a major strategic change, the Algerian arm of Al-Qaeda appears to be using terrorists older than 60 to carry out its attacks. That is the finding to have emerged from early analysis of the dual bombings that struck Algiers on Tuesday. Arab media and analysts have spoken of the "return of the elderly" to describe the strategic change by Al-Qaeda's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb (BAQMI) that claimed responsibility for the bombings in the Algerian capital. The Algerian government said that at least 26 people were killed and more than 170 wounded by the two bombs. However hospital sources...

Al-Qaeda's new weapon: a kite Forget heat seaking multi million pound missiles Al-Qaeda terrorists may be using a low tech weapon that has been used as a toy by children for thousands of years: kites. The multi billion pound US military fear al-Qaeda-linked militants may be flying cheap kites high above the Indonesian jungle with the intention that they get caught in the propellers of military helicopters flying by to bring them crashing to the ground. A Huey helicopter encountered difficulty while flying back at night from a recent combat mission on the southern island of Jolo after a...

Exclusive Confirmation From al-Qaida-Linked Group on Attempted Use of Nuclear Weapon, Ties With Iran, and Failed Assassination Bid Against US President and Jordanian King Analysis: By Gregory R. Copley and GIS Staff. US intelligence sources have indicated that US counter-terror analysts were looking at what they felt were “changes” in targeting and methodological doctrine by al-Qaida-linked jihadist terrorist groups. In particular, the translations of the information on the website which provided the basis for the assessment were believed to highlight a new “low-tech terrorism” against targets in the West. GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs analysts, who have viewed the entire context...

London terror analysis: Online manual on car bombs instructs terrorists 'not to park illegally' Yaakov Lappin Published: 07.01.07, 16:18 / Israel News The three botched terror attacks launched in Britain in the past 72 hours bear all the hallmarks of first-time British-born jihadis attempting to emulate al-Qaeda in Iraq. Multiple car bombs designed to slaughter hundreds of civilians and strikes against critical infrastructure are daily events in Baghdad, and al-Qaeda in Iraq has decided to put its experience in mass murder on the internet for the benefit of its members around the world, in the form of an online training...

Al Qaeda continues to take a beating, but you can ignite a media firestorm just saying that. One of the most irritating things about the war on terror, is trying to keep score. Unlike a conventional war, where you can measure territory won and lost, as well as casualties, the current conflict does not really lend itself to those measurements. But there are things that can be measured. Al Qaeda operations continue to decline, as the number of al Qaeda members, and leaders killed or captured, goes up. Then there's al Qaeda media activity. Up until last Fall, 93 percent...

Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com. Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9. A Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures as some 300 recruits, including boys as young as 12, were supposedly sent off on their suicide missions.

Symposium: Al Qaeda: What Next? By Jamie GlazovFrontPageMagazine.com | June 15, 2007American intelligence has discerned that al Qaeda is rebuilding in Pakistan’s tribal areas and that a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden. This ominous development raises several pertinent questions. Among them: what do we really know about al Qaeda? We had very little knowledge of the terrorist organization before 9/11; how much has our understanding of al Qaeda really changed since 9-11? What have we learned since? And how has what we learned changed our understanding of and dealing with the enemy? To discuss these...

Al Qaeda's newest tactic to elude American forces appears to be dressing in drag. A key al Qaeda operative who was dressed as a woman was killed in eastern Afghanistan, according to the U.S. military. It was the third time in just three weeks that al Qaeda operatives wearing women's clothing have been captured or killed by coalition forces, Coalition spokesman Colonel Tom Collins told ABC News.

The suspected terror plotters arrested in Britain had planned to conceal their liquid or gel explosives inside a modified sports beverage drink container and trigger the device with the flash from a disposable camera. ABC News has learned exclusively that the plotters planned to leave the top of the bottle sealed and filled with the original beverage but add a false bottom, filled with a liquid or gel explosive. This, they thought, would ensure that they would be able to pass through security -- even if they were asked to unseal and drink the beverage. The flash in a disposable...

A 2004 al-Qaeda Strategy Manual can now be downloaded at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center website here. The translation of this manual by al-Qaeda strategist, Abu Bakr Naji, was completed in May by the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University.

JUST before the first anniversary of the July 7 bombings in London that killed 52 people, Al Qaeda released a video that reflects a significant change in how it operates: terrorism is being brought home. The new video tries to recruit ordinary American Muslims who might be offended, as many ordinary Americans are, by America’s mistakes and moral failings in carrying out the war on terrorism. The film stars three terrorists: Shehzad Tanweer, one of the July 7 bombers who died during the attack; Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy and long-time chief ideologue; and Adam Gadahn, a 28-year-old American...

According to one NYPD intelligence officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the terrorists believe if they can hurt the American economy that more people -- with the help of many Democrats and some Republicans in collusion with the mainstream news media -- will turn against the Commander-in-Chief and his plan of taking the fight to the enemy. New York cops love President Bush. They endorsed him and they support him. So perhaps that detective's analysis is a bit biased. But I wholeheartedly agree with that detective. The terrorists know that the Democrat Party leadership -- either as willing accomplices...