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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen opened fire on Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi's convoy on Wednesday, wounding two associates, an aide to Chalabi said. The aide, Mithal al-Alousi, told Reuters the convoy was hit on Wednesday morning as Chalabi traveled back to Baghdad from the southern city of Najaf. He escaped injury. Chalabi, a former Pentagon ally who lost favor with Washington, has been accused by an Iraqi judge of counterfeiting. Chalabi, a Shi'ite, has tried to gain prominence in Shi'ite circles in recent months.

The Colombo crime family reportedly had a hit out on former Rudolph Giuliani while he was going after the mob as a federal prosecutor in the 1980s. The Daily News says the plot – revealed as part of guilty plea last week – has hatched in 1986, after then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Giuliani had just sent then-Colombo boss Carmine Persico to prison for life. In retaliation, Persico reportedly ordered accused mobster Joel Cacace to put together a team to kill Giuliani and a Justice Department associate. Cacace is now the reputed head of the Colombo family. He pleaded guilty last week...

BRITISH anti-terror authorities have foiled a suspected al-Qaeda plot to assassinate Prime Minister Tony Blair. Police swooped on two Lithuanian asylum seekers believed to be spying on Mr Blair's home in his constituency in England's north. The men were caught with hi-tech surveillance equipment less than a kilometre from Mr Blair's countryside home. Sources said the pair raised alarm bells because they displayed the characteristics of al-Qaeda spying behaviour. Using a stolen car fitted with false number plates, they filmed roads and traffic surrounding their alleged target and were carrying a highly-detailed map of the country area of Trimdon in...

ISLAMABAD - Osama bin Laden has called for attacks on targets in the United States and Britain, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Wednesday, but it was not clear if his appeal was accompanied by more detailed orders. "Osama has given the go ahead to target important places and personalities in the U.S., U.K. and Pakistan," one Pakistani intelligence source said. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said bin Laden's order emerged during the interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects in Pakistan caught in a month-long crackdown that has dealt the network a major blow. One of at least three top...

Al-QAEDA hit teams are planning to assassinate British politicians and other international leaders closely linked with President Bush. These targeted killings would be carried out simultaneously in a number of countries.Terror suspects being held in Pakistan have told their captors that the orders for this campaign of political assassinations came directly from Osama bin Laden. Key al-Qaeda lieutenants now in custody have revealed how in his mountain hideout bin Laden is still personally involved in drawing up plans for a new wave of attacks against the West. A Pakistani intelligence source said last night: “Osama has given the go-ahead to...

NEW YORK - According to intelligence that has been retrieved from the computer laptop and files of Muhammed Khan of Pakistan, Al Qaeda plans to attack before the November 2 elections but new details are just now surfacing as to what the plan really looks like. The plans call for a major assassination of a high profile political figure, which most likely will be triggered by another public statement from Osama bin Laden, and that will lead to the all out attack against the U.S. homeland. It is possible that the political assassination could occur in Saudi Arabia or Yemen...

The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com Bin Laden hints major assassinationBy Bill GertzTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished August 11, 2004 U.S. intelligence officials say a high-profile political assassination, triggered by the public release of a new message from Osama bin Laden, will lead off the next major al Qaeda terrorist attack, The Washington Times has learned.     The assassination plan is among new details of al Qaeda plots disclosed by U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the killing could be carried out against a U.S. or foreign leader either in the United States or abroad.     The officials...

Gertz to break story in W Times...

Pakistan's Prime Minister-designate Shaukat Aziz escaped unhurt from a suicide bomb attack yesterday that killed at least six people, including his driver. Another 45 people were wounded in the attack near Fateh Jang, in the province of Punjab, where Mr Aziz was campaigning in a byelection. The attack came a day after Pakistan announced the arrest of a top al-Qaeda suspect. "These cowardly acts will not deter us from our fight against terror," President Pervez Musharraf said. Pakistan has already indicated it will only consider extraditing the senior al-Qaeda suspect after its own interrogation of the man is complete. A...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz survived an assassination attempt on Friday, according to a reporter traveling with him on an election campaign tour. Private Geo television said two people were killed, including Aziz's driver. "As he (Aziz) came out of a public meeting, there was a blast. Many people have been wounded. Some also died. But with the grace of God he is safe and sound," the journalist said. The attack took place close to the town of Attock in the northwest of the central Punjab province, where Aziz, currently finance minister, is campaigning for a by-election...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An American Muslim leader is expected to admit being involved in an alleged Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's crown prince, CNN has learned. Abdurahman Alamoudi is not charged in the assassination plot, but government sources said he has agreed to fully cooperate in what one senior government official called "a real intelligence coup for the United States." Alamoudi has struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors and is expected to plead guilty in federal court Friday to charges related to his dealings with Libya. "This guy was really well-connected and he knows who all the players...

A top adviser to Britain's two most powerful animal rights protest groups caused outrage last night by claiming that the assassination of scientists working in biomedical research would save millions of animals' lives. To the fury of groups working with animals, Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon and prominent figure in the anti-vivisection movement, told The Observer: 'I think violence is part of the struggle against oppression. If something bad happens to these people [animal researchers], it will discourage others. It is inevitable that violence will be used in the struggle and that it will be effective.' Vlasak, who likens animal...

Fury as former surgeon calls for selective assassinations A top adviser to Britain's two most powerful animal rights protest groups caused outrage last night by claiming that the assassination of scientists working in biomedical research would save millions of animals' lives. To the fury of groups working with animals, Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon and prominent figure in the anti-vivisection movement, told The Observer: 'I think violence is part of the struggle against oppression. If something bad happens to these people [animal researchers], it will discourage others. It is inevitable that violence will be used in the struggle and that...

Iraqi Justice Minister Escapes Bomb Blast 20 minutes ago By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb struck the Iraqi justice minister's convoy as it passed through western Baghdad on Saturday, killing four of his bodyguards. The minister was unhurt in the blast, one of several bloody attacks across Iraq and the latest attempt on the life of a top government official. The blast hit the tail end of Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan's convoy at an intersection 500 yards from his home. About the same time, a car bomb exploded outside an Iraqi National Guard...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber drove into a convoy carrying Iraq's justice minister on Saturday, killing five bodyguards but leaving him unscathed, in an attack claimed by a group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. A statement posted on an Islamist Web site said the attack was carried out by the military wing of Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group, blamed by Washington for a series of deadly suicide bombings in Iraq and for executing at least three hostages. Witnesses said the attacker drove toward the convoy close to the home of Justice Minister Malik al-Hassan and...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Two suicide car bombs in Iraq killed six people and injured 36, but Iraq's 83-year-old justice minister, target of one of the blasts, escaped injury. Also Saturday, a US soldier was killed and another injured by a roadside blast, and a second street bomb injured three policemen and five people were wounded in an attack on a police station. In Iraq's serial hostage drama, there was fresh hope for an Egyptian whose abductors telephoned his Saudi employer to say he would be released on Sunday, but there was no word on the fate of a Filipino and...

"PA" News Tue 13 Jul 2004 5:08pm (UK) Chechnya's President Escapes Rebel Bomb Ambush A roadside bomb tore through the motorcade of the acting president of warring Chechnya killing one person just two months after Chechnya’s previous leader was killed by a bomb. Sergei Abramov, who was appointed to lead the Kremlin-backed Chechen government after the May 9 assassination of Akhmad Kadyrov, was not injured. The bombing came six weeks ahead of the scheduled election to choose Kadyrov’s successor. The blast in the ruined Chechen capital Grozny harshly underlined Russian forces’ inability to purge insurgents from the city despite a...

ROME Italian investigators are looking into a second ring of suspected terrorists who may have been plotting a chemical weapons assault on Rome. An Algerian, a Pakistani, a Tunisian and three Iraqis were arrested in early morning raids Friday. A group of Moroccans was arrested last month with a map of the U.S. Embassy and large quantities of a cyanide compound that experts say could have been turned into a deadly gas. The ring busted Friday is thought to be completely independent of the Moroccans, officials said, although both likely have ties to Al Qaeda's network of terror. Investigators said ...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi official heading the investigation into alleged corruption in the United Nations oil-for-food program was killed in a bomb attack earlier this week, officials familiar with the probe said on Saturday. Ihsan Karim, head of the Board of Supreme Audit, died in hospital after a bomb placed under one of the cars in his convoy exploded on Thursday, the officials said. Iraq's former U.S. Governor Paul Bremer gave the board independence from the executive branch of government and appointed Karim as its head in April. The board appointed international accountants Ernst and Young in May to...

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he has survived an assassination attempt. Axe-wielding assailants arrived in six trucks at a meeting Mr Tsvangirai was addressing on Friday in Mvurwi north of Harare, his MDC party says. "Thank God none of them had guns," opposition MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi told BBC News Online. Mr Tsvangirai escaped unhurt but 11 MDC youths were injured as they beat off the attackers, Mr Nyathi said. Treason Parliamentary polls are scheduled to be held next March and the party fears the attack is the beginning of a violent election campaign. Police have not commented...