Free Republic

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - A series of witnesses place six top al-Qaida fugitives in Africa buying up diamonds in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a confidential report by UN-backed prosecutors obtained by The Associated Press. The first-person accounts detailed by the prosecutors add to long-standing claims that al-Qaida laundered millions of dollars in terror funds through African diamonds before launching its deadliest offensive. Al-Qaida figures, including some already wanted in pre-Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. targets, dealt directly with then-president Charles Taylor and other leaders and warlords in the West African country of Liberia from 1999...

If John Kerry becomes President he will find himself on the horns of a dilemma - which close friend to ditch when he chooses a new Secretary of State. According to today's Washington Post, Kerry would pick his national security team within a few weeks after winning the White House and two of his closest friends, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) or Richard Holbrooke reportedly want the job of running the State Department.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., plans to hold a hearing on the "Able Danger" allegations and the larger issue of information-sharing between the Pentagon and the FBI... Able Danger...learned a year before terror attacks that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta and other terrorists were already in the United States. One of the central Able Danger claims — that military lawyers blocked the sharing of the Atta information from the FBI in the late summer and early fall of 2000 —will be a priority of the committee's probe... Some analysts involved with Able Danger have recently gone public with their...