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As in bombing campaigns launched prior to previous elections in that country, the insurgents have failed to break the will of the Iraqi people. And U.S. officials on the ground have been telling me that the Iraqi people are becoming as disturbed by attacks on American forces, as they are on their own. "They're fed up with it," says Col. Cloy. And for reasons as simple as the fact that Iraqi civilians have come to know and befriend many of the young American soldiers and Marines who patrol their villages and neighborhoods.

An interesting Newsweek story this week – that references CT Blog among its sources – claims scoring a point against what it paints as a “questionable” Bush administration portrayal of Abu Azzam. In short, the authors of the article, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball claim the Administration’s leaders aggrandized the real importance of the killed al Qaida commander basing their conclusion on a number of non-identified U.S. counter-terrorism officials and a report posted by our colleague Evan Kohlman on the blog. The “charge” by Newsweek is about the hierarchy of the man. Was he or was he not the “number...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Russian agents have assassinated Abu al-Walid al-Ghamdi, leader of the Al Qaeda rebels in Chechnya.Walid was considered ultimately responsible by many Russian officials for the wave of suicide bombings in Russia over the past year.Russian security sources alledge he was paid 4.5 million dollars to set up a suicide bombing of a Moscow train two months ago that killed 41.He has also been blamed for involvement in the 1999 apartment bombings which prompted Russia to resume war in Chechnya.Mr. Walid would be the second Saudi extremist to be killed in Chechnya.In 2002 the security services, the FSB, assassinated another mercenary,...

The commander of the Arab fighters in the Russian republic of Chechnya has been killed. The family of Saudi rebel leader Abdul Aziz al-Ghamdi, better known as Abu Walid, has confirmed his death. There has been no official confirmation, and the circumstances are also unclear. Russian authorities held Mr al-Ghamdi responsible for the Moscow metro attack in February in which forty people were killed. In the 1980s, he fought the Russians in Afghanistan and he has been in Chechnya for the last six years.

Arab militant vows attacks on Russia - Jazeera Sat 13 March, 2004 16:02 DUBAI (Reuters) - Arab television channel Al Jazeera has broadcast a videotape of the man it says is the leader of Arab fighters in Chechnya, vowing to stage a new wave of attacks inside Russia. Abu al-Waleed, said by the Kremlin of being among those behind last month's bombing on the Moscow underground, added that his campaign might depend on the outcome of Russia's coming presidential polls. "The enemies of God drop mines in the forests and, God willing, we will return them to the Russians and...

A SAUDI Islamic militant based in the breakaway republic of Chechnya is suspected of being behind last Friday’s bomb attack on the Moscow metro, which killed 39 people and wounded more than 130. Abu-al-Walid al-Ghamidi, 36, has been identified by the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, as one of the most powerful figures in the Chechen rebel leadership. As the commander of several hundred Arabs fighting alongside the rebels, he is thought to have been responsible for a wave of suicide bomb attacks that have killed more than 200 people in just over a year. He is also believed to...

Paris - Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was probably high on drugs when he decided to invade Kuwait in 1990, said a former chief of protocol in a radio interview on Thursday. Issam Rashid Walid, whose book In Saddam's Shadow is due to be released in French in a few days, also told Europe 1 radio that Saddam had amassed a fortune of about $35bn through various companies he set up, including many in the Brazilian car industry. "Saddam was heavily into drugs. He began in 1959, with cannabis (dagga), and then when he seized power (in 1979), he used...

The strange case of an Iraqi agent caught operating on American soil. His arrest may be the first of many. KHALED DUMEISI, a newspaper publisher in northern Illinois, was surprised when federal agents showed up at a modest condominium in suburban Chicago to arrest the man known to his colleagues in Iraqi intelligence as "Sirhan." He shouldn't have been shocked. First, the FBI, according to a complaint unsealed Wednesday in Illinois, had the goods on Sirhan. Among his offenses: supplying false press credentials for Iraqi intelligence agents; spying on Iraqi opposition leaders--at times, using a mini-camera implanted in the end...

ADEN, Yemen (AP) - A suspected Yemeni member of al-Qaida, arrested while trying to enter the country illegally, has escaped from prison, security officials said Wednesday. The man, identified only by his first name, Walid, was arrested earlier this year in a desert area near the Oman-Yemen border and handed over to Yemeni authorities, the officials said on condition of anonymity. They said the man, in his 30s, fled Afghanistan after fighting U.S. forces in the Tora Bora region in December, the officials said. Authorities said they didn't know how he escaped from jail. He was transferred last month from...