ABCNEWS.com : Woman Recalls Encounter With 9/11 Leader Four of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept. 11 tried to get government loans to finance their plots, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, who sought $650,000 to modify a crop-duster, a government loan officer told ABCNEWS.

Yahoo! News - World Pressure Builds to Prevent South Asia War The world's top industrial nations have stepped up the pressure on Pakistan to stop Islamic militants from raiding Indian territory and avert war between the two nuclear-armed powers.

India set to launch 'small war' | csmonitor.com US Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld will go to Asia next week to try to ease tensions between India and Pakistan.

Yahoo! News - Solemn Tribute Ends New York's WTC Recovery What began on Sept. 11 with the scream of crashing jetliners, the roar of falling steel and the deaths of thousands ended on Thursday in a silence broken only by the solemn tolling of bells, the wail of bagpipes and the sobs of those mourning the loved ones they lost.

Yahoo! News - FBI Gets More Freedom for Domestic Surveillance The FBI on Thursday won additional powers to conduct domestic counterterrorism surveillance at places like mosques -- changes critics say could trample on Americans' rights and civil liberties.

New Scientist - Three million would die in "limited" nuclear war over Kashmir A minimum of three million people would be killed and 1.5 million seriously injured if even a "limited" nuclear war broke out between India and Pakistan, warns a new study uncovered by New Scientist.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Nuclear rivals talk tough over Kashmir India and Pakistan have exchanged belligerent warnings over disputed Kashmir, where a massive troop build-up and continued shelling have fuelled fears of all-out war.

Yahoo! News - US: Extremists Will Get Mass Destruction Weapons Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday it was inevitable terrorist groups would get weapons of mass destruction, deepening concerns about fresh attacks on the United States.

Officials Reveal Bin Laden Plan Terror leader hoped to create Islamic empire. Rebel's slaying seen as step toward goal.

Tension rises along India-Pakistan border India’s prime minister huddled with top commanders as well as the main opposition leader late Sunday as the government weighed military action against Pakistan amid escalating tension along their border.

Yahoo! News - Cheney Sees New Attacks on U.S. as 'Almost Certain' Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday that a new attack on the United States was "almost certain" as U.S. intelligence officials picked up signals that a fresh al Qaeda strike could be in the works.

FOXNews.com British troops with American air support were sent to the mountains of eastern Afghanistan on Friday to battle what commanders described as a "substantial enemy force."

Pakistan's Blasphemy Law: Words Fail Me (washingtonpost.com) "Most of these cases," concludes Amnesty International in its latest report on Pakistan, "are motivated not by the blasphemous actions of the accused, but by hostility toward members of minority communities, compounded by personal enmity, professional jealousy or economic rivalry."

Saved From Ruin: the Reincarnation of East Timor (washingtonpost.com) When the first wave of U.N. peacekeepers descended on this smoldering seaside city in September 1999, they encountered what one commander called "unimaginable apocalyptic ruin."

George W. Bush Should Learn the Lessons of History The worrisome thing now is that Incurious George apparently doesn’t want to know much about his own government. He doesn’t see how tough questions might help prevent another attack or serve a patriotic end. He doesn’t grasp that public accountability would serve his ends by forcing the bureaucracy to change faster. We’ve learned that the best way to permanently alienate the president is to criticize any facet of the war on terrorism.

Al-Qaida said to plan new actions Two published reports and Bush administration officials said Saturday that the al-Qaida terrorist network believed responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is planning new operations against the United States. And NBC News has learned from sources at the FBI that any new domestic strike by al-Qaida may well include attacks on U.S. apartment buildings.

To the Drums of War, India Expels Pakistan's Ambassador Indian and Pakistani troops bombarded each other today with heavy mortar and artillery fire, and India announced that it was expelling Pakistan's ambassador to protest an attack four days ago that killed the wives and children of Indian Army soldiers, among others.

U.S. Intercepting Messages Hinting at a New Attack American intelligence agencies have intercepted a vague yet troubling series of communications among Al Qaeda operatives over the last few months indicating that the terrorist organization is trying to carry out an operation as big as the Sept. 11 attacks or bigger, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials.

Yahoo! News - Two Men Charged in Alleged Florida Bomb Plot Two men who allegedly plotted to carry out bomb attacks on electrical power substations and a National Guard Armory in South Florida a year ago were charged on Friday with conspiracy to damage and destroy property with explosives, justice officials said.

Yahoo! News - Report for CIA Foresaw an Al Qaeda Plane Attack Despite White House avowals that it would have been impossible to conceive before Sept. 11 of a hijacked plane being used to attack U.S. targets, a 1999 report for the CIA envisioned a very similar threat.

BBC News | NEWSNIGHT | Is truth a victim? One of America's foremost newscasters, Dan Rather of CBS, says the US media has stopped asking tough questions of the Bush administration since 11 September.

Report: India, Pakistan Were Near Nuclear War in '99 (washingtonpost.com) Pakistan was preparing to possibly fire nuclear weapons during a 1999 border conflict with India, moving the countries closer to nuclear war than was commonly known at the time, according to a new article by President Bill Clinton's chief White House adviser on South Asia.

Global Village Idiocy What's frightening him, he added, is that there is an insidious digital divide in Jogjakarta: "Internet users are only 5 percent of the population — but these 5 percent spread rumors to everyone else. They say, `He got it from the Internet.' They think it's the Bible."

Israeli Ruling Party Says No to Palestinian State (washingtonpost.com) Israel's ruling Likud Party passed a resolution on Sunday saying it would never agree to an independent Palestinian state, a victory for former Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Terrorism Case Puts Judge in Quandary (washingtonpost.com) The federal judge who must decide whetherZacarias Moussaoui can fire his attorneys and represent himself in his terrorism conspiracy trial could face a stark choice, legal analysts say: allow an alleged terrorist to use his defense as a political platform or find him mentally incompetent and cancel the trial.

BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Thousands rally for peace in Tel Aviv Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv to demand the immediate withdrawal of the Israel army and settlers from Palestinian territories.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Al-Qaeda arms dump destroyed A giant arms horde in Afghanistan thought to have been abandoned by al-Qaeda fighters has been destroyed by British Royal Marines.

Indecision hampers US policy on Mideast | csmonitor.com After two weeks of talks with key Mideast players, the Bush team has yet to stake out a clear course.

Yahoo! News - Suicide Attack Kills 16 in Israel A pool hall popular with Israeli teen-agers became the latest Palestinian target Tuesday when a suicide bomber set off nail-studded explosives and killed 16 people. It was the first such attack in more than three weeks, and the first since the Israeli army began pulling out of the West Bank's main cities.

The Atlantic | May 2002 | Tales of the Tyrant | Bowden What does Saddam Hussein see in himself that no one else in the world seems to see? The answer is perhaps best revealed by the intimate details of the Iraqi leader's daily life.

Fear Can Turn Us All Into 'Good Germans.' We Must Resist It There is nothing different about the World War II Germans. What happened to them could happen to anyone. It could happen to us. We are no better than them.

BBC News | HEALTH | Bio-attack 'could kill a million' A single biological attack on the US could cause 10 times more deaths than a nuclear strike, claims a report from an influential think-tank.

BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Controversy over 'execution' pictures Eleven photographs taken by an amateur photographer from his window in east Jerusalem have caused outrage in the Arabic media, which allege they show the summary execution of a Palestinian militant.

Adbusters Culture Jammers Headquarters Activists in Israel have confirmed that these images are real. The Israel Defence Forces have claimed that the detainee was carrying a bomb. The photos show otherwise.

Yahoo! News - Plane Hits Milan Skyscraper, Terror Ruled Out A small plane smashed into a Milan skyscraper Thursday, killing at least three people and injuring dozens in what Italian officials called an accident and not a repeat of the September 11 suicide attacks.

U.S. Concludes Bin Laden Escaped at Tora Bora Fight (washingtonpost.com) The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Bombing Accidentally Kill Canadian Soldiers Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight wounded in Afghanistan on Wednesday when a U.S. F-16 warplane dropped one or two 500-pound bombs on them during a training exercise with U.S. forces, Canadian officials said.

Should History Record the Unvarnished Bush? (washingtonpost.com) At a speech in Bridgeport, Conn., President Bush declared that he wanted each American to volunteer for "4,000 years," a variation of his usual call for "4,000 hours" that produced guffaws in the audience.

Christian right steps in on Mideast | csmonitor.com A strong, new pro-Israeli voice muscles into the traditional Jewish-Arab political dynamic in Washington.

'They Forced Me to Hate' Residents of the Jenin refugee camp speak of the viciousness of the Israeli attack.

Yahoo! News - Israeli Forces Move Back Into W.Bank City Tulkarm Israeli armor rumbled back into Tulkarm early on Tuesday a week after pulling out of the West Bank city, in what Israeli military sources called a limited operation to arrest Palestinian militants.

Yahoo! News - Rumsfeld: Bin Laden Tape Clips Are Not New The most recent tape featuring Osama bin Laden that was aired by the Arabic-language television station al-Jazeera appears to be a compilation of old video clips of bin Laden, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Monday.

Yahoo! News - Bin Laden Appears in New, Undated Video Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden was shown in an undated videotape excerpt aired on Monday, sitting silently alongside a top aide who praised the September 11 attacks on America as a "great victory."

The San Francisco Examiner - Imagining the unimaginable For the time being, the Bush administration's recently leaked Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) has vanished from the nation's front pages, replaced by the news of the moment. But Americans should be clear what the consequences will be if it ever becomes official policy, and what developing a new generation of nuclear weapons will mean for the fragile web of treaties that presently keep the unimaginable at bay.

DigitalIsrael.com - Treasury DG: economy on brink of crisis The State of Israel is on the verge of an economic crisis, Finance Ministry Director General Ohad Marani said today. He said that more than a NIS 10 billion cut in government spending was needed to offset the growing deficit inflated by surging defense costs.

A New Disconnect With Europe (washingtonpost.com) Europeans are accustomed to the insecurity of their geography and history. A decade after the Cold War ended, they feel more secure from the direct threat of war and annihilation than they have in centuries. At the same moment, Americans have had the security blanket of oceans and distance yanked away in particularly brutal fashion.

Yahoo! News - Powell Seeks to Put Out Fires in Lebanon, Syria After scant progress on the Israeli and Palestinian stops on his peace trip, Secretary of State Colin Powell heads to Lebanon Monday, where attacks on Israel by Hizbollah guerrillas have sparked fears of wider conflict.

Yahoo! News - Court: Israel Must Hand Over Bodies Israel's Supreme Court told the army Sunday that it must give the Palestinians the bodies of those killed in Jenin's refugee camp, a move that could help clear up the escalating dispute over how many Palestinians died in the fierce fighting.

Yahoo! News - Arafat: Israel Must Withdraw First Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rebuffed Secretary of State Colin Powell's demand Sunday for a halt to violence, saying Israel first must withdraw its troops from the West Bank.

CNN.com - Arafat, Palestinian statement transcript - April 13, 2002 A partial translation of the statement issued Saturday by Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian leadership:

FOXNews.com - Saudi Telethon Raises Over $100 Million for Palestinians More than $100 million has been collected in a telethon that ended Saturday to raise money for the Palestinians and also allowed Saudis to vent their anger against Israel and the United States on state-owned television.

West Bank Atrocities | csmonitor.com The trip to Israel and the West Bank by Secretary of State Colin Powell should not be only for peace. It must also hold both sides to account for atrocities.

Yahoo! News - Israelis Storm Into More Villages Israeli troops charged into several more West Bank villages and arrested about 40 suspected militants Saturday, while Palestinian civilians picked through the rubble in towns hard-hit by Israel's ongoing incursion.

Yahoo! News - Powell, Arafat Talks on Again After U.S. Demand Met Secretary of State Colin Powell rescheduled a meeting with Yasser Arafat for Sunday in which he is expected to push for cease-fire as a first step toward reviving talks on a final peace settlement.

DallasNews.com | Dallas-Fort Worth | Killer of gas clerk gets death penalty A Dallas County jury handed the death penalty Thursday to a Dallas man who claimed that a series of shootings last fall that killed two immigrants and maimed another were retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

FOXNews.com Senior U.S. officials confirmed Thursday night that the Bush administration is monitoring negotiations intended to secure the release of two American missionaries who have been held hostage by Abu Sayyaf rebels in the Philippines for nearly a year.

BBC News | BUSINESS | Terror funds war 'only just beginning' The war against terrorist finance is only just hotting up, according to US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.

Reuters | Breaking News from Around the Globe Most Americans believe the United States should halt or reduce economic and military aid to Israel if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon does not immediately withdraw troops from Palestinian areas, according to a Time Magazine/CNN poll released on Friday.

CNN.com - Army to conduct mock aerial chem-bio attack - April 12, 2002 The U.S. Army will drop hundreds of pounds of clay dust and egg whites off the Florida coast next week, part of a four-day mock aerial terrorist attack.

Democrat Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot (washingtonpost.com) Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) is calling for an investigation into whether President Bush and other government officials had advance notice of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 but did nothing to prevent them.

Ha'aretz - Peres calls IDF operation in Jenin a 'massacre' Foreign Minister Shimon Peres Peres is very worried about the expected international reaction as soon as the world learns the details of the tough battle in the Jenin refugee camps, where more than 100 Palestinians have already been killed in fighting with IDF forces. In private, Peres is referring to the battle as a "massacre."

Trails of Destruction, Tales of Loss (washingtonpost.com) Many refugees who had fled to town to escape the camp's dusty streets and cinder-block hovels where the bloodiest fighting unfolded said their homes had been pulverized. They described bodies lying in the streets.

Yahoo! News - Powell Calls Off Arafat Meeting Secretary of State Colin Powell called off his Saturday meeting with Yasser Arafat late Friday night after a new suicide bombing spread out before Powell's eyes the carnage he had come to Israel in hopes of ending.

Yahoo! News - Suicide Blast Kills 6 in Jerusalem A Palestinian woman blew herself up Friday in a crowded outdoor market in Jerusalem, killing six shoppers, wounding dozens and further complicating Secretary of State Colin Powell's difficult peace mission.

War criminals face new court | csmonitor.com The UN's vision for a standing international criminal court comes true today, despite US criticism.

Don't bother bombing Afghanistan | csmonitor.com On Sept.12, Tamim Ansary, an Afghan American who lives in the Bay Area, listened with dismay as men and women phoned in to a talk radio show, calling for the US to bomb his homeland "back to the Stone Age."

Child soldiers a growing concern on foreign battlefields From half a globe away, Peter Dak can see familiarity in the hollow eyes of the 14-year-old boy who used an AK-47 assault rifle to kill Fort Lewis Green Beret Sgt. Nathan Chapman, the first American soldier killed in combat in Afghanistan.

INS tightening rules for visitors The Immigration and Naturalization Service yesterday announced far-reaching changes to rules that govern foreign visitors and students, including one proposal that could limit millions of foreign visitors to 30-day stays in the United States.

Defiant Sharon Losing Support in White House (washingtonpost.com) Israel's continued defiance of President Bush's demand for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian cities and towns is eroding support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon inside the White House, administration sources said yesterday.

Israel Rejects Demands to Withdraw Troops (washingtonpost.com) On the eve of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's arrival in Jerusalem, a suicide bombing that killed eight Israelis and wounded 14 stiffened the Israeli government's resolve to continue its bloody military offensive in the West Bank in the face of mounting U.S. and other international criticism.

Wayne Madsen: Anthrax and the Agency Now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially put the anthrax investigation on a back burner, it is time for Americans to think the unthinkable: that the FBI has never been keen to identify the perpetrator because that perpetrator may, in fact, be the U.S. Government itself.

Yahoo! News - Palestinian Suicide Bomber Kills 8 on Israeli Bus A Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least eight people when he blew himself up on a bus near the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Wednesday, Israeli police said.

TIME.com: Why Suicide Bombing Is Now All The Rage Among Palestinians, dying to kill has become a noble calling. Here's how the practice went from extreme to mainstream.

Wired 10.04: Peace Is War It's not that terror bombs make good weapons. It's that space-based communication and surveillance make other modes of attack obsolete.

Among the Bourgeoisophobes Why the Europeans and Arabs, each in their own way, hate America and Israel.

The Scotsman - Opinion - George Kerevan: Democracy is the key THE route to a possible solution in the Middle East may lie with the lessons of a rather stern and egotistical son of Scotland, in Asia a few years before Israel was founded in 1948: US General Douglas C McArthur.

Yahoo! News - Israeli Diplomat Grilled at U.N. Frustrated U.N. Security Council members grilled the Israeli ambassador Monday on why Israel had defied repeated demands for an end to increasingly deadly attacks on Palestinian cities.

Plugging a Very Porous Northern Border (washingtonpost.com) Since Sept. 11, More Agents, Technology Patrol Stretches of Long-Neglected 4,000-Mile Line.

Bomb explodes near Afghan minister A bomb exploded Monday near a convoy carrying Afghanistan’s defense minister, killing four bystanders and injuring 16 others.

How Two Lives Met In Death Special report: Suicide bombings have driven the conflict in the Mideast to new and dangerous levels. This is the story of two teens whose paths tragically intersected: an innocent Israeli and the Palestinian girl who became a walking weapon of terror.

Forbes.com: Saddam's Oil Fit It's not the first time that the Iraqi strongman has sought to use his huge oil reserves--the world's second-largest proven reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)--for political leverage. But his gambit is a misguided attempt that will certainly backfire.

Yahoo! News - Iraq Suspends Oil Exports to Support Palestinians President Saddam Hussein of Iraq Monday announced an immediate month-long suspension of all Iraqi oil exports to protest Israel's incursion into Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Calls Limited Israeli Pullout 'A Start' Hours after President Bush (news - web sites) issued a stern new call on Monday for Israel to withdraw swiftly from Palestinian areas, troops prepared to pull out of two West Bank towns in what the White House called "a start."

The New Republic Online: After Peace The Arab-Israeli conflict is over half a century old, and the struggle over the precious, punishing land between the river and the sea is over a century old, but what we are now witnessing, with perfectly appropriate horror, is the first Palestinian-Israeli war.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | New US paper aims at Afghan war truth A newspaper aimed at providing news of the war in Afghanistan is to be launched this month. Its editors argue that the mainstream media in the US are not providing a full picture of the war and its effects.

Yahoo! News - Bush Derides Clinton's Mideast Work President Bush says the Mideast summit sponsored by former President Clinton resulted in a "significant intefadeh," or uprising, repeating an accusation his press secretary got in trouble for uttering.

Bush Mideast role dangerously naive Could the same president who has wisely and resolutely led this nation in its own war on terrorism possibly be so naive as to believe that the answer to the wave of suicide bombings in Israel is for Israel to stop its military actions in the West Bank?

Mercury News | 04/05/2002 | Bush finally steps up Mideast involvement IN a dramatic and encouraging shift, President Bush has decided to throw the full weight of his administration into the increasingly bloody Middle East conflict.

Rules in Mideast's Wild West This is the world that U.S. investigators have been trying to better understand since the bombing nearly 18 months ago of the U.S. destroyer Cole in the port of Aden.

Yahoo! News - Israel Should Withdraw 'Without Delay' - Powell Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Israel on Friday to withdraw military forces from Palestinian areas "without delay" and not use the days before his trip to the region this weekend as a reason to continue incursions that have fed an explosion of violence.

Promises but Never Peace (washingtonpost.com) Arafat's response has redundantly proved his harshest critics right. There was never any honest intent on the Palestinian part for peaceful coexistence with Israel, any more than there was ever any honest intent to establish a government in Gaza that would function toward that end and toward the creation of a decent life for the Palestinian people.

Israel launches offensive in Nablus Israel launched a new invasion in its six-day offensive aimed at crushing Palestinian militias in the West Bank by rolling into Nablus late Wednesday, Palestinian witnesses said.

Yahoo! News - Saddam Raises Bomber Pay to $25,000, Rumsfeld Says Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) has raised the amount offered to relatives of suicide bombers from $10,000 per family to $25,000, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday.

Yahoo! News - In Shift, U.S. Stresses Political Issues in Mideast In a policy shift apparently designed to mollify Palestinians, the White House suggested on Wednesday President Bush was open to discussing the political aspects of a Middle East peace deal before there is a cease-fire on the ground.

Bush Clarifies 'Terror Doctrine' (washingtonpost.com) President Bush now admits that the one-size-fits-all "Bush doctrine" on terrorism in fact doesn't fit Yasser Arafat.

The Bulletin > News > Stories > Kissinger: What America can do : For now, the United States should avoid pressure for a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement and help both sides agree on attainable goals, writes Henry A. Kissinger.

IndyMedia Center - An Open Letter to American Jews ...When I understood that the government had lied to me in order to sell me this war, I turned from 'center-rightist' to 'leftist'. Sadly enough, it has taken me almost 20 more years, in a slow and painful process, to understand how deeply the lies and self-delusion are rooted in our collective perception of reality.

Yahoo! News - Israeli Army Expands Clampdown in West Bank The Israeli army advanced into more Palestinian self-rule areas of the West Bank early on Tuesday in a campaign against suicide bombers and a top Palestinian security official said his compound was under siege.

Afghanistan braces for broad changes Afghanistan’s ex-king, Mohammad Zaher Shah, will return from exile April 16 and convene a grand council in June to decide the future of Afghanistan — a future that will usher in a new government including at least 160 women among more than 1,500 members, the organizing commission announced Sunday. Only six seats are guaranteed for Islamic scholars.

Taiwan quake damages buildings An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale rocked Taiwan on Sunday, causing several buildings to collapse and forcing a shutdown of the capital’s subway system, officials and witnesses said.

CNN.com - Gunbattle at Arafat HQ - March 31, 2002 Israeli and Palestinians exchanged gunfire on Sunday at the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Israel and the Bush Doctrine When Daniel Pearl’s throat was slit because he was a Jew, that was applied Arafatism.

Arabs vent rage over Israeli incursion As Israeli forces tightened their grip on Yasser Arafat’s compound in the West Bank, the Arab world reacted Saturday with angry protests and a dire warning from Jordan, one of three Arab countries with diplomatic links to Israel. Huge crowds of protesters took to the streets, chanting “Death to Israel!” and denouncing the siege of Palestinian cities.

Arafat Calls World Leaders for Help Israeli troops backed by tanks swarmed into Yasser Arafat's headquarters Friday, punching holes in walls and fighting room to room as the Palestinian leader huddled in a windowless office and made frantic appeals to world leaders by cellphone.

We won't give Omar to US: Musharraf - The Times of India Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf reportedly told the US ambassador in Islamabad that he would rather hang Sheikh Omar Sayeed, key accused in the Daniel Pearl murder, himself rather than extradite him, one of many instances of backsliding that has called into question Pakistan's credibility as a frontline state in the war against terrorism.

Paper says it got bin Laden e-mail An Arabic newspaper said Wednesday it had received an e-mail claiming to be from Osama bin Laden, attacking a Saudi peace plan for the Middle East and urging the region’s Muslims to revolt against their leaders.

The New Yorker - THE GREAT TERROR In northern Iraq, there is new evidence of Saddam Hussein's genocidal war on the Kurds—and of his possible ties to Al Qaeda.

U.S. maintains the upper hand "Aghast" is the word, for what we are witnessing looks like joint preparations by the Palestinian Authority, Syria, its Lebanese client, Iraq, and Iran, for war on a regional scale, against both Israel and U.S. interests. I fear we may face a major, sudden, external assault on Israel, meant to precede U.S. action against the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, and indeed prevent the U.S. from going there by enmiring it in the defence of Israel.

Suicide Bomber Kills 16 in Israel A suicide bomber burst into a hotel dining room and blew himself up Wednesday just as Israelis dressed in their holiday best were sitting down to a Seder meal celebrating the Jewish Passover. At least 16 Israelis were killed and more than 100 wounded.

CNN.com - Operations shift after bin Laden reports - March 26, 2002 The U.S.-led coalition battling al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan is shifting its focus farther south, military officials said Tuesday, responding to unconfirmed reports that Osama bin Laden had been seen in southeastern Afghanistan.

How Will Israel Survive? Israel still has the strongest military in the Mideast, but the threat now comes from within.

FBI probes ‘martyrdom letter’ A Virginia man was discovered to be carrying a document described as a “martyrdom letter” after he and another man were refused entry into Israel and flown back to the United States, the FBI said in court documents unsealed Tuesday. Agents said Israeli officials may have prevented a suicide attack.

Boston Globe Online / Nation | World / Food drops found to do little good The Bush administration's much publicized food ration airdrop in northern Afghanistan - hailed by the Pentagon as a way to feed starving residents while winning their loyalty - achieved neither goal in many targeted areas, military experts, aid workers, and a report by retired US special forces officers now conclude.

CNN.com - Afghan quake death toll may be unknown for weeks - March 26, 2002 Afghan officials said Tuesday that an accurate death count may be weeks away after a devastating earthquake in the mountains of northeastern Afghanistan, where early reports indicated the town of Nahrin may have been destroyed.

From U.S., the ABC's of Jihad (washingtonpost.com) Violent Soviet-era textbooks complicate Afghan education efforts.

School year opens in Afghanistan Girls in bright red dresses and transparent green headscarves took center stage at a ceremony Saturday marking the first day of the school year in Afghanistan, where thousands of girls returned to the classroom for the first time in years.

Report ties Sept. 11 hijacker to anthrax A Florida doctor who treated one of the alleged Sept. 11 hijackers last June for a dark lesion on his leg said after reviewing his notes weeks after the attack that the lesion was consistent with anthrax, The New York Times reported Saturday.

CNN.com - Half brother says bin Laden is alive and well - March 19, 2002 A half brother of Osama bin Laden says the terrorist's family has its own information that bin Laden is alive and that he does not have kidney disease requiring dialysis.

From Afghanistan 1 [Scott Carrier] Sights, sounds and stories; a photo-audio-essay, with excerpts from Carrier's Harper's article and ambient recordings of the streets, songs and prayers of the Afghan people.

CNN.com - Saudi police face deaths criticism - March 14, 2002 Saudi media, in a rare criticism of the kingdom's powerful religious police, have accused the force of hampering efforts to rescue 15 girls who died inside a blazing school.

Does bin Laden matter anymore? | csmonitor.com In the Pentagon corridors, the 'evil-doer' is no longer the focus - even if most Americans think he's supposed to be.

BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Israeli raids take heavy toll At least five Palestinians were killed on Friday as Israeli troops pressed ahead for a second day with an offensive against a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin.

BBC News | UK | Harmful packages sent to MPs A number of packages containing a caustic substance have been sent through the post to UK government ministers and MPs.

Hundreds dead in India violence Chaos spread through the western Indian city of Ahmadabad on Friday, and the death toll over three days of Hindu-Muslim violence climbed to around 300, despite patrols by hundreds of soldiers and orders for police to shoot rioters and arsonists on sight.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Relents Over Guantanamo Prison Turbans A hunger strike by nearly 200 al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, lost momentum on Friday after U.S. military officials ended a ban against wearing turbans that sparked the protest.

Yahoo! News - Bush Activates Cold War-Era Plan for U.S. Government After the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush set in motion a Cold War-era plan to keep the government running, sending civilian officials to live and work in secret bunkers outside Washington, administration officials said on Friday.

Yahoo! News - 'Suspicious' Air India Passenger Released, FBI Says A case of mistaken identity sparked an international air furor that raised the specter of Sept. 11 on Thursday as Canadian and U.S. jet fighters accompanied an Air India flight into New York believed to be carrying a suspicious passenger.

Daschle says war going off-track Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle criticized the U.S. military campaign Thursday for an “expansion without at least a clear direction,” saying the war on terrorism would be a failure if Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders were not captured. Republicans accused Daschle of trying to divide the country during wartime.

Guantanamo inmates start hunger strike More than 100 of the terror suspects being held by the US at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have launched a hunger strike.

Indian army sent in to quell riots Indian army units have been sent into Gujarat's biggest city to try to stem clashes between Hindus and Muslims which left more than 40 people dead on Thursday.

Yahoo! News - Hindu Riots in India Kill 38 Muslims Angry Hindus set fire to homes in a Muslim neighborhood Thursday and then kept firefighters away for hours, dragging out one former lawmaker and burning him alive. At least 58 people died in revenge attacks triggered by a Muslim assault on a train.

Yahoo! News - Jet Carrying 'Suspicious' Man Lands Canadian fighters shadowed a New York-bound Air India jetliner over the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after authorities determined that a suspicious passenger was aboard, U.S. government officials said.

Yahoo! News - Palestinian Death Toll Passes 1,000 The Israeli military attacked two West Bank refugee camps with helicopter gunships, tanks and paratroopers Thursday in a high-stakes attempt to break strongholds of Palestinian militants. An Israeli soldier and 11 Palestinians were killed — pushing the Palestinian toll past 1,000 in 17 months of fighting.

Yahoo! News - Polls: Islamic Nations Resent U.S. Residents of Islamic countries harbor deep resentment toward the United States and believe the military action in Afghanistan is not morally justified, Gallup polls conducted in nine countries find.

Yahoo! News - Men Charged With Aiding Hijackers Two men have been charged with participating in a fake identification ring that supplied documents to some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, court documents show.

Yahoo! News - Russia Worried About U.S. in Georgia With U.S. military advisers already in Georgia — and with the prospect of hundreds more American troops being sent to Russia's doorstep — Georgian and U.S. officials denied Wednesday that American soldiers would go into combat against terrorism in the small Caucasus nation.

Yahoo! News - US Wants DNA From bin Laden's Family The U.S. government is seeking samples of DNA from Osama bin Laden's family to determine if human remains found in Afghanistan belong to the terrorist leader, government sources said Wednesday.

Doomsday Clock Chicago, February 27, 2002: Today, the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the minute hand of the “Doomsday Clock,” the symbol of nuclear danger, from nine to seven minutes to midnight, the same setting at which the clock debuted 55 years ago. Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, this is the third time the hand has moved forward.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Leader: A US president writes (Not, unfortunately, the current one) This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

Yahoo! News - Rumsfeld: Pentagon Closing Office The Pentagon will close a new office that reportedly has proposed spreading false information abroad, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

Yahoo! News - E.U.: Sharon Willing to Meet Saudis Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told an EU envoy Tuesday he was willing to meet Saudi officials, publicly or behind the scenes, to explore their proposals for an overall Mideast peace, the European diplomat said.

U.S. Analysts Find No Sign bin Laden Had Nuclear Arms — An analysis of suspected radioactive substances seized in Afghanistan has found nothing to prove that Osama bin Laden reached his decade-long goal of acquiring nuclear materials for a bomb, administration officials say.

U.S. drops pledge on nukes -- The Washington Times The Bush administration is no longer standing by a 24-year-old U.S. pledge not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, a senior administration official said yesterday.

Yahoo! News - Israel Eyes Land-For-Peace Plan Israel said Monday it is exploring with interest a tentative Saudi proposal that calls for an Israeli pullout from virtually all the territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war in return for comprehensive peace.

CNN.com - Karzai in 'silence the guns' call - February 25, 2002 Afghanistan's interim leader has called for Iranian cooperation in creating peace and stability in the region.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Considers Indictments in Pearl Case The Bush administration is strongly considering bringing criminal charges in the kidnapping and murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl, U.S. law enforcement officials said on Monday.

Yahoo! News - FBI Not Close to Identifying Anthrax Probe Suspect Despite a vigorous investigation into the mailing of anthrax-laced letters that killed five people in the United States last year, the FBI was not close to identifying a suspect, the White House said on Monday.

Yahoo! News - Hole Under U.S. Embassy Fuels Terror Probe Italian police have discovered a hole recently carved into an underground passageway next to the U.S. embassy and suspect terrorists were planning to plant a chemical bomb there, a judicial source said on Sunday.

U.S. Debating Wider Assault on Colombia Rebels Alarmed by signs of weapons traffic between Colombian rebels and the Middle East, the Bush administration is weighing a proposal to declare the destruction of leftist guerrillas in the South American country an explicit goal of U.S. policy.

Yahoo! News - Israel to Ease Arafat Siege Israel decided Sunday to draw tanks back from Yasser Arafat's compound but continue restricting him to the West Bank city of Ramallah — a halfway measure that led angry Palestinians to cancel planned cease-fire talks with Israeli security officials.

Yahoo! News - Rockets Fired at U.S. Airbase in Afghanistan Attackers fired rockets toward the U.S. military base at Kandahar airport on Sunday but missed their target and fled in two vehicles as Afghan soldiers gave chase, officials at the base said.

Yahoo! News - US Thinks Bin Laden Alive on Afghan Border-Report Osama bin Laden survived U.S. bombing raids on Tora Bora and other mountainous Afghan regions and probably remains hidden in the remote terrain straddling Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing senior Bush administration officials.

Canada Wary on U.S. Anti-Terror Plan (washingtonpost.com) A U.S. proposal to integrate Canadian troops into a North American command system that would defend the continent against terrorist attacks has some Canadians questioning how the system would affect their country's sovereignty.

Anti-Iraq Rhetoric Outpaces Reality (washingtonpost.com) Bush administration rhetoric has fueled speculation that a military move against Iraq could be imminent. But the military reality is that it could take up to a year before the United States is ready to launch a coordinated assault...

BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Saddam scorns Bush 'baby talk' Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has dismissed US accusations that Baghdad had or was seeking weapons of mass destruction as "baby talk".

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Pay day finally comes for Afghans Even though it is one of Islam's most important holidays, the bank in Kabul has opened its doors to enable thousands of state employees to receive their salaries for the first time in months.

Oil Drips With Money for Alaska For pure self-interest, Alaska beats even Enron in trying to shape government policy. In the last year, the state spent $3.85 million in its Arctic refuge drilling campaign and appropriated another $1 million last week.

Yahoo! News - Bush Renews Campaign For Arctic Oil President Bush on Saturday renewed his campaign to open an Arctic refuge to oil exploration, contending that drilling is essential to national security and job creation.

Yahoo! News - Afghans May Seek Help in Warlord Feuds If rival warlords threaten Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s attempts at a stable future, interim leader Hamid Karzai said Saturday he won't hesitate to ask U.S. and other foreign troops to settle the feud.

Yahoo! News - CDC Tests: No Anthrax at Army Base An Army spokesman said Saturday that a suspicious package found at the U.S. Army Reserve Command headquarters building at Fort McPherson did not contain anthrax.

Israelis From Left and Right Criticize Sharon (washingtonpost.com) At the end of one of the bloodiest weeks in the 17-month-old Palestinian uprising, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came under scathing attack today from hard-liners and doves alike.

Afghanistan's 'Last Chance to Choose' (washingtonpost.com) "Please send someone to gather all the guns from our village," the official, Nur Karkin, read at random from the pile of petitions. "Please select leaders who understand our suffering and have at least a ninth-grade education. . . . Please do not allow those whose hands are polluted with blood to participate."

Student says FBI tried to coerce him A federal judge has begun weighing claims that FBI agents threatened and abused a Jordanian student charged with lying to a grand jury about his association with two Sept. 11 hijackers.

Kandahar leader: U.S. may free ex-Taliban official Kandahar’s U.S.-allied governor told his people Friday he was working to obtain the release of the ex-Taliban foreign minister — the highest-ranking Taliban now in U.S. custody.

Joyous celebrations in Afghanistan In the rubble and mud of Kandahar, in the weary heart of a battered land, a laughing 10-year-old held up her hands Friday to show what the Eid al-Adha holiday means in the new Afghanistan: “Nail polish!”

CNN.com - Investigators vow relentless search for Pearl's killers - February 22, 2002 Pakistan's interior minister said Friday investigators "know the names" of the militants who abducted and killed American journalist Daniel Pearl and are taking "the strongest possible actions ... (to) bring them to swift justice."

CNN.com - Suspicious package sent to Army base - February 22, 2002A building on a U.S. Army base in Atlanta has been evacuated after the discovery of a suspicious package containing white powder, the Pentagon said Friday.

Thousands of Women Killed for Family "Honor" Hundreds, if not thousands, of women are murdered by their families each year in the name of family "honor." It's difficult to get precise numbers on the phenomenon of honor killing; the murders frequently go unreported, the perpetrators unpunished, and the concept of family honor justifies the act in the eyes of some societies.

BBC News | AMERICAS | Colombian troops move in Colombian special forces have flown into the main town in the rebel safe haven in the south of the country.

BBC News | AFRICA | State of emergency in Madagascar Madagascar's President Didier Ratsiraka has imposed a state of emergency after opposition leader Marc Ravalomanana declared himself president.

Yahoo! News - Musharraf Vows War on Terror After Pearl Killing President Pervez Musharraf vowed to leave no stone unturned in hunting the killers of kidnapped American reporter Daniel Pearl, and declared war on all terrorists in Pakistan.

New Scientist | Bioterrorism | The insider After months of bungled investigation, it now looks certain that America's anthrax attacks came from within. The implications are terrifying

Man Arrested in Terror Probe Indicted for Fraud (washingtonpost.com) An Alexandria man whose contacts with the Sept. 11 hijackers have been described by prosecutors as "extensive, suspicious and troubling" was indicted today on unrelated charges of identification document fraud.

Afghan Villagers Mistakenly Killed in Raid (washingtonpost.com) The 14 or more Afghans killed by U.S. Army forces in a Jan. 23 commando raid were neither al Qaeda terrorists nor their Taliban supporters as first believed, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday.

The Village Voice: Nation: Press Clips: War Riddles by Cynthia Cotts Weary of the search for objectivity, Press Clips kicks around 10 questions to which journalists either cannot or will not deliver straight answers.

ABCNEWS.com : Italy Rows Back on Bio-Terrorism Threat Italian officials squashed fears on Wednesday that Rome had been threatened by a bio-terrorist attack, saying a cyanide compound found in the possession of four Moroccans could not have poisoned the city's water supply.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | India's gender 'holocaust' warning Girls are viewed as a burden in this community of farmers, where in the past some families would ask village midwives to kill a newborn baby if it turned out to be a female.

BBC News | EUROPE | 'Cyanide attack' foiled in Italy Italian police say they have arrested four Moroccans who were planning a chemical attack in Rome, targeting buildings which included the United States embassy.

BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Palestinian militants 'change tactics' There appears to have been a significant shift in the tactics employed by Palestinian militants against Israel.

Yahoo! News - Colombian Gov't Launches Airstrikes The government launched airstrikes and ordered 13,000 troops to advance on a main rebel stronghold Thursday as Colombia's 38-year-old civil war entered a potentially new and bloodier phase with the collapse of peace talks.

Yahoo! News - Arafat Repeats Call to End Violence Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat repeated a call to halt violence Thursday, and his security forces arrested three suspects in the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister, one of Israel's conditions for releasing Arafat from a two-month siege.

Yahoo! News - Officials: WSJ Reporter Is Dead Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was taken hostage a month ago by Islamic extremists in Pakistan, is dead, the State Deparmtent said Thursday.

Excite News The FBI issued an extraordinary terrorist alert Monday night, asking law enforcement and the American public to be on the lookout for a Yemeni man and several associates who might be plotting a terrorist attack as early as Tuesday.

Excite News Angered by the United States' labeling of Iran as part of an "axis of evil," hundreds of thousands of Iranians chanted "Death to America" on Monday during demonstrations to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

The Smoking Gun: Archive Investigators today (February 6) released this two-page suicide note left by the Florida teenager who crashed a small plane into a Tampa office building on January 5.

Yahoo! News - Official: Bush Speech Shocks Iran A high-ranking Iranian official in New York for the World Economic Forum said Saturday that Iran was "shocked and disappointed" by President Bush's comments earlier this week that it is part of an evil axis of terrorist nations.

Yahoo! News - Official: Detainee Treatment Lawful Detainees from the war in Afghanistan are being interrogated in compliance with U.S. laws and are not being drugged or tortured, the general in charge of detention said Saturday.

WorldNetDaily: The veil: Female form of jihad Jihad for men is spreading the word of Allah through war. A Western person seeing a woman in Islamic clothes might consider her doing this against her will. It is the Muslim women's form of jihad – without the violence – but it could be aggressive. Remember some of these women raise their sons to become terrorists and give up their lives to jihad. We should never underestimate the power of women in any culture.

Guantanamo's Unhappy Campers "They know they're being watched," he explains, "so they'll stare at you, and while they stare at you, they'll, uh, masturbate." According to these Marines, they don't just pleasure themselves to freak out the snipers, but also to embarrass the female Army guards in the camp's interior.

China Sees Interests Tied to U.S. (washingtonpost.com) A well-known Chinese scholar made a simple but controversial point recently: The United States is not China's enemy now, and probably never will be. A central reason, the scholar said in a closed address to government officials, is the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.

We Will Do The Fighting (washingtonpost.com) President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines has allowed U.S. forces to reenter her country for six months to help train the Philippine military in its fight against the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf...

Yahoo! News - Afghan Leader Faces New Bloodshed at Home Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai was back home on Saturday after trips to Washington and London to face an increasingly perilous security situation which has seen simmering tribal rivalry explode in bloodshed.

Yahoo! News - Wall St. Journal Believes Missing Journalist Alive The Wall Street Journal said Saturday it believed its reporter Daniel Pearl, thought to have been kidnapped by Muslim militants in Pakistan, was still alive and had not been executed by his captors.

CNN.com - Bin Laden's sole post-September 11 TV interview aired - February 1, 2002 Accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden said "the battle has moved to inside America" in the only television interview he's granted since the September 11 attacks -- now airing for the first time.

Possible Al Qaeda Plot to Attack Nuclear Plants The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has warned that the nation's 103 nuclear power plants could be a target of an airline attack, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

Powell: U.S. Trying to Rescue Kidnapped Reporter Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday the United States was doing ``everything we can'' to rescue an American reporter kidnapped in Pakistan but there would be no negotiations over his captors' demands.

FOXNews.com The recent cries of human rights groups against the conditions of a U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were cast into a new light as many jailed Taliban fighters in Afghanistan raised their voices in the plea: "We want to go to an American prison."

ABCNEWS.com : Documents Suggest New Terror Targets Documents found in Afghanistan spotlight the U.S. Capitol, Seattle's Space Needle and a portion of Los Angeles, suggesting these areas were perhaps being singled out for a terrorist attack, ABCNEWS has learned.

Pakistani Group Threatens to Kill Reporter The group that claims it has kidnapped a Wall Street Journal reporter in Pakistan sent an e-mail to news organizations on Wednesday threatening to kill him within 24 hours unless the U.S. government released Pakistani prisoners held in the Afghan war.

Time to rewrite the DMCA - Tech News - CNET.com The American public has traditionally enjoyed the ability to make convenient and incidental copies of copyrighted works without obtaining the prior consent of copyright owners. These traditional "fair use" rights are at the foundation of the receipt and use of information by the American people.

Shoe Scare Evacuates San Francisco Terminal Thousands of people were evacuated from a San Francisco International Airport terminal on Wednesday after security guards detected possible explosive residue on the shoes of one passenger, but let him vanish into the crowd before he could be questioned.

Militant preacher a focus for Asian terror hunt | csmonitor.com Indonesia, once known for its moderate brand of Islam, is facing new scrutiny as an Al Qaeda hub.

Bush: 'Our War Against Terror Is Only Beginning' (washingtonpost.com) When President Bush formally opens the second year of his presidency with his State of the Union address tonight, he will seek to increase Americans' personal stake in the war on terrorism by encouraging more neighborhood and international volunteerism.

Prince Reaffirms Saudi-U.S. Alliance (washingtonpost.com) Crown Prince Abdullah said today that the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia has emerged undamaged from the attacks of Sept. 11. But he warned that the war on terrorism is being undermined by what he called the indefensible position of the United States in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Your honor, Osama made me do it As the first suspects in the terrorist war on America prepare to stand trial, their defenders and apologists are invoking a word from the Cold War: “brainwashed.”

CNN.com - A bloody ending to Kandahar hospital standoff - January 29, 2002 Afghan troops and U.S. Special Forces soldiers launched an assault Monday on a hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan, killing six heavily armed al Qaeda fighters who had been holed up there for six weeks.

Fourteen U.S. Soldiers Hurt in Afghan Copter Crash Fourteen U.S. soldiers were injured and their transport helicopter suffered extensive damage when it crashed while landing in rough terrain in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, U.S. military officials said.

Attack U.S. and Win Aid - Middle East Forum ...this reflects the "mouse that roared" syndrome, named after the 1959 movie starring Peter Sellers in no less than three roles. It told the story of a tiny Europe duchy, Grand Fenwick, which finds itself on the verge of bankruptcy and decides to declare war on America in order to lose, then profit from the resulting aid.

Yahoo! News - Saudis Want Their Detainees Sent Home Saudi Arabia said Monday that more than 100 of its citizens are in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, making Saudis by far the largest group of terrorist suspects detained on this remote U.S. naval base.

Rebuilding From Within (washingtonpost.com) The key to making Afghanistan a respected and respectable country is steady improvement in the capacity of Afghan institutions -- private and public -- to meet the pressing needs of Afghanistan's people. The country needs outside help, but it must be rebuilt from within.

Bush Says U.S. Will Help Set Up Afghan Military President Bush said on Monday the United States will help train a new Afghan military but made clear to Afghan leader Hamid Karzai he would not commit U.S. troops to peacekeeping in the remote Central Asian country.

ABCNEWS.com : Rumsfeld Tours Camp X-Ray Amid reports the Bush administration will debate the legal status and rights of detainees, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld vowed that, no matter what, they "will not be determined to be POWs."

Suicide bomber strikes in downtown Jerusalem; at least 30 injured A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in downtown Jerusalem just after midday Sunday, injuring at least 30 people on a busy street that's been the scene of several previous attacks, officials said.

America's Chaotic Road to War (First in a series) -(washingtonpost.com) This series is based on interviews with President Bush, Vice President Cheney and many other key officials inside the administration and out. The interviews were supplemented by notes of National Security Council meetings made available to The Washington Post, along with notes taken by several participants.

CNN.com - Supreme Court justice to launch morals program - January 27, 2002 "In seeking rational explanations for irrational acts, an explanation becomes the excuse," Kennedy said.

NYPOST.COM Post Opinion: Oped Columnists: THE MISSING GUN By JOHN R. LOTT, JR. ...in this age of "gun-free school zones," one fact was missing from virtually all the news coverage: The attack was stopped by two students who had guns in their cars.

Pakistan Police Quiz Five Over Missing US Reporter Pakistani police searching for missing U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl said on Sunday they had interrogated five men in connection with the case, but had no idea where the journalist was.

U.S. lawmakers said pleased with detainee treatment A group of U.S. congressmen toured the Guantanamo Bay detention center Friday, and said captured al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are being treated humanely.

U.S. military tests anti-missile rocket An interceptor rocket launched from a U.S. Navy ship smashed into a dummy missile high over the Pacific Friday night, in the latest test in the Pentagon’s plans to shield America from long-range missiles.

Unrest a Chief Product of Arab Economies (washingtonpost.com) The economic misfortunes that fuel resentment among young Arab men emerge through the cigarette smoke at a street-side cafe, where a table full of Egyptians in their twenties and thirties erupts in bitterness over their dreary prospects.

Missile Test by India Raises Nuclear Ante (washingtonpost.com) India today successfully test-fired the newest version of a surface-to-surface missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, drawing condemnation from neighboring Pakistan in the midst of a tense military standoff between the two countries.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Mystery of missing US journalist Police in Pakistan say they have no clues as to the whereabouts of an American journalist missing since Wednesday.

BBC News | AMERICAS | Shoe bomb suspect 'did not act alone' The FBI has discovered forensic evidence that indicates alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid had help making the explosives found in his shoes on board an American-bound flight.

ABCNEWS.com : Bush Seeks $11 Billion to Secure Borders President Bush said today he will ask Congress to spend roughly $11 billion next year on securing the nation's borders to keep out terrorists who would try to attack the United States by air, land or sea.

U.S. Warplane Destroys Huge Store of Taliban Arms A U.S. AC-130 flying gunship has destroyed a huge store of Taliban arms in Afghanistan's chill southern mountains, a sign the U.S. military still has much to do in the shattered country, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Israeli Jets Strike After Suicide Bomb Attack Israeli warplanes launched a missile strike on Palestinian security targets in the West Bank and Gaza on Friday in retaliation for a Palestinian suicide bombing that wounded at least 25 people.

Elite Troops Kill, Capture Dozens of Taliban Elite U.S. troops attacked two guerrilla compounds in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing up to 15 Taliban fighters and capturing 27 others, Pentagon officials said. One U.S. soldier was wounded.

A Turkish path for Pakistan? | csmonitor.com In curbing militancy, Musharraf hopes to create a modern-minded Muslim state.

Lindh Back in U.S. to Face Charges John Walker Lindh, the young Muslim convert accused of joining al-Qaida soldiers in Afghanistan, returned to the United States Wednesday under FBI custody to face criminal charges that he conspired to kill fellow Americans.

Palestinian Militants Threaten War Islamic militants threatened ``all-out war'' Wednesday to avenge the killing of a Hamas commander in the West Bank, and Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority said it can no longer be expected to enforce a truce with Israel.

FBI: Prisoner Info Thwarted Attacks U.S. special forces and their Afghan allies confiscated thousands of weapons from a local warlord Wednesday, officials said, as troops pressed the search for Taliban and al-Qaida renegades in southern Afghanistan.

Mazar-e-Sharif rebounds — slowly After weeks of intense work to restore facilities destroyed by the Taliban, the local television station in northern Afghanistan’s largest city is ready to go back on the air — if only there was enough electricity.

FTC proposes hotline to thwart telemarketers The Federal Trade Commission is proposing the creation of a national ‘do not call’ registry that would allow consumers to ward off unwanted telemarketers with a single phone call.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | UN calls for bigger Afghan force The United Nations Secretary General's deputy special representative for Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, has said he believes the international community should deploy more foreign troops in Afghanistan.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Pakistan rejects India attack claims Pakistan has denied Indian accusations that its intelligence service was involved in an attack on an American cultural centre in Calcutta in which five policemen were killed and 20 people wounded.

'Activated' Asian terror web busted | csmonitor.com The arrest of dozens of Al Qaeda suspects shows the organization's depth in Asia.

Palestinian Wounds 16 After Deadly Israeli Raid A Palestinian gunman wounded 16 Israelis in a rush hour shooting spree in Jerusalem's main shopping street Tuesday after Israeli troops killed four Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

Rumsfeld Lashes at Critics of Prisoner Treatment Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday lashed out at critics of U.S. military treatment of Afghan war captives at an American Navy base in Cuba, saying their makeshift prison was fair and humane.

Gunmen Attack U.S. Office in India, Kill Four Four policemen were killed and at least 14 people injured in a dawn attack by unidentified gunmen outside the U.S. information office in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta Tuesday, police said.

washingtonpost.com: Not Exactly What We Intended, Justice O'Connor It is difficult to say, based solely on the letter of the law as we wrote it, that O'Connor is wrong. But as the congressman who shepherded the legislation through the House of Representatives, I believe that the "intent of Congress" was clearly more expansive than Justice O'Connor's ruling would suggest.

Wonders Never Cease - Destruction was the luckiest thing to happen to the Buddhas of Bamiyan. By Charles Paul Freund So how did the carved Buddhas of Bamiyan go from reviled grotesquerie to "things which are valuable to humanity and its heritage," indeed so valuable they must be rebuilt? There's nothing like a staged spectacle of barbaric destruction to transform otherwise obscure artifacts. Such an act provides relevant and apparent meaning to a work even as it destroys that work.

Afghan Leader Karzai Makes Moving Appeal for Aid Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, appealed to the world Sunday for help in getting his devastated country back on its feet after two decades of strife and disaster that created a breeding ground for terrorism.

China Finds Bugs on Jet Equipped in U.S. (washingtonpost.com) Devices taken off presidential plane could become issue at summit.

Rocky Mountain News: Opinion: Israeli occupation is worst form of violence Never in my life have I seen such disregard for human life as I have seen toward the Palestinians by Israel. Having just returned from the West Bank and Gaza Strip on a month-long trip, I have a heavy heart.

Israel Sets Palestinian Radio Station Ablaze Israeli troops blew up the Voice of Palestine radio station offices on Saturday to avenge a deadly Palestinian attack, and exchanged fire with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Tanks Approach Arafat's Office (washingtonpost.com) Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and paratroops advanced almost to Yasser Arafat's doorstep today, taking up positions within 100 yards of his walled compound in retaliation for a Palestinian gunman's attack that killed six Israelis at a party in a banquet hall late Thursday.

Powell: Saudis Have Not Mentioned U.S. Withdrawal (washingtonpost.com) Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday that he has had "no discussion" with Saudi officials about the possibility that Saudi Arabia will ask the United States to withdraw its armed forces from the kingdom.

Saudis May Seek U.S. Exit (washingtonpost.com) Saudi Arabia's rulers are increasingly uncomfortable with the U.S. military presence in their country and may soon ask that it end, according to several Saudi sources.

FT.com | News and Analysis | World Article | Losing ground at Camp X-Ray America's harsh treatment of its Taliban prisoners may be understandable but it risks alienating its international allies, says Philip Stephens

U.S. Anti-Terror Campaign Stirs Rights Concerns U.S. efforts to hunt down terror suspects around the world after the Sept. 11 attacks prompted fresh concern among rights watchdogs on Friday when American troops seized six Algerians in Bosnia.

OJR Tim Cavanaugh: Let Slip the Blogs of War Shine on, you crazy bloggers! Someday the rest of us will hold our manhoods cheap that we did not blog with you this day. But as long as courage lives and liberty endures, every American will be proud to have you out there, blogging for an audience of none.

French Newspaper Reports Shoebomber Plot E-Mail A French newspaper reported on Saturday that investigators had found an e-mail message in which alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid wrote of plans to destroy an airliner.

India’s nuclear strategy shows holes After India and Pakistan startled the world by testing nuclear devices in 1998, the leaders of both nations insisted that their mutual possession of nuclear weaponry would deter them from going to war in the same way it ultimately did for the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Air Force jets crash in Arizona Two Air Force single-seat jet fighters collided in midair and crashed Thursday afternoon in a remote area of Arizona’s San Bernardino Mountains near the Mexican border.

Primary races - over in one day? | csmonitor.com Democrats expect to approve a plan that allows, in essence, a national primary day for 2004 elections.

CNN.com - Saddam Hussein warns of U.S. demise - January 17, 2002 The U.S. will lose its superpower status because of its use of force rather than dialogue to settle disputes, Saddam Hussein has warned.

FOXNews.com - Terror Attack at Israeli Banquet Hall A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a packed banquet hall in northern Israel Thursday night, killing six people and wounding 30 others, police said.

U.S. Seeks Help Over New Al Qaeda Video Seeking to forestall possible future attacks, U.S. officials asked the public on Thursday to help locate ``suicide terrorists'' shown in five video tapes recovered from an al Qaeda house in Afghanistan.

Writer who videotaped American Taliban recounts experience (1/16/2002)At first, he couldn't tell the man was any different from the other wounded Taliban and al-Qaida fighters at the makeshift hospital: bleeding, in pain, covered in filth and matted hair.

CNN.com - Y2K bomb plot accomplice sentenced to 24 years in jail - January 16, 2002An accomplice to the al Qaeda-trained terrorist who plotted to bomb Los Angeles International Airport around New Year's 2000 was sentenced Wednesday to 24 years in prison.

CNN.com - Punxsutawney Phil a terrorist target? - January 16, 2002 When Punxsutawney Phil pops his head out of his hole on February 2 to tell people whether or not they will experience six more weeks of winter, the famous groundhog may see more than his shadow.

Facts Find Sept. 11 Myths Misleading Consider these changes: In Washington, D.C., the murder rate spiked 47 percent after Sept. 11; in Denver, shoplifting went up by 12 percent.

Al-Qaida in Cuba Making Threats Several al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners have vowed to kill an American during their time at this remote U.S. military base, officials said Wednesday.

TIME.com: Why the U.S. is Entering the Philippine Minefield The Muslim southern islands of the Philippines may be crawling with rival armed factions, but the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf remain isolated.

U.S. Indicts Al Qaeda-Trained Shoebomb Suspect Richard Reid, a Briton who trained with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in Afghanistan, was indicted on Wednesday for attempting to destroy an airliner with 197 people on board last month when he tried to ignite explosives in his shoes.

Philippines welcomes military aid Joint military exercises begin but president says U.S. troops not allowed
to fight near front lines.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | US to unfreeze Afghan assets The United States is preparing to release more than $200m of gold reserves and cash belonging to Afghanistan, as the shattered country makes increasingly desperate calls for help.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | US bereaved meet Afghan families A group of Americans who lost relatives in the 11 September terrorist attacks have arrived in Kabul to meet Afghans who have lost members of their own families in the US retaliatory attacks.

BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Analysis: Humiliating defeat for Iran's judiciary Ayatollah Khamenei's move to pardon reformist MP Hossein Loghmanian temporarily calms a potentially dangerous situation in Iran.

BBC News | AMERICAS | US defends captives' conditions US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has insisted that 50 al-Qaeda and Taleban prisoners being held under maximum security at a US naval base in Cuba are being treated humanely.

Powell to Fly Into South Asian Tinderbox Secretary of State Colin Powell is due in South Asia Wednesday, aiming to lower the temperature between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan as close to 1 million men stand ready for war on their border.

U.S. Taliban Charged with Supporting Terror Group The United States on Tuesday charged American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh with conspiring to kill U.S. nationals in the Afghanistan war and with providing support to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, charges that spare him from facing the death penalty.

Why the Muslims Misjudged Us by Victor Davis Hanson Two striking themes—one overt, one implied—characterize most Arab invective: first, there is some sort of equivalence—political, cultural, and military—between the West and the Muslim world; and second, America has been exceptionally unkind toward the Middle East. Both premises are false and reveal that the temple of anti-Americanism is supported by pillars of utter ignorance.

sunspot.net - op/ed - Looming lawsuits trivialize Sept. 11 ...the magnitude of this crime is such that none of us can ever be compensated.

Public sees new global role for US | csmonitor.com In recent years, signs seemed to mount of America's isolationist tendencies. But in the wake of Sept. 11, Americans' support for engagement in the world is surging.

Singapore Details Al-Qaida Plot Singapore released details Friday of what it said was an elaborate plot by al-Qaida terrorists to blow up Western embassies, U.S. naval vessels and a bus carrying American soldiers.

First Prisoners at Cuba Camp, U.S. Disarms Afghans The United States moved the first and most dangerous prisoners of the war in Afghanistan into a detention camp in Cuba on Friday, while its troops began disarming Afghan militia to impose some order in the chaotic nation.

Fla. Officials Probe Possible Plot Against Jeb Bush Florida law enforcement officials said late on Thursday that an investigation was under way into a potential threat to blow up Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, younger brother of President Bush.

U.S. Begins Flying Afghanistan Prisoners to Cuba The U.S. military on Thursday began flying al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners under heavy guard from Afghanistan to jail at the American Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a military spokesman said.

CNN.com - FDA to propose antiterrorist food safety guidelines - January 8, 2002 New voluntary guidelines to protect the nation's food supply against intentional contamination by terrorists or others are to be published this week by the Food and Drug Administration.

White House ends efficient vehicle plan - Jan. 9, 2002 After nearly $1.5 billion in subsidies, the Bush administration is ending an eight-year program to help automakers develop high-mileage, family size cars. Instead, it wants to spur the growth of hydrogen fuel cells to power the next generation of motor vehicles.

CNN.com - 'Compelling evidence' Arafat knew of arms - January 9, 2002 Israelis have presented what the Bush administration believes is "compelling evidence" that Yasser Arafat knew about a shipment of weapons intercepted by Israel, a senior State Department official told CNN.

FOXNews.com - Networks, U.S. Argue Over Televising Moussaoui Trial Accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui has joined forces with TV networks to argue in favor of televising a trial that could reveal Usama bin Laden's internal operations.

Deadly attack ends Mideast calm In the first deadly attack on Israelis in nearly a month, two Palestinians armed with grenades and assault rifles stormed an Israeli army post near the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, killing four soldiers before being shot to death in a gun battle. The attack dealt a severe blow to U.S. truce efforts.

Man accused of nuclear plant threats Authorities investigating alleged “terrorist threats” against the San Onofre nuclear power plant by a recently fired employee on Wednesday discovered more than 200 weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition at the man’s home and in a nearby storage shed.

Marine tanker crashes in Pakistan A U.S. KC-130 refueling plane with seven Marines aboard crashed Wednesday near an airfield in southwestern Pakistan. Defense officials said there were no initial signs of survivors.

Palestinian Authority says it will investigate possible links to weapons ship (1/08/2002) The Palestinian Authority said Tuesday it will question government officials accused by Israel of trying to smuggle Iranian arms to the Gaza Strip, while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused the Palestinians of conspiring with Iran against Israel.

Asteroid passes half-million miles from Earth days after discovery (1/08/2002) An asteroid large enough to wipe out France hurtled past the Earth at a distance of about a half-million miles just days after scientists spotted it.

New York Daily News Online | News and Views | Opinion | Rabbi Marvin Hier: Arabs Must Reach Out to Israelis Since the war in Afghanistan began, Arab coalition members Egypt and Saudi Arabia have pressured Washington to take a more direct role in the Middle East. They warn that failure to do so could dilute Muslim support for the American-led war against terrorism.