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.