Suicide bomber kills four civilians in Kabul

July 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

KABUL, July 18 (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed four civilians in an attack apparently aimed at a convoy of foreign forces on Sunday, security sources said.

The attack happened opposite a clinic on a road often used by foreign troops, one said, adding four more civilians were wounded.

There were no immediate word about casualties among the foreign forces, he said. The site of the attack was cordoned off.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said they were aware of the incident but had no details immediately.

The blast took place just two days before dozens of foreign ministers — including U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton — were due in the capital for an international conference of Afghanistan’s future.

Some 150,000 foreign troops are squared off against a Taliban insurgency at its strongest since the hardline Islamists were overthrown by a U.S.-led force in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by David Fox) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here) (sayed.salahuddin@thomsonreuters.com; Kabul newsroom: +93 799 335 285)) (If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

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Bomb kills four civilians in Afghan capital

July 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

July 18 (Reuters) – A bomb killed four civilians in a crowded part of the Afghan capital on Sunday, security sources said.

It happened opposite a clinic on a road often used by foreign forces, one said.

The blast took place just two days before dozens of foreign ministers — including U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton — were due in the capital for an international conference of Afghanistan’s future.

Some 150,000 foreign troops are squared off against a Taliban insurgency at its strongest since the hardline Islamists were overthrown by a U.S.-led force in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. (Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by David Fox and Jonathan Thatcher) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here) (sayed.salahuddin@thomsonreuters.com; Kabul newsroom: +93 799 335 285)) (If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

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INTERVIEW-Ex-Taliban governor sees little hope for Afghan peace

July 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

July 6 (Reuters) – A former Taliban governor turned Afghan government official dismissed the peace process as a “joke”, saying Afghanistan cannot seek peace with the insurgents only by trying to woo their rank and file. “Peace cannot come to Afghanistan through the junior Taliban,” the 59-year-old Mullah Abdul Salaam told Reuters in an interview in Kabul.

“This will bear no fruit if the Taliban leaders are not involved and listened to. The whole peace process that the government and the world wants to pursue is a joke … a waste of time and money.”

To many observers, the U.S.-led effort to destroy the Taliban and establish a stable government is already a monumental waste of time and money.

Nearly nine years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Osama bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda figures are still at large, the Taliban insurgency is raging and there is widespread loathing both for foreign forces and an Afghan government largely seen seen as corrupt or incapable.

Western governments want out and are training Afghan forces to replace them, but perhaps worried they will not be able to cope, President Hamid Karzai is making peace overtures to the Taliban. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For more on Afghanistan click [ID:nAFPAK]

or see link.reuters.com/syx62d

Afghan blog: blogs.reuters.com/afghanistan/ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

The proposals include offering an amnesty and reintegration to foot soldiers who agree to accept Afghanistan’s constitution, removing the names of certain leaders from a U.N. blacklist, and securing sanctuary in a friendly Muslim nation for others.

But these sort of modest steps simply don’t appeal to the Taliban, Salaam said. The bottomline is they believe they are winning.

The movement’s leadership, based in the Pakistan border city of Quetta, still calls the shots, Salaam said, and has organised war plans, unity and “obedience in hierarchy” — a reference to perceived differences between Afghan and Western officials.

Religious schools in Pakistan were producing suicide bombers in abundance for carrying out low-cost attacks against Afghan and foreign forces, he added, while it was costing the West billions to fund the conflict.

ICONIC TALIBAN

Salaam is among only a handful of ex-Taliban officials to have joined Karzai’s government since the hardline Islamists were ousted in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Sitting crossed-legged on a mat and sporting a long beard dyed to match his jet-black turban, Salaam told how he fought the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and later joined the Taliban as Afghanistan descended into civil war and anarchy after they left.

He rose to become governor of southern Uruzgan province — impressed with some aspects of Taliban rule, but also disturbed by others.

Frustrated with the meddling of Pakistan’s intelligence service in Afghan affairs — and also angered by the way Pakistani militants were killing non-Pashtuns during operations in northern Afghanistan — Salaam said he quit the movement.

Then Sept. 11 happened.

U.S. forces invaded, gave the Northern Alliance the muscle and firepower to tackle the Taliban and Salaam surrendered along with 200 of his armed men to the newly stablished pro-U.S. government of Karzai, only to be arrested later and jailed for eight months for “siding with the enemy”.

Most of his men rejoined the Taliban, but once out of jail Salaam kept a low profile until approached by Karzai, who asked him to become district chief of Musa Qala in Helmand, the most restive part of Afghanistan and a key drug-producing province.

PILLARS OF GOVERNMENT

“My intention was to consolidate the pillars of the government after years of war and that was the reason I joined the government,” he said.

Suddenly his services were in demand, and the Taliban approached him to become its shadow governor instead.

“I told them I am no longer a warrior and we should campaign through the ballot rather than bullets,” he says of a meeting that left his old comrades furious and vowing vengeance.

Some even called him apostate.

Over the following years he had death threats and assassination attempts made on his life, and was also kidnapped before being released after intensive tribal negotiations. Dozens of his extended family were targeted too.

Salaam said the government gave him little help in starting development projects in the area, and that British troops based there stymied his efforts and smeared his reputation until he was dismissed a few weeks ago.

“They (people of Musa Qala) said I didn’t even build a stable,” he complained, adding he was now back in the capital to seek redress.

Meanwhile, Salaam now appears on local television discussion panels not as a voice of the Taliban, but someone who has a good insight into how they think.

“Peace will not come to Afghanistan until you speak to the Taliban leaders and show sincerity,” he said. (Editing by David Fox and Sugita Katyal) (sayed.salahuddin@thomsonreuters.com; Kabul newsroom: +93 799 335 285)) (If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

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Q+A-Who was al Qaeda’s operations chief Sa’id al-Masri?

June 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

ISLAMABAD/KABUL, June 1 (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s operations chief and third-in-command, Sheikh Sai’d al-Masri, is believed to have been killed in a U.S. missile strike in Pakistan last month, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

Al Qaeda has confirmed the death of Masri, who is also known as Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, in a statement on an Islamist website but gave no details.

U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials believe Masri was killed, along with members of his family, in a strike by a pilotless CIA-operated drone in tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan in late May.

Following are some facts about him.

WHO IS SAI’D AL-MASRI?

He was born on Dec. 17, 1955, in Egypt and became a militant Islamist in his youth, spending three years in prison.

Masri was a founding member of al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri’s branch of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, one of the original groups that merged to form al Qaeda. Following the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981, Masri was implicated in the killing along with Zawahiri and others, and they spent time in jail together.

He left Egypt for Afghanistan in 1988 and was subsequently convicted in absentia for militant offences in several trials in Egypt, and was sentenced to both life imprisonment and death.

Masri accompanied Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan to Sudan in 1991. While there he served as an accountant for bin Laden’s Sudan-based businesses before returning to Afghanistan with bin Laden in 1996.

Masri is reported to have supplied funding for Mohammed Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

WHAT WAS HIS ROLE IN AL QAEDA?

Masri was one of al Qaeda’s most important and trusted leaders. He was al Qaeda’s leader in Afghanistan and in what the group refers to as the Khorasan, a region encompassing large areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Iran.

The Khorasan is considered by jihadists to be the place where they will inflict the first defeat against their enemies in the Muslim version of Armageddon.

He also served as a top propagandist for al Qaeda and the Taliban. Bespectacled Masri, wearing a white turban, often appeared on propaganda tapes with senior Taliban leaders.

As one of the founding members of al Qaeda in the late 1980s, Masri was a close associate of bin Laden. He also was a member of al Qaeda’s Shura Council, its core leadership forum.

Among Islamist groups, Masri was reputed to be a diplomatic personality who had good relations among local militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His appointment as the leader of Afghan operations in May 2007 was seen by experts as a bid by al Qaeda to boost its ties to local insurgents.

The U.S. September 11 Commission described Masri as the network’s “chief financial manager”. He was also believed to have opposed the September 11 attacks prior to their execution, but he remained loyal to al Qaeda and bin Laden.

HOW SIGNIFICANT IS HIS DEATH?

Security experts say his death would be a blow. Al Qaeda has suffered a steady erosion of its leadership and ability to mount attacks since the United States stepped up its campaign of missile strikes by unmanned aircraft in Pakistan’s tribal region.

His death could also hamper al Qaeda’s ability to raise and distribute funds because he was in charge of the group’s “bayt ul mal”, or treasury. Because of his seniority he will be difficult to replace, security experts say.

Masri, which means “the Egyptian”, was the most senior al Qaeda leader killed in Afghanistan since military commander Mohammad Atef died in a U.S. air strike on his home in Kabul in November 2001.

He was also the highest ranking al Qaeda operative to have been killed in Pakistan’s tribal belt this year. In 2008, Pakistani security officials had said he was killed in military clashes in the northwestern Bajaur tribal region but that was later proved incorrect.

WHAT DID HE SAY WHEN HE WAS ALIVE?

One of the few recognisable faces of al Qaeda, Masri issued warnings and threats to countries and leaders the group considers itself waging holy war, or jihad, against.

In an interview aired on Al Jazeera television in June 2009, Masri said al Qaeda would use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States if it were in a position to do so. When asked about the whereabouts of bin Laden and Zawahiri, he said they were “safe”.

In a video seen by Reuters in 2009, Masri warned India of more attacks like the 2008 operation in its financial capital Mumbai and said India’s economic interests would be targeted if it retaliated against Pakistan.

Masri also told Pakistan’s Geo television in an interview aired in 2008 that a suicide bomber who attacked the Danish embassy in Islamabad that year came from the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

In a June 2009 audio message, Masri said militants were short of food, weapons and other supplies and appealed for funding. In a January 2010 message, he praised a Dec. 30, 2009, attack at a U.S. base in Afghanistan in which a Jordanian double agent turned suicide bomber killed seven CIA officers.

(Additional reporting by William Maclean in LONDON; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Miral Fahmy) (For full coverage of Pakistan and Afghanistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK] (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

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Suspected Taliban blow up “U.S. spies” in Pakistan

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Taliban militants strapped explosives to two men accused of being U.S. spies and blew than up at a public execution in northwest Pakistan, intelligence officials and residents said on Friday.

The killings took place on Thursday evening in North Waziristan, a lawless al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary on the Afghan border where the United States has stepped up attacks with missile-firing drone aircraft, fuelling militant fears of spies.

Five masked militants paraded the hand-cuffed men before dozens of people in the Datta Kheil area and accused them of passing information to the United States on targets for its CIA-operated pilotless drone aircraft.

“They strapped explosives around their bodies and then blew them up,” a Pakistani intelligence official in the region told Reuters by telephone.

Militants have killed hundreds of people they suspect are spies for the United States or the Pakistani government over the past few years.

They usually decapitate or shoot the suspects. Residents said this was the first time the militants had blown up suspected spies.

Pakistan’s northwestern ethnic Pashtun tribal lands along the Afghan border have never been under the full control of any government and have for decades been Islamist militant hubs.

During the 1980s, the tribal belt was a staging area for the U.S.- and Pakistani-backed jihad, or Muslim holy war, against Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan.

Many Taliban and al Qaeda fighters fled there after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban from Afghanistan in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

A separate Pakistani Taliban force then emerged from the Pashtun tribes and they have been waging war against the Pakistani state in recent years.

The army launched a major offensive in the Pakistani Taliban bastion of South Waziristan last October, killing hundreds of insurgents and destroying their main bases. Many militants took refuge in North Waziristan, officials said.

The United States wants Pakistan to extend its offensive to North Waziristan and go after militants there, particularly Afghan Taliban, who launch cross-border attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani military, which has long seen the Afghan Taliban as tools for limiting the influence of old rival India in Afghanistan, says it will deal with North Waziristan but in its own time.

(Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel)

(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)

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NY man said to use computer skills to aid al Qaeda

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A New York man accused of helping al Qaeda with computer systems and cash was denied bail on Monday in a New York court.

Sabirhan Hasanoff, 34, a dual U.S. and Australian citizen who owns a home in Brooklyn, New York, was arrested on April 30 and charged with conspiracy to provide material support to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, according to a U.S. District Court indictment.

Another New York man, Wesam El-Hanafi, was arrested and charged in the same indictment, and is currently detained pending an appearance in Manhattan federal court later this week. Both men are accused of pledging allegiance to al Qaeda and using their computer expertise to aid the group.

After hearing from prosecutors and Hasanoff’s attorney Anthony Ricco, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis placed Hasanoff in detention without bail, deeming his “level of sophistication” too big a risk.

Hasanoff pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Al Qaeda was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that included strikes on the World Trade Centre in New York with hijacked airliners that killed almost 3,000 people. Another hijacked plane hit the Pentagon in Washington and a fourth was brought down in a Pennsylvania field.

PRIME ASSET

Ricco said his client, an accountant, had been a group chief financial officer for a Dubai-based company for 3-1/2 years and that his extensive travel was strictly business.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cronan argued Hasanoff “turned to al Qaeda in this very city where he lived and embraced its extremist ideology and radical goals.”

Prosecutors said they had a witness who would testify against Hasanoff if the case goes to trial.

Hasanoff’s “advanced computer knowledge,” as well as his two passports, made him a prime asset to the radical network, Cronan said.

Among Cronan’s accusations were that Hasanoff held coded online chats with El-Hanafi discussing fighting overseas, bought e-mail encryption software and made international wire transfers to al Qaeda militants.

He visited Yemen, Syria, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey among other places, Cronan said.

(Reporting by Basil Katz; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Cynthia Osterman)

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Volcanic ash turns north Europe into no-fly zone

April 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano turned the skies of northern Europe into a no-fly zone on Thursday, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers.

The European air safety organisation said the disruption, the biggest seen in the region, could last another two days and a leading volcano expert said the ash could present intermittent problems to air traffic for 6 months if the eruption continued.

Even if the disruption is short lived, the financial impact on airlines could be significant, a consultant said. The International Air Transport Association had said only days ago airlines were slowly coming out of recession.

The volcano began erupting on Wednesday for the second time in a month from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier. It hurled a plume of ash six to 11 kilometres (3.8 to 7 miles) into the atmosphere, and this spread south east overnight.

Volcanic ash contains tiny particles of glass and pulverised rock which can damage engines and airframes and an Icelandic volcanologist said on Thursday the eruption was growing more intense.

Britain barred flights in its air space, except in emergencies, until at least 0600 GMT on Friday, with a flight returning soldiers from Afghanistan having to be held in Cyprus.

It was the first time within living memory that a natural disaster had caused such a halt, a spokeswoman for Britain’s National Air Traffic Service (NATS) said. Even after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Britain did not close its air space.

John Strickland, director of air transport consultancy JLS Consulting, saw possible broader hazards.

“Iceland sits right on one of the key routes between Europe and the USA and… depending on meteorological conditions it could also affect flights from Europe to Asia so there are two big international flows which could be affected by this.”

FURTHER 48 HOURS

French authorities said they would close 24 airports across northern France before the end of Thursday, including in Paris. Brussels, Amsterdam and Geneva airports said they had cancelled a large number of flights and Eurocontrol spokesman Brian Flynn said the problem could persist for a further 48 hours.

Finland closed all airports except Helsinki-Vantaa.

For a graphic, click http://tinyurl.com/y7p5ydr

The Association of British Insurers said volcanic eruptions were not always covered by travel insurance for cancellation and delay. But some airlines issued statements confirming they would refund fares or change flights.

Airline staff at Stansted airport, north-east of London, told customers it could be closed until Sunday, said stranded passenger Andy Evans.

“People just don’t know what to do,” he said. “There are hundreds of people in the queues at the sales desks.”

A spokesman at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, said 840 out of 1,250 flights on Thursday were affected, disrupting about 180,000 passengers. More than 120,000 other passengers were affected at Gatwick, Stansted and Glasgow airports.

“There is a big financial impact on the airlines,” said Strickland of JLS consulting. “We are now looking at at least a day’s business wiped out for the airline business … even if things were meteorologically fine to fly tomorrow by that time the airlines will have all their aircraft and crew out of position so they have no choice but to cancel further flights.”

In 1982 a British Airways jumbo jet lost power in all its engines when it flew into an ash cloud over Indonesia, gliding towards the ground before it was able to restart its engines.

The incident prompted the aviation industry to rethink the way it prepared for ash clouds, resulting in international contingency plans activated on Thursday.

Scientists said the ash did not pose any health threat because it is at such a high altitude.

Bill McGuire, professor at the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, said if the volcano continued erupting for more than 12 months, as it did the last time, periodic disruptions to air traffic could continue.

“The problem is volcanoes are very unpredictable and in this case we have only one eruption to go on,” he said. “And a lot depends on the wind. I would expect this shutdown to last a couple of days. But if the eruption continues — and continues to produce ash — we could see repeated disruption over six months or so.”

WIDESPREAD DISRUPTION

Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations at Eurocontrol, said the disruption was already unprecedented: “The extent is greater than we’ve ever seen before in the EU.”

“The meteorological situation is such that the volcanic ash is progressing very slowly eastwards but there is not a lot of wind… so it is very slow and very dense.”

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was forced to cancel a trip to Russia’s Arctic town of Murmansk on Thursday. “The cloud has covered the entire region,” said Putin’s spokesman.

The eruption has grown more intense, University of Iceland volcanologist Armannn Hoskuldsson said.

To the east of the volcano, thousands of hectares of land were covered by a thick layer of ash, while a cloud was blotting out the sun in some areas along the southern coast of Iceland, local media reported.

(Reporting by London, Dublin, Paris, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Brussels, Geneva and Copenhagen newsrooms, writing by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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FACTBOX – Facts about Obama’s Afghan strategy

March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

REUTERS – President Barack Obama made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Sunday, his first since he took office, for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and to express his thanks to U.S. troops.

The following are some facts about Obama’s strategy on Afghanistan.

* Obama campaigned in 2008 on a pledge to return the fight against Islamic extremism to where it began, in Afghanistan, while promising to pull U.S. forces out of Iraq. He has begun to deliver on that promise, ordering the deployment of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan as part of an effort to take the battle to the Taliban while training Afghan soldiers to take over their own security.

Obama reached his new strategy after a lengthy review period last autumn. In a pledge that may be hard to meet, he said he would like to begin pulling some U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by July of 2011.

* While Obama’s healthcare overhaul is generating great scepticism among Americans, people are largely backing him on Afghanistan. A CNN/Opinion Research poll last week said 55 percent of Americans back Obama’s strategy for Afghanistan. But Americans are also weary of the war that was begun after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The poll found that in general, 49 percent oppose the war while 48 percent favour it. Afghanistan is the one issue where his Republican opponents have backed Obama, supporting his moves to increase U.S. troop strength, having believed that Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, took his eye off Afghanistan while waging war in Iraq.

* Obama has also been pressing Karzai to make greater strides toward improving the rule of law and fighting corruption within the Afghan government. Karzai won re-election last year after a vote that observers said was marred by widespread fraud. When Karzai was declared the winner in November, Obama told him it was time to “write a new chapter based on improved governance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption, joint efforts to accelerate the training of Afghan security forces so that the Afghan people can provide for their own security.”

Compared to Bush, Obama has been far cooler to Karzai but his trip there on Sunday and invitation for Karzai to visit Washington on May 12 signalled the possibility of a closer relationship.

* As part of the new strategy, U.S. and NATO troops are waging their largest offensive in Afghanistan since the start of the war in 2001, aimed at driving the Taliban from Marjah, their last big stronghold in the violent southern Helmand Province, to make way for Afghan authorities to take it over. The offensive is an important piece of Obama’s plan to use his troops surge to seize insurgent-held areas and shift control to local authorities before the United States begins to bring its troops out of Afghanistan.

* The CIA has also stepped up its use of Predator drone aircraft to fire missiles at Taliban targets, particularly in the wake of the killing of eight CIA agents by a suicide bomber who infiltrated a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan in late December. It was the deadliest attack on the CIA in 20 years.

(Editing by Patricia Wilson and Doina Chiacu)

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India can quiz 26/11 convict Headley in US

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Chicago, Mar 19 (ANI): Despite Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative David Coleman Headley being assured about no extradition to India, the Indian authorities can have access to him in the United States and question him with respect to all the charges levelled on him.

Headley, who has been charged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for conspiring in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, has pleaded guilty to all 12 charges levelled against him in a US court.

It is reported that Headley struck a deal with US prosecutors, which concludes him not being extradited to India and not receiving the death penalty.

The admissions were made as part of a plea agreement that brought U.S. prosecutors one of the most significant convictions since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with Headley agreeing to testify against his Canadian co-accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana in exchange for being spared the death penalty or future extradition to India.

The agreement says that when directed by the United States Attorney”s Office, he will fully and truthfully testify in any foreign judicial proceedings held in the United States by way of deposition, video-conferencing or letters rogatory.

This indicates that he can be questioned in the United States under American supervision.

Union Home Secretary G K Pillai had on Thursday said that India would lodge a protest if Headley is let off lightly, adding that New Delhi would continue to demand access Headley.

Forty-nine-year-old Headley is accused of being a scout for the deadly 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in which at least 166 people, including six Americans, were killed and for a plot to kill a Danish cartoonist. (ANI)

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Two Pentagon security officers injured in shooting outside Metro station

March 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON: A gunman coolly drew a weapon from his pocket and opened fire at the teeming subway entrance to the Pentagon complex on Thursday evening, wounding two police officers before being shot and critically wounded, officials said.

The two officers suffered grazing wounds and were being treated in a hospital, said Richard Keevill, chief of Pentagon police.

The suspect, believed to be a US citizen, walked up to a security checkpoint at the Pentagon in an apparent attempt to get inside the massively fortified Defense Department headquarters, at about 6:40pm (2340 GMT) “He just reached in his pocket, pulled out a gun and started shooting” at point-blank range, Keevill said. “He walked up very cool. He had no real emotion on his face.” The Pentagon officers returned fire with semiautomatic weapons.

Of the suspect, the chief said, “His injury is pretty critical.”

The assault at the very threshold of the Pentagon – the US capital’s ground zero on Sept 11, 2001 – came four months after a deadly attack on the Army’s Fort Hood, Texas, post allegedly by a US Army psychiatrist with radical Islamic leanings. In the immediate aftermath Thursday, investigators did not think terrorism was involved but were not ruling that out and did not discuss possible motives.

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as John Patrick Bedell, 36. They also said they were speaking with a second man, who might have accompanied the shooter, and were running his name through databases.

The subway station is immediately adjacent to the Pentagon building, a five-sided northern Virginia colossus across the Potomac River from Washington. Since a redesign following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon, riders can no longer disembark directly into the building. Riders take a long escalator ride to the surface from the underground station, then pass through a security check outside the doors of the building, where further security awaits.

After the attack, all Pentagon entrances were secured, then all were reopened except one from the subway, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. He said the subway entrance was likely to remain closed overnight at least.

Keevill said the gunman gave no clue to the officers at the checkpoint about what he was going to do.

“There was no distress,” he said. “When he reached into his pocket, they assumed he was going to get a pass and he came up with a gun.”

“He wasn’t pretending to be anyone. He was wearing a coat and walked up and just started shooting.”
Keevill added: “We have layers of security and it worked. He never got inside the building to hurt anyone.”

A Pentagon official working late in the building said people inside first heard of the shooting on television. They were later told the building was locked down and to stay in place.

Then at around 7:30pm (0030 GMT Friday), they heard an announcement on the public address system that they could leave through Corridor 3 _ one widely used to get access to one of the parking lots.

“We really don’t know anything, just that we can leave now through that corridor,” one official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak about the incident.

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High court weighs anti-terror material support law

March 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court struggled Tuesday to balance the constitutional rights of humanitarian aid groups with the government’s efforts to combat terrorism.

The issue arose in a challenge by aid groups and individuals to parts of a key anti-terror law that bans “material support” to foreign terrorist organizations, even when that support consists of training and advice about entirely peaceful and legal activities.

The aid groups involved had trained a group in Turkey on how to bring human rights complaints to the United Nations and assisted them in peace negotiations, but suspended the activities when the U.S. designated the Turkish outfit a terrorist organization in 1997. They also wanted give similar help to a group in Sri Lanka, but it, too, was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1997.

Several justices seemed unsure how to resolve a dispute in which they acknowledged legitimate points on both sides. It is the court’s first look at a terrorism-related criminal law since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“This is a difficult case for me,” declared Justice Anthony Kennedy, who often provides the decisive vote that delivers a court majority.

The humanitarian groups, backed in this case by former President Jimmy Carter, say the law makes a crime out of speech _ in violation of the Constitution. “The government has spent a decade arguing that our clients cannot advocate for peace,” David Cole, the lawyer for the aid groups and individuals, told the court.

The administration urged the court to reject the challenge. Any aid to terrorist groups “strengthens them in everything they do,” Solicitor General Elena Kagan said. Kagan emphasized the material support law’s importance, calling it a “vital weapon” in combating terrorism.

The argument took place a day after 25-year-old Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty in New York to providing material support to al-Qaida, among other charges, as part of a plan to attack the New York subway.

Nearly four dozen organizations are on the State Department list, including al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, Basque separatists in Spain and Maoist rebels in Peru.

The humanitarian groups, including the Humanitarian Law Project; Ralph Fertig, a civil rights lawyer; and Dr. Nagalingam Jeyalingam, a physician, want to offer assistance to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka.

The government says the Kurdish rebel group, known as the PKK, has been involved in a violent insurgency that has claimed 22,000 lives. The Tamil Tigers waged a civil war for more than 30 years before their defeat last year.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was among those who suggested the law could be too broad.

“Under the definition of this statute, teaching these members to play the harmonica would be unlawful,” Sotomayor said.

Kagan replied, “The first thing I would say is there are not a whole lot of people going around trying to teach al-Qaida how to play harmonicas.”

Justice Antonin Scalia, who seemed most receptive to the government’s argument, interjected: “Well, Mohamed Atta and his harmonica quartet might tour the country and make a lot of money. Right?”

Scalia was referring to the lead Sept. 11 hijacker.

Supporters of the aid groups have invoked the specter of McCarthyism in a law they say subjects U.S. citizens to prison merely for speech.

Former President Carter, whose Carter Center seeks to mediate international disputes, said the law threatens the work of groups that share the government’s goal of ending terrorism.

“Our work to end violence sometimes requires interacting directly with groups that have engaged in it,” Carter said in a written statement.

On the other side, the Anti-Defamation League said the law is a reasonable approach to fighting terrorism that does not infringe on constitutional rights.

The administration, defending a law that has been on the books since 1996 and modified twice since then, said there is no limit on speech because people can say whatever they want in support of terrorist groups and even may, in one example Kagan batted around with Kennedy, call on a group to lay down its arms.

But that advice crosses the line into illegal activity when it becomes a manual on how to approach the United Nations and lobby for aid, Kagan said.

The reason for this, she said, is “you’ve given them an extremely valuable skill that they can use for all kinds of purposes, legal or illegal.”

The court is expected to issue its decision by late June.

The cases are Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, 08-1498, and Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder, 09-89.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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CIA launches ambitious program to improve agency’s foreign language proficiency

May 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 30(ANI): The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has launched an ambitious program to double the number of analysts proficient in languages, which it deems critical in the fight against America’s enemies.

It was done five years after 9/11 Commission faulted inadequate language skills among its employees.

CIA Director Leon Panetta, announced the new initiative in an acknowledgement of the agency’s slow progress in adding employees fluent in languages such as Arabic, Farsi and Urdu.

“To gather intelligence and understand a complex world, the CIA must have more officers who read, speak, and understand foreign languages,” Panetta said.

Panetta unveiled plans for recruiting more officers fluent in foreign languages and for retraining thousands of current employees, using the agency’s in-house “CIA University.

“The agency will offer night classes and online training, and will enable new recruits to study languages while awaiting security clearance. In addition to doubling the number of officers competent in certain “mission-critical” languages, the agency seeks to increase by 50 percent the number of analysts fluent in the dialect of the culture or region to which they are assigned,” Panetta said.

The CIA had recently reported that a small fraction of its overall workforce, about 13 percent, is fluent in a second language.

Among officers of the agency’s National Clandestine Service, to which most foreign-deployed officers are assigned, the figure is about 30 percent.

The 9/11 Commission had identified lack of skilled translators as a factor in the U.S. government’s failure to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The commission found that, had the intercepted communications been translated on time, the U.S. officials could have been alerted.

“The foreign-language deficit is a government-wide problem that reflects flaws in the security-clearance process. Often, CIA job applicants who are fluent in key languages have been turned away because they have relatives living in countries where terrorists are known to operate,” said Amy Zegart, an expert on intelligence reform and an associate professor at the University of alifornia. (ANI)

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U.S. to prosecute Guantanamo detainee in New York – source

May 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

An al Qaeda suspect accused in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa will become the first Guantanamo Bay prisoner to go to trial in a civilian court in the United States, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The U.S. government was expected to announce on Thursday that Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, accused of supplying equipment and support for the bombings, would be brought to trial in federal court in New York, the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The decision comes as the administration tries to determine what to do with the 240 foreign terrorism suspects held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, established after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, in order to meet President Barack Obama’s deadline to close the facility by the end of January.

Members of Congress are raising opposition to transferring any of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States, saying it would put American security at risk even if they were jailed.

Obama, who campaigned for president on a pledge to close the Guantanamo prison, plans to address concerns in a speech on Thursday.

Ghailani was indicted in New York on charges related to the nearly simultaneous bombings in August 1998 of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and will be prosecuted on charges that he played a role in the deaths of more than 200 people.

Eleven people were killed and at least 85 were wounded in the Tanzania bombing and 213 people were killed in Kenya.

A Tanzanian, Ghailani was seized in Pakistan in 2004 and was one of the 14 “high-value detainees” transferred to Guantanamo from secret CIA prisons in September 2006.

At a 2007 hearing at Guantanamo Bay to determine that he was an “enemy combatant,” Ghailani confessed and apologized for supplying equipment used in the Tanzania bombing but said he did not know the supplies would be used to attack the embassy, according to military transcripts.

He told the Guantanamo review panel he bought the TNT used in the bombing, purchased a cell phone used by another person involved in the attack and was present when a third person bought a truck used in the attack, the transcript said.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has sought to calm the furor in Congress over the potential transfer of Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States by repeatedly saying no decisions would be made that would jeopardize the safety of Americans.

He told reporters on Wednesday that he was confident the administration and Congress would eventually work out their differences.

“It is still our intention, and I think we will meet that goal that the president has set to close Guantanamo by late January of next year,” Holder said.

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Obama to lay out ‘framework’ for closing Guantanamo

May 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Obama to lay out 'framework' for closing GuantanamoPresident Barack Obama on Thursday will outline his strategy for closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, hoping to defuse a revolt by lawmakers over the fate of an internationally reviled symbol of Bush-era detainee policy.

In a much-anticipated speech, Obama will defend his still-emerging plan to shutter the detention camp at a U.S. Naval base in Cuba as he tries to ease concerns that some terrorism suspects held there could be set free in the United States.

He had vowed on his second day in office to close the prison within a year as part of his effort to repair America’s tarnished image abroad.

At the same time Obama is speaking, former Vice President Dick Cheney, an architect of Bush’s detainee policy and a harsh critic of Obama’s approach, will be at a Washington think tank giving a speech partly entitled “Keeping America Safe.”

But four months into his presidency, Obama suffered a stinging setback on Wednesday when the Senate, controlled by fellow Democrats, blocked the $80 million he had sought for the shutdown until he decides what to do with the facility’s 240 inmates.

Democratic lawmakers, worried that some of the prisoners could be jailed or even released in the United States, rebelled against Obama after opposition Republicans threatened to brand them as soft on terrorism.

Despite his high public approval rating, Obama faces a major test of his leadership as he tries to quell a controversy that threatens to divert his attention from his declared top priority of rescuing the ailing U.S. economy.

While most Democrats agree Guantanamo should be closed, they are demanding a detailed plan before releasing funds to launch the process.

If the funds are not released soon, it could be difficult for Obama to meet his January 2010 deadline for decommissioning the prison, which was authorized by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and has long been condemned by international human rights groups.

LAYING OUT ‘FRAMEWORK’

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama would lay out a “framework” for the decisions ahead on Guantanamo when he speaks at 10:10 a.m. EDT (1410 GMT) at the National Archives.

Signaling the likelihood Obama would be short on specifics, Gibbs said many details were still to be worked out and the president had not yet decided whether any of the detainees would be sent to prisons inside the United States.

European allies have been reluctant to accept more than a handful of the prisoners.

Gibbs insisted, however, that Obama would not make any decision that “imperils the safety of the American people” and that the president was determined to stick to his self-imposed timetable for turning the page on Guantanamo.

“Members of both parties agree that Guantanamo Bay has become an image for recruitment for terrorists around the world,” Gibbs told reporters on Wednesday. “And the president signed an order early in his administration to close it, and he intends to keep that promise.”

At the time, Obama also won praise internationally for banning harsh interrogation methods like “waterboarding,” or simulated drowning, which human rights group call torture, and for ordering an end to secret CIA jails overseas.

But he has recently faced criticism on the left and the right for new national security decisions, including blocking the release of photos of alleged detainee abuse and reviving military commissions created by the Bush administration to prosecute terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo.

Seeking to wrest back control of the debate, Obama planned to address those issues as well in what White House aides billed as a wide-ranging speech.

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Synagogue targeted in NY plot, four charged

May 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Four men were arrested on Wednesday in a suspected plot to bomb a synagogue and Jewish community center in New York City and to shoot at military planes with stinger missiles, law enforcement officials said.

A joint release from the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, the FBI and the New York Police Department said the suspects were charged with plotting to detonate explosives near a synagogue in the Riverdale section of New York’s Bronx borough.

The men were also charged with plotting to shoot military planes located at New York’s Air National Guard base at Stewart airport in Newburgh, New York, with stinger surface-to-air guided missiles, the statement said. Newburgh is about 60 miles (96 km) north of New York City.

“The defendants wanted to engage in terrorist attacks. They selected targets and sought the weapons necessary to carry out their plans,” Lev Dassin, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in the statement.

The four men, identified as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, were arrested after buying an inactive missile and inert explosives in a sting operation run by the FBI and other agencies, the complaint said.

“While the bombs these terrorists attempted to plant tonight were — unbeknownst to them — fake, this latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a separate statement.

New York has remained on high alert for another attack since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and killed almost 3,000 people.

Last June, Cromitie told an FBI informant in Newburgh that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and that he was upset about the number of Muslims being killed in the war there and in Pakistan by American forces, the complaint said.

‘DO JIHAD’

Cromitie said if he died a martyr, he would go to “paradise” and that he was interested in doing “something to America,” the complaint said. Last July, he told the informant he wanted to join Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based group Washington designates as a terrorist organization, to “do jihad,” according to the complaint.

In October, Cromitie and the other men began a series of meetings at a house in Newburgh to plot their attacks and just last month they selected the synagogue and Jewish community center and conducted surveillance, it said.

The complaint said they bought an arsenal in May that included improvised explosive devices containing inert C-4 plastic explosives and a surface-to-air guided missile provided by the FBI that was not capable of being fired.

Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, said the suspects planned to undertake their attack on Wednesday using a car bomb outside the synagogue.

“Tonight was the night the attacks were being carried out,” King told CNN, adding that the four men were born in the United States and were all Muslim, one born Muslim of Afghan descent and three who converted in prison.

The complaint quoted from video and audio recordings made by the FBI during meetings between the men and the informant.

During one trip in November to Philadelphia to attend a Muslim Alliance of North America meeting, the complaint says Cromitie said, “The best target (the World Trade Center) was hit already” and “I would like to get (destroy) a synagogue.”

On April 28, Onta Williams told the informant the U.S. military “are killing Muslim brothers and sisters in Muslim countries so, if we kill them here … it is equal.” And David Williams said if Jewish people were killed in the attack, “it does not matter,” the complaint said.

The defendants are expected to appear in White Plains, New York, federal court on Thursday.

Each man is charged with one count of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, and one count of conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, which also carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

All the men live in Newburgh, authorities said.

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ANALYSIS – Dick Cheney emerges as top Obama critic

May 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Bent over his speech text, reading in a monotone, former Vice President Dick Cheney could not have presented a more stark contrast to the glitzy style of President Barack Obama.

And yet, as evidenced by his blistering critique on Thursday of Obama’s handling of terrorism, Cheney has emerged as one of Obama’s toughest critics and the staunchest defender of President George W. Bush’s post-Sept. 11 policies when Bush has chosen to remain silent.

The invited guests and journalists in a nondescript conference room at the American Enterprise Institute, several blocks from the White House, waited for Cheney but first got Obama instead — on a big TV screen.

Cheney had scheduled his speech weeks ago and some in the room said they believed Obama timed his remarks to take the steam out of the former vice president’s appearance.

Cheney, backstage, waited patiently for the former Democratic senator to finish his 50-minute speech, but could not resist the first of many barbs when he stepped to the podium almost an hour behind schedule.

“It’s pretty clear that the president served in the Senate and not the House of Representatives, because in the House we have the five-minute rule,” said the former congressman from Wyoming and veteran Washington political infighter.

He then spoke for 35 minutes.

An unsmiling Cheney delivered his shots without any significant inflection — even as he described the most dramatic hours of the Bush presidency, the chaos of Sept. 11, 2001 when hijacked airliners were on the loose and Cheney was moved to an underground bunker.

Such an event, he said, “can affect how you view your responsibilities.”

Cheney, who often took a low-profile role as vice president, was off on a high-profile, wide-ranging attack.

* On Obama’s decision to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay without a plan for dealing with the prisoners:

“The administration has found that it’s easy to receive applause in Europe for closing Guantanamo. But it’s tricky to come up with an alternative that will serve the interests of justice and America’s national security,” Cheney said.

* On Obama’s decision to stop the use of harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects:

“It is recklessness cloaked in righteousness and would make the American people less safe,” he said.

* On Obama’s release of classified memos describing interrogation techniques while withholding documents that detail any information gleaned from them:

“For reasons the administration has yet to explain, they believe the public has a right to know the method of the questions, but not the content of the answers,” Cheney said.

‘DISDAINFUL’

The Obama team’s editing of one document to take out a conclusion that the tactics had yielded intelligence dividends was an “inconvenient truth,” said Cheney, a play on the title of Democrat Al Gore’s book on global warming.

Charging that Obama has reserved the right to order tough tactics himself, Cheney said: “You would think that President Obama would be less disdainful of what his predecessor authorized after 9/11.”

Turning his attention to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been caught in a storm of controversy over whether she knew about interrogation methods in 2002 that she now condemns, Cheney was dismissive.

He said some lawmakers were notorious for demanding classified briefings and supported them in private “and then head for the hills at the first sign of controversy.”

“In my long experience in Washington, few matters have inspired so much contrived indignation and phony moralizing as the interrogation methods applied to a few captured terrorists,” he said.

Cheney’s personal popularity is low and many fellow Republicans would like to see him fade from the scene, thinking that it might help them rebuild a party battered by election losses in 2006 and 2008.

Democrats eagerly pounce on his comments, confident that it helps their case whenever he speaks out.

But the former vice president has shown no sign of concern, choosing instead to go after what he considers an Obama terrorism policy that borders on weakness.

Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino said Cheney has a “absolutely every right” to ignore the critics and speak out.

“I think that a lot of this is noise. I think it’s good that in America we’re able to have vigorous free speech with frank and open discussions and the former vice president is doing what anyone in his position would’ve done,” she said.

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Furious Obama orders probe into New York flyover photo flop

May 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr.29 (ANI): A furious President Barack Obama has ordered an internal investigation into a photo-op featuring the presidential jet that sent thousands of New Yorkers running for their lives.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday Obama was “furious” when he heard about the incident and has ordered a deputy chief of staff of find out “why that decision was made and to ensure that it never happens again.”

The 747 plane, with an F-16 escort following close behind, circled the Statue of Liberty and the skyline near the World Trade Center site for about a half-hour. Offices were evacuated. Emergency call centers were inundated.

Witnesses reported that the planes were flying dangerously low.

Only military personnel were aboard the 747, Gibbs said. The photo-op cost 328,835 dollars, which includes personnel, maintenance and fuel costs, according to the Air Force, which said the hours would have been flown regardless and the expenses accrued on a different mission.

But the site evoked memories of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and left White House Military Office Director Louis Caldera accepting responsibility and apologizing late Monday for permitting the exercise that infuriated New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had not been alerted to the flyover.

Obama, who was meeting with FBI Director Robert Mueller and other senior officials at the FBI on Tuesday, called the photo-op “a mistake.”

One White House official told FOX News that all future photo-ops with the Air Force One backup plane have been banned, but another White House official would not confirm to FOX News that a reported flyover of Washington, D.C., with the U.S. Capitol as a backdrop scheduled for May 5-6 had been scrubbed. (ANI)

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UK police get more time to question terrorism suspects

April 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

LONDON, April 11 (Reuters) – A British judge has given police a further week to question 11 men detained in raids across northwestern England on Wednesday and suspected of involvement in an al Qaeda plot, police said on Saturday.

A 12th man, an 18-year-old, has been released into the custody of the UK Borders Agency, the body which enforces immigration laws. Any decision on deporting him would be up to the Borders Agency, a police spokeswoman said.

The 12 men include 11 Pakistani nationals, all but one of whom were in Britain on student visas. The 11, still being held at various locations across Britain, are aged between 22 and 41.

Searches are continuing at 10 addresses, police said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the case involved a “very big terrorist plot” that security officials had been tracking for some time.

The raids had to be brought forward because of a security blunder by Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer, Bob Quick, who was photographed carrying a secret document on the operation. He resigned over the security breach.

The operation has caused a diplomatic spat between Britain and Pakistan, with Brown calling on Pakistan to do more “to root out the terrorist elements in its country.”

Most terrorism plots in Britain since Sept. 11, 2001, have had links to Pakistan, including suicide bombings which killed 52 people on London’s underground and bus network in July 2005.

Pakistan’s top diplomat in Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, said on Friday Pakistani authorities could help carry out background checks on student visa applicants but had not been allowed to.

“It is at your end, you have to do something more,” Hasan told BBC television.

Immigration minister Phil Woolas called Hasan’s criticism a “red herring”. (Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Jonathan Wright)

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Police extend search in UK terrorism investigation

April 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

LONDON, April 10 (Reuters) – British police said on Friday they were searching a 10th address as part of a major counter-terrorism operation in northwest England to thwart a suspected al Qaeda plot involving Pakistani nationals.

Twelve men — 11 of them Pakistanis — were arrested in dramatic daylight raids by hundreds of officers on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he had spoken with Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari by telephone on Thursday night to discuss the operation.

Brown’s office said they agreed that Britain and Pakistan “share a serious threat from terrorism and violent extremism”, and had committed to “work together to address this common challenge”.

Most terrorist plots in Britain since Sept. 11, 2001 have had links to Pakistan, including suicide bombings in July 2005 which killed 52 people on London’s underground and bus network.

Greater Manchester Police said in a statement that the new search was taking place at an address in Liverpool. They added that the suspects arrested were still in custody “in various locations across the country”. Police did not anticipate making any further announcements on Friday.

Wednesday’s raids had to be brought forward because of a security blunder by Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer, Bob Quick, who was photographed entering Brown’s 10 Downing Street residence openly carrying a secret document on the operation.

The document, headlined “Briefing Note: Operation Pathway” and marked “secret”, described it as a “Security Service-led investigation into suspected AQ (al Qaeda) driven attack planning within the UK”.

Quick resigned on Thursday, acknowledging that “my action could have compromised a major counter-terrorism operation”. (Reporting by Frank Prenesti and Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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