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The stunning events of September 11, 2001, were a potential template for future terrorist attacks. But since then, al-Qaida and its affiliates have been unable to mount a similar encore in the United States. The foiled Times Square attack may be a sign that these groups have been forced to shift tactics to smaller operations that are less spectacular, but are also harder to detect. Former CIA counterterrorism chief Robert Grenier says the failed Times Square bombing last Saturday may indicate that al-Qaida and its allies have abandoned more grandiose plans for the United States and are emphasizing smaller but...

Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin-Laden tried to obtain nuclear weapons, according to his former bodyguard, Nasser al-Bahri. “He dreamed of getting nuclear weapons, and I’m sure that had he got hold of them, he would not have hesitated to use them,” al-Bahri told Al-Quds al-Arabi on Wednesday morning. Al-Bahri, who is currently residing in Yemen, revealed to the London-based paper that he always carried bullets in order to kill Bin-Laden should the al-Qaida leader be arrested.

A decade ago I argued that radical Islam might horrify the West into submission through the mass sacrifice of Muslim lives. During the past two weeks Iran has virtually invited a nuclear exchange with the West, in a series of statements that blend a deranged sort of bluster with malevolent calculation. Iran's Kayhan press service warned last week, "If the US strikes Iran with nuclear weapons, there are elements which will respond with nuclear blasts in the centers of America's main cities." Meanwhile, Behzad Soltani, the number two man at Iran's Atomic Commission, proclaimed last week, "Iran will join the...

"Pirates 'smuggling al-Qaeda fighters' into Somalia Somali Islamists bent on turning their land into an international haven for Al Qaeda are using pirate gangs to offer foreign militants safe passage into the country, The Sunday Telegraph has been told." SNIPPET: "The Taliban-style Shabab group , which has already siezed control of much of the lawless nation, has enlisted the pirates' services to smuggle in al-Qaeda fighters from across the Middle East, according to Somali government ministers. They claim that up to 1,000 have arrived in recent months, swelling the ranks of the Shabab in its bid to topple the fragile...

Like it or not, one of the advantages that al Qaeda does have is an ability to change strategy without their leaders mulling it over for four months, the way President Obama did when he was trying to figure out Afghanistan. The Washington Times is reporting that during the underwear bombers second wave of talking he admitted meeting some other English Speakers at terrorism school in Yemen. Thank goodness his parents talking him into speaking, because this was all well after he shut up upon being read his Miranda rights.

The shopping malls of America will be among the next major terrorist targets. Malls make such obvious high-value targets that it's difficult to grasp why they haven't been hit up until now. Shopping malls are America's marketplaces, constantly packed with people, with uncontrolled entry, and openly vulnerable to any given form of attack. We need only consider the darkest days of the Iraqi terror campaign of 2006-2007 to grasp how the jihadis view marketplaces. Scarcely a week went by without another Iraqi marketplace bombing, with casualties largely consisting of women and children, mounting from the dozens to the hundreds. We...

Terrorists groups could soon use the internet to help set off a devastating nuclear attack, according to new research. The claims come in a study commissioned by the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), which suggests that under the right circumstances, terrorists could break into computer systems and launch an attack on a nuclear state – triggering a catastrophic chain of events that would have a global impact.

A new book published by Al Qaeda shows that the terrorist group is under intense pressure and in "deathly fear" of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Pakistan, terror experts say. The 150-page book, titled "Guide to the Laws Regarding Muslim Spies," was recently posted on jihadist Web sites. It was written by a senior Al Qaeda commander, Abu Yahya Al-Libi, and features an introduction by Ayman Al-Zawahri, the No. 2 man in Al Qaeda. The book accuses some in Al Qaeda's ranks of being spies who provide intelligence, including information about Al Qaeda camps and safehouses, to U.S. forces. According to...

Muslim fighters are being told they may be justified in cannibalizing U.S. soldiers, it emerged Friday. The chilling message is contained in a recent jihadist Internet entry that quotes from the work of a prominent jihadist ideologue, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi. In one section of his work, Maqdisi discusses the idea of having to do something that is otherwise forbidden, including eating food "sacrificed for an idol," according to the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group, which translates jihadist "chat" sites. Maqdisi adds some scholars believe this has evolved to mean that Muslims, faced with hunger, are allowed to kill an enemy and...

The new commander of al Qaeda's paramilitary forces that operate in Pakistan and Afghanistan laid out al Qaeda and the Taliban's strategy to defeat the Coalition and Afghan government. Abdullah Sa'id, the commander of the Lashkar al Zil, or the Shadow Army, released a statement concerning the status of the fight in Afghanistan. The statement, which has been obtained by The Long War Journal, was issued by Al Fajr Media Center, an official outlet for al Qaeda propaganda, and published on the Islamic Al Fallujah Forum. The Shadow Army is al Qaeda's elite paramilitary army. The unit has its roots...

Al-Qaida is nothing if t opportunistic. Its leadership watches the news carefully. It tracks how stories play. It adapts its tactics. Now, counterterrorism experts are worried that al-Qaida and its affiliates will be inspired by Somali pirates. "Potentially, piracy is a platform for their activities," says Robert D. Kaplan, a fellow at the nonpartisan Center for a New American Security. "There are already al-Qaida affiliates in Somalia. If they can make contact with pirate federations, then al-Qaida can use piracy as a form of terrorism." In recent months, al-Qaida has strengthened its ties with a Somali terrorist group called al-Shabab....

.."60 percent of the detainees who were released and returned to these areas have returned to fighting."

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused moderate Arab leaders of plotting with the West against Muslims and urged his followers to prepare for jihad, in a recording aired by Al Jazeera television. "It is clear that some Arab leaders have plotted with the Zionist-crusader coalition against our [Muslim] people, these [Arab countries] the United States calls the moderate states," bin Laden said, without naming any of the leaders. Excerpt: read more at link

Evil Conservative Radio (Wed 7PM Edt) continues our talk with Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. Is there an Islamic plan to subjugate western culture? What is this plan and are they being successful? What do the Quran and Islamic scholars say about this? Is Obama an Islamophile and can a nation led by an Islamophile stand against this? All this and more in this clip from ECR.

Reporting from Minneapolis -- Tall and lean, with a wispy mustache and shy smile, 17-year-old Burhan Hassan chalked up A's last fall as a senior at Roosevelt High School, vowing to become a doctor or lawyer. After school and on weekends, he studied Islam at the nearby Abubakar As-Saddique mosque. He joined its youth group. "He wanted to go to Harvard," said his uncle Osman Ahmed. "That was his dream." Instead Hassan has gone to Somalia, the anarchic East African nation that his family fled when he was a toddler. On election day, Hassan and five other youths slipped away...

BAGHDAD, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- A boy masquerading as a flower seller blew himself up last September before the house of Sheikh Imad Jassem, the joint-leader of the Sons of Iraq in Tarmiya, 25 km north of Baghdad. The boy, as young as 10 years old, had been stalking Jassem for three days before tripping on his flip-flops several meters away from his target. The bomb exploded prematurely, seriously wounding the leader. The innocent and immature young have been recruited and trained to be suicide bombers of the al-Qaida network in Iraq to attack Iraqi high-profile officials as well as...

A 14-year-old who was trained to kill by radicals in the tribal regions of Pakistan now sits in a crowded classroom at a detention facility in Kabul. His only wish is to see his parents again. Shakirullah, 14, is convicted of planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. 1 of 3 "I miss my parents, my mom and dad," Shakirullah says in soft tones. Like others in tribal regions, he goes by one name. Shakirullah is already a convicted terrorist for planning to carry out a suicide bombing. He says Muslim radicals lied and tricked him into becoming...

In Egypt, the GPS utility on the iPhone has been banned from the general public and is restricted to military use. The restrictions stem from fears Cairo has that terrorists can utilize the mapping tool to coordinate attacks, and Apple, which developed the popular gadget, has acquiesced and removed GPS devices from iPhones sold in Egypt. Their fears are not unfounded. Last month terrorists attacking Mumbai used Google Earth to plan the blitz, according to findings from India's security services.

NO one should feel safe without submitting to Islam, and those who refuse to submit must pay a high price. The Islamist movement must aim to turn the world into a series of "wildernesses" where only those under jihadi rule enjoy security. These are some of the ideas developed by al Qaeda's chief theoretician, Sheik Abu-Bakar Naji... Naji's book, written in pseudo-literary Arabic, is meant as a manifesto for jihad. He divides the jihadi movement into five circles - ranging from Sunni Salafi (traditionalist) Muslims (who, though not personally violent, are prepared to give moral and material support to militants)...

Western intelligence services have been expecting an al-Qaeda spectacular terrorist attack in this crucial period between the end of President George Bush’s administration and the succession of Barack Obama. Signals intelligence “chatter” in recent weeks indicated that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organisation might be plotting an attack “to grab the headlines” before Mr Obama takes over in the White House on January 20. British security and intelligence sources said there had been increasing concern, particularly in the United States, that a “terrorist spectacular” was on the cards. The multiple attacks on Westerners in Bombay last night showed all the signs...

When Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States in al-Qaeda's name in the late summer of 1996, he outlined ambitious worldwide Islamist goals but noted that al-Qaeda could not accomplish them on its own. He said that al-Qaeda could, at best, serve as the vanguard that would attack the United States, assist Muslim insurgencies around the world and generally try to incite Muslims to join the jihad against the United States, Israel and the police states that govern much of the Arab and Muslim world. At the time, Bin Laden was very clear in saying that the ultimate...

US intelligence officials fear al-Qaeda currently training white Europeans in Pakistani camps to carry out terror attacks in Europe, North America. Intelligence director: Europeans can enter US without passport, blend in more easily

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2008 – Use silenced guns to kill coalition forces at Iraqi security checkpoints, smuggle weapons in gradual shipments to reduce the risk of detection, and poison Iraq’s water supply with nitric acid to spread disease and death. Coalition forces found a chart showing senior al-Qaida leaders recently killed or captured and several pages of a letter found on the body of a terrorist. The items were released April 16, 2008, in Baghdad, Iraq, during a media briefing by U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman.  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Such...

The head of the main US spy agency has warned that Al-Qaeda is training operatives who "look western" and could enter the United States undetected to conduct terrorist attacks. Central Intelligence Agency Director General Michael Hayden also said the terror network, which over the past 18 months has established a "safe haven" in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghanistan border, has shed its operational reliance on mastermind Osama bin Laden. "They are bringing operatives into that region for training -- operatives that, a phrase I would use, wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at...

Baghdad, 21 March (AKI) - Al-Qaeda has decided to enlist widows to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq, according to a study by the Voices of Iraq news agency. During the last three months, six suicide attacks were carried out by women. A total 10 women have carried out suicide attacks in Iraq since April 2003 , according to statistics from the United States army. As recently as Wednesday, a woman blew herself up in volatile Diyala province, killing five people. On Monday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up among a group of civilians in the holy Shia city...

WASHINGTON, March 18, 2008 – Information culled from 48 foreign fighters in custody of Multinational Force Iraq yields a profile for al Qaeda foreign terrorists, a senior military official said yesterday. When analyzed, officials found that foreign terrorists had comparable recruitment stories, including why they joined al Qaeda and what they did once they were smuggled into Iraq, said Air Force Col. Donald Bacon, chief of special operations and intelligence information for Multinational Force Iraq. Bacon spoke with online journalists and “bloggers” during a conference call. All of the captured or surrendered foreign terrorists were single men, and they averaged...

BAGHDAD — Iraq has captured an Al Qaida-aligned cell that recruited and deployed women for suicide operations. On March 1, Iraqi and U.S. troops raided a suspected Al Qaida safe house in Al Makhesa, in northeastern Diyala. Officials said scores of suspected women operatives recruited as suicide bombers were arrested. The women suicide cell was said to have consisted of 100 operatives. Officials said Al Qaida has increased its use of women for suicide operations. The women cell was said to have operated in the Diyala province. Officials said some of the women were recruited by their husbands for suicide...

A poll by satellite TV Al Jazeera on the attacks in Algiers on December 11 has aroused bitter controversy in the Algerian media. "Are you in favour of Al Qaedàs attacks in Algeria?". This is the "scandalous question", daily Liberte writes, proposed by Qatar's channel Al Jazeera, "which makes of the terrorist apology one of the main editorial lines". The daily adds that more serious are the results: a total 54% of the TV audience has answered to be in favour of the double suicide bomb attack in Algiers against the seat of the UN and the Constitutional Court, "...

In a major strategic change, the Algerian arm of Al-Qaeda appears to be using terrorists older than 60 to carry out its attacks. That is the finding to have emerged from early analysis of the dual bombings that struck Algiers on Tuesday. Arab media and analysts have spoken of the "return of the elderly" to describe the strategic change by Al-Qaeda's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb (BAQMI) that claimed responsibility for the bombings in the Algerian capital. The Algerian government said that at least 26 people were killed and more than 170 wounded by the two bombs. However hospital sources...

Al-Qaeda's new weapon: a kite Forget heat seaking multi million pound missiles Al-Qaeda terrorists may be using a low tech weapon that has been used as a toy by children for thousands of years: kites. The multi billion pound US military fear al-Qaeda-linked militants may be flying cheap kites high above the Indonesian jungle with the intention that they get caught in the propellers of military helicopters flying by to bring them crashing to the ground. A Huey helicopter encountered difficulty while flying back at night from a recent combat mission on the southern island of Jolo after a...

Exclusive Confirmation From al-Qaida-Linked Group on Attempted Use of Nuclear Weapon, Ties With Iran, and Failed Assassination Bid Against US President and Jordanian King Analysis: By Gregory R. Copley and GIS Staff. US intelligence sources have indicated that US counter-terror analysts were looking at what they felt were “changes” in targeting and methodological doctrine by al-Qaida-linked jihadist terrorist groups. In particular, the translations of the information on the website which provided the basis for the assessment were believed to highlight a new “low-tech terrorism” against targets in the West. GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs analysts, who have viewed the entire context...

London terror analysis: Online manual on car bombs instructs terrorists 'not to park illegally' Yaakov Lappin Published: 07.01.07, 16:18 / Israel News The three botched terror attacks launched in Britain in the past 72 hours bear all the hallmarks of first-time British-born jihadis attempting to emulate al-Qaeda in Iraq. Multiple car bombs designed to slaughter hundreds of civilians and strikes against critical infrastructure are daily events in Baghdad, and al-Qaeda in Iraq has decided to put its experience in mass murder on the internet for the benefit of its members around the world, in the form of an online training...

Al Qaeda continues to take a beating, but you can ignite a media firestorm just saying that. One of the most irritating things about the war on terror, is trying to keep score. Unlike a conventional war, where you can measure territory won and lost, as well as casualties, the current conflict does not really lend itself to those measurements. But there are things that can be measured. Al Qaeda operations continue to decline, as the number of al Qaeda members, and leaders killed or captured, goes up. Then there's al Qaeda media activity. Up until last Fall, 93 percent...

Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com. Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9. A Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures as some 300 recruits, including boys as young as 12, were supposedly sent off on their suicide missions.

Symposium: Al Qaeda: What Next? By Jamie GlazovFrontPageMagazine.com | June 15, 2007American intelligence has discerned that al Qaeda is rebuilding in Pakistan’s tribal areas and that a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden. This ominous development raises several pertinent questions. Among them: what do we really know about al Qaeda? We had very little knowledge of the terrorist organization before 9/11; how much has our understanding of al Qaeda really changed since 9-11? What have we learned since? And how has what we learned changed our understanding of and dealing with the enemy? To discuss these...

Al Qaeda's newest tactic to elude American forces appears to be dressing in drag. A key al Qaeda operative who was dressed as a woman was killed in eastern Afghanistan, according to the U.S. military. It was the third time in just three weeks that al Qaeda operatives wearing women's clothing have been captured or killed by coalition forces, Coalition spokesman Colonel Tom Collins told ABC News.

The suspected terror plotters arrested in Britain had planned to conceal their liquid or gel explosives inside a modified sports beverage drink container and trigger the device with the flash from a disposable camera. ABC News has learned exclusively that the plotters planned to leave the top of the bottle sealed and filled with the original beverage but add a false bottom, filled with a liquid or gel explosive. This, they thought, would ensure that they would be able to pass through security -- even if they were asked to unseal and drink the beverage. The flash in a disposable...

A 2004 al-Qaeda Strategy Manual can now be downloaded at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center website here. The translation of this manual by al-Qaeda strategist, Abu Bakr Naji, was completed in May by the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University.

JUST before the first anniversary of the July 7 bombings in London that killed 52 people, Al Qaeda released a video that reflects a significant change in how it operates: terrorism is being brought home. The new video tries to recruit ordinary American Muslims who might be offended, as many ordinary Americans are, by America’s mistakes and moral failings in carrying out the war on terrorism. The film stars three terrorists: Shehzad Tanweer, one of the July 7 bombers who died during the attack; Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy and long-time chief ideologue; and Adam Gadahn, a 28-year-old American...

According to one NYPD intelligence officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the terrorists believe if they can hurt the American economy that more people -- with the help of many Democrats and some Republicans in collusion with the mainstream news media -- will turn against the Commander-in-Chief and his plan of taking the fight to the enemy. New York cops love President Bush. They endorsed him and they support him. So perhaps that detective's analysis is a bit biased. But I wholeheartedly agree with that detective. The terrorists know that the Democrat Party leadership -- either as willing accomplices...

******************************************************The Management of Savagery By Abu Bakr Naji Translated by William McCants DOWNLOAD THE MANAGEMENT OF SAVAGERY Translation of Major al-Qaeda Book that Outlines Its Plan for Defeating U.S. and Its Allies The genre of “strategic studies”—the name given by jihadi ideologues to their books and articles on the strengths and weakness of the jihadi movement and those of its enemies—had, until recently, been neglected by Western governments and analysts involved with counterterrorism. In 2004, Hegghammer and Lia called attention to the genre (which they dubbed “jihadi strategic studies”) and usefully commented on its features (Hegghammer and Lia, SCT, 2004)....

The US and its Arab allies must expect an increase in attacks on their oil infrastructure in the next phase of the war by al-Qaeda targeting the US economy, the former Central Intelligence Agency official who was responsible for hunting down Osama bin Laden warns on Monday. Writing for the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington security think-tank, Michael Scheuer says Mr bin Laden's intention to bankrupt the US economy by driving up world oil prices is very likely to lead to attacks inside the US by al-Qaeda, its allies or unrelated groups. Houston's gas refineries, oil import facilities and ship canal...

ABC News has obtained a document seized by U.S. and British Special Forces during a recent raid of an alleged Zarqawi safe house about 20 miles southwest of Baghdad in the town of Yusufiyah. This was the raid where the military believes it narrowly missed capturing Zarqawi himself. The five-page document appears to sketch out a new strategy for Al Qaeda in Iraq: Reduce attacks in the Sunni dominated areas in the West and concentrate attacks inside Baghdad. "We will reduce our operations against [the Americans] in our areas for the near future, and will perform our work against them...

Islamabad, 2 May (AKI) - Osama bin Laden possesses a "dirty bomb" and nuclear devices bought on the Russian black market prior to 2001, according to Hamid Mir, the journalist who interviewed bin Laden shortly after the 11 September attacks. "Material useful for building a dirty bomb was smuggled from Russia to Georgia and then on to Afghanistan," Mir said in an interview with the website of satellite network al-Arabiya. He added that the device was built with various materials, including uranium, by an Egyptian engineer known as Saad. "I met this engineer only once, in 2000, when the Taliban...

The leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is attempting to set up his own mini-army and move away from individual suicide attacks to a more organised resistance movement, according to US intelligence sources. Faced with a shortage of foreign fighters willing to undertake suicide missions, Zarqawi wants to turn his group into a more traditional force mounting co-ordinated guerrilla raids on coalition targets. Al-Qaeda is sending training and planning experts to help to set up the force and infiltrate members into Iraq with the assistance of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the sources said.

One could easily argue that Al Qaeda and the worldwide jihad pansurgency have their roots in the Algerian War. Alistair Hornes’s magnificent book Savage War of Peace, Algeria 1954-1962 is a must read for a thorough understanding of what’s going on in Iraq and the Muslim world today. The Algerian insurgents were, at the beginning, a mix of westernized intellectuals and Muslim fundamentalists, but soon enough the jihadists took over. Simply put, they were more brutal, willing to commit the kind of atrocities that would put them in the vanguard. It is vital to understand that what’s going on in...

When we immigrated from Jerusalem, Jordan* in January, 1967, little did I imagine that Islam would become center-stage in world news. As my sincere interest in the growth of Islam in America intensified, I began to discuss, dialogue, and then debate Muslim leaders throughout the world from an Arab Christian's view of Islam. So far, I have had the privilege of participating in over 20 debates and discussions on every continent plus T.V. and radio. "Islam Revealed" was released in 1988 and is now in its 8th printing. The True Furqan is now in its third printing in the three...

An audio tape featuring Osama bin Laden marks al Qaeda's announcement that a new strategy is now in place. Al-Qaeda has lost hundreds of operatives through killings and arrest. By the end of 2003, the organization was in the doldrums and infested with spies. Its vertical, centralized structure was abolished and its various groups and cells - apart from a few - were abandoned and allowed to scatter. These issues were later linked with two conditions: The acquisition of bases to launch a war in the open. The reorganization of sympathizers and new recruits to launch a worldwide battle. Throughout...

Karachi, 20 Jan. (AKI) - (Syed Saleem Shahzad) - Osama bin Laden’s reappearance after a one-year absence marks a new strategy that al-Qaeda has been honing for two years or more, senior intelligence officers have told Adnkronos International (AKI). An audio message from Osama bin Laden, which has been authenticated by US intelligence officials, was aired by Al Jazeera on Thursday. The al-Qaeda number one said new attacks on the US were being planned and offered a 'truce' if Washington pulls troops out of Iraq. Sources told AKI that Pakistan's lawless Waziristan region is a haven and a training hub....

Al-Qaida is recruiting suicide bombers who are infected with the AIDS virus, according to Britain's Sunday Mirror. The newspaper reported that terror chiefs are also targeting fanatics who suffer other lethal blood diseases such as hepatitis and dengue fever in order to increase their "kill rate" from an explosion. The chilling new threat is revealed in papers distributed to British military camps in Iraq and across Europe. Under the heading "HIV/Hepatitis" the document states: "There is evidence that terrorists might be deliberately recruiting volunteers with diseases that are spread by blood transference." Experts have found that bones and other blood-spattered...