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KABUL, Afghanistan - Prison doors and cells have been fortified at the U.S. military jail in Afghanistan, a U.S. official said Wednesday as details emerged of an unprecedented breakout by a suspected al-Qaida leader and three others who picked locks and evaded a mine field. The Pentagon's belated confirmation of the identity of one of the four who escaped in July, Omar al-Farouq, sparked anger in Southeast Asia where he was one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants. Some officials in Indonesia, where he was captured in 2002 before being handed over to U.S. authorities, accused Washington of failing to...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2005 – Military officials today released more details about the three car bombs that detonated near the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in central Baghdad early Oct. 24. The first car bomb caused a breach in an outer barrier wall of the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, at Firdos Square traffic circle, officials said. About five minutes later, a second car bomb approached the square and tried to maneuver through the breach, but was engaged by civilian security forces and detonated near the 14th Ramadan Mosque. Thirty seconds later, a Task Force Baghdad soldier engaged a cement truck that...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2005 – The Iraqi security forces have made enormous progress over the past 16 months, the U.S. Army general who oversaw their training for more than a year said during a Pentagon news conference today. Lt. Gen. David Petraeus headed Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq for 15 months before turning the command over to Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey last month. Petraeus said that while much more work needs to be done, no one should belittle the progress that has been made, especially since the progress has taken place in spite of a brutal insurgency. Iraqi security...

ALBANY, N.Y. - Two Muslim men caught up in an anti-terrorism sting operation pleaded innocent Friday as details emerged about 10 new charges against them. Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain were accused Thursday of attempting to provide support to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based group listed by the federal government as a terrorist organization. Aref, who leads a mosque, also was charged with lying to federal officials. The pair were initially charged in August 2004 with conspiring to launder money and promoting terrorism. They now face a total of 30 charges. Entered as new evidence against Aref were entries in his personal...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2005 – Al Qaeda terrorists hope to drive American influence from the Middle East and install a global Muslim leader in Saudi Arabia, Army Gen. John Abizaid said today. Speaking during Senate testimony, Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, said al Qaeda's objectives are clear. "They believe in a jihad, a jihad to overthrow the legitimate regimes in the region," he said. "In order to do that, they first must drive America from the region." Al Qaeda believes the most important prize is Saudi Arabia, which is home to the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina. If...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Aug. 19, 2005 – The Afghan and coalition effort to hold elections Sept. 18 is ongoing, and the process will extend until the National Assembly is seated in December or January, the head of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan said today. Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry spoke with reporters traveling with Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Myers is in the midst of a 10-day trip that has taken him and a USO troupe to Germany, Kosovo, Kuwait and Iraq before stopping here and at the main air base in Afghanistan in...

NEW YORK -- The suicide bombers cooked up their explosives using mundane items like hydrogen peroxide. They stored them in a fancy commercial refrigerator that was out of place in their grimy flat. And cell phones likely were used to set them off. Those details from the July 7 London bombing emerged on Wednesday at an unusually wide-ranging briefing given by the New York Police Department to city business leaders. The briefing -- based partly on information obtained by NYPD detectives who were dispatched to London to monitor the investigation -- was part of a program designed to encourage more...

SACRAMENTO – In January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a "bold new era of reform" that he said would make government more accountable, improve education and control state spending. He later endorsed a series of five ballot measures for the Nov. 8 special election intended to turn his rhetoric into reality. But mistakes have shrunk Schwarzenegger's once broad agenda. Two of the measures were written so poorly that the governor decided to jettison them. A third, which deals with how political districts are drawn, faces a legal challenge today over a flaw that could cause it to be dropped from the...

We all watched Terri Schiavo die. Now former LAPD homicide detective and New York Times bestselling author Mark Furhman investigates to find out what really happened. Later this month, Furhman's newest book, Silent Witness: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo's Death, will be released. It will prove the controversy over Terry Schiavo's death is far from over. And it's not over yet. Despite her death, the controversy lingers. In Silent Witness, Mark Fuhrman applies his highly respected investigative skills to examine the medical evidence, legal case files, and police records. [NewsMax will have among the first copies.] With the complete...

SACRAMENTO - Federal authorities who arrested two men and detained three others this week in a terrorism probe say they have been investigating members of a Central Valley Pakistani community for years and expect more developments in the weeks ahead. But they aren't saying just how the men came to their attention, how far the connections extend and exactly what kind of attacks - if any - they were plotting. FBI spokesman John Cauthen on Thursday said the investigation was not triggered by an internal rift within Lodi's Pakistani community, as some members had suggested. "This specific investigation has been...

The top administrator of San Diego's pension fund worked with the city manager nine years ago to develop the now infamous plan to underfund the employee retirement system, according to a 1996 draft memo released by the city attorney. City Attorney Michael Aguirre says the memo, which will be part of his sixth report on the pension crisis, shows that the administrator, Lawrence Grissom, played an improper role in helping shape the plan when he should have been "acting as an independent representative of the board." Grissom denied the allegation, as did other former city officials. The seven-page memo from...

Based on the extensive quotations cited in the complaint, it appears a safe bet that Mackris, 33, recorded some of O'Reilly's more steamy soliloquies. For example, we direct you to his Caribbean shower fantasies. While we suggest reading the entire document, TSG will point you to interesting sections on a Thailand sex show, Al Franken, and the climax of one August 2004 phone conversation.

Source: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Date: 2005-01-16 NASA/French Satellite Data Reveal New Details Of Tsunami For the first time, orbiting satellites have observed and measured a major tsunami event in open ocean, the Indian Ocean tsunami that resulted from the magnitude 9 earthquake southwest of Sumatra on December 26. The measurements are of tremendous value to researchers worldwide and will aid our understanding of these events. NASA's Jason and Topex/Poseidon oceanography satellites have captured the first-ever observations and measurements of a major tsunami event in open ocean. (Graphic courtesy of NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory) U.S. and French teams working in parallel with...

For vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs. The so-called blogosphere, with its personal journals published on the Web, has become best known as a forum for bruising political discussion and media criticism. But the technology proved a ready medium for instant news of the tsunami disaster and for collaboration over ways to help. There was the simple photo of a startlingly blue boat smashed against a beachside palm in Jaffna. "Every house and fishing boat has been smashed, the entire length of the east coast," wrote Fred Robart, who posted...

(For fans of Monty Python's Flying Circus) The AP* has uncovered startling new details on the death of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat following an assiduous investigation. The AP* recently obtained highly classified documents from an as-yet unidentified member of the CIA*. Those documents revealed that Arafat was literally scared to death while lying in hospital when a giant hedgehog peered into his private room’s window. Witnesses, who wish to remain anonymous, have identified the enormous rodent as Spiny Norman, the long-time nemesis of Britain’s notorious arch-criminal, Dinsdale Piranha. The CIA* operative, who previously worked for the UK’s MI5* was...

TRENTON -- The alleged gunman who was cut in half by an enraged father’s SUV Sunday was an escapee from an East Orange halfway house, police said yesterday. Police confirmed the identity of the dead suspect as Jose Alvarez, of Trenton, who would have celebrated his 20th birthday yesterday. Police said Alvarez was mowed down by Robert O’Neal, 54, in his Dodge Durango Sunday night, following an alleged robbery, shooting and car chase that ended with Alvarez killed along a southbound lane of Route 29. The identity of the dead suspect was just one of the new details which emerged...

Tokyo -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in an interview today that he will make public his daily schedule, a move that open government advocates say will provide an unprecedented look at how his administration determines public policy. The governor said he will release a complete calendar of his first year in office, including whom he met with. His comments came just days after voters approved Proposition 59, which seeks to strengthen open records laws and follows a formal request by a media law group to make his calendar public. Schwarzenegger said the decision was in keeping with a campaign pledge...

A few years ago, as the state's now-chronic fiscal crisis was deepening, then-Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature were facing a seemingly intransigent gap between income and outgo, along with mounting public and political pressure to close out that year's budget. The Capitol's politicians devised the ultimate "solution" to bring the budget into theoretical balance: add another billion dollars in federal aid to the revenue side of the ledger. The phantom billion - which, of course, never did appear - was one of the many tricks that Davis and lawmakers used to enact state budgets that accumulated tens of billions...

San Jose accepted the resignation of its top technology official Monday just hours before the much-anticipated release of a city audit that found favoritism and collusion in the award of an $8 million contract to install Cisco Systems equipment in the new downtown City Hall. The audit, whose preliminary findings were released last week, tells the story that cost Chief Information Officer Wandzia Grycz her $174,000-a-year job: Working closely with Cisco, Grycz and her staff designed a computer-and-phone network that required Cisco equipment, in violation of city policies encouraging competition for contracts. But the final audit goes further to locate...

I came back from vacation raring to gripe about how we in the press conveniently overlook significant details on these catchy little stories we go bonkers over. Details like the roar of the crowd in the Des Moines ballroom where Howard Dean screamed his immortal Scream. Details like a full characterization of the journalist Teresa Heinz Kerry told to "shove it." Then, I discovered just how far behind the curve a blissful few days in the West Virginia mountains can leave you. See, for example, this and this. The Truth behind Shove-it GateKrugman -- Triumph of the Trivial Still, I...