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CAIRO - A Saudi-owned newspaper says that one of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's daughters has taken refuge in the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after eluding guards who have held her and five brothers under house arrest for eight years.

Osama bin Laden’s closest relatives are living in a secret compound in Iran, members of the family said last night. They include a wife and children who disappeared from his Afghan camp at the time of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. There has been uncertainty about the family’s whereabouts for the past eight years, with reports that some of the children had been killed in bombings, while others had joined their father in planning terrorist attacks. However, relatives said that they found out last month that the group, including one of Osama’s wives, six of his children and...

SNIPPET: "The US targeted a senior al Qaeda leader and brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden during Thursday's swarm attack in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The US believed Sheikh Saeed al Saudi was scheduled to attend a high-level al Qaeda meeting in the Datta Khel region in North Waziristan, The News reported." SNIPPET: "Sheikh Saeed al Saudi is married to bin Laden's sister and serves on al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or executive council, a senior US intelligence official told The Long War Journal. The official also confirmed that al Saudi was the target of the attack. Al Saudi...

(CBS) A U.S. government official says a top al Qaeda operative has been killed in a drone attack in western Pakistan and local media says that the strike killed al Qaeda's number 3 in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, CBS's Sami Yousafzai reports. The U.S. is still not confirming the report, CBS News has learned. Abu Yahya al-Libi is the spiritual successor to Palestinian philosopher Abu Azzam - and the inspiration for much of Bin Laden's beliefs, according to CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan. He is very powerful and believed by some to be the natural successor to...

"We are told by U.S. officials that a high ranking member of Al Qaeda, not Osama Bin Laden, has been killed today by a U.S. Predator Drone attack."

Given a chance to clear away some of the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the world's most wanted terrorist, U.S. officials seemed to add to it with what appeared to be conflicting assessments. National Security Adviser James Jones said Sunday that Osama bin Laden, believed hiding mainly in a rugged area of western Pakistan, may be periodically slipping back into Afghanistan. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday the United States has lacked good intelligence on Mr. bin Laden for a long time — “I think it has been years.” When asked whether the United States planned a fresh attempt...

A Taliban detainee in Pakistan claims to have information about Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts in January or February of this year. His claims cannot be verified, but a leading American expert says his account should be investigated. The detainee claims to have met Osama Bin Laden numerous times before 9/11. He claims that in January or February he met a trusted contact who had seen Bin Laden about 15 to 20 days earlier in Afghanistan. "In 2009, in January or February I met this friend of mine. He said he had come from meeting Sheikh Osama, and he could arrange...

Reliably sympathetic to non-Western lies, the BBC reported yesterday that a prisoner in Pakistani custody knows a guy who saw Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan last January. Headlines! Now, Osama may, indeed, pop over the border into Afghanistan now and then -- but this report is a shameless Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence agency concoction. Why? Because the Pakistanis have taken a lot of heat recently over suspicions -- including those raised in The Post -- that they know where Osama is but shield him for their own benefit. Even party-line US government officials have grown skeptical about the Pakistani government's...

thought with this administration we were going to get our coalition partners to be on equal footing with us? Officials in Brussels says Obama will be asking Nato allies to provide up to 10,000 extra troops. Asking? How about a demand… and if you don’t we pull out and you all can fight this stinking war yourselves! The US currently has 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, with foreign forces overall totalling more than 100,000. The additional American soldiers are expected to focus on tackling the Taliban in volatile southern and eastern Afghanistan. A senior Pentagon official said the new troops will...

No no, just kidding: There’s no “maybe” here. On the contrary, he blithely asserts that “there’s no question about it,” which precipitates the first and likely last defense of George W. Bush ever mounted by David Shuster. But then, this is the same guy who once claimed that Karl Rove planted the phony memos that destroyed Dan Rather’s career, who called for nationalizing America’s oil industry, and who thought it’d be super-keen to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Chock full o’ good ideas, he is; it was only a matter of time before he stumbled across this one.

Osama bin Laden was within the grasp of US forces in late 2001 and could have been caught if then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld hadn't rejected calls for reinforcements, a hard-hitting US Senate report says. The report, set for release Monday, is intended to help learn the lessons of the past as President Barack Obama prepares to announce a major escalation of the conflict, now in its ninth year, with up to 35,000 more US troops. It points the finger directly at Rumsfeld for turning down requests for reinforcements as Bin Laden was trapped in caves and tunnels in a mountainous...

The recruits gather in scorching desert hideouts in Somalia, use portraits of President Barack Obama for target practice, learn how to make and detonate bombs, and vow allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Training camps in the lawless nation of Somalia are attracting hundreds of foreigners, including Americans, and Somalis recruited by a local insurgent group linked to al-Qaida, according to local and U.S. officials. American officials and private analysts say the camps pose a security threat far beyond the borders of Somalia, including to the U.S. homeland. In interviews with The Associated Press, former trainees gave rare details on the...

Whoever suggested that Barack Obama is not a Christian? Obama’s decision to try those Gitmo prisoners in New York is the perfect gift for Osama bin Laden and just in time for Christmas. We can only imagine those non-alcoholic champagne corks popping in some remote cave in Afghanistan. While al Qaeda and the far left celebrate the Obama-Holder decision, it has shocked and outraged most Americans. They are outraged because these men were captured in a war on terror; and should be treated as enemy combatants. And because prosecuting them in a civilian court rather than by military tribunal will...

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to give a federal court trial instead of a military commission hearing to five Guantanamo detainees the government has linked to the 9/11 attacks has led to criticism that the Obama Administration is transforming the war on terror from a military to law-enforcement affair. This has led some critics to wonder if captured terrorist suspects would have to be read their Miranda rights on being captured by U.S. military or law enforcement representatives. In one of the highlights of Wednesday's Justice Department oversight hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina...

Rep. Kucinich Says Everyone, Including Osama Bin Laden, Should Get the Same 'Basic Rights' Monday, November 23, 2009 By Matt Cover, Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) - When asked whether al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden should have the right to remain silent and be given a lawyer, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) told CNSNews.com that everyone who is accused of a crime should have “the basic rights." On Capitol Hill on Nov. 19, CNSNews.com asked Kucinich, “If and when the U.S. captures Osama Bin Laden, should he have the right to remain silent and be given a lawyer--told he can get a...

On December 18, 2007, then presidential candidate Barack Obama leveled the first of dozens of heavy criticisms against President George W. Bush. In a speech in Des Moines, Obama blasted President Bush for taking his “eye off the ball in Afghanistan." He continued: "It’s time to…increase our military, political, and economic commitment to Afghanistan. That’s what…I’ll do as president.” This was Barack Obama’s first “eye off the ball” speech. It was the beginning of a barrage of campaign speeches accusing the Bush administration of “taking our eye off of Osama bin Laden” (Denver, 1/30/08). On July 15, 2008 in Washington,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report says. The report asserts that the failure to kill or capture bin Laden at his most vulnerable in December 2001 has had lasting consequences beyond the fate of one man. Bin Laden's escape laid the foundation for today's reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says. Staff members for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's...

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report says.

Claims of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden seem to be as common as sightings of David Duchovny at porn shops. It is tempting to dismiss all such accounts as hearsay and rumors, but current reports focus on three areas of the world as the most likely hideout for the globe’s most wanted man: Parachinar, Pakistan; Chitra, Pakistan; and most shockingly, the Islamic Republic of Iran. While it is often argued bin Laden would never receive harbor on Iranian territory, this is the location most identified by eyewitness reports available to the public, allowing for a detailed chronology of his...

Osama bin Laden’s passion for falcon hunting may have come close to doing him in two years ago, when an American falconer working with a Tajik smuggler and a team of former special forces operators planned to kidnap the fugitive terrorist during a hunt in northeastern Iran, according to one of the people involved in the scheme. The plan was scuttled when FBI officials in Boston threatened to arrest members of the snatch team for violating the Neutrality Act — even though the State Department has been running a “Rewards for Justice” program offering private citizens up to $25 million...

If the audio message purportedly from al Qaeda's deputy leader is authentic, we have finally heard from a representative of the terror organization about the American election. It was wholly expected that there would be such a tape, though the content, with its references to Malcolm X might be considered somewhat surprising --although in recent tapes al Qaeda's leaders have occasionally referenced critics of American society and foreign policy such as Noam Chomsky and Malcolm X. On the tape, the deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, seeks to make President-elect Barack Obama seem like an apostate for his support of Israel and...

War On Terror: Halloween came and went this election year with no "October surprise" from Osama bin Laden. Is he busy preparing an attack? More like too frightened to rear his ugly head.The reason al-Qaida's kingpin issued no videotaped message this time — or at least during October, as many presumed he would — has more to do with the pressure we've finally brought to bear on his redoubts inside Pakistan. U.S. forces have launched 19 drone-fired and other missile strikes against al-Qaida and Taliban targets within the past eight weeks alone. One of them took out the No. 4-ranking...

MIRANSHAH/ WANA: A total of 33 people, majority of them foreigners, were killed in two separate U.S. drone strikes in Pak-Afghan bordering areas of North and South Waziristan late Friday. In the first attack two missiles were fired that destroyed a vehicle and a house in Mir Ali, a town in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region that is a known hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, sources said. The latest targeted an Al-Qaeda operative, possibly an Iraqi, but officials citing local intelligence reports said he was not believed to be among the dead. Officials gave the targeted militant's name...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — An Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative described by the United States as the terror network's propaganda chief was killed in a missile strike in Pakistan, security officials said Saturday. Abu Jihad al-Masri was among several rebels killed when two missiles fired by a suspected US spy drone hit a truck in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Friday night, they said. The United States has offered a one-million-dollar bounty for the death or capture of al-Masri, who has appeared in an anti-Western video introduced by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's number two. "The strike was aimed at...

U.S. intelligence agencies expect al-Qaida to release a message from Osama bin Laden just before or after next week's presidential election, ABC News reports. Sources told ABC that intelligence analysts believe bin Laden's followers may consider him irrelevant if he is not heard from at such a critical time.

ISLAMABAD: World's most wanted fugitive, al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is reportedly writing a book on the struggle of his terrorist network that dispenses money, logistical support and training to radical groups in over 50 countries. The book, being written in Arabic, will later be translated into English. Bin Laden decided to write the book to counter "propaganda" against al-Qaida, Geo News channel reported. Bin Laden is writing the book with the assistance of a "young man with a Middle Eastern background who will later translate the text into English", the channel reported. The book will reportedly highlight atrocities...

PST, Friday, October 24, 2008     KARACHI: Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden is busy these days writing a book in Arabic language on the so-called struggle of his outfit, according to al-Qaeda sources. The book will be later translated into English, the sources said, adding that Bin Laden decided to pen a book on his organization as a response to the ‘negative propaganda and insufficient information’ about al-Qaeda. “He is writing the book with the assistance of a young man with a Middle Eastern background who will later translate the text into English,” sources said. In the book, Osama has...

KHAR, Pakistan — Pakistan's army said Saturday that it has captured a key militant stronghold near the Afghan border, a breakthrough in an offensive against the Taliban and Al Qaeda that has sent nearly 200,000 civilians fleeing for safety. Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan said government forces captured Loi Sam, a strategic town in the Bajur tribal region, earlier this week "and killed the militants who were hiding there."

LAPD Chief William Bratton warns that Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda could be preparing an attack to disrupt or influence the U.S. elections. Bratton said in a New York Daily News opinion piece, "Bin Laden probably realizes it could become markedly more difficult to paint the United States as the great Satan with a new president who is admired internationally."

A senior al Qaeda operational commander is believed to have been killed recently in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, several U.S. officials told CNN Wednesday. The officials identified the man as Khalid Habib, who is considered to have been an operations coordinator for al Qaeda in the tribal region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be hiding. One official described him as the "chief of external operations" for al Qaeda. Officially, the U.S. intelligence assessment is that Habib was "probably" killed last Thursday, because there is no final DNA match, but there...

I have, from good and reliable sources, information suggesting that the Hon. R. Barclay Surrick will come down with an order and memorandum either on Thursday or Friday.... Common sense, for the past two months, has told me that Philip Berg's case will be eventually dismissed on grounds of lack of standing. Nevertheless, I have had a gut feeling that Judge Surrick may very well just surprise us all -- the information I have been getting over the past 24-36 hours reinforces that gut feeling. Thank you, and keep your fingers crossed for not only a decision, but a favorable...

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton announced Wednesday that he believes Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might try to influence next month's U.S. presidential election through a terrorist attack or some less dramatic tactic. "With so much at stake in these elections, Bin Laden will probably attempt to make his opinion count," wrote Bratton in an article published on the opinion page of the New York Daily News. Bratton co-wrote the article with R.P. Eddy, former director of counter-terrorism at the National Security Council.

Appearing on "Meet the Press" Sunday, Colin Powell claimed one reason he is endorsing Barack Obama is that fellow Republicans are spreading falsehoods about him. Specifically, Powell claimed Republicans are spreading the claim that Obama is a "Muslim." "I'm also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say, and it is permitted to be said such things as: 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim,'" Powell said. He quickly continued: "Well, the correct answer is: He is not a Muslim. He's a Christian. He's always been a Christian." But Powell's statement is...

Accused terror suspect Jack Thomas heard Osama bin Laden tell an al-Qaeda training camp before the September 11 attacks that "something big was going to happen," a Melbourne court heard on Wednesday. Former Melbourne taxi driver Joseph Terrence Thomas told ABC current affairs program Four Corners in 2005 that he did not know the al Farouk camp in Afghanistan he attended was an al-Qaeda training camp. In the unedited version of the Four Corners interview played to a Victorian Supreme Court jury on Wednesday, Thomas, 35, says he travelled to Afghanistan to help the country get back on its feet...

The U.S. military says the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq has been killed by Coalition forces during an Oct. 5 operation in the northern city of Mosul. The military has positively identified the insurgent leader as a Moroccan known as Abu Qaswarah or Abu Sara.

CBS) Shortly after 9/11, the Pentagon ordered a top secret team of American commandos into Afghanistan with a single, simple order: kill Osama bin Laden. It was America's best chance to eliminate the leader of al Qaeda. The inside story of exactly what happened in that mission, and how close it came to its objective has never been told until now. The man you are about to meet was the officer in command, leading a team from the U.S. Army's mysterious Delta Force - a unit so secret, it's often said Delta doesn't exist. But you are about to see...

(CBS) Shortly after 9/11, the Pentagon ordered a top secret team of American commandos into Afghanistan with a single, simple order: kill Osama bin Laden. It was America's best chance to eliminate the leader of al Qaeda. The inside story of exactly what happened in that mission, and how close it came to its objective has never been told until now.

Despite the lies told by the press and by John Kerry, special forces did in fact try to kill Bin Laden at Tora Bora. The biggest challenge in the operation was in fact the terrain. Afghan fighters who were to actually lead the charge ended up turning on the US forces during a cease fire they had with al Qaeda. Then there is the big issue as told by the officer,

Howie just posted that a Al Qaeda tape is out featuring Adam Gadahn...it is recent as it mentions the resignation of Mushy and the new Pakistani leader Zardari. Link Jawa Report

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri narrowly escaped arrest by the Pakistani military, according to an Islamist militant leader. Naji Ibrahim, leader of the Islamist militant organisation, Jemaah Islamiyah made the claim in an interview with Egyptian daily al-Misriun. The Pakistani military had reportedly located al-Zawahiri's hiding place in the lawless tribal areas controlled by the Pakistani Taliban, also thought to be a haven for Al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden. The US State Department has offered a 25 million dollar reward for the Egyptian-born doctor, who has delivered numerous audio and video messages urging militants to continue the fight against the United...

Taliban leader Mullah Omar has urged United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan to withdraw or face a similar defeat to occupying Soviet troops a generation ago. In a rare message posted on militant websites and monitored by the US-based SITE intelligence group, Omar offered a bargain to the US-led forces that drove the Taliban from power in 2001 but are now fighting a fierce insurgency by the Islamist militia. "Reconsider your wrong decision of wrong occupation and seek a safe exit to withdraw your forces," said the message, which the Taliban said came from Omar. "If you leave our...

Pakistani police capture al Qaeda's Karachi commander By Bill RoggioSeptember 26, 2008 10:57 AM Pakistani police detained a senior leader af al Qaeda's network in Karachi during raids in the southern city as more information on al Qaeda's network inPakistan comes to light. Police captured a senior terrorist leader named Rahimullah during a early morning raid in the port city. Rahimullah's capture led to a follow-on raid that targeted a suicide bombing cell. Three terrorists were killed during the raid after throwing hand grenades at the police. A gun battle and an explosion was reported. Police indicated the bombers blew...

The number of Muslims around the world who say suicide attacks are acceptable has fallen sharply in the past six years, as has Muslims' confidence in Osama bin Laden, a survey by a US think-tank showed Thursday. But, the Pew Research Center warned in its Global Attitudes Project, significant minorities of Muslims in eight countries surveyed continue to endorse suicide bombings and support the Al-Qaeda leader. In Lebanon, the number of Muslims who said suicide attacks can be justified often or sometimes in defense of Islam fell by 42 percent between 2002 to this year, the study showed. But although...

The U.S. – Pakistan relationship is in crisis. Tensions continue to mount between the Bush Administration and a fractured Pakistani government over violations of Pakistan’s sovereignty by American military forces, and Pakistan’s commitment to the war on terror is growing more tenuous by the day. Because Pakistan either cannot or will not secure its side of the border with Afghanistan, the United States has increasingly felt compelled to act. There is some justification for U.S. actions. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines sovereignty as “supreme authority within a territory.” In no way, shape, or form does the Pakistani government have...

DUBAI: The elusive al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden’s literary work will be published soon by an Oxford-educated academic expert in Arabic, according to media reports. Bin Laden's recitals at wedding banquets and other feasts during the 1990s were recorded on tapes recovered from his compound in Afghanistan in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks in the US. They were studied by Professor Flagg Miller, who teaches Arabic poetry at University of California, Davis, the report said. Bin Laden is a skilled poet with clever rhymes and metres, which was one reason why many people taped him and passed recordings around,...

Pakistani authorities both confirm and deny the incident that took place near Angoor Adda where a US raid against alleged terrorist on 3 September resulted in the death of women and children. Pakistani general says his country is ready to defend its territory against anyone. Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Pakistani troops fired at US military helicopters forcing them to turn back after they crossed into South Waziristan near Angoor Adda, a village some 30 kilometres from Wana, the region’s largest town. “Our troops did not spare them, opened fire on them and they turned away,” a Pakistani security official said in...

Pakistani troops fire on intruding U.S. choppers By Augustine Anthony 36 minutes ago Pakistani troops fired on two U.S. helicopters that intruded into Pakistani airspace on Sunday night, forcing them to turn back to Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani security official said on Monday. It was the second such incident in a week, and reflects frayed relations with the United States over Pakistan's failure to act more forcibly against Islamist fighters in the tribal lands bordering Afghanistan. The number of missile attacks by U.S. drone aircraft in the remote tribal areas has multiplied in recent weeks. The helicopters violated the border...

(CNN) -- In a video marking the seventh anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, al Qaeda's top leader in Afghanistan vows more "large-scale" attacks against the United States and its allies. Mullah Omar, chief of the Taliban, is shown in this undated headshot photo. In another segment, the personal adviser to Taliban leader Mullah Omar says al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and well. Al Qaeda leaders featured on the video promise more violence against their enemies... Also on the video is a reading from the will of Saeed al Ghamdi, one of the 19 hijackers involved...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — DEVELOPING: Pakistan's army spokesman says its forces have orders to open fire if U.S. troops launch another raid across the Afghan border. Pakistani officials issued sharp protests to Washington after helicopters ferried U.S. commandos into Pakistan's South Waziristan region on Sept. 3 for a highly unusual ground attack into a militant stronghold. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told The Associated Press that, after the raid, the military told its field commanders to prevent any similar raids. Abbas said that if it was clear that troops had crossed the ill-defined border into Pakistani territory, either on the...

NPR has learned that the raid by helicopter-borne U.S. Special Operations forces in Pakistan last week was not an isolated incident but part of a three-phase plan, approved by President Bush, to strike at Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaida leadership. The plan calls for a much more aggressive military campaign, said one source, familiar with the presidential order, which gives the green light for the military to take part in the operations. The plan represents an 11th-hour effort to hammer al-Qaida until the Bush administration leaves office, two government officials told NPR. "Definitely, the gloves have come off," said...