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Saudi Arabia is weighing buying an advanced Russian missile system to shore up its defence against a potentially nuclear Iran, Gulf analysts and diplomats said. They said Moscow and Riyadh are close to sealing a deal on a multi-billion-dollar weapons package that could include Russia's advanced S-400 missile defence system. It is the newest version of the S-300 long-range surface to air missile system that Moscow has been in discussion for several years to sell to Iran, which denies Western charges of aiming to become a nuclear power. But heavy Western and Israeli pressure and a possibly more lucrative deal...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Does Islam frown on nose jobs? Chemical peels? How about breast implants? One of the clerics with the answers is Sheik Mohammed al-Nujaimi, and Saudi women flock to him for guidance about going under the knife. The results may not see much light of day in a kingdom where women cover up from head to toe, yet cosmetic surgery is booming. Religion covers every facet of life in Saudi Arabia, including plastic surgery. Al-Nujaimi draws his guidelines from the consensus that was reached three years ago when clergymen and plastic surgeons met in Riyadh to determine...

Obama and King Abdullah spoke to reporters -- and Abdullah presented Obama with a gold medallion -- before they went into a private meeting after Obama's arrival Wednesday. Said Obama: "We have a strategic relationship and as I take this trip and will be visiting Cairo tomorrow I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began and to seek his majesty's counsel and to discuss with him many of the issues that we confront here in the Middle East." Abdullah: "The historically strategic ties between our two countries...go back to the time of the meeting...

Former chief White House political advisor Dick Morris revealed Tuesday that his former boss Bill Clinton cared so little about global terrorism that his own Assistant Secretary of State had trouble getting him to pay attention to a bomb threat against the Khobar Towers Air Force barracks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. "In 1996, I got a phone call from Dick Holbrooke," Morris told WABC Radio's Sean Hannity. "He said, 'We're getting hard intelligence that terrorists are planning another hit on our guys in Riyadh.... They're in the exact same building they were in when it was hit last time.'" In ...

No churches should be permitted in Saudi Arabia, unless Pope Benedict XVI recognised the prophet Mohammed... "It would be possible to launch official negotiations to construct a church in Saudi Arabia only after the Pope and all the Christian churches recognise the prophet Mohammed." "If they don't recognise him as a prophet, how can we have a church in the Saudi kingdom?" Ashiqi's comments came after a declaration launched by the papal nuncio of the Persian Gulf, the archbishop Mounged El-Hachem, at the opening of the first Catholic church in Qatar last week. El-Hachem estimated three to four million Christians...

Today President Bush toured the National museum in Riyadh and visited Saudi King Abduallah’s Al Janadriyah Farm in Al Janadriyah, where he watched the king’s horses paraded in front of them. He also spoke at the US Embassy in Riyadh, during a roundtable discussion with Saudi entrepreneurs, where he urged oil producers to take action over near record-high prices Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Baghdad First Lady Laura visited the Washington Mill Elementary School near Mt. Vernon, where she participated in the 'George Washington's Return to School' ceremony Enoy your visit to Sanity Island...

Mar. 4, 2007 15:52 | Updated Mar. 4, 2007 17:15Analysis: What actually happened in Riyadh? By DR. GUY BECHOR It would have been a sensitive visit in any case - a meeting between the two most prominent figures in the Middle East today, who represent the Shi'ite and Sunni worlds - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Saudi king Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz VI. Everyone understood that this was a visit that would have to be prepared carefully. Ahmadinejad's personal representative Ali Larijani visited Riyadh. Larijani is Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, and the subject of the Riyadh visit was obvious. Larijani...

Abu Dhabi: A new report from the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy showed Saudi Arabia is the main beneficiary of high oil prices. But it noted the kingdom's spare capacity has sharply dwindled in the past few years because of higher output. Saudi Arabia controls nearly a quarter of the world's recoverable crude resources. "Saudi Arabia's oil export revenues increased sharply [49 per cent] in 2005 compared to 2004, and are projected to increase again [6 per cent] in 2006 before falling [-7 per cent] in 2007," it said. It noted that during 2003-2004, Riyadh benefited...

DUBAI - Seven terror suspects - six Saudis and a Yemeni - have escaped from a prison in central Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday. The men escaped from Milz Prison, said the Saudi Interior Ministry. The Saudi Press Agency quoted the ministry’s spokesman Mansour Al- Turki as saying that if the fugitives do not return to the detention camp they would lose the privilege of an amnesty announced by Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to those who surrender. He urged anyone who sees the fugitives to immediately contact the interior ministry or the closest police station. Last...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 18 (UPI) -- Saudi security forces arrested five suspected al-Qaida members closely linked to a foiled attempt to bomb oil installations in eastern Saudi Arabia. A security source said one of the detainees figures on a list of 36 wanted terrorists released by Saudi authorities last June. An interior ministry source said police discovered last week the suspects' hideout in a warehouse in Riyadh where they seized explosive materials, assault rifles and ammunitions, in addition to three cars. He said communication equipment, cameras, a computer and video tapes as well as false car plates were also...

Saudi security forces have thwarted a terrorist attack on Saudi Arabia's largest oil refinery Abqaiq, the second in two months, according to media reports. The Kuwaiti news agency KUNA and the Iraqi Radio Nawa report that police discovered two car bombs in the area. Local daily al-Riyadh reports that Saudi police on Tuesday carried out house searches in the al-Mantar area of Abqaib, where some employees of Saudi oil giant Aramco live, arms and explosive were discovered in one of the homes and one man was arrested. Reports say that the vehicles to be used in the attack bore the...

Saudi police exchanged fire in a Riyadh suburb Monday with suspects wanted in connection with a failed bid to blow up the world's largest oil-processing plant, the Al-Arabiya television channel reported. Sounds of automatic gunfire and grenades exploding could be heard in the residential suburb of Grenada, where the suspects were holed-up, the Dubai-based channel reported. Suicide bombers attempted to penetrate the world's largest oil-processing plant at Abqaiq, in the oil-rich eastern province, on Friday but their attack was thwarted leaving two security men dead. The two would-be suicide bombers were also killed. An Al-Qaeda statement posted on the...

Zaynab Khadr claims she didn’t know that terrorist Osama bin Laden would attend her wedding in Pakistan. Now the 25-year-old says she didn’t know clips of bin Laden’s voice calling for the killing of Americans were on the laptop computer seized by the RCMP at Pearson airport when she returned to Canada last February.

Plans, tapes diaries seized at Pearson airport Zaynab Khadr denies they belong to her OTTAWA—The RCMP and Canadian military believe they've discovered a vital cache of information on Al Qaeda that includes the whereabouts of wanted members and details of attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan. The information is allegedly contained in a laptop, dozens of DVDs, audiocassettes and the pages of diaries, seized by the RCMP officers who met Zaynab Khadr at Pearson airport with a search warrant as she arrived back in Canada in February, court documents state. Khadr is the eldest daughter of a family that has...

Terry Nichols, Philippines, bombs, etc. See Mark Tapscott here: “Before Able Danger and Mohamed Atta, There Was Murrah Building Bombing and Hussain Al-Hussaini; Journalist Uncovers OKC Links to 9/11, which links to this L.A. Weekly article: “The Rohrabacher Test: Congressman questions Terry Nichols about Oklahoma City bombing”. The Mark Tapscott link also has a comprehensive statement from Jayna Davis, who has pursued this story for ten long years and has now written a book entitled “The Third Terrorist”. One interesting quote — among many — in the L.A. Weekly piece is from Richard Clarke: Clarke wrote that the theory of...

BBC man thanks God he survived By Chris Hastingsm Arts Correspondent(Filed: 02/10/2005)Frank Gardner, the BBC reporter left paralysed after an attack by Islamic terrorists, says the horrific incident has increased rather than shattered his faith in God.In an edition of Desert Island Discs to be broadcast today, Mr Gardner, 43, the corporation's security correspondent, also reveals that he has contracted osteoporosis, a disease normally associated with the elderly. Doctors diagnosed the condition just days before he recorded the Radio 4 programme.   Frank Gardner: 'I thank God for staying alive' Despite the continuing impact on his health Mr Gardner...

RIYADH, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Saudi security forces clashed with gunmen north of the capital Riyadh on Thursday, Al Arabiya television reported. The Saudi-owned channel was quoting its correspondent, who said police had cordoned off a district in north Riyadh where they were battling the gunmen. Earlier this month, Washington closed its diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia for two days due to an imminent threat against U.S. government buildings in the kingdom. Britain also warned that militants were in the final stages of planning attacks in the kingdom, and Australia said it had received "credible reports" Islamic extremists were...

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, in his debut in the U.N. Security Council, pressed Syria and Iran on Thursday to do more to stem the flow of terrorists, arms and funding into neighboring Iraq. His comments came as the 15-nation council unanimously adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution condemning a recent surge in violence in Iraq that has killed hundreds, including Algerian diplomats, U.S. Marines and a Sunni Arab helping to draft a new Iraqi constitution. Russia used the vote to criticize the media for glorifying terrorists after Moscow said it would bar ABC News from working in Russia when the U.S. television...

Newswire Alert

The supposed chief of Al-Qaïda in Saudi Arabia killed in Riyadh - the supposed chief of Al-Qaïda in Saudi Arabia, the Morrocan Younès Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Hayari, was killed in a fixing Sunday in Riyadh with the Saoudi forces of safety, brought back the chain of television Al-Arabiya. "the chief of network Al-Qaïda in Saudi Arabia, (the activist) Moroccan required Younès Al-Hayari, was killed", brought back the chain, with mainly Saoudi capital, which emits since. Little before, Al-Arabiya had made state of a death and two wounded among the required islamist activists at the time of a fixing in the...

A Falls Church man accused of conspiring to assassinate President Bush met several times with an al Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia who once was the target of a global manhunt and a key suspect in an attack that killed nine Americans in Riyadh, law-enforcement authorities said. Ahmed Omar Abul Ali, scheduled for a detention hearing tomorrow in federal court on charges of providing material support to al Qaeda, met with Zubayr al-Rimi in Saudi Arabia between September 2002 and June 2003...

Arabia: victory with Ryad of candidates supported by the islamists RYAD - the local elections organized in Saudi Arabia saw the victory in the Ryad capital of several candidates supported by the islamists, according to provisional results'. Some of beaten intend however to dispute this result. Several beaten candidates affirmed that the names of six of the seven winners were reproduced on a list diffused by portable telephone and Internet during the countryside, which makes them think that the latter had the support of the islamists. One among them, Zafer Al Yami, expressed the intention to dispute these results....

RIYADH (AFP) - A Yemeni considered to be closely linked to terror chief Osama bin Laden was one of seven militants killed in Wednesday's shootout with Saudi security forces in Riyadh, a security source told AFP. "Ibrahim Ahmad Abdel Majeed al-Reemy, a Yemeni national, was among the seven militants killed on Wednesday evening," the source said Reemy, who does not figure on the Saudi kingdom's most-wanted list, is a "big shot in Al-Qaeda and is believed to be the link between the organisation in Saudi Arabia and bin Laden himself," the source said. Wednesday's shootout took place after two car...

Oil prices surged nearly $US2 a barrel Wednesday following two bombings in the capital of Saudi Arabia and after the US government reported that winter fuel supplies shrank last week.Light crude for February delivery was up $US1.87 at $US43.64 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude fell 90 cents to $US39.17 per barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange. While down considerably from the October peak above $US55 a barrel, crude futures are 33 per cent more expensive than a year ago, contributing to higher prices for gasoline, heating oil and other fuels. Fears of...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A suicide attacker tried to drive his bomb-laden car into the Interior Ministry complex, and militants set off another bomb and exchanged fire with police late Wednesday in Riyadh, capital of a kingdom at war with Muslim extremists. The first explosion at about 8:35 p.m. shattered windows and sent smoke and flames rising into the nighttime sky near the ministry in central Riyadh. Police officials said a suicide car bomber had tried to storm the ministry, but failed and instead exploded his car just outside. A number of policemen were injured, a ministry official said,...

RIYADH, 29 December 2004 — Three suspected terrorists were killed and another was injured in a gunbattle with security forces in the capital last night, security sources told Arab News. The encounter took place near Al-Salam Park, close to the Higher Court in Riyadh’s Al-Deera district. According to the sources, the terrorists opened fire on policemen who were in their hot pursuit near a gas station. The police returned fire in which the three terrorists were killed. There was no word on the casualties among the men in uniform. The sources added that some of the terrorists managed to escape...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

http://www.globalterroralert.com http://www.globalterroralert.com/saudi0904-02.pdfGlobalterroralert.com (9/21/04): Al-Qaida's Committee in Saudi Arabia has taken credit for last week's murder of Briton Edward Stuart Muirhead-Smith, 56 years old, in the parking lot of the Max shopping center in the eastern part of Riyadh. Saudi media sources reported that two un-identified male perpetrators in a white Toyota car shot Smith four times as he sat in his own vehicle. The men quickly fled and have remained at large from pursuing Saudi security forces.

How Islamists hijacked the Chechen separatist movement.THREE ROADS led to the horror at Beslan in the Russian republic of North Ossetia, in which at least 330 people, most of them children, died: one road beginning in Grozny, the capital of neighboring Chechnya; one road beginning in Moscow, to the north; and one road beginning in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, far to the south. Americans need to know how such frightful events are connected to the global war on terror, and the degree to which they must threaten our own peace of mind. The main culprits in Beslan were...

Saudi Arabia Al-Qaida Cell Acknowledges Deaths of Three Members, Says Battle Was to Defend Leader's Wife By Sarah El Deeb/Associated Press CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A message purportedly from an al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia surfaced Monday with the acknowledgment that three of its militants were killed in a shootout last week with security forces. In the statement, which was found on Islamic Web sites, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula gave its own account of the July 20 raid on a house in Riyadh, describing it as battle to defend the wife and family of their leader. The house was...

Saudi Official Denies Wanted Militant Killed Abdullah Al-Shihri/Associated Press Jul 1, 2004 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A senior Saudi official denied Thursday that a militant killed in a shootout with police was a cleric believed to be the chief ideologist for al-Qaida in the region. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press Wednesday in Riyadh that the man slain during a car chase and shootout with police was Abdullah Mohammed Rashid al-Roshoud, one of Saudi's most wanted terror suspects. Saudi and other Arab TV stations and newspapers also widely reported that al-Roshoud had been...

Muqrin was killed with two associates on Friday An ex-Saudi policeman has become leader of the al-Qaeda militant group in Saudi Arabia, according to media reports from the troubled kingdom. Saleh al-Oufi, 38, will take over from Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, who was killed by police on Friday. Saudi security forces have been hunting al-Qaeda members in Riyadh, following the execution of a US hostage. Saudi analysts say the new leader will be a formidable foe as he been a key figure in the group since 1985. Al-Qaeda is believed to have been behind the abduction and beheading of US defence...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A purported al-Qaida statement Saturday claimed the terror group had kidnapped one American man in the Saudi capital and killed another American. It threatened to treat the captive as U.S. troops treated Iraqi prisoners. Earlier Saturday, an American identified by the U.S. Embassy as Kenneth Scroggs was shot and killed as he pulled his car into the garage of his Riyadh home. The statement claimed al-Qaida had killed an American at his house but did not identify him. The U.S. Embassy confirmed an American was missing but would not identify him. "We do have reports...

LONDON: The BBC reporter shot nine times in an al-Qa'ida ambush in Saudi Arabia that claimed the life of his camerman remained in a coma last night. Frank Gardner, the BBC's security correspondent, underwent further surgery yesterday after having two bullets removed from his abdomen, one from his leg and another from his hand. A senior BBC executive said: "It was a touch and go for a while but doctors are confident he will pull through." Saudi police are investigating suggestions the gunmen were tipped off about the presence of the BBC team in a stronghold of al-Qa'ida supporters in...

RIYADH (Reuters) - Gunmen who killed a BBC cameraman and critically wounded a senior correspondent have been linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, a Saudi diplomat says. "It is the same fanatical group. They are linked to al Qaeda," Jamal Khashoggi, the media adviser to Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi ambassador in London, told Reuters on Monday, referring to recent attacks in the Saudi cities of Khobar and Yanbu. The BBC identified the dead cameraman as Simon Cumbers, 36, and the wounded man as security correspondent Frank Gardner, 42.

One Briton has been shot dead and another injured after gunmen opened fire in a district of the Saudi capital Riyadh. The city's police chief told a news agency two British people had been shot by "unknown elements" at around 1740 (1540 BST) on Sunday. "One was killed and the other wounded," he said. The UK Foreign Office said local embassy staff were checking the reports, but had no further details. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The Saudi authorities have confirmed that one British national was killed and one injured in an attack in Riyadh."

RIYADH (Reuters) - Suspected Muslim militants shot at U.S. citizens in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh on Wednesday just days after a major al Qaeda attack in the country killed 22 people, mainly foreigners, Western diplomats said. "There has been shooting in Riyadh against Americans this morning," said a diplomat. "We have no word on casualties and no details at this moment." In a separate incident, Saudi forces killed two gunmen after clashes in the Western city of Ta'if, security sources said. Dubai-based Al Arabiya television said the two men were wanted "terrorists" but that they were not linked to...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi state television turned to interviewing everyone from children to intellectuals to try to rally citizens against terrorism as it reported Saturday on the latest outburst of extremist violence in the kingdom. Suspected Islamic militants fired inside two office compounds in the oil city of Khobar, 250 miles northeast of Riyadh, Saturday morning, killing at least 10 people before taking dozens of hostages at a luxury resort. As the hostage standoff continued into the night, Saudi TV's last newscast of the day included brief interviews with six men, apparently security officers, injured in Khobar. They...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi security forces clashed with five wanted militants at a suspected hideout north of Riyadh on Thursday, killing four and wounding the fifth, a security official said. A security agent was also killed and two others were wounded in the shootout at a house outside the town of Buraida, the official said on condition of anonymity. Buraida is one of the kingdom's fundamentalist strongholds. The official said the men were "misguided individuals," a euphemism Saudi officials use to refer to Islamic militants. He said weapons and ammunition were found at the scene. It was not immediately...

BY televising the destruction caused by a car bomb at the Saudi General Security Services building in Riyadh, Saudi authorities have taken the right step. Showing such scenes on TV is the only way to convince Saudis of the crimes being committed by terrorists who kill innocent people against the rules of Sharia. Let the Saudi people see for themselves how terrorism is claiming the lives of innocent people in Fallujah, Basra and now in Riyadh. Saudi security authorities must use this as a tool to fight terrorism. They must highlight the terrorists thirst for blood. Now that they don't...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi security forces and wanted militants exchanged gunfire Monday in Riyadh, the capital, officials and witnesses said. Smoke was seen rising from Riyadh's eastern suburbs where the shootout began during the afternoon, security officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity. Large numbers of police cordoned off the area and ambulances went to the scene, the witnesses said. There was no immediate word of any casualties, and it was not yet clear who the militants were or for what they were being sought. Saudi authorities have released a list of the 26 most-wanted terrorists...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI made a series of arrests in three states Friday of men suspected of ties to an anti-U.S. terrorist organization whose main goal is driving India out of the disputed Kashmir territory in South Asia. The arrests of at least seven suspects were made in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, said federal law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity. Federal charges against the men, and several others who are overseas, were to be announced later in the day. The men are alleged to be part of an extremist Muslim organization called Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is on the...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- Federal prosecutors who accuse nine U.S. citizens and two other men of conspiring to join a Muslim terror group presented an address list and other evidence Friday to try to link the suspects to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group. But the evidence wasn't enough to persuade U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to keep one defendant, Sabri Benkhala, in jail. Brinkema ordered Benkhala released to home detention at his father's house in Falls Church, upholding a previous release order issued by a magistrate. "There's no question the government has raised some significant issues here," the judge said....

19 Feb 2004 07:33:05 GMT Saudi militant shot dead in Riyadh - newspaper RIYADH, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Saudi security forces killed a wanted militant after he opened fire on them in a district of southeast Riyadh on Wednesday, Okaz newspaper said on Thursday. The newspaper did not identify the man or say if he was on Saudi Arabia's list of 26 most wanted suspects. Interior Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment. The newspaper said the man opened fire on security forces who closed off the capital's al-Aziziya district at 11 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Wednesday. Security forces...

RIYADH, 16 February 2004 ? Security forces are getting closer to recovering the wanted GMC Suburban car full of explosives that could, according to a statement from the Ministry of Interior, lead to a ?terrorist act?. A source in the Ministry of Interior told Arab News yesterday that since the ministry made public the description of the wanted GMC car, it has received some 2,000 calls. ?Of those calls, eight of them, were precise descriptions,? added the source. The calls made by citizens are helping security forces intensify their check-ups in certain districts in the capital, mainly in the Rawdah...

BA cancels flights again for today amd Monday to DC and SA...

Two members of al-Qaeda have been killed in Saudi Arabia where they were wanted by security forces, according to a statement published on the internet today in the name of the terror network's Gulf branch. "Amer bin Mohsen al-Zeidan al-Shihri and Abdul Ilah al-Utaibi fell as martyrs during a clash with the forces of the apostate regime of the (ruling) al-Saud in the al-Suweidi district of Riyadh," the statement said. "The names of the two martyrs were on the list of 26 fighting heroes wanted by this dictatorial regime on the peninsula of the Arabs," said the statement which was...

Aljazeera television has aired footage purporting to show the suicide bombers of a Riyadh residential compound minutes before they carried out their deadly attack last November. The Qatar-based Arab satellite news channel did not mention how it acquired the tape which was broadcast on Friday night.  Seventeen people, most of them Arab expatriates, were killed in the attack. The tape showed grainy and shaky images of what appeared to be a car making its way towards the housing compound with men inside chanting repeatedly: "Allahu Akbar (God is great)." This was suddenly interrupted by a dark screen and what...

RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi Arabia, engaged in a crackdown on Islamist extremists blamed for a string of bombings, said it had extradited two Moroccan militants to Rabat in exchange for three Saudis jailed in Morocco on al-Qaeda linked charges. "Security forces today received three Saudi citizens convicted and jailed in Morocco on security-related charges," said an interior ministry official quoted by the state SPA news agency. He named them as Abdullah bin Misfer al-Ghamdi, Zuhair bin Hilal al-Thabiti and Hilal bin Jaber al-Assiri, who were sentenced by a Casablanca court in February last year to 10 years in prison for...

Swiss police have arrested eight foreigners in connection with a series of suicide bombings that killed 35 people in the Saudi capital Riyadh last May. The Swiss Attorney-General's office says the eight people, arrested in a swoop across five Swiss cantons, are suspected of having provided logistical support to a criminal organisation. A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General's office declined to comment further on the arrests, the nature of the police's suspicions or the nationality of the detainees. Police say the arrests follow investigations into the triple suicide bombings in Riyadh that Saudi officials have blamed on Osama bin Laden's Al...