The Insider: Daily Terrorism Report
August 13 -- In Iraq this morning, the United States Army units and marines ceased offensive operations, while talks to try to arrive at a lasting truce were being held between Iraqi officials and aides to the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, news wires report. The Second Battalion of the Seventh Cavalry pulled back from 1920 Revolution Square, away from the holy Shrine of Imam Ali, which is roughly in the center of the cordoned area set up around the old city by American forces on Thursday.
And more information has surfaced about Abu Issa al-Hindi, the al Qaeda operative who American officials say is one of 13 men arrested in raids last week in England, the New York Times reports. As an Islamic fighter in the 1990's he took part in a guerrilla campaign against the Indian Army in the rugged and hazardous terrain of Kashmir. He was an instructor in the Qaeda terrorist indoctrination camps of Afghanistan and he passed on his martial skills to the next generation of volunteers. And as a reconnaissance agent who slipped in and out of the United States in 2000 and 2001, he helped build an archive on the vulnerability of American financial centers on behalf of the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
THE WAR ON TERROR
INVESTIGATIONS
United Kingdom
Officials Investigate A Qaeda Suspect's Shadowy Life
Abu Issa al-Hindi, the operative of Al Qaeda who American officials say is one of 13 men arrested in raids last week in England, has lived a life of subterfuge and survival. (NY Times)
Pakistan
Pakistan Nabs 5 Al Qaeda Suspects, Leader of Militant Group
Armed with intelligence from newly arrested Al Qaeda suspects, Pakistan has nabbed five more members of Osama bin Laden's network in the past two days as well as a leader of a militant group accused in an attack on a Pakistani general, officials said yesterday. (AP)
United States
White House Warns of Terror StrikeThe Bush administration believes more strongly than ever that al Qaeda terrorists plan to try to influence the presidential race with a massive pre election attack, a strike that is more likely to come in August or September than in October, a White House official said yesterday. (Washington Post)
