The Insider: Daily Terrorism Report
Jan. 23 -- Iran will try up to a dozen al Qaeda suspects, foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said to reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Friday. The suspects are currently in prison in Iran, though the foreign minister did not disclose their identities or how senior they were in the al Qaeda network. Several Western intelligence agencies believe that Iran may have one of al Qaeda's top most wanted suspects, Saif al Adel, bin Laden's security chief. For a few months now, Iran has issued several statements asserting its resolve to combat terrorism, though it has never confirmed the identities of any suspects in custody there. The U.S. has long believed that Iran harbored terrorists who escaped to Iran from Afghanistan following the 2001 U.S. invasion there.
And more on Iraq's post-war transition to sovereignty — Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has put a call to his supporters to stop demonstrating until the U.N. can send a team to Iraq to determine if early direct elections are possible there. Iraqis have been demonstrating en masse since last weekend, urging the coalition authorities to scrap their plan of holding regional caucuses which would in turn appoint a transitional government by July 1, instead demanding direct elections as soon as possible.
THE WAR ON TERROR
INVESTIGATIONS
IranIran to Put Dozen Al Qaeda Captives On Trial Iran plans to put about a dozen jailed al Qaeda suspects on trial, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said on Friday. (Reuters)
GermanyEx-Spy Links Iran to Al Qaeda Pre 9/11, Court ToldIran's secret service had contacts with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network ahead of the September 11 attacks on the United States, a German court heard on Thursday. (Reuters)
Pakistan2 Qaeda Bigshots Held in Karachi Members of the intelligence agencies raided a flat in a residential project in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and arrested Walid bin Azmi, a member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network late on Wednesday night. (Daily Times — Pakistan)
Musharraf Accuses Al Qaeda of Trying to Kill HimPakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network may have ordered two assassination attempts which he narrowly escaped last month. (AFP)
Southeast AsiaHambali Planned Australia StrikeHambali, Southeast Asia's most dangerous terrorist, wanted to attack Australia but had failed to establish a local network capable of staging bombings, U.S. interrogators have learned. (Herald Sun)
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