Hostage Trade: Taliban Officials Released in Exchange for Italian Journalist
March 19, 2007 -- AFGHANISTAN/ITALY
Hostage Trade: Taliban Officials Released in Exchange for Italian Journalist
At least two captured Taliban officials have been released in exchange for the release of a kidnapped Italian journalist, Afghan intelligence officials tell ABC News. (ABC News)
GUANTANAO HEARINGS
Gitmo Confession in USS Cole Bombing
An enemy combatant who has confessed to planning the bombing of the USS Cole says he bought the boat and the explosives and that he was with Osama bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when the bombing was carried out in October 2000. (ABC News)
Read the Transcript (United States Department of Defense)
AFGHANISTAN
U.S. Embassy Vehicle Hit by Suicide Car Bomb in Afghanistan, 1 Killed, 5 Wounded
A suicide car bomber exploded his car next to a three-vehicle U.S. Embassy convoy on a busy road in Kabul on Monday, killing an Afghan teenager and wounding five embassy security personnel, officials said. (AP)
Afghanistan's Silent Plague of AIDS
Sitting and eating quietly on his father's lap, the 18-month-old boy was oblivious to the infection running through his veins. (International Herald Tribune)
KSM CONFESSION
Exclusive: Pearl Family Doubts KSM Confession
The father of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl says he doesn't believe al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed is the man who beheaded his son, despite Mohammed's confession to a US military tribunal. (ABC News)
Pearl Murder Convict to Appeal after Confession
The lawyer of an Islamist militant sentenced to hang in Pakistan for his role in the 2002 murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl said on Monday he would use a top al Qaeda militant's confession to support an appeal. (Reuters)
IRAQ NEWS
Five Blasts in Iraq's Kirkuk Kill 18, Wound 37
Three car bombs and two roadside devices killed 18 people and wounded 37 in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Monday, police said. (Reuters)
Guilty Verdict in Iraq Killings Case
A military panel found a 101st Airborne soldier guilty of three counts of negligent homicide but not guilty of premeditated murder in the deaths of three Iraqi detainees. (AP)
Bomber Blatantly Blows Up Bradley
A Web video surfaced yesterday showing an alleged insurgent crawling under a US military vehicle in Iraq and purportedly planting explosives in full daylight. (Kuwait Times)
Voices from Iraq 2007: Ebbing Hope in a Landscape of Loss
A new national survey paints a devastating portrait of life in Iraq: widespread violence, torn lives, displaced families, emotional damage, collapsing services, an ever starker sectarian chasm — and a draining away of the underlying optimism that once prevailed. (ABC News)
'Top Al-Qaeda Financier' Held
Iraqi forces have arrested an Iraqi-born Palestinian suspected of acting as a financier for the al-Qaeda network, military spokesperson Qassim Mussawi said on Sunday. (SA)
U.S.
FBI: Extremists Seek School Bus Work
Suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said, ``Parents and children have nothing to fear.'' (AP)
GUANTANAMO
Australian Describes Torture in U.S. Custody
The first Guantanamo detainee to be formally charged under the new military commission rules, David Hicks, has alleged in a court document filed here that during nearly 5 years in American custody he has been frequently beaten during interrogations, and that as a result he "cooperated" with his interrogators. (International Herald Tribune)
U.K.
Angola Frees Human Rights Worker Charged With Espionage
The Angolan government has freed a 41-year-old British activist to leave its country, nearly one month after charging her with espionage. (ABC News)
COLOMBIA
Chiquita Pleads Guilty in Terror Probe
Banana company Chiquita Brands International admitted in federal court Monday that, for years, it paid terrorists to protect its Colombian banana-growing operations. (AP)
ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe Opposition Aide Is Assaulted
The spokesman for Zimbabwe's main opposition leader was assaulted by security forces as he tried to leave the country Sunday, an opposition official said, accusing the government of continuing to target dissident activists. (AP)
MEXICO
Mexican Drug Raid Targets Police
Hundreds of Mexican soldiers have taken over the police headquarters in the eastern Tabasco state, as part of an effort to curb drug-related violence. (BBC)
ANALYSIS & OPINION
A More Islamic Islam
By Geneive Abdo
A small group of self-proclaimed secular Muslims from North America and elsewhere gathered in St. Petersburg recently for what they billed as a new global movement to correct the assumed wrongs of Islam and call for an Islamic Reformation. (The Washington Post)
Casualty of the War
By Ayub Nuri
A few weeks before the war in Iraq began in 2003, I was overtaken by fear. I did not fear the war but that George W. Bush might change his mind about overthrowing the Iraqi regime. I was sad to see antiwar protesters in the streets of Washington and London. "What do they know of our sufferings?" I said. (Washington Post)
Misuse of Data Only Constant in Iraq War
The war in Iraq enters its fifth year today. That, and 3197 US military deaths reported by the Pentagon as of Friday, are among the few numerical certainties in a conflict characterised by confusion and misuse of key data. (The Age)
The Medicaid Documentation Mess
Exaggerated fears that illegal immigrants are fraudulently receiving Medicaid health benefits have led to a crackdown that is preventing tens of thousands of American citizens from obtaining legitimate coverage. Congress, whose mindless actions led to this travesty, needs to fix this injustice. (NY Times)
Will Anxious Arab States Soon Form A Nuclear Family?
By Saad Hattar
From Libya to Egypt to fuel-strapped Jordan, Arab countries have signaled their desire to develop nuclear power, even amid a concerted attempt by the United States to tighten the noose around Iran lest it join the nuclear club. These new players are entering a nuclear race in an unstable zone, dominated by two regional powers, Iran and Israel. (The Daily Star)
The Regrets of the Man Who Brought Down Saddam
His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with tears as, four years ago, he slammed a sledgehammer into the tiled plinth that held a 20ft bronze statue of Saddam Hussein. Then Kadhim al-Jubouri spoke of his joy at being the leader of the crowd that toppled the statue in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now, he is filled with nothing but regret. (The Guardian)
The Insider Daily Investigative Report (DIR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to investigative news, including international terrorism and developments in Iraq. The DIR is edited daily from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham, Hoda Osman and Elizabeth Sprague of the ABC News Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.