Debate: Al Qaeda in Secret Ethiopian Prisons

April 5, 2007 -- ETHIOPIA

Suspects 'Detained In Ethiopia'

US agents have been interrogating al-Qaeda suspects in secret Ethiopian prisons, human rights groups allege. (BBC)

Ethiopia Denies US Interrogated Terror Suspects on Ethiopian Soil

An Ethiopian official has denied a report that says U.S. officials are interrogating terrorism suspects at secret prisons in Ethiopia. (Voice of America)

Women Terror Suspects Freed

Two women who were seized by Ethiopian forces and locked in a jail near Addis Ababa on suspicion of links with the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and the Al-Qaeda network in Somalia, have been set free. (Daily Nation)

RELEASED BRITISH SOLDIERS

British Sailors, Marines Land in London

A British navy crew returned home Thursday from Iranian captivity to the relief of a nation, after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced their surprise release and ended the two-week crisis. The 15 sailors and marines broke open champagne and changed into fresh uniforms on the flight home. After landing, they smiled and stood at attention before being whisked by helicopter to the Royal Marines base at Chivenor, southwest of London. (AP)

Iran Takes the Wind Out of US Sails

If the administration of US President George W Bush is paying attention, the drama over the 15 British sailors and marines, whose release by Iran after 12 days of detention was announced in Tehran on Wednesday, was designed to convey two key messages, according to experts in Washington. (Asia Times)

IRAQ NEWS

Gunfire Forces U.S. Helicopter Down In Iraq: Witnesses

Heavy gunfire forced a U.S. military helicopter down in an insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad on Thursday, Iraqi witnesses said. (Reuters)

Explosion Strikes Oil Pipeline in Iraq

A bomb struck an oil pipeline Thursday, cutting off supplies and causing a huge fire in southern Iraq near the border with Kuwait, an official said. (AP)

Friendly Fire May Have Killed 2 in Iraq

A week after acknowledging a litany of errors in the friendly fire death of former NFL star Pat Tillman, the Army said Wednesday two soldiers who died in Iraq in February may also have been killed by their own comrades. (AP)

Iraq Hostage Video Tests Germany

A German crisis team is working to win the release of two German hostages held in Iraq, after a second video showing them in distress appeared on a website. (BBC)

LONDON 2005 TRANSIT ATTACKS

3 Charged in 2005 London Transit Attacks

Prosecutors filed charges Thursday against three people allegedly involved in the four suicide bomb attacks that killed 52 subway and bus passengers in London on July 7, 2005. The three, who were arrested last month, were charged with conspiring with the four bombers. (AP)

AFGHANISTAN

John Walker Lindh's Family Seeks Reduced Prison Sentence for Son

Two young, Western men captured on the wrong side of an Afghanistan battlefield in December 2001. (ABC News)

Taliban Claims 2 French Workers Abducted

Two French aid workers and their three Afghan staff have gone missing in southwest Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday. A purported spokesman for the Taliban claimed the group had kidnapped the five. (AP)

PAKISTAN

'Many Killed' In Pakistan Clash

At least 44 people have died in fierce fighting in Pakistan's tribal region of South Waziristan, officials say. (BBC)

U.S.

Ivy League Official Cited in Student Loan Scandal

The executive director of Columbia University's financial aid department has been suspended for allegedly profiting from stock options he acquired from a loan company his department recommended to students as a "preferred lender," according to officials at the office of the Attorney General for New York. (ABC News)

ISRAEL/SAUDI ARABIA

Israel's Protests Are Said To Stall Gulf Arms Sale

A major arms-sale package that the Bush administration is planning to offer Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies to deter Iran has been delayed because of objections from Israel, which says that the advanced weaponry would erode its military advantage over its regional rivals, according to senior United States officials. (International Herald Tribune)

GUANTANAMO

Guantanamo Conditions 'Worsening'

Conditions for detainees at the US military jail at Guantanamo Bay are deteriorating, with the majority held in solitary confinement, a report says. (BBC)

LITVINENKO MURDER INVESTIGATION

Polonium Test Continuing For 17

Seventeen people exposed to radiation after the poisoning of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko are continuing to be monitored five months on. (BBC)

CHECHNYA

Chechnya Installs Former Rebel As President

Chechnya inaugurated on Thursday as its new president a 30-year-old amateur boxer praised by allies for restoring order to the troubled region and accused by rights groups of murdering and kidnapping civilians. (Reuters)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Mugabe's Enablers

By Arnold Tsunga

When the heads of state of the Southern African Development Community convened last week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to discuss the political situation in Zimbabwe, hopes among the Zimbabwean people ran high. President Robert Mugabe had recently extended his brutal efforts to crush dissent from his political opponents to include ordinary Zimbabweans. His ruling party left a trail of fractured bodies and two dead in its most recent crackdown. (Washington Post)

Congress and the White House Are on a Collision Course

By David Ignatius

Lee Hamilton, the former Indiana congressman who is a one-man bipartisan commission, recently suggested a simple test for evaluating political leaders. The best choice, he told a Washington gathering, is the person who can build consensus around difficult policy issues. (Daily Star)

Not an Orange Revolution

Once again, the streets of Kiev are filling with two bitterly opposed Ukrainian political camps. The cast is the same as in 2004 — the westward-leaning Viktor Yushchenko versus the Russia-leaning Viktor Yanukovich. But this time it's not clear that Mr. Yushchenko has the moral high ground, as he did in 2004, when he won an election and Mr. Yanukovich tried to steal it. This time, Mr. Yushchenko lost his parliamentary majority and is trying to get it back in a way that may not be legal. This is a dispute that needs to be settled in the courts, not the streets. (NY Times)

What We Can Learn From Britain

Vali Nasr and Ray Takeyh

Through the capture of and subsequent announcement that it would release 15 British sailors and marines, the Islamic Republic of Iran sent its adversaries a pointed message: Just as Iran will meet confrontation with confrontation, it will respond to what it perceives as flexibility with pragmatism. This message is worth heeding as the United States and Iran seem to be moving inexorably toward conflict. (International Herald Tribune)

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 and Elizabeth Sprague of the ABC News Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.