New Al Qaeda Leader in Afghanistan

May 25, 2007 -- AL QAEDA

Afghan Qaeda Leader "Ready for Prisoner Swap"

A purported leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan said in a statement posted on the Internet on Friday that his organisation was willing to exchange prisoners with Britain and other Western countries. (Reuters)

CIA Received Recent Detainee from Turkey, Al Qaeda Says

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, the most recent al Qaeda operative to be captured and held in the secret CIA rendition program before being sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in April, was captured in Turkey late last year and turned over to U.S. intelligence by that government, a senior al Qaeda figure said in an Arabic-language interview broadcast yesterday in the Middle East. (Washington Post)

Read Excerpts from Al-Yazid Statement: (MEMRI)

Zawahri Praises Dadullah, Asks Followers to Fight

Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri on Wednesday eulogised Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah who was killed in Afghanistan and urged his followers to continue his fight against US-led forces. (Daily Times)

U.S. Fugitive Born in Yemen Surrenders in Terror Case

A Yemeni-American who was placed on the F.B.I.'s list of 26 most-wanted terrorism suspects after tunneling out of a Yemeni prison with other members of Al Qaeda last year has surrendered, authorities said Thursday. (AP)

IRAQ

Al-Sadr Makes Public Appearance in Iraq

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr appeared in public for the first time in six months on Friday and delivered a fiery anti-American sermon in the holy Shiite city of Kufa. (Reuters)

U.S. Opens a Sheltered Path to Asylum for Some Iraqis

An obscure program that bypasses the State Department's normal immigration procedures has granted a form of temporary asylum to a former minister who led Iraq's troubled Health Ministry and to more than 100 other Iraqi professionals, witnesses of potential crimes by Americans, and children wounded in the conflict. (NY Times)

Mehdi Army Leader in Basra Killed

The leader of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia in the southern Iraqi city of Basra was killed by Iraqi special forces on Friday, the British military said. (Reuters)

Marines Fail to Get Gear to Troops

The system for delivering badly needed gear to Marines in Iraq has failed to meet many urgent requests for equipment from troops in the field, according to an internal document obtained by The Associated Press. (AP)

Iraq War Takes Helicopters Needed for U.S. Disaster Missions

While the Defense Department has pushed extra equipment to units in hurricane-prone states in part to compensate for what has been ordered to Iraq, an ABCNews.com investigation has found some Plains and western states have few if any helicopters on hand to respond quickly to a disaster. (ABC News)

6 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Fighting

Six U.S. soldiers were killed in roadside bombings and gunbattles across Iraq, the U.S. military announced Friday. (AP)

NORTH KOREA

Reports: North Korea Fires Missiles

North Korea fired several short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan on Friday, Japanese media reported. Japanese Defense and Foreign Ministry officials said they could not immediately confirm the reports. (AP)

LEBANON

Lebanon Violence is Viewed as Omen

For 38-year-old businesswoman Susan Hakim, the concussive slap and roar of the bomb exploding beneath her windows in Beirut's luxury shopping district came with the predictability of an item scrawled in her datebook. (Washington Post)

MOROCCO

Dozens of Suspected Terrorists on Trial in Morocco after Repeated Delays

A long-stalled trial for more than 50 alleged terrorists accused of plotting attacks on military and tourist sites in Morocco got under way Friday, with new purported links to foreign extremists emerging. (AP)

U.S.

FBI on the Lookout for Phony Heroes This Memorial Day Weekend

FBI agents and veterans will be on the lookout this Memorial Day weekend for phony military heroes, a disquieting trend that officials say has grown substantially in the years of the war with Iraq. (ABC News)

Murder Mystery Haunts Lancaster, Pa.

If it weren't for the murders of the Amish schoolgirls last fall, this month's killings might be the most disturbing homicides Lancaster County, Pa., has ever seen. (ABC News)

Ecoterrorist Gets 12 Year Sentence

A federal judge sentenced a member of an ecoterrorism cell to more than 12 years in prison, rejecting arguments that he played a minor role in arsons aimed at saving animals and protecting the earth. (Time)

Lawsuit Claims Best Buy Isn't Living Up to Its Name

The Connecticut Attorney General is taking electronics super retailer Best Buy to task for a system he says is a "bait-and-switch scheme" that deceives customers. (ABC News)

PAKISTAN

Eight Missing Persons Reach Home

Eight people allegedly picked up by intelligence agencies a few months ago from the city and other areas of the province resurfaced over the last one week. (Dawn)

CHINA

Fury over China's 1-Child Blitz

Residents of this southern China county on Thursday angrily accused authorities of forcing women to have abortions and vandalising homes in a brutal campaign to enforce birth-control policies. "Many women have been forced to have abortions. Authorities are going into their homes and destroying their homes to implement the policy," said a woman in Bobai county. (AFP)

MEXICO

'Virtual kidnapping' a Scary Reality in Latin America

"Papa! Papa! Papa!" cried the voice on Rodolfo Melchor's cell phone. Then: "Honey, it's me, I've been kidnapped!" (AP)

Mexico to Boost Tapping of Phones and E-Mail with U.S. Aid

Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail using money from the U.S. government, a move that underlines how the country's conservative government is increasingly willing to cooperate with the United States on law enforcement. (LA Times)

FRANCE

New Files 'Link Chirac to Secret Japanese Bank Account'

Jacques Chirac came under renewed pressure yesterday to respond to allegations that he held a secret £30m account with a Japanese bank, amid reports that documents had emerged linking the former French president to the funds. (The Guardian)

U.K.

Government Knew of HIV Risk from Imported Blood

The government's advisers on medicine knew that patients were at risk of contracting Aids from imported blood products as early as 1983, but ruled against a ban because of fears it would cause a shortage of supply. (The Guardian)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

To Appease Serbia, War Criminals are Getting Away with Murder

By Natasa Kandic and Mabel Van Oranje

This month has been a bad one for the cause of human rights in Europe, as Serbia was allowed to begin its six-month presidency of the Council of Europe, the continent's oldest political body. With Serbia at the helm, the council, which aims to promote human rights and the rule of law, is now overseen by a state that thumbs its nose at the Genocide Convention and harbors an indicted war crimes suspect, former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic. Moreover, the European Commission has indicated that it is ready to resume talks aimed at bringing Serbia closer to the European Union as soon as a reform-oriented government is formed in Belgrade. (Daily Star)

My Brother, the 'Terrorist'

By Caroline Paul

My brother is considered one of the biggest domestic terrorists in the country. You probably haven't heard of him, and I think that's odd. After all, he's dangerous. He's trying to overthrow our country. He "doesn't like our freedoms," or so President Bush has said of terrorists in general, so I suppose that applies to my brother too. (LA Times)

More Bad Intelligence on Iran and Iraq

By Robert Baer

This week the White House made a big show of declassifying intelligence alleging that in 2005 al Qaeda considered using Iraq as a base to launch terrorist attacks on the United States. The White House didn't bother to mask the reason for the disclosure — to put pressure on the Democrats to stop trying to impose a date for a withdrawal from Iraq. Meanwhile, ABC News reported that the White House recently ordered the CIA to destabilize the Iranian regime. (Time)

My Wife, a Prisoner in Iran

By Shaul Bakhash

On May 8, the walls of Tehran's Evin prison closed around my wife, Haleh Esfandiari, a 67-year-old scholar, grandmother and dual citizen of Iran and the United States. (LA Times)

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.