The Insider: Daily Terrorism Report

August 2, 2004 -- Financial institutions identified as targets of a terrorist plot in three cities opened for business Monday under stepped-up security, news wires report. Police sealed off some streets in New York, put international-finance employees in Washington D.C. through extra security checks, and added barricades and a heavy armed presence in Newark, N.J., in response to a heightened terrorism alert aimed specifically at titans of the financial sector. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge raised the terror threat level for the financial institutions to orange after Pakistani intelligence agents found plans for new attacks against the United States and Britain on a computer seized during the arrest of a senior al Qaeda suspect, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, wanted for the 1998 twin U.S. embassy bombings, Pakistan's information minister said.

THE WAR ON TERROR

INVESTIGATIONS

United States

U.S. Warns of Threat To Financial Icons

Federal authorities had prominent financial institutions in New York, Washington and Newark, N.J., under heavy scrutiny Monday after unusually detailed information on a purported al Qaeda plot prompted them to raise the government's terror alert. (AP)

Pakistani-U.S. Raid Uncovered Terrorist Cell's Surveillance Data

The fresh intelligence that led to Sunday's extraordinary terror alert comes from documents discovered after Pakistani and U.S. forces broke up an al Qaeda cell in Gujrat, Pakistan, eight days ago, U.S. intelligence officials said yesterday. (Washington Post)

Americans Urged To Stick To Routines Despite Terror Alert

Officials in New York, New Jersey and Washington urged people today to go about their normal activities, but to be vigilant in the face of new terror warnings from the Department of Homeland Security. (NY Times)

Metro: Terror Alert and Commuter IssuesThe federal government has raised the terror alert level to orange for the financial services sectors in New York City, Washington and Newark, citing the discovery of remarkably detailed intelligence showing that al Qaeda operatives have been plotting for years to blow up specific buildings with car or truck bombs. (Washington Post)

9/11 Commission

Bush to Throw Support Behind New Post For Intelligence

President Bush is backing the Sept. 11. commission's recommendation to create a national intelligence director and a national counterterrorism center, but not in the White House as the panel had proposed, administration officials said Monday. (NY Times)

Pakistan

Shaukat Aziz Escapes Assassination

Pakistan's prime minister-designate, Shaukat Aziz, escaped an assassination attempt yesterday while on an election campaign. The suicide bomb attack was staged in Fetah Jhang, a small town in the north of the capital Islamabad, where he is contesting a by-election. At least six people, including Aziz's driver, were killed and 45 injured. (Arab News)

LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

Libya

U.S. Court Reveals Libya 'Terror Plot'

A plea bargain in a US court has revealed details of an alleged Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's de facto leader Crown Prince Abdullah. (BBC)

Guantanamo

5 Moroccan Guantanamo Prisoners Released To Their Home Country

Five Moroccans detained at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were turned over to Moroccan authorities, the country's official news agency reported Monday. (AP)

IRAQ NEWS

American Military Releases 126 Iraqi Prisoners

The US military freed 126 Iraqi prisoners Sunday as it seeks to expedite the process of releasing or putting on trial the estimated 5,000 detainees held in the two biggest US-run prisons in the country. (Daily Star)

Co-Ordinated Blasts Rock Iraqi Churches

Car bombs exploded outside at least five Christian churches in Iraq on Sunday, killing more than a dozen people and wounding many more in an apparently co-ordinated attack timed to coincide with evening prayers. (Gulf Times)

U.S. Forces Quick To Help Out Iraqi Villagers

With lightning speed, the convoy of armored Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles descends on this tiny hamlet in the volatile Sunni Triangle. The guns are pointed and the soldiers are primed for the mission. (Washington Times)

Saud Sets Terms For Muslim Troops in Iraq

Saudi Arabia yesterday set conditions for the deployment of Muslim troops in Iraq and emphasized that they would replace US-led multinational forces and not supplement them as suggested by Washington. (Arab News)

Turkish Truckers to End Work In Iraq

Turkey's truckers association said Monday it would stop delivering goods to U.S. forces in Iraq, in what appeared to be a direct response to insurgents' brutal, videotaped killing of a Turkish hostage and an attempt to win freedom for two other captives. (Washington Post)

Al Qaeda Gives Italy 15 Days To Pull Out of Iraq or Face Attacks

A statement in the name of an al Qaeda group has threatened to attack Italians everywhere unless Rome pulls its troops out of Iraq within 15 days, a pan-Arab newspaper said on Sunday. (AFP)

Ukraine Ponders Future of Troops In Iraq

Ukraine has made another strong hint that it plans to reduce or withdraw its 1600 troops from Iraq, although the immediate date for the decision remains unclear. (Al Jazeera)

Car Bomber Attacks Mosul Police

A car bomb targeting an Iraqi police station in the northern city of Mosul has killed at least five people and wounded about 50 others. (BBC)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

A Very Real Threat

Inevitably the Iraq War has given intelligence a very bad name and so it is easy to see why each new alert draws a fair measure of cynicism. (BBC)

Is Terrorism Being Seen In Its True Perspective?

In seeking to confront terrorism, the United States maybe approaching the problem in an altogether obsolete fashion. It is now understood that terrorism, unlike the venue of conflicts between states or alliances between states, simply has no specific ground rules to guide one as to the appropriate way of countering this shadowy new phenomenon that has caught the attention of just about everyone on earth. (Yemen Times)

Kidnappings, Beheadings and Defining What's NewsAt a time when the American military can launch a missile several thousand miles and land it on a pitcher's mound in a baseball stadium, one of the most potent weapons being deployed by insurgents in Iraq is comparatively low-tech: the hand-held video camera. (NY Times)

9/11 Panelist: We're Overlooking Muslim Hostility

Since the bipartisan 9/11 Commission released its best-selling report July 22, its 10 members have fanned out to persuade the public to demand action from Congress and the White House. (USA Today)

Start A Real Debate On Terrorism

Ok, America, here's our intelligence reform agenda: The CIA recognized six years ago that America was at war with al Qaeda, so let's demote it. Pentagon officials dragged their feet on dealing with terrorism, so let's give them more power. (Daily Star)

Can't Bush And Blair See Iraq Is About To Explode?

The war is a fraud. I'm not talking about the weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist. Nor the links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda which didn't exist. Nor all the other lies upon which we went to war. I'm talking about the new lies. (Arab News)

Last Chance For Inclusion In Iraq

Steering Iraq away from civil war and toward a workable new constitution is far more important than holding to an arbitrarily chosen date on the transition calendar. That is why it was right for Iraqi authorities to delay, for at least a couple of weeks, a potentially crucial national conference originally scheduled for this past weekend. (NY Times)

U.S. Can Find A Model For Iraq In Today's India

A host of deep problems have meshed to create a stable, robust society. (LA Times)

The Insider Daily Terrorism Report (DTR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to international terrorism and developments in Iraq. The DTR is edited daily from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham, Hoda Osman, and Brinda Adhikari of the ABCNEWS Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.