The Insider: Daily Terrorism Report

July 28, 2004 -- A suicide car bomb exploded outside a police recruiting center in central Baqouba on Wednesday, killing 68 Iraqis and turning the busy city streets into a bloody tangle of twisted metal and dead bodies, news wires reported on Wednesday.The attack, which killed 21 people inside a passing bus, was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since the United States transferred sovereignty to an interim government June 28.

And in Indonesia's war on terror, police won't charge militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir in the 2002 Bali bombings, officials said Wednesday, after Indonesia's constitutional court curbed the use of a tough anti-terror law.

IRAQ NEWS

Iraq Suicide Car Bombing Kills 68 PeopleA suicide car bomb exploded outside a police recruiting center in central Baqouba on Wednesday, killing 68 Iraqis and turning the busy city streets into a bloody tangle of twisted metal and dead bodies. (AP)

Armed Group Threatens To Cut Jordan-Iraq Road Supply To U.S. ForcesAn armed group on Tuesday threatened to block the highway linking Jordan to Iraq within 72hours to cut road supply to US forces, Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite channel reported. (Xinhuanet)

Jordan Firm Bends To Iraq KidnapA Jordanian firm supporting US forces in Iraq says it will scale down its operations to try and save the lives of two abducted employees. (BBC)

Freed Egyptian Thinks Remorse Turned CaptorsIn the end, Muhammad Mamdouh Qutb figures it was his captors' remorse that led to his freedom. (NY Times)

Indian, Filipino Truck Drivers Continue to Carry Fuel to IraqAn Indian truck driver working for a Saudi transportation company was seriously injured when his vehicle, part of a 50-truck convoy, was fired upon by a group of insurgents in Iraq on Monday night. (Arab News)

Abductions Spark Debate Over the Right ResponseDespite U.S. and Iraqi appeals, negotiation is the preferred choice. A tribal leader agrees. (LA Times)

U.S. General Witnessed Abuses, Iraqi SaysThe American general who headed the U.S. military prison at Abu Ghraib personally witnessed abuses there, an Iraqi man alleged in a federal lawsuit protesting his treatment. (AP)

U.N. and Congress in Dispute Over Iraq Oil-for-Food InquiriesCongressional committees investigating allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq are at odds with the organization's own inquiry over access to records and personnel, legislators and United Nations officials said yesterday. (NY Times)

Iraq's 1st Steps Toward Democracy Stumble, Say ShiitesVoters in Iraq's Shiite Muslim heartland who were eligible to elect delegates to an upcoming national conference charged the process was rigged, leaving ordinary Iraqis disenchanted and alienating hard-line leaders. (AFP)

Iraqis Head To Syria For Business, Recreation, SafetyVacationing businessman Waed Jassem sits comfortably in a rundown, smoke-filled Damascus cafe, playing backgammon with other Iraqi visitors and praising Syria's beaches and mountains, the warmth of its people, and, most especially, the calm. (AP)

THE WAR ON TERROR

INVESTIGATIONS

United StatesMuslim Charity, Officials IndictedThe Justice Department yesterday unsealed the indictment of the nation's largest Muslim charity and seven of its top officials on charges of funneling $12.4 million over six years to individuals and groups associated with the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, a Palestinian group that the U.S. government says is a terrorist organization. (Washington Post)

Saudi ArabiaAl Qaeda Cell In Saudi Admits Own Casualties The al-Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia acknowledged in an online statement that surfaced Monday that two of its members were killed last week in a shootout with security forces that they described as battle to defend the wife and family of their leader. (AP)

AfghanistanBomb Kills at Least 2 As Afghans RegisterA bomb exploded in a mosque where Afghans were registering for upcoming elections Wednesday, killing at least two people and injuring two more seriously, Afghan and U.N. officials said. (AP)

Relief Agency, Citing Risks, Plans to LeaveNobel Prize-winning relief agency Doctors Without Borders announced that it would withdraw from Afghanistan because of the killing of five of its staff and the risk of further attacks. (LA Times)

IranIran: U.S. War On Terror is "Void" After DecisionIran hit out Tuesday at the US decision to grant protected status to the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen, the main armed opposition group in Iran, saying it proved Washington's war on terrorism was a sham. (AFP)

LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

Saudi ArabiaParents Sue Over American Held by SaudisThe parents of an American jailed without charges in Saudi Arabia sued the United States on Wednesday in what lawyers say is the first lawsuit filed on behalf of a U.S. citizen detained in a third country at the U.S. government's request. (AP)

IndonesiaCleric Won't Be Charged in Bali BombingsPolice won't charge militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir in the 2002 Bali bombings, officials said Wednesday, after Indonesia's constitutional court curbed the use of a tough anti-terror law. (AP)

EuropeHilai, charged with Links to Madrid and 9/11 Attacks, to Appear in Court TomorrowFarid Hilali, 35, appears in extradition proceedings tomorrow. He is charged with terrorism offences allegedly linked to the 9/11 attacks and Madrid train bombings. Hilali, a Moroccan, is wanted by Spanish authorities. Hilali is being held under a European arrest warrant from Spain and has been linked with the Madrid train bombings and 11 September attacks. (ABCNEWS)

United KingdomU.K. Troops 'Beat Iraqi to Death'British soldiers killed a 26-year-old Iraqi civilian by repeatedly beating him on the neck, chest and genital areas, High Court judges have heard. (BBC)

Bahrain'Free Camp X-ray Detainees' AppealBAHRAIN was yesterday urged to step up pressure on the US to secure the release of six Bahraini detainees from Guantanamo Bay. (Gulf Daily News)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Radical Islam Grows Among Iraq's SunnisSheikh Mahdi Ahmed al-Sumaidi was detained in Abu Ghraib prison early this year after a weapons cache was found in his Ibn Taymiyyah mosque. Since released, his anti-US fervor is undiminished. "Neither the occupation forces nor the government they installed is acceptable,'' he says. "The legitimate power is the resistance." (CS Monitor)

U.S. Should Listen To Recent Acquaintances Like AllawiThe interim Iraqi Premier Iyad Allawi has been showing a degree of political independence on his current trip in the Middle East that few would have expected of a leader handpicked by Washington. Allawi's statement in Beirut on Monday that Baghdad would refuse to normalize relations with Israel before other Arab countries was significant in that sense, but also nothing overly extraordinary. (Daily Star —Lebanon)

The Real Reasons Bush Went To WarWMD was the rationale for invading Iraq. But what was really driving the US were fears over oil and the future of the dollar. (Guardian)

Wrong Definition for a WarToward the end of its widely praised report, the Sept. 11 commission offers a prescriptive chapter titled "What to Do?" There, it makes an assertion that is genuinely shocking. It says that in our current conflict, "the enemy is not just 'terrorism,' some generic evil. This vagueness blurs the strategy. The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific. It is the threat posed by Islamist terrorism [the report's emphasis] —especially the al Qaeda network, its affiliates, and its ideology." (Washington Post)

9/11 Report's Purpose Is Not to Ruffle Any FeathersReading the 570-page "The 9/11 Commission Report" is like going through a French nouveau-roman. It starts with the promise of uncovering an ingenious plot but offers nothing but re-heated platitudes served with a pseudo-philosophical garnish. The reader ends up asking: Where is the beef? (Arab News)

The 800lb Gorilla in American Foreign PolicyAlleged terror suspects are held incommunicado all over the world. (Guardian)

October SurprisesConspiracy theories aside, the weeks before the American election are likely to be very dangerous in Iraq. (Newsweek)

Declaring Independence in AfghanistanAfghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, took a big risk this week when he declined to embrace the country's strongest warlord, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, as his running mate in October's presidential election. But it was a necessary step, and Washington should repay his courage with military support if necessary. (NY 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.