The Insider: Daily Terrorism Report

Mar. 5, 2004 -- — A local official in eastern Afghanistan says he has received credible reports that Osama bin Laden escaped the recent Pakistani operation to catch him, the BBC reports today. The governor of Pachir-Agam district in Nangarhar province told the BBC that he had met with a former member of the Taliban who had received a fax saying bin Laden was alive and well. This report comes and U.S. and Pakistani forces stepped up their offensive on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in efforts to catch bin Laden and other al Qaeda operatives.

And a report on the surveillance methods soon to be implemented in the hunt for bin Laden — U.S. forces on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border will be using high-tech surveillance tactics in the region, enabling them to monitor the area 24 hours a day, seven days a week, CNN reports today.

THE WAR ON TERROR

INVESTIGATIONS

Pakistan/Afghanistan Bin Laden 'Evaded Pakistani Raid'A local official in eastern Afghanistan says he has received credible reports that Osama Bin Laden escaped the recent Pakistani operation to catch him. (BBC)

Fresh Operation Launched in Pakistani Tribal AreasThe political authorities, with the help of military and paramilitary forces, on Thursday initiated a fresh operation in the South Waziristan to net the al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists and those harboring them. (Pakistan Times)

High-Tech Snooping For Bin LadenU.S. forces searching for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan will soon implement high-tech surveillance tactics in the region, enabling them to monitor the area 24 hours a day, seven days a week, CNN has learned. (CNN)

Taliban Kill 7 Soldiers in Border Raid Suspected Taliban guerrillas killed seven Afghan soldiers in a raid near the Pakistan border, a senior military commander said yesterday. (Reuters)

Afghan Villages Locked in Grip of Taliban ForcesAcross the southern area, the guerrillas are regrouping, using intimidation and cash to control the residents and spread violence. (LA Times)

CanadaAl Qaeda Family: At Home With Osama Bin LadenShortly after Ahmed Said Khadr was released from the Pakistan prison in 1996, he took his family to a large compound of houses near Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (CBC - Canada)

United States Coast Guard, FBI Probe Finds Terror Links Nine people with ties to terrorist organizations were identified during a 14-month Coast Guard and FBI investigation into national security threats and document fraud among U.S. merchant ships, officials said Thursday. (AP)

Yemen Yemen Hands Over Suspected Militants To EgyptYemen has extradited to Egypt the former leader of a group linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network along with five other suspected Egyptian militants, a London-based Islamist said on Friday. Asharq Al Awsat also reports, according to the same Islamist quoted by Reuters, that there are 113 Islamists who were arrested in Yemen after Sept. 11, 2001 and are still being detained in prisons. He also claimed that they are being regularly visited by the U.S. security team present in Yemen. The paper publishes many names of those allegedly in detention. (Reuters, Asharq Al Awsat)

Yemen Continues Hunt For Islamic Extremists Security forces are working to root out Islamic extremists hiding in small groups in southern mountains. Asharq Al Awsat and Al Hayat are meanwhile reporting that Yemeni security forces gave the militants 48 hours to surrender. (Middle East Online, Asharq Al Awsat)

NetherlandsWanted Terror Suspect Got Dutch Tax Number And Job A man wanted on an international arrest warrant for alleged involvement in bomb attacks in Morocco somehow managed to obtain a tax file number and a job under his own name in the Netherlands, it was reported Friday. (Expatica)

United KingdomBlair Warns of Terrorism ThreatThe threat of terrorism means Britain cannot afford to "err on the side of caution", Tony Blair has said in one of his starkest terror warnings yet. (BBC)

Blair Terror Speech In Full (BBC)

LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

United States3 U.S. Muslims Guilty on Terror Counts Three American Muslims accused of training for holy war against the United States by waging paintball battles in the Virginia woods were convicted Thursday of conspiring to support terrorism. (AP)

Two In San Diego Plead Guilty In Terror PlotA Minnesota man and a Pakistani admitted their roles Wednesday in a plot to sell Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to al Qaeda, authorities said. (San Francisco Examiner)

Turkey Arrest Warrants for Al Qaeda BombersA Turkish court yesterday issued arrest warrants for nine alleged al Qaeda militants who are believed to be abroad and are wanted in connection with last year's suicide bombings in Istanbul, the Anatolia news agency reported. (The Scotsman)

GUANTANAMO

'12 Prisoners to Be Released From Guantanamo Soon'Head of the Defense Committee of the Guantánamo prisoners Naguib Al Ne'imy told Al Hayat that 12 prisoners will son be released, including Kuwaitis and "maybe" others from the Gulf countries. (Al Hayat)

THE WAR IN IRAQ

Iraq Interim Constitution Signing Delayed Shiite members of Iraq's Governing Council refused to sign the interim constitution at the last minute Friday, delaying a signing ceremony after the country's top Shiite cleric rejected parts of the document, Iraqi officials said. (AP)

Russian Engineers Reportedly Gave Missile Aid to IraqAny such work on Iraq's banned missiles would have violated U.N. sanctions, even as the Security Council sought to enforce them. (NY Times)

Experts: Mobile Labs Tip UnverifiedThe Bush administration's prewar assertion that Saddam Hussein had a fleet of mobile labs that could produce bioweapons rested largely on information from an Iraqi defector working with another government who was never interviewed by U.S. intelligence officers. (Washington Post)

Iraqi Forces Lack Chain of Command Abizaid has 'no timetable' for Baghdad to assume control of security. (Washington Post)

U.S. Contractor Recruits Guards For Iraq In Chile Forces say experienced soldiers are quitting for private companies which pay more for similar work. (The Guardian)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Waziristan: Bin Laden's Hiding Place?There is growing world attention on the remote Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan as efforts continue to locate Osama Bin Laden and other key al Qaeda and Taliban suspects. (BBC)

Terrorism: The Next GenerationNot long after 9/11, journalist Husain Haqqani visited an Islamic school in Pakistan and asked a nine-year-old student if he would like to learn mathematics. The student answered: "There are many references to how many times Allah has multiplied the reward of jihad. If I knew how to multiply, I would be able to calculate the reward I will earn in the hereafter." (Cato Institute)

U.S. Forces May be Zeroing In on Osama Bin LadenFor more than three years, grainy videos have offered the closest view American intelligence has had of Osama Bin Laden. (KPIX/KCBS)

Al Qaeda and the CourtsA German court's decision to grant the only person convicted in connection to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks a retrial illustrates the difficulty Western courts are having in putting suspected terrorists behind bars. (Deutsche Welle)

Sunnis and Shias Must Play An Equal Part In A New Iraq More unites the country's rival religious factions than divides them. (The Guardian)

Why Iraq Polls Should Come as Early as Possible After months of heated debates, Iraq's interim leaders have approved a constitutional draft designed to close decades of tyranny in the nation's history. (Arab News)

Compromise and Consequences in Iraq Iraq conveyed two potent messages on successive days this past week: the possibility of political compromise and the continuing danger of civil war. (Washington Post)

Occupation, Security, And Internal WarIraqis did not accuse Americans of Tuesday's bloody bombings of Karbala and Baghdad. The Americans do not have any interest in participating in such a work. (Al Hayat)

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