The Insider: Daily Terrorism Report

Jan. 23, 2004 -- Iran will try up to a dozen al Qaeda suspects, foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said to reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Friday. The suspects are currently in prison in Iran, though the foreign minister did not disclose their identities or how senior they were in the al Qaeda network. Several Western intelligence agencies believe that Iran may have one of al Qaeda's top most wanted suspects, Saif al Adel, bin Laden's security chief. For a few months now, Iran has issued several statements asserting its resolve to combat terrorism, though it has never confirmed the identities of any suspects in custody there. The U.S. has long believed that Iran harbored terrorists who escaped to Iran from Afghanistan following the 2001 U.S. invasion there.

And more on Iraq's post-war transition to sovereignty — Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has put a call to his supporters to stop demonstrating until the U.N. can send a team to Iraq to determine if early direct elections are possible there. Iraqis have been demonstrating en masse since last weekend, urging the coalition authorities to scrap their plan of holding regional caucuses which would in turn appoint a transitional government by July 1, instead demanding direct elections as soon as possible.

THE WAR ON TERROR

INVESTIGATIONS

IranIran to Put Dozen Al Qaeda Captives On Trial Iran plans to put about a dozen jailed al Qaeda suspects on trial, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said on Friday. (Reuters)

GermanyEx-Spy Links Iran to Al Qaeda Pre 9/11, Court ToldIran's secret service had contacts with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network ahead of the September 11 attacks on the United States, a German court heard on Thursday. (Reuters)

Pakistan2 Qaeda Bigshots Held in Karachi Members of the intelligence agencies raided a flat in a residential project in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and arrested Walid bin Azmi, a member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network late on Wednesday night. (Daily Times — Pakistan)

Musharraf Accuses Al Qaeda of Trying to Kill HimPakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network may have ordered two assassination attempts which he narrowly escaped last month. (AFP)

Southeast AsiaHambali Planned Australia StrikeHambali, Southeast Asia's most dangerous terrorist, wanted to attack Australia but had failed to establish a local network capable of staging bombings, U.S. interrogators have learned. (Herald Sun)

YemenYemen Justifies Cooperation With U.S. On TerrorYemen has revealed that it cooperated with Washington in tracking and killing a suspected al Qaeda leader after U.S. satellites picked up the vibrations of the man's voice, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al Awsat said on Friday. (MiddleEast Online)

EuropeA Suspect Emerges As Key Link in Terror Chain Wherever European prosecutors turn these days, as they unravel suspected Islamic terrorist cells and track leads across the Continent, they keep coming across the fingerprints of one man: Abu Musab Zarqawi. (CS Monitor)

CanadaCanadian Leader Questions Police Raid On Reporter's HomePrime Minister Paul Martin sharply distanced himself on Thursday from the police raid of the home and office of a newspaper reporter who obtained secret government documents related to a suspected member of al Qaeda, arguing that any investigation must be weighed against principles of freedom of the press. (NY Times)

United StatesNew York Settles on a Number That Defines Tragedy: 2,749 Dead in Trade Center Attack2,749. Unless something unexpected happens, this figure could well be the final count that history books will record as the number of victims who died in the World Trade Center attack, city officials said yesterday. (NY Times)

LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

United StatesAppeals Court Stays Order to Free Padilla A federal appeals court granted the administration's request to delay an order that would force the government to release a U.S. citizen imprisoned as an enemy combatant. (Washington Post)

Bail Denied for Former Guantanamo Translator A former translator at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was arrested last fall with secret documents in his luggage, was ordered held without bail until his trial. (LA Times)

U.S.Terror Tribunal Called 'Legal Black Hole'Guantanamo lawyer says tribunal process designed to "produce guilty verdict." (CS Monitor)

COUNTER-TERRORISM

United KingdomNHS Gets 'Dirty Bomb' Equipment The NHS is stepping up anti-terrorism measures with radiation detectors being issued to ambulance crews and hospital casualty departments. (The Guardian)

Scotland Yard and FBI Meet On Terror Rocket ThreatExperts from Scotland Yard, the FBI and international civil aviation agencies held closed-door meetings today on how to secure airports against the lethal portable rockets that terrorists are trying to acquire. (PA News)

United StatesBush Plans to Boost Anti-Terrorism Funding President urges Congress to renew USA Patriot Act. (Washington Post)

THE WAR IN IRAQ

Iraqi Cleric Urges End to Demonstrations

Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric Friday urged his followers to stop holding demonstrations for early elections until a U.N. team decides whether polls are feasible. (AP)

Cleric Wants Iraqi Opinion On Possibility of ElectionsThe country's leading Shiite Muslim cleric wants Iraqi experts, not just those from the United Nations, to conclude that early elections are not feasible before he will drop his opposition to the U.S. political blueprint for the nation, an aide said Thursday. (AP)

Iraqis Press U.S. for Compromise to Gain Self-RuleThe Bush administration is under growing pressure to shift course and transfer power to an expanded version of its hand-picked Iraqi Governing Council. (NY Times)

Halliburton Says Employees Took Kickbacks

Oil services giant Halliburton informed the Pentagon that two employees took kickbacks of up to six million dollars in exchange for awarding a Kuwait-based company a supply contract for US troops in Iraq. (AFP)

Fifty Foreign Fighters Entered Iraq Through BordersMore than fifty foreign fighters managed to enter Iraq in the past two weeks, according to Iraqi security sources, reports Al Hayat. Four of them, who were arrested by the U.S. forces in al Qa'em town close to the borders with Syria, admitted that a number of other fighters succeeded in entering the country. Al Hayat is also reporting that a number of Europeans were arrested by the U.S. forces last month as they were trying to penetrate into Iraq. Informed sources told the paper there are a number of organizations in European cities that are actively collecting donations for the Iraqi resistance. (Al Hayat)

Annan to Make Decision On Iraq Mission U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will say next week whether he will send a team to Iraq to study the feasibility of early, direct elections, a spokesman said Friday. (AP)

Cheney is Adamant On Iraq 'Evidence'Vice president revives assertions on banned weaponry and links to al Qaeda that other administration officials have backed away from. (LA Times)

A Measure of Success in Iraq U.S. commanders see insurgency easing but refuse to declare victory. (Washington Post)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Occupational Hazards It is not just the Shias. Iraqis of all political, ethnic and religious persuasions want their country back. (The Guardian)

Iraqi Unity As the spectre of ethnic and sectarian divisions loom over their country, it is imperative Iraqis start thinking of what they must do to stay together. (Al Ahram Weekly — Egypt)

Lessons in Elections from An Ayatollah Who would have believed that an Iraqi ayatollah would be teaching the United States about the importance of direct elections, and that the Bush administration would be resisting the idea? (LA Times)

Give the Shiites a Say Iraq's Shiite majority has begun to pry political control of the country from U.S. administrator Paul Bremer and his small, overwhelmed staff in Baghdad. The Bush administration should welcome and help shape this silent transition rather than fight to retain eroding power. (Washington Post)

What Saddam is Revealing A few weeks have passed since the capture of Saddam Hussein and there is no sign that he has revealed new information on the misdeeds of his regime. (Haaretz — Israel)

Why Libya Gave Up On the BombDiplomacy and carrots, not Iraq, swayed Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. (NY Times)

The Emperor is Left Without a Stitch In fact Panorama revealed the sham behind the war with Iraq. (The Guardian)

Bush's DemocracyThe American president linked the absence of democracy with terrorism. (Al Hayat)

How to Avert An American-Saudi Dialogue of the Deaf Considering the stakes at play on both sides, it is astonishing how badly US-Saudi relations have deteriorated. (The Daily Star — Lebanon)

Finale in South WaziristanA lashkar of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe has reached the Shkai area in South Waziristan, some 30 miles north of the Agency headquarters Wana, to apprehend and deliver to the government three members of the Zalikhel clan who had been providing shelter to al Qaeda militants. (Hi Pakistan)

Do Terrorists Have a Business Plan?Let's take a closer look at a well-known organization. It is a multinational, and although highly centralized its subsidiaries can operate autonomously. (BBC)

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.