The Insider: Daily Terrorism Report

Dec. 17, 2003 -- U.S. military officials have said that a document found on Saddam at the time of his capture has allowed U.S. authorities to acquire key information about as many as 14 insurgent cells in Iraq. This document has led to the U.S.capturing three former Iraqi generals.

And an article on the Turkish bombing investigation — Turkish authorities say that bin Laden himself may have given orders for militants to attack a Turkish military base used by the U.S. One of those militants, currently under detention in Turkey, has told authorities that the subsequent bombing of civilian targets with high Muslim populations upset al Qaeda leaders.

THE WAR ON TERROR

The Other TargetNow that Saddam is captured, where's bin Laden? (ABCNEWS)

INVESTIGATIONS/THREATS/ARRESTS

TurkeyBin Laden Approved Attacks in TurkeyAP Exclusive: Bin Laden proposed attacks on base in Turkey, but militants switched targets. (AP)

PakistanPakistan Arrests 10 in Anti-Terror Drive Police arrested 10 people suspected of links to the Taliban and al Qaeda in two nighttime raids near the capital, officials said Tuesday. (AP)

Fugitive Wanted For Harboring Al Qaeda Men ArrestedPolitical administration Tuesday apprehended a tribal fugitive blamed for harboring al Qaeda and Taliban members after several months of hiding. (Pak Tribune)

Device on Limo May Have Saved MusharrafEquipment installed on the Pakistani leader's limousine to jam devices that trigger bombs probably saved him from an assassination attempt over the weekend, intelligence officials said Wednesday. (AP)

U.S. Condemns Bid On Musharraf's LifeThe United States has condemned an apparent assassination bid against Pakistan 's President Pervez Musharraf, and counted its blessings over the escape of a key anti-terror ally. (AFP)

YemenAl Qaeda Official: Saudis, Yemenis Funding Terrorist Attacks Al Qaeda's leader in Yemen, Mohammed Hamdi al Ahdal has revealed under interrogation that unnamed Saudis and Yemenis are involved in funding two terrorist attacks in Yemen, including that on the USS Cole sources close to the investigation told AFP. (AFP)

United StatesDetained U.S. Citizen Helps Terror Fight Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen being held as an enemy combatant in the war on terror, continues to provide valuable intelligence to the government and will not be allowed access to a lawyer until those collection efforts cease, officials said Tuesday. (AP)

U.S. Tight-Lipped About Canadian Terror SuspectCanadian citizen, held as a material witness in an unspecified terrorism-related case, appeared to be headed to New York City after a brief closed hearing yesterday before a U.S. federal judge in Minneapolis. (AP)

South KoreaSouth Korea Says It May Be Terrorist TargetA number of agents connected to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network have visited South Korea to scout potential U.S. targets for attack, officials here said. (LA Times)

MalaysiaTerror Suspects' Children Training Anticipating their own capture or death, Southeast Asian Islamic extremists sent their sons to Pakistan for training in how to attack Western targets so they could take over as the next generation of terrorist leaders, the Associated Press has learned. (AP)

BulgariaAl Qaeda "Recruits Bulgarian Students"Bulgarians pursuing religious studies at Jordan universities are being lured into al Qaeda's terrorism network, Bulgarian 24 Chasa daily said Wednesday. (Novinite - Bulgaria)

AustraliaTerror Warning for TravelersAustralians traveling overseas for the Christmas holidays were warned today they could be terrorist targets. (AAP)

LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

United StatesU.S.-Yemeni Who Went to Qaeda Camp Gets 7 YearsYemeni-American Faysal Galab, 27, was sentenced to seven years in prison on Tuesday for helping al Qaeda, the fifth of six men from the faded steel town of Lackawanna in western New York state to be sentenced in the case. (Reuters)

U.S. Might Compromise in Moussaoui Dispute Middle ground possible on witness access. (Washington Post)

Feds Outline Plan On Enemy Combatants U.S. citizens classified as enemy combatants have to wait to get an attorney until they've provided intelligence to the government under a Bush administration policy that critics say treads on constitutional rights. (AP)

Sheik Given New Lawyer in Brooklyn Terror Money CaseFederal defenders, citing an unspecified conflict of interest, have quit the case of a Yemeni sheik accused of plotting to funnel millions of dollars to an al Qaeda terrorist network. (AP)

Ashcroft Admonished for Meddling in Terror CaseA federal judge strongly criticized U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday for violating a "gag" order imposed during the first terror-related trial following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. (Reuters)

Appeal Scheduled On Detainee's Status Federal authorities, as expected, have filed a notice of appeal, continuing their efforts to keep former GOJO employee Ashraf al Jailani in custody under the suspicion that he has terrorist connections with al Qaeda. Despite two rulings by an immigration judge saying the government has produced insufficient evidence to hold him, al Jailani, a native of Yemen, has remained in custody for 14 months without being charged. (Akron Beacon Journal)

U.S. Considers Expanding FBI Database Names of noncriminal deportees and student visa violators would be added. (Washington Post)

AustraliaAustralian Opposition Reverses Policy By Backing Tougher Anti-Terror LawsIn a significant policy switch under its new leadership, Australia's Labor opposition has offered its support for government moves to bolster anti-terror laws by empowering the attorney-general to ban suspected terrorist groups. (AFP)

COUNTER-TERRORISM

United States, EuropeEU, U.S. Ready to Share Air Data to Fight TerrorismThe European Union and the United States have clinched a deal on how to share data of passengers traveling across the Atlantic to help with the global fight against terrorism, EU and U.S. officials said. (Reuters)

Keeping Cows Safe From Terrorism Al Qaeda is after our cows. That's the concern of the Department of Homeland Security, which announced Friday a $33 million plan for a pair of academic centers to combat possible terrorist attacks on America's livestock and food supply. (Wirednews.com)

YemenYemen's New Anti-Terror StrategyThe BBC has been given exclusive access to Yemen's controversial new strategy for defeating al Qaeda cells. (BBC)

OTHER NEWS

IndonesiaIndonesian Clerics Issue Terror BanIndonesia's peak Islamic body has placed a ban on terrorism and suicide bombings. (The Age - Australia)

THE WAR ON TERROR — ANALYSIS & OPINION

Bin Laden Remains Out of GraspSome experts argue his jihad has worked — the world is now polarized. (CS Monitor)

Extremists Are After Musharraf President Pervez Musharraf, who narrowly escaped a second assassination attempt at the weekend, has a lot of enemies who would like him dead, analysts said. (AFP)

THE WAR IN IRAQ

Saddam in CaptivityIraqi Official: Saddam Held in BaghdadU.S. Military holding Saddam Hussein in Baghdad area, member of Iraqi Governing Council says. (AP)

U.S. Tries to Trip Up Saddam Saddam Hussein is being shown videotapes of anti-Saddam protests in Iraq, the unearthing of mass graves and the torture and execution of prisoners during his reign, two U.S. officials who are receiving reports on his interrogation said Tuesday. (USA Today)

Document Reveals Fabric of Iraq Insurgent NetworkPaper captured with Hussein details structure for financing resistance.(Washington Post)

Finding Family Friend Key to Discovering Where Saddam WasThe search for Saddam Hussein was almost as much a hunt for a man who helped hide, feed and protect Iraq's former dictator as for Saddam himself. The name of the man is a U.S. military secret. All commanders will say is that he is a big-bellied, middle-aged man whose family is close to Saddam - and that on Saturday afternoon, the fat man sang. (USA Today)

'Ultimate Penalty'President Bush: Saddam capture confirmed my joy for Iraqis. (ABCNEWS)

CIA Poised to Quiz Hussein Rumsfeld says agency to control interrogations. (Washington Post)

Dates in Pentagon Video Enriching Conspiracy TheoriesThe video of Saddam Hussein's hiding location released by the Pentagon is spawning various theories regarding the timing of the arrest. Dates, a popular Mediterranean fruit, appear in the pictures and have led some people to believe that the U.S. had Hussein in custody for a few months. (Asharq Al Awsat)

Raghad Wants to Visit Saddam Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter Raghad has said she is looking into the legalities of visiting her father, who was captured over the weekend by U.S. forces in Iraq. (AFP)

Other NewsTruck Bombing Kills at Least 10 in IraqExplosives-laden truck speeding toward police station slams into bus, killing at least 10 Iraqis. (AP)

Italy Targeted By Recruiters for Terrorists Ansar al Islam, an Islamic underground organization based in Iraq, and al Qaeda have joined forces to recruit Arab volunteers in Europe to fight the United States and its allies in Iraq, according to Italian investigators. (Washington Post)

Blix Rejects Blair WMD ClaimsClaims that Saddam Hussein had laboratories for developing weapons of mass destruction have been dismissed by a former chief U.N. weapons inspector. (BBC)

France and Germany Join U.S. in Effort to Reduce Iraq's DebtFrance and Germany agreed to work with the U.S. toward a "substantial reduction" of Iraq's towering foreign debt next year. (NY Times)

South Korean Force to Go to IraqThe government ended months of divisive debate Wednesday by announcing its final decision to send a contingent of 3,000 troops to support stabilization efforts in Iraq. (AFP)

U.N. Won't Promise Swift Return to IraqIraq foreign minister urges staff to return quickly to his country. (AP)

Tariq Aziz Stops Calling Son Saddam Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has started calling his youngest son — named Saddam after Iraq's ousted leader — by the name Zuhair instead, according to letters obtained by the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat. (AP)

THE WAR IN IRAQ — ANALYSIS & OPINION

Prosecution of Hussein: Decade's Digging is Already DoneAny court to try Saddam Hussein will have a head start, thanks to efforts over the past decade to prove he was responsible for genocide. (NY Times)

Saddam in the Cage Finally, Saddam Hussein got what he wanted ever since his invasion of Kuwait: to have the Americans talk to him. (Al Hayat)

Trying Saddam If a trial is to have a cathartic effect in Iraq, it should be held there — it is patronizing to argue that the Iraqi authorities cannot dispense justice. (The Guardian)

For Iraqis, Hussein's Arrest Not a Cure-All They wonder if it will bring closure. Gratitude to the U.S. gives way to anger over occupation. (LA Times)

The Grounds for Celebration Of course, the United States is safer now that Saddam Hussein is behind bars. Not nearly as safer as we'd be if the Saudi regime were supplanted by a more liberal, less Osama bin Laden-enamored one. The case for war in Iraq was never the safety of the United States, as the administration has acknowledged over the past several months by retroactively shifting its justification to building democracy in that unhappy land. (Washington Post)

Saddam is Ours. Does Al Qaeda Care?There's strong evidence that Saddam Hussein's arrest is irrelevant, and Osama bin Laden is using Iraq as a smoke screen. (NY Times)

'It is a Golden Opportunity' Press review: What does Saddam's capture mean for the reconstruction of Iraq? (The Guardian) What the French and German papers said What the Arab papers said More press reviews

Iraq: Project FrustrationIn the chill January days when Pentagon officials were mapping the blueprint for a new Iraq, a paper was circulated here in Washington proposing a free, impartial and independent Iraqi Media Network. The paper stated, "Whilst democracy requires a free press, at the same time it requires one that is accountable to the society and the individuals within it, which it serves." (Television Week)

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.