The Insider: Daily Terrorism Report

Dec. 11, 2003 -- — ABCNEWS has learned that the man arrested yesterday in Minneapolis on suspicion of having al Qaeda ties is of Somali origin and has been under surveillance for some time. Under questioning, he has revealed that he knew of suspected 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui's activities in training camps in Afghanistan. It still remains to be seen whether the suspect had any contact with Moussaoui in the United States.

Plus, a new top-secret CIA memo warns that the al Qaeda network is intensifying its campaign to create insability in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The memo states that al Qaeda wants to launch a major destabilization campaign in Saudi Arabia sooner rather than later for fear it might lose followers and weaponry due to the large-scale crackdowns that have recently been taking place in the kingdom.

THE WAR ON TERROR

INVESTIGATIONS/ARRESTS/THREATS

United StatesJailed Man Accused of Having Ties to Al QaedaThe federal authorities in Minnesota have arrested a man who is accused of having ties to the terrorist network of al Qaeda and to Zacarias Moussaoui, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday. (NY Times)ABCNEWS has learned that the man, a Somali national with suspected ties to al Qaeda, has been under surveillance for some time. While he has committed no overt acts, nor is he believed to have participated in any active terrorist plots, he has admitted to knowing Moussaoui, revealing that Moussaoui had trained in camps in Afghanistan. It is not clear whether he had any contact with Moussaoui in the United States.

Saudi Arabia

CIA: Al Qaeda Plans Saudi PushThe al Qaeda terrorist network has decided to intensify its efforts to foment instability in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, and overthrow the royal family, warns a new top-secret CIA assessment. (Knight Ridder)

Security Reinforced At BordersSaudi authorities have increased security at the Kingdom's borders to prevent terror suspects from fleeing the country by using forged documents. (Al Hayat)

Pictures of the 26 Terror Suspects in Stores and HotelsSaudis have become more alert in assisting the security forces in hunting down terror suspects. The Saudi authorities are clearly trying to involve citizens in the crackdown on terrorist, especially after information provided by one man led to finding and killing one of the suspects a few days ago. (Asharq Al Awsat)

Background of the Most Wanted Terrorists (Arab News)

Fingerprinting a Must for All U.S. Visa Applicants The U.S. Consulate General has begun collecting fingerprints of visa applicants regardless of nationality. (Arab News)

Embassies Review Security Details A string of attacks in the Kingdom, the most recent being the suicide attack on Al-Muhayya Compound in Riyadh on Nov. 8, has forced foreign embassies to review their security details and upgrade safety precautions.(Arab News)

Niagara Falls Pictured On Al Qaeda WebpageNews 10NBC has learned that the F.B.I. is investigating a possible terrorist threat against Niagara Falls after a picture of the falls turned up on a pro al Qaeda website. (10NBC)

Germany

Germany Court Orders 9/11 Suspect Freed

The trial of a Moroccan man accused of helping the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers appeared close to collapse Thursday after German federal police informed the court by fax that they had received information, apparently from a central al Qaeda planner now in American custody, that the defendant had no advance knowledge of the plot.

(AP)

Nationwide Terror Raids in GermanyPolice raided more than 1,000 apartments of suspected Islamic militants across Germany on Thursday, including those of four people believed to have planned terror attacks, authorities said. (Newsweek)

YemenAuthorities May Have Captured ElbanehJustice could soon be served for a seventh member of the Lackawanna terror cell. (News 4)

LebanonAttack On U.S. Embassy in Beirut FoiledThe Lebanese Army said it had foiled a bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut yesterday, arresting two men at the gates of the fortress-like complex. (Reuters)

IranIran Hails Iraqi Decision To Expel Armed Opposition, Denies Al Qaeda SwapIran hailed a decision by Iraq's U.S.-backed interim leaders to expel the Iranian armed opposition People's Mujahedeen, but denied suggestions of a secret deal involving the extradition of detained al Qaeda members from the Islamic republic. (AFP)

AfghanistanHekmatyar Calls for Jihad Afghan leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has called on his countrymen to launch jihad against U.S.-led forces, saying they were occupation troops. (Al Jazeera)

Taliban Spies Keep Strong Grip On South James Astill meets the elite US forces on patrol in Gereshk trying to stem the rising tide of bloody attacks. (The Guardian)

FranceBrigitte Trained Recruits, Says Report Islamic radicals including Willie Brigitte held training camps for potential recruits across France through 2002, Le Parisien newspaper reported yesterday. (The Age)

United KingdomResearcher: 'Al Qaeda Recruits Teenagers and Allows Disguise As Women'A conference about international terror threats was held in London yesterday, where different personalities expressed their opinions about the subject. One researcher told Asharq Al Awsat that al Qaeda has changed its strategy dramatically, started recruiting teenagers and allowed their members to use women's clothes as a disguise. (Asharq Al Awsat)

Defense Secretary to Unveil U.K. Forces OverhaulGeoff Hoon is set to unveil to MPs a major overhaul of the U.K.'s armed forces to equip them to respond to the threat of international terrorism. (BBC)

BangladeshBangladesh May Be Emerging Terrorist Nexus, CSIS Report WarnsBangladesh may be emerging as a haven for Islamic terrorists in South Asia, says an intelligence report by Canada's spy agency. (Canadian Press)

RussiaMoscow blast 'planned abroad'Russia's security agency said yesterday it believed that a deadly suicide blast in Moscow that killed six people near the Kremlin's walls was prepared abroad and hinted at a link to the Al Qaeda terror network. (Gulf Daily News)

GreeceNightmare in Athens: Will Terror at the Olympics Be Met By Muddle? The Istanbul bombings have raised the stakes for Greece's police chiefs, who are in charge of organizing security for the Athens Olympic Games next August. (Jane's)

PakistanPresident: No Taliban Regrouping in CountryPresident Gen Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday rejected the allegations that Taliban or al Qaeda elements were reuniting in the country and reiterated that Pakistan would not allow its soil to be used for terrorist activities. (Hi Pakistan)

MalaysiaMalaysia to Release Terrorist Suspect On Condition He Returns to IndonesiaMalaysia plans to deport a jailed suspected leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network back to his home country of Indonesia, where he is expected to walk free, lawyers and officials said on Thursday. (AP)

LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

United StatesFourth U.S.-Yemeni Man Jailed for Qaeda Camp VisitA Yemeni-American known in his faded steel town for teaching Islam and Arabic was on Wednesday imprisoned for 10 years under a U.S. anti-terrorism law after admitting support for al Qaeda by attending a military-style camp in Afghanistan. (Reuters)

Judge Questions Sentence in Al Qaeda Case A man described as the leader of a group of Yemenite-Americans from Lackawanna, N.Y., who attended a training camp run by al Qaeda was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a federal judge who questioned the term's adequacy. (NY Times)

Detroit Terror Case in Danger of Reversal The Bush administration's first major post-Sept. 11 prosecution, which broke up a terrorist cell in Detroit, is in danger of unraveling after the Justice Department divulged it had failed to turn over evidence that might have helped the defense. (AP)

Guantanamo Translator to Face Court Martial Next Week The military spy trial of a U.S. Air Force translator who worked at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp that holds al Qaeda and Taliban suspects will begin at Travis Air Force Base in California next Monday, the Air Force said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Courts Test U.S. Strategy in Legal War On TerrorThe Bush administration's legal war on terrorism faces a series of critical tests in the coming months as federal courts examine some of the most controversial aspects of the White House's strategy. (USA Today)

United KingdomPolice Defend Anti-Terror Arrests The senior police officer who ordered the detention of nine Algerian terrorism suspects in Edinburgh and London defended their arrest. (The Scotsman)

British Anti-Terrorism Law Attacked As Perversion of JusticeHuman rights group Amnesty International attacked British emergency internment laws, introduced in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, as a "perversion of justice." (AFP)

JordanMilitary Court Reconvicts Militants On Terror Charges, Sentencing Them to Four to Five Years In Prison In a third retrial, a military court convicted six Islamic militants on terror charges Wednesday, and sentenced them to prison terms of four to five years' imprisonment. The militants were found guilty of conspiring to carry out acts of terror through detonating bombs outside an Amman hotel, a school, and under the cars of a former intelligence chief and a former interior minister in 1998. (AP)

IndonesiaIndonesia's Anti-Terror Law Challenged Indonesia's justice minister has defended the country's anti-terrorism law in the constitutional court after lawyers of a man convicted over the Bali bombings challenged its legality. (Reuters)

CanadaSecret Terror Hearings Violate Rights, Top Court ToldA federal law allowing secret court hearings into terrorist cases undermines the constitutional rights of witnesses and turns judges into police agents, the Supreme Court of Canada was told today. (Canadian Press)

THE WAR ON TERROR — ANALYSIS & OPINION

Al Qaeda's New StrategyIn Turkey, the terror group adopted a new strategy of directing home-grown militants. (Newsweek)

Guantánamo-on-Thames?Britain is exercised about the treatment of Guantánamo Bay detainees, but there are parallels at home. (Economist)

THE WAR IN IRAQ

Iraq Spy Service Planned by U.S. To Stem Attacks Bush authorizes creation of service to watch those targeting troops, civilians. (Washington Post)

U.S. Officers Predict Rise in Assassinations American military commanders in Iraq are warning that they anticipate a sharp increase in assassination attempts against local political leaders and security officials who are cooperating with the American efforts to stabilize the country. (NY Times)

U.S. Nabs Rebel Suspects, Seizes ArmsU.S. troops on Thursday seized three Iraqi men suspected of heading guerrilla cells in Saddam Hussein's hometown, and said they had uncovered a weapons cache with enough ammunition to launch a string of attacks.(Newsweek)

U.S. Bid Policy Elicits OutrageBush tries to limit the diplomatic damage of the decision to keep antiwar countries from competing for major contracts in Iraq. (LA Times)

Iraq Bids Ban Reopens Diplomatic RiftU.S. ban on firms in nations against Iraq war from reconstruction bids reopens diplomatic rift. (AP)

Bush Seeks Help of Allies Barred From Iraq Deals President Bush found himself in the awkward position on Wednesday of calling the leaders of France, Germany and Russia to ask them to forgive Iraq's debts, just a day after the Pentagon excluded those countries and others from $18 billion in American-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects. (NY Times)

White House Defends Bid On Iraq European Union to decide whether U.S. ban on Iraq rebuilding bids violates international trade rules. (AP)

U.S. Troops Kill Saddam Fedayeen OfficerU.S. troops kill senior Saddam Fedayeen officer in N. Iraqi city of Mosul, his neighbors say. (AP)

Iraq Halts Its Count of Civilian War Deaths Iraqi Health Ministry officials have ordered a halt to a count of civilian deaths from the war and have told workers not to release figures already compiled, the head of the ministry's statistics department said Wednesday. (LA Times)

Iraqi Resistance Puts Bombs in Coke Bottles and Children's ToysThe Iraqi resistance is improvising by putting bombs into Coke bottles, children's toys and dead animal's bodies and leaving them on the side of roads. They then wait for soldiers to pass by to detonate the bombs, reports Al Quds Al Arabi. (Al Quds Al Arabi)

U.S. Meets Sheiks to Quell Tribal Land Fights The U.S. Army played host to sheiks at the main American base in the southern city of Nasiriyah on Monday, seeking to defuse the threat of violence among powerful southern tribes. (Washington Times)

Annan Rules Out the Quick Return of a U.N. Presence in IraqSecretary General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that the dangerous situation in Iraq had caused him to rule out a swift resumption of a United Nations presence there. (NY Times)

Decision to Close Down Al Arabiya "American" Not "Iraqi"An "informed Iraqi media source" told the Saudi Al Watan newspaper that the decision to ban the Arab TV station Al Arabiya was taken by the U.S. two days before it was announced. The paper reports that the U.S. had denied any prior knowledge of the decision, which was purportedly taken by the Iraqi Governing Council. (Al Watan)

THE WAR IN IRAQ — ANALYSIS & OPINION

Unfriendly Move The announcement that firms from countries that opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq will not be invited to bid for the second round of Iraqi reconstruction contracts, comprising 26 projects worth $18.6 billion, is as absurd as it is immature and petulant. (Arab News)

Why Iraq is Not Just America's Problem It is plain for all to see that America's Iraq war has not gone the way the White House had expected. (The Straits Times)

The Law On Rebuilding IraqWashington's decision to allow only its allies a slice of Iraqi reconstruction contracts has not exactly pleased those left out. (BBC)

'Made In Israel' Crackdowns in Iraq Won't Work'Fear and violence' to keep people in line won't further progress. (CS Monitor)

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.