al qaeda

235 items, displayed chronologically.

Bush administration's torture policy increasingly under fire

With Vice President Dick Cheney in the lead, the White House has fought a vigorous campaign - much of it behind the scenes - to reject limits on how to treat prisoners who might have information on terrorist plots. But a growing number of lawmakers, both moderate Republicans and Democrats, argue that abuse of prisoners is immoral, has devastated the United States' image and ability to project its values overseas, and would endanger captured American soldiers or civilians.

Rice tells Iranians not to stir up insurgency

Iran was warned not to "stir up" insurgency and to be a "good neighbour" to Iraq by the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, as she met Tony Blair for private talks yesterday.

MORE FRIDAY FUNNIES: Bush: Ten al-Qaida plots foiled since 9/11

George Bush claimed yesterday that at least 10 al-Qaida attacks had been thwarted since September 11, including three inside the US, during an impassioned speech in which he defended the war in Iraq and the wider fight against terrorism.

Serious turn to Guantanamo protest

A hunger strike by prisoners at the US Guantanamo Bay prison camp has entered a serious stage, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says.

Al Qaeda puts job ads on Internet - Arab paper

Al Qaeda has put job advertisements on the Internet asking for supporters to help put together its Web statements and video montages, an Arabic newspaper reported.

Bin Laden to surface after new attack on US soil: ex-CIA expert

Osama bin laden is expected to remain in hiding until he stages another attack on the United States, an ex-CIA expert who had tracked the terror mastermind for two decades warned in an interview.

Uzbeks Stop Working With U.S. Against Terrorism

After cutting off U.S. access to a key military base, Uzbekistan has also quietly terminated cooperation with Washington on counterterrorism, a move that could affect both countries' ability to deal with al Qaeda and its allies in Central Asia and neighboring Afghanistan, U.S. officials said.

Kabul attack raises fear of al-Qaida link to Taliban

A suicide bombing outside an army base in the Afghan capital Kabul killed nine people and injured 28 yesterday, raising fears that insurgents are importing ruthless Iraqi-style tactics into Afghanistan.

Curt Weldon, nutjob: Sept. 11 Commission Rejects Atta Claim

Former members of the Sept. 11 commission on Wednesday dismissed assertions that a Pentagon intelligence unit identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as an member of al-Qaida long before the 2001 attacks.

Taking Stock of the Forever War

A terrorist leader four years ago, Osama bin Laden is now an ideology as well -- and a viral movement. Maybe it's time to stop fighting on the terrorists' terms.

Ex-Counterterrorism Chief Cites Rise in Attacks

Richard A. Clarke, the former head of counterterrorism in the White House under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said yesterday that there were twice as many attacks outside Iraq in the three years after the 2001 attacks as in the three preceding years.

Poll: Fewer Americans expect bin Laden to be caught

Nearly four years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans are less optimistic that Osama bin Laden will be captured or killed and say they believe al-Qaeda will remain a threat even if he is caught.

Angry Outsiders Boosting al-Qaida's Ranks

They had roots in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Jamaica: the suspected al-Qaida foot soldiers in Britain were immigrants or were children of immigrants -- a new breed of recruits that underscores the changes in the organization since the Sept. 11 attacks, say experts studying the London bombings.

Special briefing: How radical Islamists see the world

Today and tomorrow, the Monitor examines the origins of Islamic terrorism and how it is evolving now.

Pentagon Denies Rigging Guantanamo Tribunals

The Pentagon acknowledged yesterday that two former members of the military team handling prosecutions of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had alleged last year that the trial system was rigged in favor of the government. A Pentagon spokesman said, however, that the prosecutors' charges had been "thoroughly investigated" and dismissed as unfounded. While declining to reveal specifics of the allegations, Lawrence Di Rita said an investigation determined they were "much ado about nothing."

New name for 'war on terror'

In recent days, senior administration figures have been speaking publicly of "a global struggle against the enemies of freedom", and of the need to use all "tools of statecraft" to defeat them.

Musharraf 's terrorist claims are dismissed

President Pervez Musharraf's declaration that he has "completely shattered" al-Qaida in Pakistan was met yesterday with deep scepticism from diplomats, analysts and opposition politicians.

Iraq war increased the threat of attacks, says Major

The war in Iraq has heightened the threat of terrorist attacks in Britain, the former Prime Minister Sir John Major has claimed.

Freed Afghans Decry Guantanamo Conditions

Two longtime detainees at the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba who were returned home here Wednesday said that they were pleased about their release but that many at the prison were suffering from poor treatment that was harming their mental health.

Bush 'exploited 9/11' in Iraq plea

In his prime-time speech at Fort Bragg military base, the president mentioned September 11 five times in 30 minutes as he argued that withdrawal from Iraq would leave the US open to more terrorist attacks.

NOT MAKING THIS UP: Cheney Says Detainees Are Well Treated

Vice President Dick Cheney said on Thursday that prisoners at the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had everything they could possibly want and were well fed and well treated as they lived in the "tropics."

Iraq May Be Prime Place for Training of Militants, C.I.A. Report Concludes

A new classified assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency says Iraq may prove to be an even more effective training ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was in Al Qaeda's early days, because it is serving as a real-world laboratory for urban combat.

Guantanamo guards tortured prisoner with music

They included a "sissy slap" with an inflated latex glove, ordering Mr Kahtani to "bark to elevate his social status up to that of a dog," and rejecting a request that he be allowed to pray. On other occasions, water was poured on his head and Aguilera music was played to keep him awake in midnight sessions. Mr Kahtani was questioned in a room decorated with pictures of 11 September victims. He was made to urinate in his underpants, and at other times to wear pictures of scantily clad women around his neck. At one point, according to the log, he asked to commit suicide.

IRAQ AS TERRORIST TRAINING CAMP: As Africans Join Iraqi Insurgency, U.S. Counters With Military Training in Their Lands

A growing number of Islamic militants from northern and sub-Saharan Africa are fighting American and Iraqi forces in Iraq, fueling the insurgency with foot soldiers and some financing, American military officials say. [...] A small vanguard of veterans are also returning home to countries like Morocco and Algeria, poised to use skills they learned on the battlefield in Iraq, from bomb making to battle planning, against their native governments, the officials said.

Terrorists 'using Guantanamo as a recruitment aid'

Senior Democrats are calling for the closure of America's detention centre in Guantanamo, Cuba, saying it has become a "propaganda and recruitment tool" for terrorists in the wake of continued allegations of prisoner abuse.

Dozens Have Alleged Koran's Mishandling

Senior Bush administration officials reacted with outrage to a Newsweek report that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Koran at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility, and the magazine retracted the story last week. But allegations of disrespectful treatment of Islam's holy book are far from rare. An examination of hearing transcripts, court records and government documents, as well as interviews with former detainees, their lawyers, civil liberties groups and U.S. military personnel, reveals dozens of accusations involving the Koran, not only at Guantanamo, but also at American-run detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Al-Qaeda's back has been broken, says Musharraf

General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, has claimed this month's arrest of a senior al-Qaeda operative has helped to "break the back" of the terrorist organisation, severing the links between the central command and members on the ground.

White House Has Tightly Restricted Oversight of C.I.A. Detentions

The White House is maintaining extraordinary restrictions on information about the detention of high-level terror suspects, permitting only a small number of members of Congress to be briefed on how and where the prisoners are being held and interrogated, senior government officials say.

Big gaps remain in intelligence on al-Qaida, report finds

U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated al-Qaida's efforts to develop biological weapons and still don't have a full understanding of the terrorist group's chemical-weapons programs, the presidential commission investigating the performance of American intelligence reported Thursday.

Report says bin Laden eluded U.S. forces in Tora Bora

A commander for Osama bin Laden during Afghanistan's war with the Soviet Union who helped the al-Qaeda leader escape American forces at Tora Bora is being held by U.S. authorities, a government document says. The document represents the first definitive statement from the Pentagon that bin Laden, the mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was at Tora Bora and evaded his pursuers.