Latin America on Alert for Terror
KansasCity.Com

MONTERREY, Mexico - Governments throughout Mexico and Central America are on alert as evidence grows that al-Qaida members are traveling in the region and looking for recruits to carry out attacks in Latin America - the potential last frontier for international terrorism.

The territory could be a perfect staging ground for Osama bin Laden's militants, with homegrown rebel groups, drug and people smugglers, and corrupt governments. U.S. officials have long feared al-Qaida could launch an attack from south of the border, and they have been paying closer attention as the number of terror-related incidents has increased since last year.

The strongest possible al-Qaida link is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a 29-year-old Saudi pilot suspected of being a terrorist cell leader. The FBI issued a border-wide alert earlier this month for Shukrijumah, saying he may try to cross into Arizona or Texas.

Terrorism-related events in Latin America
Associated Press

A look at terrorism-related events in Latin America since late last year:

-- In Honduras, Security Minister Oscar Alvarez says evidence shows terrorists, likely from al-Qaida, may be trying to recruit Hondurans to carry out attacks in Central America.

-- In El Salvador, authorities reinforce security at the international airport and along the borders after purported al-Qaida threats appear on the Internet against the country for its support of the U.S.-led mission in Iraq.

-- In Panama, the United States and seven Latin American countries -- including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Peru and Panama -- carry out a weeklong anti-terror exercise aimed at protecting the Panama Canal.

-- Along the U.S.-Mexican border, the FBI issues an alert for Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah, 29, an alleged al-Qaida cell leader and bombmaker, saying the Saudi pilot may try to cross into Arizona or Texas. Mexican authorities said they had no evidence he had entered Mexico.

--In Mexicali, near the border with California, eight people from Armenia, Iran and Iraq are arrested Thursday on charges they may have entered Mexico with false documents. Although they did not appear to have ties to terrorists, they are part of Mexico's growing crackdown on non-Mexican migrants.

-- In McAllen, Texas, 48-year-old Farida Goolam Mahamed Ahmed of South Africa is arrested after wading across the Rio Grande into Texas. Officials detain her as she tries to board a flight, saying she carried a passport with pages missing. She pleads innocent to violating U.S. immigration law, and authorities are investigating whether she has ties to terrorists. During a court hearing Aug. 20, testimony indicates Ahmed traveled from Johannesburg, South Africa, on July 8, via Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to London, then to Mexico City on or about July 14. The countries she traveled through do not require South Africans to have visas.

-- Honduran officials say Shukrijumah was spotted earlier this year at an Internet cafe in the capital, Tegucigalpa.

-- In Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft warns that al-Qaida is determined to launch a U.S. attack in the next few months, and he asks state and local law enforcement and the public for help tracking down seven people believed to be connected to al-Qaida. One of the seven is Shukrijumah, who once lived in Florida. "All present a clear and present danger to America. All should be considered armed and dangerous,'' Ashcroft said.

-- In Mexico, authorities cancel two Los Angeles-bound flights from Mexico City and force a third to turn around after takeoff because the United States, Canada and Interpol told Mexico they suspected terrorists might be using Mexican soil to plan an attack.

Possible terrorist sighting roils isle
Boston.Com

HYANNIS -- A long-sought suspected Al Qaeda member who has eluded a concerted international dragnet may have been sighted at a Nantucket airport this week, prompting the FBI to distribute a picture of the suspect to law enforcement and transportation officials on the island.

Law enforcement authorities declined to disclose details of the possible sighting of Amer el-Maati, who allegedly has talked about hijacking a plane in Canada and flying it into a building in the United States. The sighting was first reported in the Inquirer and Mirror newspaper of Nantucket yesterday, citing unnamed town and airport sources.

The State Police went to the Nantucket Memorial Airport at noon Thursday after the possible sighting was reported, according to Phillip Parent of the Steamship Authority, which runs ferries to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

Later on Thursday, the FBI distributed photographs of Amer el-Maati to airline and ferry employees, as well as island law enforcement officials. The photographs were not released to the media, but an FBI official confirmed the sighting report.

A flier with the photo describes Maati as "armed and dangerous" and says he "is being sought for possible terrorist threats in the United States," said Parent, the Steamship Authority's human resources director.

In May, US authorities released the photographs of Maati, 41, and six others, saying they were possibly planning terrorist attacks on American targets.

Iran plays down strike threat
The Australian

TEHRAN today disputed remarks by Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani apparently warning of pre-emptive Iranian strikes on US troops in neighbouring countries, claiming they were misinterpreted.

"The statements of the defence minister have not been reported accurately - to some extent they have been altered," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

"We will not sit (with arms folded) to wait for what others will do to us," MR Shamkhani told Al-Jazeera TV on Wednesday when asked if Iran would respond to a US attack on its nuclear facilities, speaking in Farsi through an interpreter into Arabic.

"Some military commanders in Iran are convinced that preventive operations which the Americans talk about are not their monopoly," he said, according to the translator.

"America is not the only one present in the region. We are also present, from Khost to Kandahar in Afghanistan; we are present in the Gulf and we can be present in Iraq." But Mr Asefi said there had been "misinterpretations", adding, "Mr Shamkhani said that we would defend our territory and national interests and would allow no one to attack the Islamic republic"

"If anyone attacks our country, we will respond with determination."

Pakistan forces attack suspected Al Qaeda hide-outs
ABC News

Pakistan's military used helicopter gunships and artillery to pound suspected hide-outs of Al Qaeda-linked militants in mountains near the Afghan border on Saturday, officials and residents said.

The military launched its assault near Shakai, a remote village in South Waziristan tribal region, where militants are believed to be hiding, but there was no word on casualties.

Wana is 400 kilometres south-west of the capital, Islamabad.

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said the assault came after militants stepped up their attacks on security forces in the region in recent days.

He said several suspected militants were killed in an exchange of fire on Thursday.

The military suffered no casualties in Saturday's attack or Thursday's clashes, he added.

A military official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that security forces had retrieved the body of one of the militants killed in Thursday's fighting and he was believed to an Uzbek.

Hundreds of foreign militants, including Arabs, Chechans and Uzbeks linked to Al Qaeda and their tribal allies are thought to be hiding in South Waziristan.

Washington accused of ignoring nuclear terror threat
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles

The Bush administration insists that its top priority is keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists. But in a withering new book, one of America's foremost nuclear weapons experts argues that the White House has been so heedless of the threat that nuclear armageddon in one or more US cities is now "more likely than not" over the next decade.

Graham Allison, a former defence official under both Republican and Democratic administrations and now a leading researcher at Harvard, describes the Bush administration as "reckless" for its failure to secure fissile materials around the world and its apparent lack of interest in preventing North Korea and Iran from becoming nuclear powers. In his book Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, Mr Allison lays out a series of measures to minimise the risk that al-Qa'ida or another group could either build or buy a nuclear weapon and then smuggle it into the United States.

He demonstrates that the Bush White House, for all its bullish rhetoric, has taken none of them.

"No one observing the behaviour of the US government after 9/11 would note any significant changes in activity aimed at preventing terrorists from acquiring the world's most destructive technologies," he writes. At the same time, al-Qa'ida is known to have taken steps to obtain nuclear weaponry since 1992, and has publicly stated its ambition to kill four million Americans.

Berlin rejects U.S. official's claim on Iran's nuclear program
Tehran Times

BERLIN (IRNA) -- The German government dismissed remarks by U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton alleging that Iran had admitted to Germany, France and Britain that it could build nuclear weapons in three years.

"I cannot confirm this," a top German Foreign Ministry official told IRNA in Berlin Friday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was reacting to Bolton's statements in the U.S. media claiming Iran had informed the three European powers that it could produce weapons-grade uranium within a year and nuclear weapons within three years.

A hawkish nominee of U.S. President George W. Bush, Bolton has become the front man for America's psychological warfare with Iran.

Tehran has repeatedly stressed that its nuclear program is peaceful and has called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to finally close its file with the agency.

FBI Investigates Letter Threatening Honolulu Airport
The Hawaii Channel

HONOLULU -- FBI offices in five cities, including Honolulu, are investigating a threatening letter that they hope is a hoax.

Authorities aren't ready to call the letter a hoax, but they are also not responding with any additional security.

The main feature of the letter is apparently a caricature of the mythological grim reaper and some other symbols. It was sent from the United Kingdom to airports in Honolulu, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Baltimore.

The apparently identical letters reportedly say, "Your days are numbered."

The letter says nothing more specific. Hawaii sources say Honolulu is not even mentioned beyond the mailing address.

Sending such a threat is a federal felony. In Hawaii, a woman went to federal prison for seven years after mailing fake anthrax. A California tourist got two years for a threat that forced diversion of a cruise ship.