OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING and COLUMBINE SHOOOTING - Still searching for answers

It has been 13 years since the OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING and 10 since the COLUMBINE SHOOTING MASSACRE. Both of these events are still on the mind of millions as the world continues to search for answers as to why? We know the who and when and have various versions of why but none of this really helps those who have lost and suffered from these tragic and sadistic events.

My wife for one. She was born and raised in OKLAHOMA CITY and was in fact supposed to be at a meeting in the ALFRED P. MURRAH FEDERAL BUILDING that day but schedules made it impossible. Although she survived the OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING, many of those close to her did not. For this she still mourns 13 years later.

Your Ad Here

As for the COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING, one has to wonder how society has sunk to such a low as to somehow give a couple of teenagers the moral ability to commit such a heinous crime. As with the OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING, many innocent lives of children and adults were lost. This was and will continue to be a black mark on society along with other atrocities such as the 911 ATTACKS and the various other HIGH SCHOOL and COLLEGE SHOOTINGS which followed.

Your Ad Here

On a similar note, the TV hit series SAVING GRACE is doing a really good job of helping those effected deal with the tragedy of the OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBINGS. Although I was not directly effected, the thoughts of "What if" often run through my mind. At the end of the day though, there is no true way to know. All I know is I would not have such a wonderful wife and I would be none the wiser for this tragic loss.

Days like this should be used to remember what was an be thankful for what is, as life is short enough and it is a sad thing when that time frame is further reduced by the actions of those without conscience.

Your Ad Here

One of the Arrested men in the Mumbai Attacks may have been on an Undercover Anti-Terrorism Mission

SRINAGAR, India – One of the two Indian men arrested for illegally buying mobile phone cards used by the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks was a counterinsurgency police officer who may have been on an undercover mission, security officials said Saturday, demanding his release. The arrests, announced in the eastern city of Calcutta, were the first since the bloody siege ended. But what was touted as a rare success for India's beleaguered law enforcement agencies, quickly turned sour as police in two Indian regions squared off against one another.

Your Ad Here

Senior police officers in Indian Kashmir, which has been at the heart of tensions between India and Pakistan, demanded the release of the officer, Mukhtar Ahmed, saying he was one of their own and had been involved in infiltrating Kashmiri militant groups. Indian authorities believe the banned Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has links to Kashmir, trained the gunmen and plotted the attacks that left 171 people dead after a three-day rampage through Mumbai that began Nov. 26.

The implications of Ahmed's involvement — that Indian agents may have been in touch with the militants and perhaps supplied the SIM cards used in the attacks — added to the growing list of questions over India's ill-trained security forces, which are widely blamed for not thwarting the attacks.

Earlier Saturday, Calcutta police announced the arrests of Ahmed and Tauseef Rahman, who allegedly bought SIM cards by using fake documents, including identification cards of dead people. The cards allow users switch their cellular service to phones other than their own.

Your Ad Here

Rahman, of West Bengal state, later sold them to Ahmed, said Rajeev Kumar a senior Calcutta police officer. Both men were arrested Friday and charged with fraud and criminal conspiracy, Kumar said, adding that police were still investigating how the 10 gunmen obtained the SIM cards. But the announcement had police in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, fuming.

We have told Calcutta police that Ahmed is "our man and it's now up to them how to facilitate his release," said one senior officer speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information. Other police officials in Kashmir supported his account. The officer said Ahmed was a Special Police Officer, part of a semiofficial counterinsurgency network whose members are usually drawn from former militants. The force is run on a special funding from the federal Ministry of Home Affairs. "Sometimes we use our men engaged in counterinsurgency ops to provide SIM cards to the (militant) outfits so that we track their plans down," said the officer.

Police said Ahmed was recruited to the force after his brother was killed five years ago, allegedly by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants for being a police informer. About a dozen Islamic militant groups have been fighting in Kashmir since 1989, seeking independence from mainly Hindu India or a union with Muslim-majority Pakistan. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region, which is divided between them and claimed by both in its entirety.

Your Ad Here

The Calcutta police denied the claims from Srinagar. "This is not true," said Kumar. The bungling and miscommunications among India's many security services comes as police said they were re-examining another suspected Lashkar militant who was arrested nine months before the attacks carrying hand-drawn sketches of Mumbai hotels, the train terminal and other targeted sites. Rakesh Maria, a senior Mumbai police officer, said the man, Faheem Ansari, was being transported to Mumbai from northern India where he has been in custody for further questioning, hoping he could shed more light on the attacks. Maria said there was a definite connection between Ansari and the Mumbai attacks. "Ansari was trained by Lashkar and sent to do reconnaissance," he said. And a day after India's top law enforcement official apologized for security "lapses" that allowed the gunmen to rampage through Mumbai, there were new embarrassments — this time with holes in the prime minister's security.

Police preparing for a visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh near Calcutta hired high-school children for the equivalent of $2.50 each to sit in trees for the day and look out for suspicious people. Local police chief L.N. Meena defended using children in the prime minister's security detail, saying there were too many trees in the area and not enough policemen. "The area is full of trees, so to check them to see if there were any anti-social elements or anyone making mischief, we employed the youths," he said. Television footage showed dozens of the youngsters perched in trees, with yellow paper badges that read "security pass" pinned on their chests.

Meanwhile police continued the interrogation of the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, who revealed that the gunmen had detailed pictures of the locations, Maria said. "They were pretty elaborate photographs," he said, adding that they had also used maps from Google to study the targets. Kasab has told interrogators he had been sent by Lashkar and identified two of the plot's masterminds as being involved, two Indian government officials familiar with the inquiry said. Police had earlier identified the prisoner as Ajmal Amir Kasab.

Lashkar changed its name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa after it was banned in 2002 amid U.S. pressure, according to the U.S. State Department. The U.S. lists both groups as terrorist organizations. Kasab told police that a senior Lashkar leader, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the group's operations chief, recruited him for the attack, and that the assailants called another senior leader, Yusuf Muzammil, on a satellite phone before the attacks.

In Pakistan, the Interior Ministry chief told reporters he had no immediate information on Lakhvi or Muzammil. According to the U.S., Lakhvi has directed Lashkar operations in Chechnya, Bosnia and Southeast Asia, training members to carry out suicide bombings and attack populated areas. In 2004, he allegedly sent operatives and funds to attack U.S. forces in Iraq.

Mumbai Police to use Truth Serum on Terrorist

Indian police interrogators are preparing to administer a "truth serum" on the sole Islamic militant captured during last week's terror attacks on Mumbai to settle once and for all the question of where he is from.

Your Ad Here

The mystery of the man dubbed "the baby-faced gunman" has weighed heavily on India's relations with Pakistan as the nuclear-armed neighbours dispute each other's accounts of his origin.

Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they have "verified" that Azam Amir Kasab, who was captured after a shoot-out in a Mumbai railway station on Wednesday night, is from Faridkot, a small village in Pakistan's impoverished south Punjab region. They say that the nine dead gunmen are also Pakistani.

Disputing that account, President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan told CNN last night: "We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt it … that he is a Pakistani."
He added: "The gunmen plus the planners, whoever they are, [are] stateless actors who have been holding hostage the whole world."

Proof that the militants were Pakistani would rapidly escalate the pressure on Mr Zardari's government to take action or risk a backlash from allies including the United States.

Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they are poised to settle the matter of Kasab's nationality through the use of "narcoanalysis" – a controversial technique, banned in most democracies, where the subject is injected with a truth serum.

Your Ad Here

The method was widely used by Western intelligence agencies during the Cold War, before it emerged that the drugs used – typically the barbiturate sodium pentothal – may induce hallucinations, delusions and psychotic manifestations

Mumbai police said that their evidence of a Pakistan link includes hand grenades manufactured in the city of Rawalpindi, in Pakistan, and satellite phone calls traced back to the country.

Deven Bharti, a deputy police commissioner in Mumbai and one of the interrogators, told The Times that Kasab had shown no remorse for his part in a terror attack that had killed nearly 200 people.

"He is a 24-year-old boy with the eyes of a killer," Mr Bharti said.

"Nobody should doubt: he is a highly-trained murderer. He has told us he came to Mumbai from Pakistan to cause maximum casualties."

The photographs of the gunman firing indiscriminately at the city's largest train station, wearing combat trousers, trainers, a black T-shirt and a blue haversack stuffed with ammunition, have become the defining image of the assault on Mumbai, the deadliest terror strike unleashed in India in 15 years.

The police officer added that the interrogation had been carried out in Punjabi and that Kasab also spoke a little, rough Hindi. "He can barely speak a sentence in English, only names of weapons and such," Mr Bharti said.

"He resisted at first, but soon he began to talk. We have our techniques, but we don't disclose our tactics."

Mr Bharti said Kasab is being held in an undisclosed location: "All I can say is that it isn't five-star luxury."
The portrait revealed by police questioning is that of a village boy from a poor family who failed to complete primary school but went on to undertake months of military training at four or five militant camps in Pakistan, the last of which was near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

He said that Kasab, together with the nine other gunmen killed during last week's attacks, had been chosen from a group of 24 that had gone through the same training regime.

The young men were prepared with violent footage from Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories. "All the traditional indoctrination methods you would associate with al-Qaeda or Lashka [Lashka-e-Taiba] have been used on these men," Mr Bharti said.

The police say that Kasab has given his home village as Faridkot, in the Okara district of Punjab. "We have verified, cross-checked this,"

Mr Bharti said. "We know his father owned a food stall there".

Mr Bhatri said that there was "no doubt" that Kasab will be subjected to "narcoanalysis", a technique which is common in serious crime investigations in India.

The drug, which will be administered through a drip, will lull Kasab into a trance-like state. Usually, a forensic psychologist then questions the prisoner.

Such methods are banned in the UK and the US, though some security officials suggest they should be adopted in anti-terrorist cases in the West.


Narco Analysis Test or Narco Test: This refers to the practice of administering barbiturates or certain other chemical substances, most often Pentothal Sodium, to lower a subject's inhibitions, in the hope that the subject will more freely share information and feelings. The term Narco Analysis was coined by Horseley. Narco analysis first reached the mainstream in 1922, when Robert House, a Texas obstetrician used the drug scopolamine on two prisoners. Since then narco testing has become largely discredited in most democratic states, including the United States and Britain. There is a vast body of literature calling into question its ability to yield legal truth. Additionally, narcoanalysis has serious legal and ethical implications.

Your Ad Here

A person is able to lie by using his imagination. In the Narco Analysis Test, the subject's inhibitions are lowered by interfering with his nervous system at the molecular level. In this state, it becomes difficult though not impossible for him to lie. In such sleep-like state efforts are made to obtain "probative truth" about the crime. Experts inject a subject with hypnotics like Sodium Pentothal or Sodium Amytal under the controlled circumstances of the laboratory. The dose is dependent on the person's sex, age, health and physical condition. The subject which is put in a state of hypnotism is not in a position to speak up on his own but can answer specific but simple questions after giving some suggestions. This type of test is not always admissible in the law courts. It states that subjects under a semi-conscious state do not have the mind set to properly answer any questions, while some other courts openly accept them as evidence. Studies have shown that it is possible to lie under narcoanalysis and its reliability as an investigative tool is questioned in most countries. A few democratic countries, India most notably, still continue to use narcoanalysis, but the result of such test can not be used as evidence in the court of law since it violates fundamental right against self-incrimination (Article 20(3) of the constitution of India). This has come under increasing criticism from the public and the media in that country. In India, the Narco Analysis test is done by a team comprising of an anesthesiologist, a psychiatrist, a clinical/forensic psychologist, an audio-videographer, and supporting nursing staff. The forensic psychologist will prepare the report about the revelations, which will be accompanied by a compact disc of audio-video recordings. The strength of the revelations, if necessary, is further verified by subjecting the person to polygraph and brain mapping tests.

The Test
Truth serum are drugs used in narco-analysis that cause a person to become uninhibited, but they do not guarantee the veracity of the subject’s statement. People who are under the influence of truth serums enter a hypnotic state and speak freely about anxieties or painful memories. The subject’s imagination is neutralised when semi-conscious, making it difficult for him/her to lie and his/her answers would be restricted to facts of which he/she is aware.


Reliability
Although inhibitions are generally reduced, people under the influence of truth serums are still able to lie and even tend to fantasize because of his semiconscious state. It can be used for discovery, and to corroborate information with other facts.


Drugs administered
Sodium pentothal is an ultrashort-acting barbiturate, which sedates only for a few minutes. It slows down the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and inhibits brain and spinal cord activity. Sodium amytal and Scopolamine are other drugs used. Some benzodiazepines have been used as truth agents; most notably, the Soviet Union used temazepam for this purpose.


Legal position
Such tests generally don’t have legal validity as confessions made by a semi-conscious person are not admissible in court. The court may, however, grant limited admissibility after considering the circumstances under which the test was obtained. In the main, these tests can only assist police investigations.

Jewish Centre among Targets in Mumbai Terrorist Plot

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Gunfire erupted on Friday when commandos began an operation to free Israelis held by suspected Islamist gunmen in Mumbai, while guests were also being evacuated from a luxury hotel in India's financial heart, witnesses said.

Your Ad Here

Heavily armed Indian commandos, their faces covered by balaclavas, rappelled from helicopters onto the roof of a Mumbai Jewish center in what television reports said was an assault by the paramilitary National Security Guard to flush out the militants. The Jewish center was one of three pockets in Mumbai where Indian forces were battling die-hard militants more than 24 hours after brazen, coordinated attacks killed at least 121 people.

A witness said troops fired into the Mumbai Jewish center, apparently to provide cover, as commandos made at least three sorties and took up positions on the roof. The building is in a crowded part of the city, making a frontal assault difficult.

Not far away, another witness said hotel guests including foreigners were being evacuated from the besieged Mumbai Trident-Oberoi Hotel, one of two luxury hotels where police said militants were still holed up with an unknown number of hostages. "They are evacuating everyone. Everyone is being taken care of," an Indian woman said as she left the Mumbai hotel with her husband.

Your Ad Here

Mumbai, a city of 18 million, is the nerve-center of India's growing economic might and home to the "Bollywood" film industry. Hindu-dominated India, which has a sizeable Muslim minority, has been hit by militant attacks for decades. But this strike seemed aimed at crippling its ability to draw foreign investment. India's markets closed on Thursday. The main stock exchange reopened on Friday and fell 1.5 percent after see-sawing because of the attacks.


PINNING BLAME


Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pinned blame for the Mumbai attacks on militant groups based in India's neighbors, usually an allusion to Pakistan, raising prospects of renewed tension between the nuclear-armed rivals. He warned of "a cost" if these nations did not take action to stop their territory being used to launch such attacks. An estimated 25 men armed with assault rifles and grenades -- at least some of whom arrived by sea -- had fanned out across Mumbai on Wednesday night to attack sites popular with tourists and businessmen, including Mumbai's top two luxury hotels.

Your Ad Here

Police said at least seven of the attackers were killed and nine suspects had been taken into custody. They said 12 policemen were killed, including Hemant Karkare, chief of the police anti-terrorist squad in Mumbai. At least six foreigners, including one Australian, a Briton, an Italian and a Japanese national, were killed. Scores of others were trapped in the fighting or were being held hostage. Police said 279 people were wounded.

PAKISTAN GROUP

The Hindu newspaper said at least three of the attackers taken into custody were members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, based in Pakistan. The group made its name fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, and has been closely linked in the past to the Pakistani military's Inter Services Intelligence agency, the ISI. Lashkar-e-Taiba has denied any role in the attacks. "It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country," Prime Minister Singh said on Thursday.

"We will take up strongly with our neighbors that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that there would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them," he said in a televised address. Pakistan, condemning the assault, promised full cooperation. The militants appeared to specifically target Britons, Americans and Israelis, witnesses said. About 10 Israelis were being held in several different sites, authorities said. World leaders including U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, condemned the incident.

The attacks brought the biggest chaos to the city since serial bombings in 1993, blamed on the city's Muslim crime syndicates, killed 260 people and injured hundreds.

Here is a video from the Mubai War zone


Related News

Bloodbath in Mumbai
Australian Actress Escapes Mumbai

Australian Actress escapes Mumbai India Terrorist attack by hiding in bathroom cupboard

Australian actress Brooke Satchwell, who starred in the successful Neighbours television drama, said she narrowly escaped the gunmen behind the Mumbai attacks by hiding in a hotel bathroom cupboard. Satchwell, 28, was staying with friends at the Taj Mahal Hotel, where the attackers are still holding hostages.

She said she was heading back inside the building after smoking a cigarette when she heard gunshots. "There was people getting shot in the corridor. There was someone dead outside the bathroom," the shaken actress told Australian television on Thursday. Satchwell said she, along with other guests, hid in a hotel bathroom. Satchwell locked herself inside a small cupboard, while other guests hid in cubicles until being escorted out by staff.

Your Ad Here

"Next thing I knew I was running down the stairs and there were a couple of dead bodies across the stairs. It was chaos," she told Australian media. Satchwell is best known for playing Anne Wilkinson in Neighbours, which is screened in many countries around the world. She is currently starring in another Australian drama and had been in Mumbai on holiday and for some filming.

Your Ad Here

Related News

Bloodbath in Mumbai
Jewish Centre among targets in Mumbai Terrorism Plot

Blood Bath in India as Terrorists take over two luxury hotels

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Elite Indian commandos fought room to room battles with Islamist militants inside two luxury hotels to save scores of people trapped or taken hostage, as the country's prime minister blamed neighboring countries.

Manmohan Singh blamed militant groups based in India's neighbors -- usually meaning Pakistan -- for the attacks that killed 107 people and wounded 315, raising fears of renewed tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Helicopters buzzed overhead and crowds cheered as the commandos, their faces blackened, moved into the Trident-Oberoi, where 20 to 30 people are thought to have been taken hostage and more than 100 others were trapped in their rooms.

Huge flames billowed from an upper floor.

Earlier, explosions rattled the nearby Taj Hotel, a 105-year-old city landmark on the waterfront, as the troops flushed out the last of the militants there. Fire and smoke plumed from an open window.

"The commandos are in control," Dipak Dutta told NDTV news after being rescued. As the troops escorted him through the corridors, they told him not to look down at any of the bodies.

Your Ad Here

"A lot of chef trainees were massacred in the kitchen."

At least six foreigners, including one Australian, a Briton, an Italian and a Japanese national were killed.

Those who survived told harrowing stories of close encounters. Australian actress Brooke Satchwell, who starred in the Neighbours television soap opera, said she narrowly escaped the gunmen by hiding in a hotel bathroom cupboard.

"There was people getting shot in the corridor. There was someone dead outside the bathroom," the shaken actress told Australian television. "The next thing I knew I was running down the stairs and there were a couple of dead bodies across the stairs. It was chaos."

Commandos had also gathered outside a Jewish center where a rabbi is thought to have been taken hostage, but later apparently decided to hold off from an assault.

A militant holed up at the center phoned an Indian television channel to offer talks with the government for the release of hostages, but also to complain about abuses in Kashmir, over which India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars.

Your Ad Here

"Ask the government to talk to us and we will release the hostages," the man, identified by the India TV channel as Imran, said, speaking in Urdu in what sounded like a Kashmiri accent.

"Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir? Are you aware how your army has killed Muslims. Are you aware how many of them have been killed in Kashmir this week?"

WALKING THROUGH BLOOD

Around two dozen militants in their early 20s, armed with automatic rifles and grenades and carrying backpacks full of ammunition, came ashore on Wednesday and fanned out across Mumbai's financial and tourist heart.

They commandeered a vehicle and sprayed passersby with bullets, fired indiscriminately in a train station, hospitals and a popular tourist cafe. They also attacked two of the city's poshest hotels packed with tourists and business executives.

"We threw ourselves down under the reception counter," Esperanza Aguirre, head of Madrid's regional government, said.

"I took off my shoes and we left being pushed along by the hotel staff," she said. "I didn't see any terrorists or injured people. I just saw the blood I had to walk through barefoot."

Singh said New Delhi would "take up strongly" the use of neighbors' territory to launch attacks on India.

"The well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, probably with external linkages, were intended to create a sense of terror by choosing high-profile targets," Singh said in an address to the nation.

The use of heavily armed "fedayeen" or suicide attackers bears the hallmarks of Pakistan-based militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed, blamed for a 2001 attack on India's parliament.

Your Ad Here

Both groups made their name fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, and were closely linked in the past to the Pakistani military's Inter Services Intelligence agency, the ISI.

Lashkar-e-Taiba denied any role in the attacks, and said it had no links with any Indian group. Instead, the little-known Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility.

"Release all the mujahideens, and Muslims living in India should not be troubled," said a militant inside the Oberoi, speaking to Indian television by telephone.

The attacks were bound to spook investors in one of Asia's largest and fastest-growing economies.

England and India cricket boards canceled their last two games in a seven-match series following the attacks.

Mumbai has seen several major bomb attacks in the past, but never anything so obviously targeted at foreigners.

Authorities closed stock, bond and foreign exchange markets, and the central bank said it would continue auctions to keep cash flowing through interbank lending markets, which seized up after the global financial crisis.

One of the first targets was the Cafe Leopold, a famous hangout popular with foreign tourists.

The attackers then appeared to target British, Americans and Israelis as they sought hostages in the hotels and elsewhere.

The attacks were another blow for the Congress party-led government ahead of a general election due by early 2009, with the party already under fire for failing to prevent a string of bomb attacks on Indian cities.

Strategic expert Uday Bhaskar said the attacks could inflame tensions between Hindus and Muslims. "The fact that they were trying to segregate British and American passport holders definitely suggests Islamist fervor," he said.

Police said they had shot seven gunmen and arrested nine suspects. They said 12 policemen were killed, including Hemant Karkare, the chief of the police anti-terrorist squad in Mumbai.

Schools were closed and a curfew was imposed around the Gateway of India, a colonial-era monument. But train services were running as normal taking people to work in the stunned city.


A top Indian general says about 10 to 12 gunmen remain holed up inside a pair of luxury Mumbai hotels and a Jewish centre.

Maj.Gen. R.K. Huda told New Delhi Television that the rest of the gunmen appeared to have been killed or captured. Authorities say 110 people were killed and more than 300 injured when suspected Islamic militants attacked 10 sites in Mumbai. Indian officials confirmed that Canadians were among the hostages. Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said a number of Canadians were at the targeted hotels, but could not say what their status might be.

Related News

Australian Actress Escapes Mumbai
Jewish Centre among targets in Mumbai Terrorism Plot

Omar Osama Bin Laden Denied entry into Egypt

Egypt denied entry to one of Osama bin Laden's sons on Sunday, becoming the third country to reject the self-proclaimed "ambassador for peace."

Omar Osama bin Laden, 27, and his British wife arrived at Cairo International Airport over the weekend and were promptly put on a plane to the Gulf Arab country of Qatar.

Bin Laden was denied entry after he unsuccessfully sought political asylum in Spain, claiming he would not be safe if he returned to an Arab country. The couple had lived in Egypt for the past year.

One of the al-Qaida leader's 19 children, Omar Osama bin Laden caused a tabloid storm last year after he married Zaina Alsabah, a British citizen.

Upon arrival in Qatar, Alsabah, 52, told the Associated Press the two were looking to eventually move to bin Laden's native Saudi Arabia.

Your Ad Here

"We are staying here as long as it takes, we are working with the U.N. and the U.S. embassy to help us getting back to Saudi Arabia," she said. "I was very surprised at the Egyptian government's stance."

As a Saudi national, bin Laden is automatically entitled to a six-month residency in Egypt, but an airport security official said after his high profile decision to apply for asylum in Spain, he was no longer welcome.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

British authorities rejected his request for a residency visa there in May saying his presence would cause "public concern" due to statements he had made to the press. He has not renounced his father, but has said he wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between the Muslim world and the West.

Your Ad Here

Alsabah has said the couple sought asylum in Spain because they were threatened.

Spain's interior minister has confirmed that bin Laden's son was deported because his asylum application did not meet any Spanish requirements.

New York to New Jersey Lincoln Tunnel Closed due to 2 separate Bomb scares

It was chaos for commuters using the Lincoln Tunnel on Friday. Traffic on the outbound section of the Lincoln Tunnel right after Weekhawken was diverted Friday afternoon due to police activity at the top of the helix. The section right after the Weekhawken exit has been shut since 4:25 p.m. A suspicious package was found on I-495 West. Commuters can expect 90-minute delays in both directions. Traffic was diverted to local streets in Hoboken.

A suspicious bottle on a roadway outside the Lincoln Tunnel has brought rush hour traffic leaving and entering New York City to a standstill. A Port Authority spokesman says a police investigation closed the eastbound and westbound lanes of Interstate 495 going in and out of the tunnel from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday. Car traffic outside the tunnel was diverted to local streets in New Jersey. Commuter buses were held at Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal, where thousands of commuters fumed.

Your Ad Here

Police determined the bottle was harmless. The incident has caused residual delays of at least an hour.

This is the second closure of Lincoln Tunnel this week. Here is a story from earlier this week.
Traffic restrictions have been lifted near the Lincoln Tunnel after a bomb squad investigated two suspicious objects Wednesday.

Both objects were bottles filled with an unidentified liquid and were found not to be hazardous. The bottles were on the divider separating the east and westbound lanes of Interstate 495 going in and out of the tunnel.

Your Ad Here

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says the Jersey City Police Department's bomb squad investigated and tunnel traffic was diverted to local roads until a little before 2 p.m.

Bob Woodwards new Book SECRET KILLING PROGRAM Talks about a Secret Killing Program in IRAQ

The dramatic drop in violence in Iraq is due in large part to a secret program the U.S. military has used to kill terrorists, according to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward.

The program -- which Woodward compares to the World War II era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb -- must remain secret for now or it would "get people killed," Woodward said Monday on CNN's Larry King Live.

"It is a wonderful example of American ingenuity solving a problem in war, as we often have," Woodward said.

In "The War Within: Secret White House History 2006-2008," Woodward disclosed the existence of secret operational capabilities developed by the military to locate, target and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent leaders.

National security adviser Stephen Hadley, in a written statement reacting to Woodward's book, acknowledged the new strategy. Yet he disputed Woodward's conclusion that the "surge" of 30,000 U.S. troops into Iraq was not the primary reason for the decline in violent attacks.

Your Ad Here

"It was the surge that provided more resources and a security context to support newly developed techniques and operations," Hadley wrote.

Woodward, associate editor of the Washington Post, wrote that along with the surge and the new covert tactics, two other factors helped reduce the violence. One was the decision of militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to order a cease-fire by his Mehdi Army. The other was the "Anbar Awakening" movement that saw Sunni tribes aligning with U.S. troops to battle al Qaeda in Iraq.

Woodward told Larry King that while there is a debate over how much credit the new secret operations should get for the drop in violence, he concluded it "accounts for a good portion. I would somewhat compare it to the Manhattan Project in World War II," he said "It's a ski slope right down in a matter of months, cutting the violence in half. This isn't going to happen with the bunch of joint security stations or the surge."

Your Ad Here

The top secret operations, he said, will "some day in history ... be described to people's amazement." While he would not reveal the details, Woodward said the terrorists who have been targeted were already aware of the capabilities. "The enemy has a heads up because they've been getting wiped out and a lot of them have been killed," he said. "It's not news to them.

"If you were a member of al Qaeda or the resistance or some extremist militia, you would be wise to get your rear end out of town," Woodward said. "It is very dangerous."

Osama bin Laden's former driver Convicted in Guantanamo Military Trial

Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, was found guilty on a terrorism charge Wednesday in the first verdict to come through the controversial U.S. military tribunal process at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Hamdan, a Yemeni citizen who was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, was convicted of providing material support for terrorism but acquitted of conspiring with al-Qaeda. Hamdan was taken to Guantanamo in May 2002.

Your Ad Here

The Pentagon-selected jury deliberated for about eight hours over three days. After the verdict was read, Hamdan held his head in his hands and wept.

The judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for later Wednesday. Hamdan could get life in prison.

Hamdan was the first Guantanamo Bay prisoner to go on trial. Of the base's roughly 265 other prisoners, including Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, the Pentagon says it intends to prosecute about 80.

The White House released a statement saying it was pleased with the verdict.

Your Ad Here

"The military commission system is a fair and appropriate legal process for prosecuting detainees alleged to have committed crimes against the United States or our interests," deputy spokesman Tony Fratto said.

"We look forward to other cases moving forward to trial," he said.

Identified al-Qaeda safehouses, U.S. authorities say

U.S. authorities have said that Hamdan identified key Islamist leaders, mapped out bin Laden's escape routes and led them to al-Qaeda safehouses after he was captured at a roadblock in southern Afghanistan in November 2001.

Hamdan's defence lawyers argued that he was a low-level employee who did not materially contribute to militant acts.

Your Ad Here

The system of military tribunals, introduced under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, has come under fire for years from critics who say it is unconstitutional.

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the military tribunals illegal and in violation of American and international law.

As a result of that ruling, the Bush administration made changes to the military tribunals, which now have congressional approval.

In June, the top court ruled that foreign suspects held at the high security military jail at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the American Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

"This is the first full test of the special tribunal system that was implemented by George Bush shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks," said the CBC's Nahlah Ayed in Washington.

"It is a system that been criticized because, for example, it allows the kinds of evidence that would never be allowed in regular courts — or even military courts — such as hearsay or statements made under interrogation," Ayed said.

"This will be very important not only for the system but also for President Bush."

Besides Hamdan, only one other prisoner has been found guilty at Guantanamo. As part of a pretrial agreement, Australian David Hicks pleaded guilty in 2007 to providing support for terrorism and was sent back to his home country to serve the remaining nine months of a seven-year sentence.

Double terrorist Bombing in Istanbul Turkey kills Dozens as Death Toll Continues to rise

Turkey's highest court on Monday began considering whether to shut down the governing party for Islamist activities against a background of tension following two bomb attacks in Istanbul.

The blasts killed 17 people and wounded more than 150 people on Sunday just hours before the Constitutional Court judges were set to look at the case. Five of the dead were children, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said.

"We have been fighting terror for 30 to 35 years. This fight will continue until we win it," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told residents at the site of the blasts in a working-class neighborhood on the European side of Istanbul.

Your Ad Here

"Today is a day for unity," Erdogan said.

In the emotionally charged aftermath of the bombings, the Constitutional Court began examining whether the AK Party had engaged in Islamist activities and should be closed. The party denies the charges and a ruling is expected in early August.

The court case is linked to a long-running power struggle between Turkey's secularist establishment and the Islamist-rooted AK Party, which are at odds over the direction of the officially secular but predominantly Muslim country.

"Our problem is not whether or not the AK Party will be closed. Our problem at the moment is to keep our unity so our country will go in a different direction," Erdogan said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks, the deadliest in Turkey since 2003. But police were increasingly looking at the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Armed forces chief General Yasar Buyukanit said in a statement: "The attacks, which were staged in a crowded street at a busy hour and without discriminating between men and women, young, old and children, showed once again the gory face, ruthlessness and despair of terrorism."

Governor Guler said there were signs of links the separatist group but pro-PKK websites reported it as condemning the attacks and denying any involvement.

Newspapers said three people had been detained.

Your Ad Here

BODIES STREWN ACROSS STREET

The site was cordoned off on Monday. The AK Party is popular in the area and Erdogan received a warm welcome from residents.

Kurdish separatists, far-left groups and Islamist militants have all carried out bombings in Istanbul in the past.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has waged a campaign for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey since 1984. But it usually does not target civilians.

"We know the killers," Sabah newspaper said in a headline above a picture of bodies strewn across a busy pedestrian area in Gungoren, near Istanbul's main international airport, where two bombs, minutes apart, tore through the crowds.

Officials said a first blast brought people into the streets and a larger bomb hidden in a rubbish bin exploded 10 minutes later just 50 meters (yards) away.

Several local residents blamed the separatists.

"Who is behind it? Of course it's the PKK. This has nothing to do with politics, this is all about the PKK," Orhan Balci, a 38-year-old textile businessman told Reuters.

"After the (Turkish military) bombings in northern Iraq they are in their death throes and they are targeting the people. We shouldn't back down, we should fight back, this is pure terrorism," Balci said.

Your Ad Here

The Istanbul attacks followed the bombing by Turkish jets of suspected PKK positions in northern Iraq, used by guerrillas as a base from which to carry out strikes on Turkish territory.

Financial markets in a country seeking European Union membership weakened slightly on the news as well as on concerns over the court case against the AK Party but later recovered.

"With 47 percent of the vote the (AK Party) government cannot be easily closed down," said Huseyin Bagci, a politics professor at Ankara's Middle East Technical University.

"The government is also realizing that they made some strategic mistakes, so now the question is how to retreat from this situation to a normal democratic life."

Series of 9 Crude Bombs go off in Bangalore India

A string of nine synchronised bomb blasts today shook the IT hub during the busy lunch hour, leaving two killed and injuring 12 others-a chilling reminder of the over two-year old terror attack at the Indian Institute of Sciences here.
The crude bombs, concealed near refugee camps and roadside stuffed with nuts and bolts, exploded between 1.30 pm and 1.45 pm at Adugodi, Madivala, Nayandahalli, Mysore Road, Richmond Circle, Pantharapalya and Vittal Mallya Road.

Two persons were killed and 12 injured in the blasts, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said in New Delhi.

A woman waiting at a bus stop in Madivala on the Bangalore-Hosur Road was killed in the blast, while her husband and another person were seriously injured.

Four of the blasts were between Hosur Road and Madiwala; the other three at Nayandahalli, Vittal Mallya Road and Richmond Circle, City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari told reporters.

Except in two places, low intensity explosives were used for the blasts, which occurred within a few minutes of each other, he said.

Police have recovered gelatin sticks, mainly used in quarry operations, from one of the blast sites.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the blasts. However, sources in the Union Home Ministry said that the hand of local cadre of banned SIMI was suspected to be behind the blasts and the expertise in assembling the low intensity devices possibly being provided by Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh strongly condemned the serial blasts and asked the people to remain calm and maintain communal harmony.

Authorities concerned about recent discovery of a stash of the Deadly toxin Ricin - Potential Terrorist links

A motel patron hospitalized after the potent poison ricin was mysteriously found in his room "barely got by in life," according to a woman who knew him when he lived at a Utah home that agents hoped to search Saturday.

A down-on-his-luck Roger Von Bergendorff lived at his cousin's home for more than a year before moving to Las Vegas about a year ago, said Tammy Ewell, who lives across the street from Thomas Tholen in Riverton, Utah, and described him and his wife, Ellen, as close friends.

"He was very much a loner. I would say more or less socially regressive. He just barely got by in life. He'd just barely make it," Ewell said. "Tom was the last resort."

In a brief phone interview earlier Saturday, Thomas Tholen told The Associated Press that Von Bergerdorff was "holding his own" in the hospital.

Tholen, 53, wouldn't say much more about Von Bergendorff or the discovery Thursday of several vials of ricin — which is deadly in minuscule amounts — at the man's extended-stay motel room on the Las Vegas Strip.

Officials have secured Tholen's home, where Von Bergendorff reportedly stayed, but they have not searched it because they are awaiting court approval for a warrant, FBI spokesman Juan Becerra said later Saturday.

Authorities have not said how much ricin was involved but expressed confidence they have it all.

Dr. Lawrence Sands, chief health officer of the Southern Nevada Health District in Las Vegas, said health officials are still trying to confirm whether Von Bergendorff's respiratory ailment stemmed from ricin exposure.

Police and health officials have tried to assure Las Vegas residents there is no public health threat. There was no apparent link to terrorist activity and no indication of any spread of the deadly substance, they said.

In Salt Lake City, which is about 20 miles from Riverton, FBI agent Timothy J. Fuhrman said: "At this time, there is no indication of any threat to the public or individuals residing in the area."

Adding to the mystery, police said late Friday that firearms, an "anarchist-type textbook" and castor beans, from which ricin is made, were found in the room where the poison was discovered.

The firearms and the book, which was tabbed at a spot containing information about ricin, were seized Tuesday after a manager at the Extended Stay America motel found the weapons and called police, police Capt. Joseph Lombardo said. He did not elaborate.

Ewell, Von Bergendorff's former neighbor, said she often saw him walking his German shepherd on the street. It wasn't clear what he did for a living or how he spent his time.

Toward the end of his stay, he started attending the local Mormon church and briefly moved out of the Tholen home into a neighbor's camper, she said.

Tholen is a former high school art teacher who now sells insurance with his wife, she said.

"The Tholens were the last ones we'd expect anything to happen to," Ewell said.

Tholen went to Von Bergendorff's Las Vegas motel room and took the vials to the motel office in a plastic bag while retrieving his cousin's belongings, authorities said.

Police previously said tests did not detect the material in the motel office, the room where Von Bergendorff, 57, stayed, or a room at the Excalibur hotel-casino where Tholen stayed Wednesday night.

As little as 500 micrograms of ricin, about the size of the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The only legal use for ricin is cancer research.

Las Vegas police, who have refused to identify Von Bergendorff or Tholen by name, said Friday that the hospitalized man was unconscious and that investigators had been unable to speak with him.

They have said Tholen arrived in Las Vegas after Von Bergendorff summoned an ambulance and was hospitalized Feb. 14 in critical condition.

Tholen contacted motel management Feb. 22 to inform them about pets in the room, and Las Vegas Humane Society officials took custody of a dog and two cats. The dog, which officials said was mortally ill after going at least a week without food or water, was euthanized.

After the vials were taken to the motel office, Tholen and six other people, including the motel manager, two motel employees and three police officers, were decontaminated at the scene and taken to hospitals for examination. None have shown any signs of being affected by ricin, officials said.