Dakar: After years of trying to discipline him, the leaders of al Qaida's North African branch sent one final letter to their most difficult employee. In page after scathing page, they described how he didn't answer his phone when they called, failed to turn in his expense reports, ignored meetings and refused time and again to carry out orders.
Most of all, they claimed he had failed to carry out a single spectacular operation, despite the resources at his disposal. The employee, international terrorist Moktar Belmoktar, responded the way talented employees with bruised egos have in corporations the world over: He quit and formed his own competing group.
And within months, he carried out two lethal operations that killed 101 people in all: one of the largest hostage-takings in history at a BP-operated gas plant in Algeria in January, and simultaneous bombings at a military base and a French uranium mine in Niger just last week.
The al Qaida letter, found by The Associated Press inside a building formerly occupied by their fighters in Mali, is an intimate window into the ascent of an extremely ambitious terrorist leader, who split off from regional command because he wanted to be directly in touch with al Qaida central. It's a glimpse into both the inner workings of a highly structured terrorist organization that requires its commanders to file monthly expense reports, and the internal dissent that led to his rise. And it foreshadows a terrorism landscape where charismatic jihadists
08:14 PM, May 31, 2013
Washington: A federal appeals court on Tuesday backed the US government's decision not to release photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden during and after a raid in which the terrorist leader was killed by US commandos. The three-judge panel of the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia turned down an appeal from Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, which had filed a Freedom of...
10:46 PM, May 21, 2013
Washington: Expressing concern over the imprisonment of the Pakistani doctor who helped CIA trace Osama bin Laden, US Secretary of State John Kerry said it is wrong and angers all, but US-Pak relationship can't be determined by few things. "Dr Afridi's in jail, he shouldn't be, et cetera. We have said that. We will fight that. And it's wrong, and it angers all of us. But I don't think you...
04:54 AM, Apr 19, 2013
Islamabad: The Pakistani Taliban has said they will back the government's polio vaccination program if they are guaranteed it will not be used to mask a US espionage campaign. "We're not opposed to any vaccination if we are convinced that the dose for polio is allowed by Islam and that espionage agents are not using it to kill our militants," Taliban spokesman Ehsanula Eshan told Dawn television. "This is in...
11:59 AM, Apr 13, 2013
New York: Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, charged in New York last month with conspiring to kill American nationals, will face trial in January next year, a US judge has ruled. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith had appeared with bin Laden and his then-deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri after the 9/11 attacks and spoke on behalf of al Qaeda and in support of its mission. He had warned that 9/11 type attacks would continue. US...
10:49 PM, Apr 10, 2013
New York: A federal trial for a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden accused of conspiring to kill Americans will begin in January 2014 in Manhattan, a judge ruled on Tuesday. Suleiman Abu Ghaith, who acted as an al Qaeda spokesman in videos, is one of the highest-ranking al Qaeda figures to face trial in the United States for crimes related to the September 11 attacks. He was captured in Jordan...
06:53 AM, Apr 10, 2013
A son-in-law of Osama bin Laden pleaded not guilty in a New York court on Friday to conspiring to kill Americans, becoming one of the highest-ranking al Qaeda figures to face trial in the United States for crimes connected to the September 11, 2001 attacks. ...
09:29 AM, Mar 09, 2013
A son-in-law of Osama bin Laden who served as al Qaeda's spokesman has been arrested and detained in Jordan in an operation led by Jordanian authorities and the FBI, US government sources said on Thursday. The sources said Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a militant who had appeared in videos representing al Qaeda after the September 11, attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, had initially been picked up in Turkey....
11:27 PM, Mar 07, 2013
Nearly two years after the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the UN Security Council has deleted his name from its sanctions list. The powerful 15-member council, however, will continue a freeze on bin Laden's assets to prevent them from being used by others for terrorist activities. ...
05:13 PM, Feb 27, 2013
Terming as "outlandish and bizarre" the statement of Chuck Hagel, the new US Defence Secretary, that India has financed problems for Pakistan in Afghanistan, BJP today asked the government to exert diplomatic pressure on Washington for unconditional withdrawal of his statement. ...
12:33 PM, Feb 27, 2013
Almost two years after his death at the hands of US special forces in Pakistan, a UN Security Council committee has removed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from its sanctions list, although an order freezing any assets of the Islamist extremist remains in place. ...
05:22 AM, Feb 26, 2013
Just three months ago, 'Zero Dark Thirty' looked like a strong contender for the movie industry's biggest prize. But when the Oscar for Best Picture is handed out on Sunday, the thriller about the decade-long U.S. hunt for, and 2011 killing of, Osama bin Laden is unlikely to get its name engraved on the coveted gold statuette. ...
11:07 AM, Feb 23, 2013
Even as 'Zero Dark Thirty' takes an aesthetically stripped-down look at a hugely dramatic event, it shines with the integrity and decency of its central figure: a fierce young woman who's both dedicated and brainy, demanding and brazen. ...
06:03 PM, Feb 14, 2013
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday said the daring operation to kill Osama bin Laden at his Abbottabad safe house in Pakistan was very risky as the al- Qaeda chief's presence there was not 100 per cent confirmed. As Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Panetta played a leading role in the finding and killing of bin Laden. Subsequently he was made the Defense Secretary by President Barack Obama....
02:04 PM, Feb 14, 2013
Nearly two years after the daring US commando raid that killed the 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, a US Navy SEAL who pulled the trigger has recounted his role for the first time. Breaking his silence on the May 2011 raid on Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the commando told the Esquire magazine in an interview published Monday that he shot the Al-Qaeda leader three times. ...
01:02 PM, Feb 12, 2013
The residents of Manimajra town here, where large parts of Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar nominated film 'Zero Dark Thirty' were shot, are hoping that the film will win the prestigious award. ...
11:19 AM, Feb 12, 2013
'Zero Dark Thirty' has earned Jessica Chastain her second Oscar nomination in consecutive years. ...
05:09 PM, Feb 11, 2013
CIA Director-designate John Brennan strongly defended anti-terror attacks by unmanned drones on February 7 under close questioning at a protest-disrupted confirmation hearing. On a second controversial topic, he said that after reading a classified intelligence report on harsh interrogation techniques, he does not know if waterboarding has yielded useful information. ...
12:05 PM, Feb 08, 2013
Pakistan's Abbottabad town, where al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in a US commando operation, will soon have an amusement park built at a cost of around $30 million, a British daily said. ...
02:58 AM, Feb 06, 2013
Corruption is so pervasive in Pakistan that even Osama bin Laden had to pay a bribe to build his hideout in the northwest where he was killed by US commandos. ...
05:18 PM, Feb 04, 2013
