Laden

US didn't need rough interrogation to get Osama: Panetta

Leon Panetta, who as CIA director oversaw the US operation that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, said the job could have been done without resorting to controversial interrogation methods that some have said constitute torture. ...  

'Al Qaeda continues to represent a threat to US'

Despite a relentless campaign against it, al Qaeda and its affiliates in different parts of the world continue to pose a threat to the US, the White House said on Wednesday. ...  

Sundance documentary adds new take on hunt for Osama

Greg Barker, director of 'Manhunt,' said criticism over Kathryn Bigelow's 'Zero Dark Thirty' is a political issue. ...  

Zero Dark Thirty: Director defends torture scenes

In its first week of release in America, the movie topped the North American box office. ...  

Rana to be sentenced for role in 26/11, attack on Danish paper

A Chicago businessman prosecutors say is a terrorist - who supported the group that staged an attack often called India's 9/11 - faces decades in prison on January 17 if a federal judge rejects defense arguments that he is a compassionate man who was duped by a friend. Tahawwur Rana, 52, is being sentenced for his 2011 convictions of providing support to a Pakistani group that carried out a 2008...  

Al-Qaida carves out its own country in Mali

Deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, in the escarpments and cliff faces of northern Mali, Islamic extremist fighters have been burrowing into the earth, erecting a formidable set of defences to protect what has essentially become al-Qaida's new country. They have used the bulldozers, earth movers and Caterpillar machines left behind by fleeing construction crews to dig what residents and local officials describe as an elaborate network of tunnels,...  

Obama administration resists release of Osama photos

Even almost two years after the world's most wanted terrorist was slain by American special forces, President Barack Obama's administration is refusing to release photos of Osama bin Laden's dead body, warning that this would risk "grave damage" to national security. Though media outlets worldwide had made a clamor for 52 photographs taken during 'Operation Geronimo', the Obama administration has stoutly resisted warning that the images could excite an angry,...  

Maha electricity board calls Muslim slum 'Chhota Pakistan'

Ramzan Hafiz has lived at Nallasopara in Thane, Maharashtra for two decades now. Official documents with the municipality and his ration card call the area Laxmi Nagar. But the state electricity board, he points out, has decided to call it 'Laden Nagar', after slain terrorist Osama Bin Laden. ...  

US State Dept made mistake over Benghazi: Senate report

The State Department made a "grievous mistake" in keeping the US mission in Benghazi open despite inadequate security and increasingly alarming threat assessments in the weeks before a deadly attack by militants, a Senate committee said on December 31. A report from the Senate Homeland Security Committee on the September 11 attacks on the US mission and a nearby CIA annex, in which the US ambassador to Libya and three...  

Osama paid Rs 50,000 bribe to build Abbottabad house

Even the world's most wanted terrorist could not escape the bribery dragnet. Osama bin Laden's safe-house in Pakistan's garrison city Abbottabad was built after paying a bribe of Rs 50,000 to a revenue official, a media report on Wednesday said. ...  

Pakistan clerics to protest against polio worker killings

Islamabad: An alliance of Pakistani clerics will hold demonstrations across the country against the killings of polio eradication campaign workers, leaders said on Thursday, as the death toll from attacks this week rose to nine. Tahir Ashrafi, who heads the moderate Pakistan Ulema Council, said that 24,000 mosques associated with his organisation would preach against the killings of health workers during Friday prayers. "Neither Pakistani customs nor Islam would allow...  

'Core of al Qaeda degraded in South Asia'

Washington: The core of al Qaeda has seriously degraded in South Asia, a top American counter-terrorism official has said, noting that the US has removed 20 of its top 30 leaders. "In South Asia, al Qaeda's core has been seriously degraded. Without a doubt, Osama bin Laden's departure from the scene was the most important milestone in the fight against al Qaeda," Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's top counter-terrorism official...  

'Zero Dark Thirty': Biggest manhunt story ever

New Delhi: After the Oscar-winning 'The Hurt Locker' on the Iraq war, Kathryn Bigelow now brings one of the world's greatest manhuts in 'Zero Dark Thirty', key sequences of which have beeen shot in India. Though the director admits it is a sensitive topic as it involves Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, she says it "has been sensibly and cautiously made". 'Zero Dark Thirty' chronicles the decade-long hunt for...  

Zero Dark Thirty: Laden movie mired in controversy

New York: Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow could have made a testosterone-fueled shoot-'em-up Hollywood version of the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden. Instead, she and screenwriter Mark Boal turned 'Zero Dark Thirty' into a more complex look at the decade-long hunt for the al Qaeda leader, including a frank presentation of US torture and previously undisclosed details of the mission to hunt down the man behind the September 11...  

'Zero Dark Thirty' soon to be released in India

Mumbai: Academy Award winner Kathryn Bigelow's 'Zero Dark Thirty', chronicling the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden, is all set to hit Indian theatres on January 11 next year. The film is being brought to Indian screens by PVR Pictures, the distribution arm of PVR Group. Bigelow, who became the first woman in the Academy's history to bag a trophy for the best director for her film 'The Hurt Locker', is...  

Kathryn Bigelow talks about her movie 'Zero Dark Thirty'

The film reconstructs the hunt for Osama bin Laden largely through the eyes of a young female CIA officer, played by Jessica Chastain, who helps find him through a long-forgotten courier. ...

Pakistan doctor in bin Laden case starts hunger strike

Peshawar: The Pakistani doctor who helped the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hunt down Osama bin Laden started a hunger strike in his jail cell this week to protest against his living conditions, prison officials said on Thursday. Shakil Afridi was sentenced in May to 33 years in jail for his links to a banned militant group. The decision was widely seen as punishment for helping the CIA find the...  

'Zero Dark Thirty' based on first-hand accounts

Los Angeles: The makers of a Hollywood movie about the U.S. operation to kill Osama bin Laden denied asking for classified material for their film, but say they did conduct interviews with a CIA officer and others at the heart of the decade-long hunt for the al Qaeda leader. "It was all based on first-hand accounts so it really felt very vivid and very vital and very, very immediate and...  

Osama's body was washed before being buried at sea

Washington: Internal emails among US military officers indicate that no sailors watched Osama bin Laden's burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson and traditional Islamic procedures were followed during the ceremony. The emails, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, are heavily blacked out, but are the first public disclosure of government information about the al-Qaida leader's death. The emails were released on Wednesday by...  

No evidence Pakistan knew Osama's location: US

Washington: There has been no evidence that Pakistan leadership knew of the presence of Osama bin Laden inside their country, a top Pentagon commander has said citing post-raid analysis of the secret operation that killed the most wanted terrorist of the world. Navy Adm William McRaven, Commander of US Special Operations Command, said at the Hero's Summit in Washington that post-raid analysis of the raid indicates that the Pakistan leadership...