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C.I.A. Director Will Lead Terror Center
January 29, 2003 | adminPresident Bush said tonight that he would create a Terrorist Threat Integration Center to merge units at the C.I.A., F.B.I. and other agencies into a single government unit intended to strengthen the collection and analysis of foreign and domestic terror threats. The center, announced by Mr. Bush in his State of the Union address, will be led by George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, a change that would for the first time give the C.I.A. full control over the collection and evaluation of all information relating to terrorist threats in the United States or overseas. Full Story
Bush's Speech Puts New Focus on State of Intelligence Data
January 29, 2003 | adminIn pressing his case for forceful action against Iraq, President Bush tonight cited intercepted communications, interrogations of prisoners, information from defectors and other unspecified intelligence as evidence that Saddam Hussein continues to build prohibited weapons and bankroll terrorist groups including Al Qaeda. As he spoke, American intelligence officials were still sorting out how much sensitive information on Iraq to declassify in order to help the White House make its case at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council next week. “Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody, reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaeda,” the president said in his speech tonight. Full Story
A Post-Sept. 11 Laboratory in High-Rise Safety
January 29, 2003 | adminEleven inches could be a matter of life and death. So the designers of the new 7 World Trade Center, planned by Silverstein Properties, have called for fire stairs 66 inches wide, rather than the 55 inches specified by the New York code for such a building. They say that will allow room for two-way traffic: occupants going down and firefighters coming up. As one of the first office towers designed from scratch since the attack on New York, 7 World Trade Center is a 52-story laboratory of ideas about how extra safety measures can be incorporated into the fiber of a building. Full Story
Custody Fight Disguised As Terror Case
January 29, 2003 | adminHANY KIARELDEEN left family court on Monday after another round in the custody fight for his dark-eyed, ebullient 8-year-old daughter. “The case belonged here from the beginning,” he said. “They should never have believed what was said by a mad wife about her husband.” The case of Hany Kiareldeen went far beyond family court, and became an example of accusations run amok in the age of terrorism. Mr. Kiareldeen, 34, a Palestinian, was never found guilty of anything, but he has been penalized twice. He was jailed for 19 months in the late 1990′s, accused of having ties to terrorism, based on evidence that the government never showed him or anyone else. And he lost contact with his daughter, Nour. She lived with his former wife, who he says was a government source against him. Full Story
Exiles meet Feb. 15 in Iraq
January 29, 2003 | adminA Kurdish leader says members of the Iraqi opposition will arrive soon in northern Iraq for a conference to map out the political transition if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is ousted. Dissident exile groups that met Dec. 14-18 in London agreed to reconvene in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq on Jan. 15. The follow-up meeting, now planned for Feb. 15, was delayed by squabbling among opposition groups, logistical issues and — the organizers say — U.S. reluctance to provide air cover and other security. Fouad Masum, a leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said Tuesday that the opposition was still negotiating with U.S. officials for air cover over Salahuddin, the mountain resort town where the meeting is to be. The PUK is one of two parties that control the Kurdish northern area of Iraq. Full Story
Kurds brace for gas attacks
January 29, 2003 | adminAuthorities in northern Iraq’s Kurdish-run enclave say they’re certain Saddam Hussein will target them with chemical weapons if the United States attacks Iraq. But they are delaying a public education campaign because they are afraid it will create panic. The Iraqi dictator is believed to have used chemical agents against the Kurds at least 11 times during the late 1980s as he sought to put down a rebellion by guerrillas fighting for a separate state. In the most notorious attack, Iraqi aircraft pounded this town with conventional bombs, then unleashed VX nerve gas and mustard gas on its 45,000 residents. Today, statues and museum exhibits throughout the Switzerland-size Kurdish region, known as Kurdistan, honor the 6,800 people killed in the 1988 incident. The March 16 anniversary date, a holiday here, is known as Martyrs Day. Full Story
Shoe bomber steadfast in his holy war beliefs
January 29, 2003 | adminRichard Reid, who found his life’s purpose in the rhetoric of the terrorist group al-Qaeda, remains a true believer as he heads to prison. The British petty crook is as committed to a holy war against the West as he was on Dec. 22, 2001, when he tried to ignite explosives hidden in his shoe during a trans-Atlantic flight. Reid, 29, has pleaded guilty to eight counts in connection with the foiled bombing. On Thursday, he is expected to be sentenced to life in a federal prison. And given a chance to speak, Reid is likely to echo jailhouse writings in which he described himself as a soldier in a war that considers civilians targets. Full Story
Box cutter delays flight from Boston
January 29, 2003 | adminAuthorities allowed a United Airlines flight to take off from Boston late Tuesday after the discovery of a box cutter forced the plane to be grounded and all passengers to be rescreened. Flight 179 took off for San Francisco from Logan International Airport about three hours after its scheduled departure time after a search turned up no other banned items. Officials said passengers were in the process of loading when one found the standard carpenter’s box cutter in the magazine rack in the back of the seat in front of her in the first class section of the Boeing 757. A security breach was declared, the plane was grounded, and all 76 passengers were ordered off. They and their luggage had to be rescreened. The plane also carried a crew of six. Full Story
Bush seeks bioterror vaccines, treatments
January 29, 2003 | adminPresident George W. Bush asked members of Congress on Tuesday for $6 billion to support Project Bioshield, a focused program to develop new treatments and vaccines against bioterrorism weapons such as anthrax, smallpox and Ebola. “We must assume that our enemies would use these diseases as weapons, and we must act before the dangers are upon us,” Bush said in his State of the Union address. The new program aims to speed research at the National Institutes of Health to find ways to treat victims of bioterror weapons. For many such weapons, no clear treatment regime yet exists — in part because the threat was not generally considered to be serious until fairly recently. Full Story
Bush proposes intelligence center
January 29, 2003 | adminThe White House said Tuesday that the nation’s first unified Terrorist Threat Integration Center, proposed by President George W. Bush in his State of the Union message, will bring together intelligence gathered at home and abroad by a variety of agencies. Among them are the CIA, which will appoint its director, the FBI, the Department of Defense and others. “Since Sept. 11, our intelligence and law enforcement agencies have worked more closely than ever to track and disrupt terrorists,” Bush said in his address. “And tonight, I am instructing the leaders of the FBI, Central Intelligence, Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to develop a Terrorist Threat Integration Center. Full Story