5 October 2005: The Northeast Intelligence Network has received information from individuals who claim they have seen the Oklahoma University “suicide bomber” visit the Islamic Society of Norman, Oklahoma, located within blocks of his Park View residence. Developing... KANDAHAR CITY, October 5 (Pajhwok Afghan News): An al-Qaeda escapee from the US detention centre in Bagram, has vowed to continue fighting the United States. 
WITNESSES: HINRICHS SEEN AT ISLAMIC CENTER WEEKS, MONTHS PRIOR TO BOMBING
420 E Lindsey Norman, OK 73069
The Lebanese national Abu Naser, along with three others, had managed to escape from the heavily guarded Bagram airbase on July 11.
In a 30-minute video-tape released here, Abu Naser vowed to continue jihad against the 'infidels'. He hoped their struggle would bring emancipation to Palestinians.
Clad in military fatigue and holding a missile, Abu Naser praised Osama bin Ladin, saying his followers would continue the 'holy war' in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He also recited an Arabic poem to incite youths against the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Let us refresh our memories of the courageous strikes of September 11 and defeat the crusaders." - ** Blah blah blah, just wait till he gets picked up by some US marines he will wet his pants and cry little a little girl.
Iraqi civilian leads U.S. Soldiers to weapons cache
TAJI, Iraq -- An Iraqi civilian provided information about a weapons cache to Task Force Baghdad Soldiers while they were patrolling along the Tigris River north of Baghdad Oct. 1.
The Soldiers from Reconnaissance Troop, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division found 12 rocket-propelled grenades, three RPG launchers, three AK-47 assault rifles with ammunition, plastic explosives, and five 82 mm mortar rounds wired to be used as roadside bombs. The Soldiers also recovered a sniper rifle and a pistol.
The small arms were confiscated and the munitions were destroyed by a military explosive ordnance disposal unit.
Coalition raids, patrols nab 23 terror suspects, weapons
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Coalition Forces captured 20 terror suspects during seven pre-dawn raids against terrorist safe-houses in Baghdad Oct. 4 in order to break up terror networks operating in and around the city.
All seven raids were conducted between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. in west, northwest, south and southeast Baghdad.
Task Force Baghdad Soldiers also caught three men red-handed before they could carry out a terrorist attack in the Thawra district of northeast Baghdad.
At 1:30 a.m., the Soldiers halted a vehicle with no license plate. The three, each had an AK-47 assault rifle and none had any identification. The three terror suspects were detained and turned over to the Iraqi Police.
In other combat operations, Task Force Baghdad Soldiers on patrol seized four separate weapons caches, disrupting terrorist support networks.
The caches contained 571 mortar rounds, 19 artillery rounds, 15 rockets, nine rocket launchers, 110 rocket-propelled grenades, one RPG launcher, 31 grenades, 206 artillery fuses, a large-caliber machine gun with ammunition, and two AK-47 assault rifles.
The Soldiers also found two roadside bombs and anti-Coalition propaganda.
FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM.
U.S. troops pushed through streets sown with bombs Tuesday in their biggest operation this year in western Iraq, seeking to retake three Euphrates River towns from al-Qaida insurgents. At least five U.S. service members have been killed in the fighting. Operation River Gate — launched at the start of the holy month of Ramadan — was the second U.S. offensive in a week in Anbar province, near the Syrian border. Al-Qaida in Iraq called for intensified attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces during the Muslim period of fasting, which started Tuesday for the nation's Sunnis. Blasts from U.S. warplanes and helicopters lit up the sky during the fighting, aimed at putting down Sunni-led insurgents intensifying their campaign of violence ahead of an Oct. 15 vote on Iraq's new constitution. As with the earlier U.S. offensive — code named Iron Fist — it appeared many fighters may have slipped away beforehand. On the political front, U.S. and U.N. officials were trying to avert a Sunni Arab boycott of the referendum, which would deeply undermine the validity of a constitution Washington hopes will unite Iraq's factions and weaken the insurgency. Officials met Tuesday with Shiite and Kurdish leaders to persuade them to reverse the Shiite-led government's last-minute change to voting rules ahead of the Oct. 15 vote. Sunday's change makes it almost impossible for minority Sunnis to reject the constitution — all guaranteeing its passage. Sunni Arab leaders have opposed the draft constitution all along, but the United States wants them to participate in the vote. Late Monday and early Tuesday, some 2,500 U.S. troops along with Iraqi forces launched their operation with a powerful air assault on Haditha, Haqlaniyah and Parwana, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad. Dozens of helicopters streamed toward the Euphrates towns in a phalanx, seen by an Associated Press reporter. Rockets fired by choppers flashed in the pre-dawn darkness, followed by explosions and arches of tracer fire. At least twice, illuminating flares went up over Haqlaniyah — a sign U.S. troops were fighting insurgents on the ground. American warplanes struck bridges to prevent al-Qaida in Iraq fighters from escaping the towns, but arriving troops encountered dozens of roadside bombs on main avenues, apparently in anticipation of the operation, Marine commanders said. A single roadside bomb in Haqlaniyah on Monday killed three U.S. service members, apparently among the first ground troops to move in. U.S. snipers took positions on rooftops in Haqlaniyah as troops with loudspeakers ordered residents to stay inside, witnesses said. In Haditha, mosque loudspeakers urged residents to confront the Americans, but Marines said they encountered little resistance. "Some of them may have gotten away. But those that are here, we''ll get them," said Capt. Shannon Neller, of New York, commander of Lima Company in 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. Troops were concentrating on "systematically clearing" Haditha by doing house-to-house searches and locating bombs planted around town, Neller said. "A lot of the locals we met were very helpful, and a lot pointed out insurgents or those who had been helping them," Neller said. At least 11 people were detained. The earlier U.S. offensive began Saturday, 93 miles upriver by the Syrian border, and continued Tuesday in the towns of Sadah, Karabilah and Rumana. A bomb killed a Marine in Karabilah, the first casualty of that operation. At least 41 insurgents have been killed in Iron Fist, the U.S. military said. But many fighters appeared to have fled before the assault, with the military reporting no major engagements Tuesday. The deaths in the two operations, along with that of a soldier shot in the western town of Taqaddum, raised to at least 1,940 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. Operation River Gate was notable for the strongest participation this year by Iraqi troops — U.S. commanders said hundreds were involved — at a time of deep concerns about their readiness. The simultaneous strikes appeared aimed at breaking two insurgent strong points. The small, isolated towns near the border have been used as way stations for foreign fighters joining the fight. Haditha is also an "an important crossroads" for al-Qaida smuggling of fighters and weapons, the military said. Together, the Haditha area towns form a larger population center — with more than 100,000 residents — where militants have been operating almost freely after driving out Iraqi security forces with a series of bloody attacks earlier this year. Twenty Marines and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in Haditha in an ambush and roadside bomb on Aug. 1 and Aug 3. Last spring, a suicide car bombing wrecked Haditha General Hospital, the region's largest. The U.S. military has said that Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of Al-Qaida in Iraq, once had a home in Haditha. The new U.S. assault is "step forward to eliminating insurgents and giving the country back to the Iraqi people," said Col. Stephen W. Davis, who said it would also help people in area freely vote Oct. 15. Insurgent violence has killed at least 237 people, including 21 U.S. service members, in the past nine days ahead of the referendum. In Baghdad, Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. helicopters fought about 40 gunmen house-to-house Tuesday in south Baghdad. More than three dozen insurgents were killed, wounded or detained, the U.S. military said. Three Iraqi soldiers were injured. Also Tuesday, a suicide car bomb exploded at the main entrance to the heavily fortified Green Zone, a district of Iraqi government buildings and the U.S. and British embassies. The blast killed at least two policemen. Separately, the leader of an extremist Islamic group that threatened to use chemical weapons against U.S. positions and the Iraqi government has also been killed in Iraq, according to an Internet statement posted Tuesday. Al-Haj Othman, the emir of the Mujahedeen of the Victorious Sect Brigades, was killed in fighting, said the statement. It did not provide any other details. With the start of Ramadan, Al-Qaida in Iraq urged fighters to make it a "month of victory for Muslims and a month of defeat for the hypocrites and polytheists." Previous Ramadans saw a spike in violence in Iraq — especially suicide attacks, in part because some Islamic extremists believe those who die in combat during Ramadan are especially blessed.
Peace & Tolerance: BANGKOK (Reuters) - Suspected Muslim militants beheaded a villager in southern Thailand on the eve of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, police said on Wednesday.
Militants also raided an outpost, wounding five soldiers and escaping with five guns, according to an army radio message monitored by Reuters.
The attackers cut trees to block the road and placed spikes to prevent counter-attacks by soldiers, the radio said.
The head and torso of the man, thought to be in his 50s, were dumped in two fertiliser bags beside a road in a rubber plantation in Yala, one of the three southernmost provinces hit by the violence in which more than 900 people have died.
KABUL (AFP) - Pakistan's capture of the mouthpiece of the Taliban could be a breakthrough against the ousted Afghan militia, officials and analysts said, but some questioned why it took so long for the neighbouring nation to act.
Abdul Latif Hakimi, the shadowy chief spokesman of the fundamentalist insurgent group, had been known to live in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta for years but his presence had been "ignored", they said on Wednesday.
Hakimi, who began telephoning the media more than two years ago to claim attacks on behalf of the Taliban, was picked up on Tuesday. Pakistani interrogators said Wednesday they were questioning him about his contacts.
Afghan officials hoped his information could help to unravel the Islamic movement that has vowed to topple the government with an insurgency that has already cost more than 1,300 lives this year, most of them militants.
"We hope that this arrest opens a clue for more important arrests of other elements whose hands are behind insecurity in Afganistan " defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.
Interior ministry spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Stanizai said Hakimi's arrest would have a "positive impact on Afghanistan security".
"Hakimi was an active member of the Taliban terrorist group.... The presence of such elements in Pakistan is not only a threat to Afghanistan's security but is a threat to Pakistan and to the security of the region," he said.
"We hope that Pakistan boosts its efforts in arresting the leaders of the Taliban and terrorists who are in hiding in Pakistan."
Afghan officials say hundreds of Taliban loyalists and their allies in the Al-Qaeda network fled into Pakistan after the Taliban were removed from power in late 2001.
Their brutal rule, which enforced a conservative brand of Islam on a country dragged down by decades of civil war, ended after a United States-led invasion. It was launched when the hardliners did not hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Goatshagger after 9/11
Another Afghan defence ministry official said Pakistan had long known the whereabouts of Hakimi and other Taliban leaders, but only acted when it suited its self-interest and boosted its image as a partner in the US-led "war on terror"."Hakimi could have been arrested two years ago. Everybody knew that he was living in Pakistan but Pakistan just ignored it," he said on condition of anonymity.
"Once in a while they arrest some Taliban to show to the international community that they are honest in fighting terrorism and helping Afghanistan... "It is as clear as crystal that Pakistan is well aware of where the Taliban leaders are in Pakistan," he told AFP.
Analyst Nasrullah Stanikzai, a political science lecturer at Kabul University, said Pakistan may have acted under pressure to please the US.
"Sometimes when Pakistan wants to achieve an advantage or credit from the States, it acts and arrests one of the people it wants," he told AFP.
"Pakistan uses elements in its domain who are wanted by the counter-terrorism alliance as exchange for credit and obtaining financial and political interests from the States and international community," he said.
Stanizai, from the interior ministry, said it would be logical if Hakimi was handed over to the Afghan government since he had commited crimes against the people and its government.
The government had not yet decided whether to ask for his extradition, officials said.
NORMAN, Okla. -- The general manager of a Norman feed store said Tuesday that Joel Henry Hinrichs III had inquired about purchasing a significant amount of ammonium nitrate, the primary ingredient used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Dustin Ellison, the general manager of Ellison Feed & Seed on Porter Avenue, said that a man matching Hinrichs' description had come into the store days before he blew himself up on OU's campus. Ellison said the man asked about ammonium nitrate, but couldn't offer a reason why he needed it.
After the bombing, Ellison said he thought nothing of it. However, when he saw Hinrichs' photo, it triggered his memory.
To this point, authorities still suggest Hinrichs' only motive for blowing himself up was suicide. The FBI released a statement Tuesday evening saying that "there is no known link between Hinrichs and any terrorist or extremist organization(s) or activities."
Le Worm comments on Turkey: Turkey must undergo a "major cultural revolution" if it is ever to join the European Union, France's President Jacques Chirac insisted yesterday.
That effort would take "at least 10 to 15 years", Mr Chirac said after a British-led diplomatic marathon cleared the way for Turkish accession talks in the early hours of yesterday.
His words captured the mixed mood of alarm and relief among EU leaders as the historic process of entry talks began. Several said that another rejection by Europe would have pushed Turkey towards "hate" and Islamic fundamentalism.
But the same leaders - many of whose electorates are strongly opposed to Turkey's entry - gave a warning that it would take at least a decade of reforms before the Muslim nation of 70 million would be ready for Union membership.
** This would be the same Le Worm who opposes everything the UK does on principle, a case of the kettle calling the pot black?
Iran behind attacks? Britain has accused Iran of responsibility for explosions which have killed eight British soldiers in Iraq this year.
A senior British official, briefing correspondents in London, blamed Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
He said they provided the technology to a Shia group in southern Iraq. The Iranians had denied this, he added.
While UK officials have hinted at an Iranian link before, this is the first specific allegation to be made.
GO USA!!!
CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, AR RAMADI, Iraq – The 2nd Marine Division launched Operation Bawwabatu Annaher, or River Gate in English, in the cities of Haditha, Haqlaniyah and Barwana Oct. 4.
Approximately 2,500 Marines, Soldiers and Sailors from Regimental Combat Team – 2 and Iraqi Security force soldiers are participating in the operation, making it the largest operation in the al Anbar province this year.
The operation’s goal is to deny al Qaeda in Iraq the ability to operate in the three Euphrates River Valley cities and to free the local citizens from the terrorists’ campaign of murder and intimidation of innocent women, children and men.
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