Terrorism

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that three of the 68 Guantanamo detainees released since Barack Obama became president have engaged in terrorism or insurgency, a senior administration told Congress yesterday. U.S. Ambassador Dan Fried, the diplomat who arranged many of the releases, disclosed the figure during questioning from members of Congress at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. He declined to say, however, who the men were or where they were sent after Guantanamo.

THE BOMBING of the Bali nightclub on Oct. 12 has reinvigorated our fears and concerns about international terrorism in general and al Qaeda in particular. It has also inadvertently highlighted some historical issues related to how we understand terrorism. After the Bali bombing, the Indonesian government commented to the effect that this was the worst act of terrorism in the history of the country. I found this statement puzzling, largely due to one fact: the year 1965. As detailed in an excellent PBS documentary, "Shadow Play" (released earlier this year)

It's insane. It's horrible, It's tragic. An airplane has exploded and crashed, killing everyone. For the victims, it's over, but for the living, it's a continuing nightmare. The media began talking of terrorism as the story was breaking, making suppositions before evidence had begun to be gathered. One news show even brought in a "terrorism expert" while there was still hope for survivors. They linked public consciousness to catastrophes like Lockerbie, the Oklahoma City federal building and Dharan, Saudi Arabia.

New City Stage's production of Terrorism , a contemporary play by the Russian Presnyakov Brothers (Oleg and Vladimir), begins with a jolt before it begins: The stage is cordoned off with yellow "caution" tape and guarded by two armed soldiers. I had a brief bad moment when I wasn't sure I wanted to take off my coat and sit down - maybe I should just leave while I could. Urban anxiety is never far away. The play is made up of vignettes that are revealed to be obliquely linked, as characters reappear and the day's events emerge.

The Reagan administration's ability to combat terrorism is steadily eroding - perhaps irrevocably - as damaging disclosures continue in the Iran-contra affair, according to members of Congress. Lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, said Friday that the administration was failing to regain credibility on the anti-terrorism front. Some criticized President Reagan for not moving more aggressively to take the offensive. "U.S. policy is muddled, and we're in a mess. We're wandering now," said Rep. Daniel A. Mica (D., Fla.)

IJUST READ the story about the pizza deliveryman killed in Frankford. It states that he and his family came here for freedom and a better life. Then he is shot five times in Kensington, hit by a car in Oxford Circle - and the police won't help. Finally he gets murdered in Frankford delivering pizza. Some better life he found. He had a better chance of his dream of freedom and a new life if he moved to Iraq. This poor guy comes here to escape a terrible existence in his country and this is what he gets.

I read with interest Georgie Anne Geyer's Jan. 2 Op-ed piece on the Palestine Liberation Organization and terrorism. One could well debate ad infinitum what factors should be on a list of the roots and causes of Palestinian terrorism. Such a list would include national and personal humiliation, as Ms. Geyer suggests. However, it seems far too simplistic to blame it all on humiliation. This is especially so, if one agrees with Ms. Geyer's implication that the sole source of that humiliation is Israeli actions.

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that three of the 68 Guantanamo detainees released since Barack Obama became president have engaged in terrorism or insurgency, a senior administration told Congress on Wednesday. U.S. Ambassador Dan Fried, the diplomat who arranged many of the releases, disclosed the figure at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. He declined to say who the men were or where they were sent after Guantanamo. The rate of return-to-battlefield detainees, however, is far less than what the Defense Intelligence Agency determined it was during George W. Bush's administration.

Calling Libya the primary offender, the heads of the seven major industrial democracies agreed yesterday to "make maximum efforts" against terrorism, but stopped well short of endorsing economic sanctions. Nonetheless, U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz said the agreement sent an unmistakable message to Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy: "You've had it, pal. " While the summit participants were discussing terrorism, a radical leftist Japanese group called Chukakuha claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that took place before the summit started, and threatened "a second round to blow up the Tokyo summit.

CONGRATULATIONS on your editorial (July 13 "Wave the Flag, Don't Waive the Constitution") concerning Bush and Ashcroft wanting to deny basic constitutional rights to Jose Padilla for "saying he wanted to detonate a dirty bomb. " It is interesting to me that a case concerning Nazis in 1942 comes back to haunt us when the next fascists in our own history have come into power. The "War on Terrorism," like the "War on Drugs," is not a war. But the war is proclaimed to justify what the administration is doing: using emergency powers to control the populace and win the fight between the haves and have nots.

WASHINGTON - A decade after hijackers mostly from Saudi Arabia attacked the United States with passenger jets, the Saudis have emerged as the principal ally of the United States against al-Qaeda's spin-off group in Yemen and at least twice have disrupted plots to explode bombs aboard airlines. Details emerging about the latest unraveled plot revealed that a Saudi double agent fooled the terror group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, passing himself off as an eager would-be suicide bomber.

One year after the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the most familiar image from the event is not of the dead man, but of the people who ordered the raid: President Obama and his closest advisers, watching via satellite in the White House "situation room" as the operation was unfolding thousands of miles away. Such depictions suggest an American victory. But if Americans were presented with a picture of war that went beyond its reflection on American faces to include its impact on Pakistani lives, they would see a reality that would alarm them.

NEW YORK - A New York man was convicted Tuesday of plotting an aborted suicide mission against New York City subways in 2009 - a case that featured the first-time testimony from admitted homegrown extremists about al-Qaeda's fixation with pulling off another attack on American soil. A jury found Adis Medunjanin guilty of all counts for his role in a terror plot that federal authorities say was one of the closest calls since Sept. 11, 2001. "This is Terrorism 101," Assistant U.S. Attorney Berit Berger said in closing arguments in federal court in Brooklyn.

Milestone in war on terror The death of Osama bin Laden was a major milestone in the war on terrorism ("Where al-Qaeda is, minus its leader," Monday). However, we must realize that this war is not over yet. Bin Laden is dead, but "Bin Ladenism" — an ideology based on hatred and violence — is still alive in many parts of the Muslim world. As Muslim Americans, our responsibility is to instill the true peaceful teachings of Islam in our children at a very young age. We must strongly reject perverse interpretations of Islam that promote violence and terrorism.

Armed, masked men broke into a Haverford Township couple's home last night, duct-taped the wife, and made off with an undisclosed amount of money, police said today. The incident occurred shortly before 8:15 p.m. Thursday on the 600 block of Paddock Road in the Paddock Farms development as the couple was in their bedroom, according to Haverford Deputy Chief John Viola. The couple, who own a corner store in West Philadelphia, heard, "a loud crash downstairs" just before three men came up the stairs and entered the master bedroom, Viola said, adding that at least one of the men was believed to have had a handgun.

TULSA, Okla. - Two men were arrested Sunday in a shooting rampage that left three people dead and terrorized Tulsa's black community, and police said one suspect may have been trying to avenge his father's shooting two years ago by a black man. Police identified both suspects as white, while all five victims in the rampage early Friday were black. Police and the FBI said it was too soon to say whether the attacks in Tulsa's predominantly black north side were racially motivated.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The Pentagon said Wednesday that it is ready to resume a trial at Guantanamo Bay for the acknowledged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and four other men, more than two years after President Obama halted the case in an ultimately failed effort to prosecute them in a civilian court. A Department of Defense legal official known as the convening authority has approved trying the five together on capital charges that include terrorism and murder, making them eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

DURING THREE hours of emotional and sometimes contentious testimony, a former Bucks County altar boy on Wednesday described how a priest in the landmark child-sex-abuse and conspiracy trial molested him during an overnight visit when he was 14. The man, now 30, broke down several times recounting a 1996 assault by the Rev. James J. Brennan that he said plunged him into a spiral of drugs and crime and still haunts him. He said Brennan, his...

KALPANI BASE, Pakistan - The wind was howling and the snow outside their bullet-pocked bunker lay knee-deep as the men of the 20th Lancers Armored Regiment bedded down for the night, nearly 8,000 feet up a mountain on one of the world's most inhospitable borders. They cheered themselves up by singing songs. Their commander gazed at photos of his 4-year-old daughter on his computer. But as the men chatted, it became clear that they were feeling a bit underappreciated. Why did the West accuse Pakistan of not pulling its weight in the war on terror?

PARIS - Police led predawn raids across France on Friday in a crackdown against suspected Islamist extremists, arresting 19 people and carting off automatic rifles and other guns in authorities' latest response to a wave of terrorism that has shaken the country. President Nicolas Sarkozy, intent on showing an all-out fight against terrorism as his reelection contest nears, promised more such raids as his conservative government responds to a spate of shootings in southern France by a radical Islamist that left seven people dead and two wounded.