The 9/11 Congressional panel will hear some troubling information next week from aides of former President Clinton:

Senior Clinton administration officials called to testify next week before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks say they are prepared to detail how they repeatedly warned their Bush administration counterparts in late 2000 that Al Qaeda posed the worst security threat facing the nation — and how the new administration was slow to act.

They said the warnings were delivered in urgent post-election intelligence briefings in December 2000 and January 2001 for Condoleezza Rice, who became Mr. Bush's national security adviser; Stephen Hadley, now Ms. Rice's deputy; and Philip D. Zelikow, a member of the Bush transition team, among others.

Richard Clarke, Clinton's counterterrorism coordinator, whose book, Against All Enemies : Inside the White House's War on Terror--What Really Happened, is being released Monday, says:

...the warning about the Qaeda threat could not have been made more bluntly to the incoming Bush officials in intelligence briefings that he led. At the time of the briefings, there was extensive evidence tying Al Qaeda to the bombing in Yemen two months earlier of an American warship, the Cole, in which 17 sailors were killed. "It was very explicit," Mr. Clarke said of the warning given to the Bush administration officials. "Rice was briefed, and Hadley was briefed, and Zelikow sat in."

The White House does not dispute that it received the information. The dispute is over what was done with the information. The Clinton aides say the Bush administration sat on it and that terrorism was a low priority until Sept. 11. Bush says he made terrorism a top priority and followed through on Clinton's policies.

A Judge in Spain Friday found enough evidence linking three Moroccans to Spain's bombings to order them held without bond.

All three denied involvement and said they were sleeping at the time. One shouted his innocence in court. Another cried.

The Judge found no evidence to link an Algerian suspect to the bombings, and ordered him released. The two Indian men arrested last week were ordered held on charges of collaborating with a terrorist organization.

This apparently was a low-budget bombing--officials estimate it cost less than $1,000.00. The perpetrators used a stolen van and got the explosives for free.

A Spaniard arrested Thursday allegedly knew one of the Moroccans from a prior jail stay and provided the blasting caps as a favor.

Update: The Washington Post reports that the investigation is focusing on a terror cell in Tangiers.

Check out the Al Jazeera cartoon, Al Qaida credit card.

It's a short flash that tells a story of how Al Qaida was born, beginning with the conquest of Afganistan, first by Russia, then by us. It references the lack of money the U.S. has provided for rebuilding the country and includes an animated version of the 9/11 attacks.

It's always interesting to see how others view us.

Update: The New Yorker profiled al-Zawahri in September, 2002--it is available here [thanks to the commenter who pointed this out.]

The media is calling Ayman al-Zawahri the brains behind Osama bin Laden. Who is he? Here's a profile from Al Jazeera:

Decades ago he gave up the affluent life of a Cairo doctor to dedicate himself to the Islamist underground, a choice that would eventually take him, like bin Ladin, to the mountains of Afghanistan. In December 2001 his wife and several children were reported to have been blown to pieces by American bombing in Afghanistan, but the bespectacled al-Qaida leader managed to escape the US dragnet and went on the run.

Born in 1951, Zawahri espoused his cause from an early age. In the 1960s he joined Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world's oldest Islamist group. He was tried, along with many others, for links to the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He served a three-year jail term for illegal arms possession but was acquitted of the main charges. In 1985, Zawahri left Egypt for Pakistan, where he worked as a doctor treating fighters wounded in battles against Soviet forces occupying neighbouring Afghanistan.

He took over in 1993 the leadership of Jihad, Egypt's second largest Islamic armed group. A military court in Egypt sentenced Zawahri to death in absentia in 1999 for militant activities. Zawahri joined forces with bin Ladin in 1998. He has been indicted in connection with the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Pakistani officials say they have cornered Ayman al-Zawabi, whom they describe as "al Qaida No. 2."

Pakistani troops believe they have surrounded al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri in an operation near the Afghan border, three senior Pakistani officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The officials, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity, said intelligence indicated the Egyptian-born al-Zawahri has been cornered in an operation that began Tuesday in South Waziristan involving hundreds of troops and paramilitary rangers.

We have doubts he'd allow himself to be captured alive. Stay tuned.

by TChris

The tension between privacy and security continues to grow as the government seeks to implement the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II). The system would rank air passengers according to the likelihood that they are terrorists.

Congress last year ordered the General Accounting Office, its investigative arm, to report on whether CAPPS II safeguards passenger privacy. The auditors reported last month that the government hasn't adequately addressed security and privacy concerns.

The Transportation Security Administration intends to order airlines to surrender passenger records so that it can test CAPPS II. The airlines have refused to provide the information voluntarily. The airlines are worried about "government snooping and the possibility that people will be wrongly labeled as terrorists." The Air Transport Association, speaking for the airlines, would like the TSA to adopt guidelines that would protect the privacy of passengers.

The guidelines seek to ensure the TSA collects only personal information pertaining to aviation security, stores it securely and gets rid of it as soon as travel is completed. The airlines also said that passengers must be allowed to access their personal information and correct any errors.

The TSA has hired a privacy officer to assure that it obeys existing privacy laws, and says that it won't retain passengers' records, "except for people who might be terrorists."

CAPPS II would compare passenger information to government databases and assign each passenger a color code. Red means the passenger is a terrorist or violent criminal: no flying allowed. Yellow means questions exist and the passenger would go through extra security screening. Everybody else would be green, meaning they go through routine screening.

In response to the GAO report, some members of Congress believe CAPPS II is so flawed that it will ultimately be cancelled. The TSA is pressing onward, and will order the airlines to submit the requested passenger information within the next couple of months.

by TChris

Those sneaky French! Just when we learn to order freedom fries, it turns out the French are on our side after all.

France's senior military officer said today that Osama bin Laden had on several occasions narrowly escaped capture by French troops working alongside American forces in Afghanistan, although he conceded that Mr. bin Laden's capture would not in itself suffice to dismantle Al Qaeda.

He said that 200 French special forces troops were participating alongside American forces in Afghanistan in the hunt for Mr. bin Laden. "Our men have not been far," he said. "On several occasions, I even think he slipped out of a net that was well closed."

Will President Bush be suitably chagrined if the French, of all people, capture bin Laden?

The Washington Post reports Monday that investigators in Spain now believe Al Qaeda was responsible after all for the Spain bombings:

Investigators believe the train bombings that killed 200 people here last week were the work of a multinational cell of al Qaeda loyalists, some of whom entered Spain specifically to carry out the attacks and who are now the target of an international effort to identify and capture them, according to European and Arab intelligence officials. The officials said the preliminary investigation and interrogation of five arrested suspects -- three Moroccans and two Indian Muslims -- as well as other evidence indicated that the Thursday morning rush-hour bombings were carried out by the al Qaeda network, marking the first time the group has struck in Europe.

The way the bombings were carried out is particularly worrisome to European leaders:

For European leaders, the al Qaeda link is a chilling development, and security services across the continent are now scrambling to assess the likelihood of further attacks in Europe. Analysts said the method of the Madrid attacks -- synchronized bombings apparently carried out by remote control rather than by suicide bombers -- suggested that Islamic extremists had become more adaptable and, therefore, even more of a threat.

The Moroccan suspects are being interrogated. So far, they have provided only limited information and have made several requests for the Koran. As to why Spain was chosen, officials theorize:

The latest news in the Spain bombing investigation is that one of the three Moroccans arrested yesterday has ties to the leader of an Al Qaeda cell who figured into the 9/11 attacks and who has been in custody in Spain for some time.

A Sept. 17, 2003 indictment calls Jamal Zougam - arrested in Thursday's attacks - a "follower" of Imad Yarkas, the alleged leader of Spain's al-Qaida cell who was jailed for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Yarkas, whose alias is Abu Dahdah, remains in Spanish custody. The indictment targets Yarkas and 34 others, including bin Laden, for terrorist activities connected to al-Qaida. Zougam, 30, was not indicted.

Friends of two of the jailed Moroccans think they are not involved:

Friends of the Moroccans said the Madrid store where they worked sold cell phones but they insisted that the men would not have been involved in planning or carrying out the attacks. "People shouldn't be put in jail for selling cell phones. They are hard workers," said Karim, who works in a phone shop near the now-shuttered store where the arrested Moroccans worked. Karim did not want to give his last name.

At American Prospect, Harvard terrorism expert Jessica Stern looks at the possible connection between Basque separatists and Al Qaeda:

I have to wonder whether there's cooperation between ETA and Al Qaeda, and what this relationship might consist of. Al Qaeda is pragmatic and likes to avail itself of local operatives, expertise, and languages. They especially like to recruit locals. Al Qaeda has a large presence in Spain, so looking for partners like ETA would be at the top of their list. We know that the majority of people in Spain oppose the war in Iraq, so it makes me wonder whether some members of ETA have been infiltrated by the Al Qaeda network. There's also the chance that Al Qaeda might be recruiting within ETA.

As to the credibility of the Al Quaeda group claiming responsibility for the Spain attacks, Stern says:

The group claiming to speak for Al Qaeda is notoriously unreliable -- they even claimed responsibility for last summer's blackout. Intelligence officials really don't know anything about the group.

Spain has made five arrests in connection with the Madrid train bombings: three Morrocans and two Spaniards of Indian descent. They got a lead from a backpack with an unexploded bomb--and a cell phone-- left on one of the trains.

All the detentions were made "for presumed implication in the sale and falsification of the mobile phone and cards found in the bag that did not explode", Acebes said.

We have no idea if Spain has arrested the right people, but leaving a cellphone in a backpack is just plain felony stupid on the part of the bombers.

Update: An Arabic videotape has been found in which Al Qaeda takes responsibility:

Interior Minister Angel Acebes said a man identifying himself as the military spokesman of al-Qaida in Europe claimed the group was responsible for the bombings. "We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly 2 1/2 years after the attacks on New York and Washington," said the man, according to a government translation of the tape, which was recorded in Arabic. "It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies."

[comments now closed]

The group responsible for the Madrid bombing which has claimed the lives of more than 190 people, and injured another 1,400 remains in doubt. Spanish officials seemed confident earlier today that the Basque separatist group ETA was responsible. But, a letter has been received taking responsibility that is purportedly from an Al Qaeda group.

Did the two groups collaborate? It doesn't seem likely but it is not being ruled out either. Bin Laden has previously mentioned Spain as a country that could be attacked. It would be a very disturbing development, according to one analyst we heard on CNN.

Al Qaeda also sent a letter to a newspaper today saying that another attack on the U.S is "90% ready."

We've closed the comments to our earlier thread on the Spain bombing, so as to move on to the new developments.