Chronology for Jan 2002

January 2002

30	31	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31	1	2

January 1, 2002
Anti-Taliban forces were poised on Tuesday to launch an operation to capture Mullah Mohammad Omar, the movement's shadowy leader and a top target of U.S. troops still hunting the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan

Zacarias Moussaoui, the first man to be indicted on charges involving the Sept. 11 attacks, is due in court on Wednesday to enter a plea on charges of conspiring with Osama bin Laden and others to murder thousands of people.

India kept Pakistan guessing over whether it will join talks to defuse tensions over flashpoint Kashmir as attacks in its only Muslim-majority state targeted Hindus once again.

Most Americans say the country has permanently changed for the better as a consequence of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and more than half report that the tragedy has transformed their own lives

Under pressure to avert war with India, Pakistan said today that it had rounded up more than two dozen Islamic militants and detained the leader of a group blamed for an attack on the Indian Parliament earlier this month.

January 2, 2002
Lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday entered a plea of not guilty to charges he conspired with Osama bin Laden to murder thousands of people -- the first charges filed in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Nuclear-armed India said Wednesday it was prepared to use its full military might to defend itself amid threats by Pakistan-based Islamic guerrilla groups to mount further attacks on the country.

With its air campaign over Afghanistan winding down, the United States on Wednesday pursued its war on terrorism through the courts and reminded its Afghan allies it expected them to hand over deposed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in the event of his capture

Northern Irish groups make up five of the six newcomers the United States has added to a growing list of organizations that it has designated as friendly to terrorism. The US has ordered their assets to be frozen without delay.

January 3, 2002
U.S. warplanes on Thursday unleashed heavy airstrikes on an al Qaeda leadership compound in eastern Afghanistan and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the fighting in the shattered country was far from over.

Afghan Minister for Reconstruction Amin Farhang said late on Thursday he believed deposed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar may have been arrested, but the United States said it had nothing to support the report.

The Bush administration has renewed its call for U.S. law enforcement agencies to remain vigilant for unspecified threats, extending the current high alert status for three months and covering the Winter Olympic Games in Utah.

Indian and Pakistani leaders will attend a regional summit on Friday as their armies stare one another down in a confrontation causing concern around the world, but they may not use the gathering to talk peace.

Workers at the World Trade Centre site in New York have removed several bodies found in what was the lobby of one of the towers, officials revealed yesterday. Demolition teams came across 13 corpses in a six-hour period on New Year's Day in a small pocket that had not been crushed. None have been officially identified, but ten of the bodies were New York City firemen.

January 4, 2002
Afghan officials said Thursday they were negotiating with tribal leaders to give up weapons as they continued to scour the mountains for deposed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and 1,500 of his fighters. U.S. officials were adamant that no deal had been offered to the second most wanted man after Osama bin Laden

Pakistani authorities have rounded up dozens of Islamic activists in the central Punjab province in a crackdown on militants blamed for escalating tensions with neighboring India, police said Friday.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, hoping to ease tensions between former colonies Pakistan and India, said language, history and international ties have given Britain a ``pivotal'' role in a world of interdependent nations.

January 5, 2002
U.S. Marines took custody of the chief of Osama bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, while the Afghan government said Saturday it appeared former Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had escaped forces penning him in.

With the capture this week of top Taliban and al-Qaida figures, the United States may have an extraordinary new opportunity to learn how the international terrorist operation worked and where its leaders are.

A 15-year-old student pilot was presumed dead after crashing a small plane into a downtown building Saturday, where it lodged midway up a 42-story bank tower. Though terrorism was quickly discounted, the televised image of a plane blasting a hole in the side of a skyscraper was a chilling reminder of the World Trade Center attacks. The plane's tail dangled near the 28th floor of the 42-story Bank of America building.

January 6, 2002
Afghanistan's interim leader promised Sunday that fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar will be tracked down, even as reports said the one-eyed cleric may have eluded capture and fled to another province.

A brief meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan failed to resolve a standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Later Sunday, India said it downed a small, unmanned Pakistani spy aircraft.

Since September, Congress and President Bush have enacted bills providing more than $60 billion for programs aimed at fighting terrorism at home and abroad, and recovery from the Sept. 11 attacks. Much of it will be spent over the next several years.

As investigators gather evidence about possible links between alleged airline shoe-bomber Richard Reid and the al Qaeda terrorist organization, intelligence officials on both sides of the Atlantic are floating a disturbing theory: that Reid's bombing attempt may have been a "trial run" for future, simultaneous attacks against passenger jets to be carried out by supporters of Osama bin Laden.

January 7, 2002
Pakistani and Indian forces traded fire across their border Tuesday as New Delhi brushed off Pakistan's president's pledge that he would unveil details of a crackdown on Islamic militants within days.

Three former ministers in Afghanistan's vanquished Taliban regime have surrendered to the their conquerors while the hunt for the supreme Taliban leader again focused on rugged southern mountains.

U.S. forces in Afghanistan are focusing more on finding and attacking all remaining Taliban and al-Qaida members and less on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other individuals, military officials said Monday.

A number of Saudis freed from US jails following weeks of detention after the September 11 attacks, claim they were maltreated and "psychologically abused" by prison authorities. The men, many of whom have already returned to the kingdom permanently, spoke of arbitrary detention, trials and deportation orders.

Investigators have accounted for more than $325,000 spent on the Sept. 11 attacks, concluding that money was transferred to the hijacking teams from suspected terrorist operatives in the United Arab Emirates and a handful of other countries.

January 8, 2002
U.S. troops captured two senior al-Qaida fighters and confiscated their computers and cell phones near a huge underground cave complex used by Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, the nation's top general said Tuesday.

The U.S.-led anti-terror coalition in recent days has increased its tally of top al-Qaida and Taliban leaders either dead or captured in the war in and around Afghanistan Officials caution that they don't have a body for all those reported killed, but say they have reliable intelligence, frequently from eavesdropped communications, that leads them to believe the leaders are dead.

The director of the U.N. program that allows Iraq to sell oil and use the income to buy food will visit Baghdad next week for the first time in nearly 11/2 years, the U.N. spokesman announced Tuesday

Afghan Minister Reviving Tourism, He suggests the breathtaking eastern mountains near Tora Bora. Or perhaps a hike to admire the plant life. Villages on the western plains are nice, too, brimming with cultures and handicrafts for a memorable vacation experience.

January 9, 2002
Seven high-ranking Taliban officials - including the ex-justice minister - surrendered to Afghan commanders but were set free by local officials, the Afghan government said Wednesday, even though U.S. officials want Taliban leaders turned over.

A U.S. military tanker plane crashed into a mountain in Pakistan, killing seven Marines, the Pentagon said.

The discovery of a suspected homegrown terrorist cell connected with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has shocked Singapore, which boasts one of the world's most efficient intelligence-gathering networks.

ENVIRONMENT campaigners in New York who believe the air of lower Manhattan has been contaminated by the collapse of the World Trade Centre say they have found asbestos levels in some buildings more than 500 times the recommended safe amount.

U.S. forces captured two senior al-Qaida operatives at a cave complex in Afghanistan and seized cell phones, computers and training manuals that could produce details about al-Qaida's terrorist operations

January 10, 2002
The fireball that erupted in the crash of a U.S. military aircraft in Pakistan, killing all seven Marines aboard, apparently was created by the fuel-laden plane's impact into a mountain ridge rather than by hostile fire, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday.

Highlighting tensions that threaten newly-warm U.S.-Russian relations, Russia's Foreign Ministry bristled Thursday at the Pentagon's plan to downsize American nuclear arsenals by putting weapons in reserve rather than destroying them.

U.S. Marines began an extraordinary security mission on Thursday night - flying the first 20 of hundreds of al-Qaida prisoners to a U.S. base on Cuba, where they are to be held for questioning and possible trial.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, vice president for parliamentary affairs, said Iran was not harboring fugitive fighters from Afghanistan where the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban government and its al-Qaida allies. ``There is no ground for the Taliban, al-Qaida fighters and their supporters to seek shelter in Iran. Iran has never been on good terms with the Taliban and their supporters,'' Abtahi said.

Visitors to New York's newest tourist destination, ground zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre stood, now have the benefit of four raised platforms for a better view. From yesterday, however, they were obliged to queue for tickets to gain access to the viewing stands. While the new arrangement makes the experience not much different from taking a Disney ride, though the tickets are free, officials defended it as a necessary step to control the crowds. The ticket comes with a time slot when you climb on to the platforms and sets a 30-minute limit.

January 11, 2002
The United States is closely studying intelligence from terrorist bases and prisoners in Afghanistan for clues that could pre-empt terrorist acts potentially more deadly than those on Sept. 11, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday.

Shackled and surrounded by Marines, the first 20 prisoners from Afghanistan - the most dangerous of the al-Qaida and Taliban captives - arrived Friday at this remote U.S. military outpost on Cuba.

East African leaders on Friday called on Somalia to rid itself of terrorists. The Horn of Africa nation is believed to be a potential target in the U.S.-led war on terror. The seven heads of state ended a two-day summit by condemning international terrorism, especially the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, blamed on Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.

January 12, 2002
The United States intensified its anti-terror campaign in turbulent eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, dropping bombs on suspected al-Qaida and Taliban hide-outs as a small group of U.S. special forces searched for renegade followers of Osama bin Laden.

Military searchers found the bodies of five of the seven U.S. Marines killed in a plane crash in Pakistan and intensified efforts to determine the cause of the deadliest incident in America's war in Afghanistan.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared Saturday that Pakistan will not be a base for terrorism and banned two extremist groups accused in an attack on India's parliament. Police raided religious schools and mosques and arrested more than 300 suspected militants.

Leaning on assault rifles and grenade launchers, nearly 50 men weary of war waited patiently in the northern village of Khoja Khon Saturday to do something long unthinkable - give up their guns.

January 13, 2002
President Pervez Musharraf's pledge to crack down on terrorism has failed to persuade India to ease the tense military standoff, and Kashmiri militants vowed on Sunday more attacks against Indian rule in the contested territory.

Guarded by U.S. troops and attack dogs, a second group of suspected Osama bin Laden supporters departed Sunday for a U.S. prison camp in Cuba as U.S. bombers flew their most punishing raids in weeks on caves near the Pakistani border.

A group of 37 Americans who lost relatives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have arrived in Barbados for a weeklong vacation paid by the Barbadian government and local companies.

Many in the group that arrived Saturday are the children of those who died in the attacks, and are traveling with their remaining parent or guardian, said Majella Gallant, managing director of hospitality consulting group MG International, which helped organize the trip

January 14, 2002
For hundreds of U.S. companies hawking products including jewelry, sneakers and credit cards, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have provided an extraordinarily successful marketing tool. And the sales, which guarantee a portion will go to the American Red Cross or other charities, have created an unprecedented boost in donations, with millions of dollars still pouring in from Christmas-related sales of heart-shaped pins, coffee mugs and "courage candles," among others.

Four months later, sustained bombing by U.S. forces in Afghanistan has reduced al Qaeda's training camps to rubble, and al Qaeda's leaders are dead or on the run. Hundreds of fighters linked to the group and its allied Taliban militia have been rounded up by U.S. forces, and governments and banks worldwide are working in concert to cut off the group's financial resources.

January 15, 2002
Americans who lost members of their families in the 11 September attacks will arrive in Kabul to meet Afghans whose loved ones were killed by US bombs. The meeting is seen by the grieving Americans as a step towards building something good out of profoundly shattering events. But they also bring with them a message of reconciliation that has provoked apprehension inthe State Department and among US diplomats in Afghanistan.

As the cranes and backhoes continue to clear the now sprawling 16-acre site in lower Manhattan where almost 3,000 lives were lost, a new urgency grows around what to build there next. The clean-up could be complete as early as June, making way for construction. But what to put there remains a disquieting dilemma: How do you balance the need to honor the dead and forever remind the living of the horror and heroism - and, at the same time, foster economic development in an area still crippled by the terrorists?

The Air Force and Air National Guard want to scale back fighter jet patrols over the United States because of the wear and tear on aircraft and personnel, military officials say

Scores of immigrants detained after the Sept. 11 terror attacks were jailed for weeks before they were charged with immigration violations, according to documents released by the Justice Department.

January 16, 2002
Richard Reid, the British citizen found aboard an American Airlines flight with explosives in his shoe in December, was indicted in Boston today on nine charges and officials said he had received training for his plot in al Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Mr Reid, who was initially charged in Boston with interfering with the crew, now faces charges including attempted murder which carry up to five life sentences,

A man charged with helping confessed terrorist conspirator Ahmed Ressam prepare for his plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999 has been sentenced to 24 years in prison by a Manhattan judge.

Just as Pearl Harbor and Vietnam ushered in new cultural and political eras, Sept. 11 is likely to shape the outlook of the nation - and particularly the generation now coming of age - for years to come.

January 17, 2002
New York customs officials said they had broken a vast international cocaine-smuggling and money-laundering ring this week after evidence recovered from the ruins of the World Trade Centre led to the arrest of 37 suspects in Colombia and the US. A 2-year undercover operation had been all but abandoned when Customs House, part of the World Trade Centre complex, suffered heavy damage on September 11 when one of the twin towers collapsed on top of it.

Indeed, Americans clearly yearn to boost security. Yet some of the more high-tech security solutions may be years away. And in the interim, Americans don't want to be cowed by terrorism - or lose too much of the ease and convenience of life before Sept. 11. This approach, however, has some experts worrying that new safety measures won't be sufficient.

Alleged shoe-bomber Richard Reid appears to have been working for the Qaida terror network when he made a mid-2001 trip to Israel and Egypt, apparently scouting targets for terrorist attacks

Since September, dozens of local police and sheriff's deputies have voluntarily checked car trunks, provided armed security and directed traffic at the Ambassador and Blue Water bridges and Detroit-Windsor tunnel. But Ficano said he expects those volunteers to virtually disappear within a month unless the federal government agrees to pay them.

January 18, 2002
In what amounts to the second phase of the campaign against terrorism, the US and UK are considering military raids against al-Qaeda targets in a range of countries as part of an effort to prevent Osama bin Laden's terrorist network regrouping after its defeat in Afghanistan.

Nervous federal law enforcement officials released videotaped excerpts of five suspected al-Qaeda operatives on Thursday in part to revive a campaign of national preparedness. Government analysis of the five videotapes, all recovered recently from a bombed-out Afghanistan home of al-Qaeda military chief Mohammed Atef, indicate that the men ''may be trained and prepared to commit future suicide acts

The international legal community rounded on the United States administration, accusing it of flagrant human rights abuses in its treatment of Taliban and al-Qa'ida prisoners.

Leicester police arrested four more people on immigration charges on Friday in an on-going pan-European investigation into terrorism. A total of 17 people are now in custody after the arrests in Leicester and London in the past two days, nine of them are being held in connection with terror-related offences.

January 19, 2002
UN diplomats have traded accusations during a Security Council debate about efforts to control the threat of global terrorism.

The authorities in Spain say they have arrested two men suspected of belonging to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. One of the suspects is a Moroccan national, the other an Algerian

Flush with $320 million in federal anti-terrorism aid, Washington area governments are racing to install 100 surveillance cameras along major District streets and synchronize traffic lights at 1,600 intersections in the city and adjoining suburban corridors to speed a potential evacuation.

January 20, 2002
Shoe bomb suspect Richard Reid e-mailed an Islamic "martyrdom" note to be published in the event of his success in destroying a US-bound airliner, according to reports in the French media.

Richard Colvin Reid, the third alleged al Qaeda operative to be charged with terrorist crimes by U.S. prosecutors since Sept. 11, pleaded not guilty today to charges alleging he tried to blow up a transatlantic flight with explosives in his shoes.

January 21, 2002
The government yesterday rejected worldwide complaints that al-Qaida prisoners in Cuba are being subjected to inhumane treatment after a British diplomatic team - including an MI5 officer - reported that the detained Britons are in good health and have not been mistreated.

A second contingent of about two dozen U.S. soldiers arrived in the southern Philippines on Sunday, dispatched to help oust Muslim militants as the United States broadens its war against terrorism.

Investigators in Spain have discovered that two suspected al-Qaida members arrested in Barcelona were in close contact with members in Britain. Meanwhile, French investigators believe Richard Reid, the British "shoe bomber", had local back-up during his five-day stay in Paris in December.

January 22, 2002
A group of leading civil rights lawyers and activists have filed a petition requiring the US government to bring the detainees at Guantanamo Bay before a civil court and define the charges against them. The petition is due to be heard in a Los Angeles court today.

A growing international clamor is calling into question the treatment of prisoners held at the makeshift U.S. jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the "unlawful combatants" face more interrogation and possible criminal charges as international terrorists.

Moving to quell a storm of America-bashing here over the treatment of terror suspects being held at a U.S. base in Cuba, the British government reported today that its investigators had found "no sign" of inhumane treatment.

The charcoal-smudged gash is gone. So are the steel beams, smushed accordion-style. Where chunks of the Pentagon's stone facade once lay in a cockeyed heap, a delicate-looking lattice of steel bars has appeared. Concrete trickles over the steel grid, and another floor rises.

January 23, 2002
A group of Russian cult members planning to unleash a wave of terrorist bombings on Japan has been sentenced to jail by a court in Vladivostok. The five Russian men are from Moscow and are still ardent followers of Aum Supreme Truth guru, Shoko Asahara. Asahara is in jail in Japan on murder charges after the 1995 Sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subways which killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000.

Thailand has joined other South East Asian nations in putting the country on high alert, following intelligence reports of possible terrorist attacks.

Like millions of Americans, truckers consider themselves the eyes and ears of homeland security. They're on the lookout to spot anything amiss on America's interstates, whether among the drivers or cargoes. If something does turn up, they wouldn't hesitate to call it in to state troopers - hardly the people they normally want attention from.

US military officials say they are suspending transfers of prisoners from Afghanistan to the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. They say this is to allow detention facilities to be added and upgraded.

January 24, 2002
United Nations monitors have revealed that fighters of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network and Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime could possess scud missiles and chemical weapons, including deadly sarin and VX gas projectiles

The Briton accused of attempting to blow up a transatlantic airliner using explosives hidden in his shoes was "brainwashed" by Islamic militants, his father has said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller made an unannounced visit to a U.S. base Wednesday and said information gathered from detainees here has proven very valuable. "The information that has been obtained by interrogation of al-Qaeda members, as well as information gleaned from documents found in Afghanistan, has prevented additional attacks against U.S. facilities around the world,"

Two men charged with involvement in the al-Qaeda terror group have appeared at Leicester Crown Court. Both are Algerians and were arrested in Leicestershire last year.

January 25, 2002
President Bush said yesterday that he wants to nearly double the nation's spending on homeland security, telling an audience of mayors that his request for $37.7 billion signals the start of a long-term commitment to an anti-terrorism campaign that will rely heavily on local police, firefighters and other "first responders."

It's not your usual advertisement. Carly Simon's voice sings as photos flash on the screen. The music swells, the still pictures change to video, and it becomes apparent that all the inspiration is directed at ... the Postal Service. Then a slightly altered version of the USPS creed appears. Neither "snow, nor rain ... nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever."

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, added fuel to the controversy about the prisoners held at the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba yesterday by saying that British captives suspected of supporting al-Qaida should be returned to Britain.

January 26, 2002
Authorities named two Tunisian-born Canadian citizens yesterday as suspected al Qaeda terrorists, saying they and four others have vanished and may be planning suicide attacks on American targets.

A British man jailed for three years in Yemen for plotting a bombing campaign has returned to the UK after his release from prison on Saturday. Mohammed Kamel, who was convicted alongside seven other Britons and two men of Algerian descent in August 1999, is the 20-year-old son of the outspoken London-based Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri.

The federal government has had Oulai in custody since Sept. 14, the day flight manuals and a stun gun were found in his luggage at a Florida airport and he was arrested as a suspected terrorist. The Alexandria Detention Center is the sixth place in which he has been jailed. There, he shares an address with Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person indicted by the federal government as a conspirator in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and with John Walker Lindh, the young American charged with fighting for the Taliban. Moussaoui and Lindh have become notorious. Oulai is unknown.

January 27, 2002
Mayors from across the nation traveled to Ground Zero yesterday to see the devastation with their own eyes, led by an experienced tour guide: America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The Pentagon has decided to ask the White House for approval to set up a new four-star command to coordinate federal troops used to defend North America, part of an intensified effort to bolster homeland security

Two congressional delegations that toured the prison camp at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where 158 captured al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are being held, yesterday said they saw no evidence the prisoners are being mistreated.

January 28, 2002
Stephen Push was shocked when the first e-mails arrived. The senders had seen him on television talking about his wife, who died in the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon, and the federal plan to compensate families of the victims. "We feel your grief, really," one e-mailer wrote. "I'm just wondering if we have to feel your greed too?"

A Pakistani group seeking better conditions for prisoners being held by the US in Cuba says it has kidnapped an American journalist who went missing last week. A group calling itself the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty released a photograph of the journalist, Daniel Pearl, with a gun being held menacingly to his head.

January 29, 2002
Showered with public gratitude, but overtaxed by the security expectations created by the 9/11 attacks, America's police, fire, and emergency-medical personnel are facing the worst - and yet somehow best - of times. They're crucial players in the biggest themes of Tuesday night's State of the Union address.

FRENCH police have found a workshop belonging to Eta, the Basque separatist terrorist group that has turned traffic signals, books, windowboxes and car headrests into bombs. The discovery also yielded 2,500lbs of explosives, documents outlining plans for future Eta attacks and an array of equipment including a suitcase turned into a grenade launcher.

A federal judge Monday set an April trial date for a Sudanese man the government alleges is the highest-ranking aide to terrorist Osama bin Laden in U.S. custody.

Most of the nation's county public health departments are not adequately prepared to respond to a biological or chemical terrorist attack, with the biggest deficiencies found in small communities and rural areas

A FOURTH suspected British member of the al-Qaeda terrorist network was being questioned by MI6 agents in Afghanistan yesterday, as Downing Street said the United States might decide to send them to Britain for trial.

Crown Prince Abdullah said today that the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia has emerged undamaged from the attacks of Sept. 11. But he warned that the war on terrorism is being undermined by what he called the indefensible position of the United States in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

January 30, 2002
Iran, Iraq and North Korea today angrily denied charges that they exported terror and were trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction, accusations leveled by President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Democrats in Congress embraced President Bush's handling of the war on terrorism Tuesday but said ''real security'' requires action at home to create jobs and protect workers from corporate disasters like Enron.

After searching nearly 45 caves and safe houses in Afghanistan, U.S. Special Forces and CIA operatives have recovered a ''treasure trove'' of material left behind by al-Qaeda forces that detail the group's plans, including terrorist plots against the United States and other countries

A group of Sept. 11 victims' families who recently returned from Afghanistan is seeking to establish a $20 million compensation fund for Afghan civilian victims of the U.S. bombing. The program would be similar to the federal fund Congress set up to compensate those who were injured and family members of those killed on Sept. 11.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging the Justice Department's decision to close some immigration hearings after the Sept. 11 attacks and to refuse to provide any information about those proceedings.

President Bush asked House and Senate leaders yesterday to allow only two congressional committees to investigate the government's response to the events of Sept. 11, officials said. The president said the inquiry should be limited to the House and Senate intelligence committees, whose proceedings are generally secret

January 31, 2002
The Red Cross announced today that it will provide an additional $360 million in support to those affected by the Sept. 11 attacks, including $125 million in direct cash to those seriously injured and the estates of the deceased and $15 million to help extended family members and nontraditional family members.

Amid President Bush's warning that tens of thousands of terrorists remain at large worldwide, the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies today begin a nine-day stretch of security challenges that will tax them as never before.

The cover of a popular Bosnian magazine last week depicted Uncle Sam urinating on the country's constitution and the European Human Rights convention. And nearly two weeks after their government handed over six Arab terrorism suspects to U.S. authorities, many Bosnian Muslims are still angry.

Peppery flank steak and bracing coffee are the fare of choice over at Nino's, a restaurant turned soup kitchen located 18 blocks and a world away from Ground Zero. But what really thaws the thousands of relief workers who tromp in around the clock for the free buffet are mementos such as the homemade place mat sent here by a child with no last name, from who knows where.

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