Chronology for Jun 2002

June 2002

26	27	28	29	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	1	2	3	4	5	6

June 1, 2002
Pakistan's president, stopping short of matching India's pledge not to use nuclear weapons first, said Saturday "any sane individual" would not allow tensions between the two nations to escalate into a nuclear war.

The United States will strike pre-emptively against suspected terrorists if necessary to deter attacks on Americans, President Bush told West Point graduates Saturday. "The war on terror will not be won on the defensive," he said.

Israeli troops searched house-to-house Saturday as tanks patrolled deserted streets in four Palestinian cities and towns in a sweep of the West Bank that has rounded up dozens of suspected militants over the past two days.

Islamic terrorists "have Asia in their sights," the Pentagon's No. 2 official told defense ministers from the region Saturday in an effort to rally support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Cleanup at ground zero is complete, but restoration is far from over at nine vacant and scarred office buildings nearby. Owners of several buildings, including a graceful turn-of-the-century landmark skyscraper designed by Cass Gilbert, are still negotiating with insurers. Some buildings will reopen.

In a blistering speech before hundreds of thousands of people in a drenching rain Saturday, President Fidel Castro said the democracy President Bush wants to see in Cuba would be a corrupt and unfair system that ignores the poor.

The Bush administration's top anti-terrorism prosecutor said the United States had ample evidence that a devastating terrorist attack on U.S. soil was likely long before Sept. 11.

June 2, 2002
U.S. intelligence agencies could have better analyzed information that pointed to Sept. 11, but probably could not have prevented the attacks, the attorney general and FBI director said Sunday

Yasser Arafat has offered Cabinet posts to Hamas and other militant groups involved in suicide attacks against Israelis as part of a government reshuffle he plans to announce in coming days

Hundreds of relatives of people lost on Sept. 11 joined hands at the site of the World Trade Center on Sunday as those hit hardest by terrorism sought solace at an interfaith memorial ceremony marking the end of the recovery effort. Family members hoisted pictures of their loved ones above their heads as the ceremony began with bagpipers playing "Amazing Grace." Then, a woman sang "God Bless America" amid the muffled sobs of relatives.

The United States may need to reassess its military mission in Afghanistan because of the threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday

U.S. and coalition forces began searching early Sunday for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border, officials said. Helicopter gunships and B-52s patrolled overhead as a combined force combed the al-Aqsa military base on the main road from Jalalabad to the Pakistani border before moving closer to Torkham, the Pakistani border post.

India's defense minister said Sunday that his nation won't be "impulsive" and sought to ease fears of a nuclear war, as the Indian and Pakistani leaders headed to a summit where they are unlikely to talk peace — or even talk at all.

A diamond big enough to choke a horse, a yacht trip to the Caribbean and the chance to rub elbows with the star of "Frasier" were among a slew of items bought at Sotheby's last night in an auction that raised an eye-popping $3.8 million for victims of Sept. 11.

June 3, 2002
As the presidents of Russia and China prepared to plunge into the international effort to head off war, India and Pakistan refused to budge on Kashmir, both insisting Monday that they were fighting terrorism.

President Bush said Monday that intelligence agencies and the FBI must do a better job tracking and catching terrorists, emphasizing pursuit of "this shadowy enemy" on the eve of congressional hearings into the Sept. 11 attacks

CIA Director George Tenet met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday, beginning a tough Mideast mission in which he wants assurances Yasser Arafat will revamp the Palestinian security forces to prevent attacks on Israel.

The Palestinian Cabinet late Monday overrode a decision by the Palestinian Supreme Court to release a militant being held in a West Bank prison.

The CIA received vague intelligence about Zacarias Moussaoui in spring 2001, but from an informant who knew the Frenchman only by an alias and the agency didn't link the two names until well after Sept. 11

India and Pakistan exchanged intense artillery and machine-gun fire along their frontier Monday, as fighting spread for the first time this year to a key area of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir

The CIA first learned of two of the eventual Sept. 11 hijackers at a meeting in Malaysia in early 2000 but didn't alert domestic authorities to watch for them until three weeks before the attacks

A nuclear war between Pakistan and India could dwarf any catastrophe in history, killing up to 12 million people in south Asia. But experts say the radioactive fallout likely would not harm people half a world away.

Egyptian intelligence warned American officials about a week before Sept. 11 that Osama bin Laden's network was in the advance stages of executing a significant operation against an American target, President Hosni Mubarak

June 4, 2002
Investigators believe they have identified a Kuwaiti lieutenant of Osama bin Laden as the likely mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,

President Bush said Tuesday the CIA and FBI failed to communicate adequately before Sept. 11. Congress began extraordinary closed-door hearings into intelligence lapses with bipartisan promises to search for facts, not scapegoats.

Pakistan's president traded angry accusations with his Indian counterpart Tuesday, but Indian officials said they saw signs the situation in Kashmir was becoming calmer.

The Bush administration is proposing to photograph, fingerprint and get detailed information from thousands more foreign visitors to the United States

The Bush administration is trying to arrange a Middle East peace conference next month in Turkey, with foreign ministers from Europe and the region participating

Civil rights groups filed lawsuits against four major airlines on Tuesday, alleging discrimination against five men who were removed from flights after the Sept. 11 attacks because they looked Middle Eastern.

The Board of Education won't be stuck with a nearly $12 million bill to clean potentially hazardous World Trade Center dust from downtown schools, officials said yesterday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency told school officials yesterday that it would reimburse $11.7 million spent in cleanup and environmental testing since Sept. 11. The agency said it would eventually also cover $5 million spent to clean schools in buildings leased by the Board of Ed

June 5, 2002
Israeli armored vehicles entered the West Bank town of Ramallah early Thursday and surrounded the office of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat

Moving on two fronts, Congress interviewed FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley on Wednesday about the events leading up to Sept. 11, and prepared for her public testimony before a Democratic-controlled Senate committee

The Justice Department announced anti-terrorism changes Wednesday to require roughly 100,000 new visitors each year to provide fingerprints, photographs and details about their plans in the United States

Hijacking ringleader Mohammed Atta's roommate was refused entry to the United States on at least four occasions, then went undetected as he funneled thousands of dollars to the eventual hijackers

India made a conciliatory gesture to Pakistan on Wednesday, calling for joint monitoring of their disputed Kashmir frontier — a proposal that Pakistan played down as old and unlikely to work. Even as the United States and Britain sent top officials to pressure the nuclear-armed rivals, they stepped up warnings asking their own citizens to leave

Iraq poses an increasing threat that must be met, the defense chiefs of the United States and Britain said Wednesday, showing growing impatience with Saddam Hussein

Stung by criticism it misled people making donations for Sept. 11 victims, the American Red Cross announced Wednesday that it will no longer solicit donations for particular disasters

June 6, 2002
Stung by intelligence failures, President Bush called on Congress Thursday night to remake the government for "a titanic struggle against terror," proposing a Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security to prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The FBI is weighed down by bureaucracy, "make-work paperwork" and a culture that discourages risk-taking, an agency whistle-blower told Congress on Thursday, venting frustration with an organization she said could have done more to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

The man suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11 terror attacks is believed to have once attended college in North Carolina and, in 1999, visited the German city where chief hijacker Mohammed Atta lived

Israeli forces blew up three buildings in Yasser Arafat's headquarters and shelled his master bedroom on Thursday, in what Israel said was part of a series of reprisals for the killing of 17 Israelis in a car bomb attack.

A top American diplomat Thursday challenged India to match Pakistan's pledge not to start a war, as shelling persisted across the frontier in disputed Kashmir and at least 14 people were killed in fighting

Switching gears, the Bush administration on Thursday went out of its way to shield Yasser Arafat from Israeli exile and affirmed it was dealing with him as leader of the Palestinian people

President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials celebrated the long-awaited U.S. announcement Thursday that it will recognize Russia as a market economy — more than a decade after the collapse of the 70-year-old Soviet communist state.

June 7, 2002
Pakistani jets shot down an unmanned Indian spy plane late Friday, Pakistan's military said, shortly after a U.S. envoy declared tensions between the two nations had eased but not enough to eliminate the threat of war

The Bush administration plans to require the nation's 15,000 chemical, water and waste-treatment plants to assess how vulnerable they are to terrorists and then fix any problems

Both Democrats and Republicans pledged Friday to move quickly toward creating the new Department of Homeland Security sought by President Bush, but challenges were emerging from employee unions and from lawmakers reluctant to give up clout.

President Bush praised what he called a new Arab understanding of the need to fight Middle East terrorism and welcomed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to Camp David expecting to hear a firm appeal for a timetable on a Palestinian state.

The risk of war between India and Pakistan remains high, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday as he prepared to visit the nuclear-armed rivals.

Israeli troops and armor moved into the West Bank town of Jenin on Friday, enforcing a curfew on the 30,000 residents of the hometown of an 18-year-old Islamic extremist who killed himself and 17 Israelis in a suicide bombing earlier in the week.

Zacarias Moussaoui is competent to fire his lawyers and represent himself against charges of conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers, the government said Friday.

The Senate early today approved more than $31 billion in additional anti-terror spending this year after rejecting a series of proposals to strip out specific projects and bring the measure more in line with President Bush's less costly request

June 8, 2002
In a series of deadly episodes Saturday in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian gunmen killed a pregnant woman, her husband and an Israeli soldier at a mobile home settlement, while at least six armed Palestinians died.

Details began emerging Saturday of how President Bush's staff devised his plan to revamp the nation's domestic security apparatus, including word that aides considered much more expansive moves than the White House eventually proposed.

The FBI and the Justice Department are investigating a whistle-blower's allegations of security lapses in the translator program that has played an important role in interpreting interviews and intercepts of Osama bin Laden's network since Sept. 11

The threat of war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan appeared to lessen further Saturday, with India saying Pakistan was making moves "in the right direction" and Pakistan affirming that "ice has broken." A top U.S. envoy said tensions over the Kashmir region were down "measurably."

President Bush on Saturday sidestepped Arab pleas to impose a deadline for Palestinian statehood while Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak defended Yasser Arafat and urged, "Give this man a chance."

Neighbors of a nuclear power plant 30 miles north of New York City stood in line Saturday for free radiation-fighting pills to keep in their homes in case of an emergency

Workers searching through debris in buildings adjacent to the World Trade Center site have found the remains of about a dozen people in the past week

India is considering returning some of its diplomats to Pakistan and making some "military gestures" to lessen tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals

June 9, 2002
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat named a new, smaller Cabinet on Sunday that includes a new minister to oversee the security forces. The move follows strong calls for reform by ordinary Palestinians and Western governments.

Leading lawmakers on intelligence issues said Sunday that President Bush's proposed domestic security agency does not address flaws in the FBI and CIA and is just the start of the changes needed in response to Sept. 11-related failures

A senior Taliban official said he approached U.S. representatives three years ago for help in replacing the hard-line Islamic leadership but was told Washington was leery of becoming involved in internal Afghan politics

India and Pakistan toned down talk of war even as the nuclear-armed rivals renewed cross-border shelling in Kashmir

Traces of nerve agents and mustard gas have been found in three locations at a U.S. base in Uzbekistan, including a hangar where a headquarters had been set up

A statement claiming to be from al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman bu Ghaith has warned the United States it would face more attacks, which could involve non-conventional weapons.

Leaders of both parties in Congress yesterday supported the idea of creating a Department of Homeland Security by Sept. 11, even as they hinted they might seek substantial changes to President Bush's proposal for the biggest reorganization of the federal government in more than 50 years.

Since 1993 Muslim extremists have recruited U.S. citizens — even those without Arab backgrounds — to their cause. Often these jihad Yankees are recruited in U.S. prisons, where the disaffected are more likely to listen to an anti-American pitch.

June 10, 2002
The U.S. government has arrested an American citizen accused of conspiring with al-Qaida terrorists to build and detonate a radioactive "dirty" bomb in this country, possibly in the nation's capital.

With Israeli troops surrounding Yasser Arafat's compound, President Bush said Monday that Israel has a right to defend itself and suggested conditions are not ripe for a Mideast peace conference.

India announced Monday it will allow Pakistani planes to resume using Indian airspace but held up other gestures designed to tone down tensions between the nuclear rivals

Ports and ships are operating under heightened security after the Coast Guard warned of a possible terrorist attack by either swimmers or divers.

The United States will not shy away from first strikes when it acts against terrorists, Vice President Dick Cheney told a group of world conservatives Monday.

World military spending grew two percent last year, according to official figures, but the increase is much bigger when outlays prompted by the September 11 attacks are included

The federal government can keep the names of post- Sept. 11 detainees held in New Jersey secret, a state appeals court said Wednesday in ruling that the head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service has broad powers to prevent release of the information.

President Bush signed bioterrorism legislation that devotes $4.6 billion to stockpiling vaccines, improving food inspections and boosting security for water systems, calling it his "urgent duty" to prevent germ warfare.

June 11, 2002
Lawmakers questioned the exclusion of the FBI and CIA from direct lines of authority under a new Homeland Security Department as the House opened hearings into President Bush's anti-terrorism reorganization plan.

The man accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a "dirty bomb" inside the United States was a protege of a top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, traveling at his mentor's request to meet with other terrorists and using the Internet to research how to build a radioactive weapon

A Palestinian bomber blew himself up in a restaurant just north of Tel Aviv on Tuesday, killing one Israeli teen-ager and wounding eight other people in one in a series of violent incidents that left six other Palestinians dead.

India moved some warships away from Pakistan's shore Tuesday as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived with ideas for helping the nuclear-armed neighbors avoid another war over Kashmir.

President Bush said Tuesday the FBI wasn't prepared for Sept. 11 because it was focused on crime, not on preventing terror attacks, but has made dramatic strides since then. So has the CIA in coordinating with the FBI, he said as Congress raised questions about both agencies

Afghanistan opened its grand council to choose a new government Tuesday, shortly after the nation's former president bowed out of the race for head of state, removing the last major challenger to interim leader Hamid Karzai.

In an act the deputy defense secretary said "defies those who seek ... to kill and destroy," workers on Tuesday fitted the final piece of limestone facade into the rebuilt section of the Pentagon

Al Qaeda terrorists reportedly planned to carry out an aerial suicide attack on the Houses of Parliament in London on Sept. 11, but were foiled when planes around the world were quickly grounded after the U.S. attacks. A terror cell was ready to hijack a plane taking off from London's Heathrow Airport and crash into Big Ben, the famous clock tower above the British legislature after the attacks on the Trade Center and the Pentagon. But the hijackers left empty handed when all flights were scrapped, a move the terrorists did not expect

June 12, 2002
A U.S. military transport plane carrying 10 soldiers crashed on takeoff Wednesday in Afghanistan, and three soldiers were unaccounted for, military officials said. The other seven escaped with minor injuries.

The tracking of Jose Padilla's alleged "dirty bomb" plot to Pakistan adds to growing evidence that some members of al-Qaida have begun using Pakistan as a base to plan international terrorist operations

Israeli troops pulled out of the West Bank town of Ramallah on Wednesday, witnesses said, ending a two-day blockade of Yasser Arafat's headquarters

French anti-terrorist police rounded up five people on Wednesday who are suspected of providing assistance to alleged shoe bomber Richard C. Reid in Paris, the second such sweep in two months

The al-Qaida terrorist group may be operating in the Kashmir region dividing India and Pakistan

A survey released by the Anti-Defamation League found 17 percent of Americans hold "hardcore" anti-Semitic views — a rise from four years ago — while 35 percent fall into a "middle" category defined as faint prejudice against Jews.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday the Bush administration is talking to other countries about setting up a provisional Palestinian state and that the proposal will be taken up at a Mideast peace conference this summer

June 13, 2002
Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged as a Sept. 11 conspirator, denied in court Thursday that he had been in contact with the hijackers and said he had secret information that would set him free.

President Bush reaffirmed his commitment to "the evolution of a Palestinian state" on Thursday, and Secretary of State Colin Powell said Bush was considering interim statehood.

Backed by the United States, Hamid Karzai overwhelmingly won 18 more months as leader of Afghanistan's fledgling government Thursday, swept into the presidency by an extraordinary grand council of 1,650 Afghans taking tentative steps toward a fragile democracy.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested Thursday he believes that India and Pakistan, though tensions remain high, have pulled back from the threat of a nuclear confrontation.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat convened his new and streamlined Cabinet Thursday, responding to demands that he reform the unwieldy and corruption-ridden Palestinian administration

The Senate will open hearings next week on President Bush's proposal for a new Homeland Security Department as congressional leaders pushed on two fronts Thursday for initial passage of legislation creating the agency by the end of July.

The Senate began debate yesterday on insurance legislation that would require the government to pay the vast majority of losses in a terrorist attack, with Democrats and Republicans sharply divided over restrictions on terrorism-related lawsuits.

June 14, 2002
A suicide driver slammed his explosives-packed vehicle into a concrete barrier in front of the U.S. consulate Friday, setting off a huge explosion that killed 11 people and injured 45. The attack — the fourth against foreigners in Pakistan since January — prompted the U.S. government to consider scaling back its diplomatic staff in this country on the front line of the war against al-Qaida

Yasser Arafat's new security chief said Friday he will not let the Palestinian image be soiled by terrorism, but he was vague on how to dismantle the militias attacking Israelis.

The United States on Friday asked Iraq to remove one of its U.N. diplomats for "activities incompatible with his diplomatic status," a U.S. official said. Such language is diplomatic code for espionage.

U.S. authorities in Afghanistan failed to advise John Walker Lindh of his legal rights and ignored his pleas for a lawyer, defense attorneys contended Friday The lawyers are seeking to bar use of his statements in the trial of the American-born Taliban soldier. The defense and the government have acknowledged Lindh's statements last December were relied on heavily in his indictment, which charged him with conspiring to murder Americans and aiding the Taliban and al-Qaida. It could be a major setback to prosecutors should the motion succeed.

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation on Friday to bring the United States into compliance with two international counterterrorism treaties, easing the extradition of bombing suspects and harmonizing laws against the financing of terrorist activities.

Britain's intelligence agencies believed that just two months before September 11, terrorist attacks on US targets by Osama Bin Laden were in the 'final stages of preparation', a parliamentary committee disclosed yesterday. However, it said the agencies failed to understand the scale of the threat his al-Qaida movement posed or the vulnerability of western states to sophisticated terrorists with a "total disregard for their own lives".

June 15, 2002
A firefight near a Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip left two Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian gunman dead Saturday, the Israeli military said, and Israeli troops rolled into two West Bank towns

Officials weighing whether to dispense smallpox vaccine to the nation were presented with the possibility Saturday that the virus might be a more effective terrorist weapon than they thought. U.S. researcher Alan Zelicoff, drawing on long-secret Soviet documents, reported on an isolated 1971 outbreak that he said appeared to have been caused by smallpox that was tested as a weapon and carried miles through the air.

Investigators who first blamed a suicide bomber for a deadly blast outside the U.S. consulate were examining on Saturday whether it was caused by a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a driver's education car taking three women to get licenses.

Al-Qaida's loss of its sanctuary in Afghanistan has led to an increase in extremist activity in other countries, as Osama bin Laden's scattered operatives turn to foreign affiliates to plan new terrorist attacks,

International aid workers are threatening to leave northern Afghanistan after a female worker was gang raped, a clinic was attacked by gunmen, and a vehicle carrying food for the hungry was shot up

A Saudi diplomat has reportedly confirmed for the first time that three men detained in Morocco for allegedly planning attacks on U.S. and British warships are natives of the kingdom.

Suspected Islamic guerrillas fired two grenades in an apparent attack on the top elected official in Indian-controlled Kashmir Saturday, but no one was hurt.

When the Bush administration denounced the idea of guns for pilots, it said trained air marshals would be able to handle terrorists on planes. Trouble is, there are not enough marshals to cover every commercial flight, and some lawmakers say there aren't even enough armed officers to protect passengers on the long-range trips considered most likely to be targeted by terrorists.

June 16, 2002
The FBI has been seeking prosecution of international terrorism cases at six times the rate it did before Sept. 11, but more than half of those cases considered by federal prosecutors never made it to court, Justice Department records show

Israeli bulldozers flattened ground Sunday for an electronic fence that is planned to eventually run the entire length of the West Bank — a disputed project aimed at protecting Israelis from Palestinian suicide bombers.

Prominent Democrats in Congress called Sunday for removing Saddam Hussein from power, endorsing a classified Bush administration plan that gives the CIA broader power to take action against the Iraqi leader

India's interior minister on Sunday ruled out dialogue with Pakistan as attacks by suspected Islamic militant flared up in Kashmir, killing 12 people in 24 hours.

As families confront the task of determining who is entitled to what in the estates of the Sept. 11 victims, conflicts small and large are breaking out, compounding the sadness, heartache and anger for already badly damaged families. Nowhere are these familial fractures more evident than in the workings of the federal government's Victim Compensation Fund, a multibillion-dollar program intended to give victims' heirs enough money to make them secure. With millions of dollars hanging in the balance, dozens of families are already jousting among themselves in living rooms and courtrooms, in person and on paper.

Since Sept. 11, there has been some public discussion in this country of whether torture would be justified if it produced information that could save American lives. William H. Webster, a former director of central intelligence and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has urged the Pentagon to inject truth serum into defiant Qaeda and Taliban prisoners. Military officials say torture is not an option. But, they said, under the Geneva Conventions, anything short of torture is permissible to get a hardened Qaeda operative to spill a few scraps of information that could prevent terrorist attacks

June 17, 2002
A federal judge refused on Monday to dismiss John Walker Lindh's indictment, rejecting defense arguments the American had a constitutional right to associate with the Taliban and could not get a fair trial.

Yasser Arafat rebuked U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on Monday for saying his Palestinian Authority is corrupt and "cavorts with terror," but the Palestinians also were trying to muster U.S. good will with a proposed outline for a state living in peace with Israel.

In a decision that could aid the government's anti-terrorism efforts, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that police can question passengers on buses and trains and search for evidence without informing them that they can refuse.

President Bush on Monday put the finishing touches on a proposal for a provisional Palestinian state covering parts of the West Bank.

The war on terrorism is forcing a scattered al-Qaida network to shift its efforts and devise new kinds of attacks, said Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld

Clergy who have counseled grieving families and comforted anxious parishioners after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are at risk of developing compassion fatigue — in other words, getting sick of helping people, experts said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller and CIA Director George Tenet are to begin two days of testimony behind closed doors on Tuesday before congressional panels investigating the failure of U.S. intelligence to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks

First, Mohamed Atta and company. Then, Imran Mandhai and Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, the pair accused of plotting attacks on local power plants. Now, Jose Padilla. The list of international terrorists and terrorism suspects linked to South Florida's Broward County grows. And with it, questions:

June 18, 2002
Stymied twice before, a Palestinian attacker was devastatingly successful Tuesday: He detonated a nail-studded bomb in a bus crowded with high school students, killing 19 passengers, himself, and wounding dozens of others.

Saudi Arabia announced its first al-Qaida-related arrests since Sept. 11 and said Tuesday it was holding 11 Saudis, an Iraqi and a Sudanese man behind a plot to shoot down a U.S. military plane taking off from a Saudi air base.

Gaining fresh pledges of support, President Bush sent to Congress on Tuesday his detailed proposal for creation of a new Homeland Security Department — a 35-page bill that outlines the biggest government reshuffling since 1947.

The government violated John Walker Lindh's rights when it refused to fly the U.S.-born Taliban home from Afghanistan for a prompt hearing while allowing him to be questioned by U.S. interrogators, his lawyers said Tuesday.

Moroccan authorities have arrested an al-Qaida operative named Abu Zubair al-Haili, U.S. officials said Tuesday. Al-Haili, a 300-pound Saudi nicknamed "the Bear," helped evacuate al-Qaida operatives from Afghanistan after Sept. 11

Zacarias Moussaoui, accused of conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks, says his judge is mentally ill, his former lawyers are bloodsuckers and Jews are his enemies. He also says he wants his trial moved from Northern Virginia, near the Pentagon, to Colorado, where there are fewer government workers.

In a blow to the Justice Department's post-Sept. 11 efforts to secretly detain terrorism suspects, a federal appeals court refused to block public access to certain immigration hearings.

June 19, 2002
In a major policy change, Israel will seize and reoccupy Palestinian lands until "acts of terror" against its civilians end, the government said early Wednesday, responding to a suicide bombing that killed 19 bus passengers and wounded 55 others.

Messages intercepted by U.S. intelligence one day before the Sept. 11 attacks came from telephone conversations between people in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, sources said Thursday. The conversations were in Arabic, but officials are not sure who was talking. One of the intercepts said, "The match begins tomorrow." The other said, "Tomorrow is zero hour." The intercepts however, were not translated and analyzed until Sept. 12 -- one day after the attacks

Prosecutors responded for the first time yesterday to a motion filed by Zacarias Moussaoui while acting as his own attorney, saying the judge should not grant his request for immediate release. Hours after the government filed its request, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema denied Moussaoui's motion for release.

CIA Director George J. Tenet told a congressional intelligence panel yesterday that the Sept. 11 plot was probably hatched shortly after al Qaeda bombed two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998, according to lawmakers who attended the closed-door session

The Senate yesterday approved legislation that would provide insurance companies with billions of dollars in government funding to help pay claims from future terrorist strikes, the latest attempt by Congress to deal with the financial fallout of the September attacks.

June 20, 2002
Suspected Palestinian infiltrators took over a house in a Jewish settlement near Nablus on Thursday, killing five Israelis and wounding eight others

Israel called up reserve soldiers Thursday and detained many Palestinian men and youths for questioning after troops entered Palestinian towns in a widening military response to a wave of suicide attacks.

President Bush assured Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a telephone call Thursday that he was trying to find a way to bolster Israel's security even while providing hope for the Palestinian people.

The National Security Agency intercepted two messages on the eve of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon warning that something was going to happen the next day, but the messages were not translated until Sept. 12, senior U.S. intelligence officials said yesterday. The Arabic-language messages said, "The match is about to begin" and "Tomorrow is zero hour." They were discussed Tuesday before the House-Senate intelligence committee during closed-door questioning of Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, director of the NSA, the agency responsible for intercepting and analyzing electronic messages. Intelligence officials said the two messages -- even if translated on Sept. 10 -- would not have provided enough information to prevent the attacks

Three al Qaeda operatives plotting a terror attack in Morocco argued over whether it would be noble to blow up a cafe even if it meant taking Muslim lives, according to a Moroccan government report.

June 21, 2002
Israel said its forces erred Friday in firing tank shells on curfew violators in the West Bank, killing three children and a teacher. Angry Jewish settlers also killed a Palestinian during a rampage after a funeral for an Israeli family slain by infiltrators.

The FBI is advising law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for terrorists who could be plotting to use fuel tankers to attack Jewish schools and synagogues

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is prepared to accept a Mideast peace plan put forward by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton in December 2000

Lawmakers cautioned FBI Director Robert Mueller on Friday against waging a war on terrorism that is so aggressive it weakens the rights of Americans.

Fourth of July revelers throughout the nation can expect to be searched, scanned and videotaped by authorities fearful of terrorist attacks.

he leaders of a congressional probe into Sept. 11 intelligence failures — stung by Bush administration complaints about leaks — asked the attorney general yesterday to investigate. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer criticized Congress for what he called an "alarmingly specific" disclosure that the National Security Agency intercepted two conversations on Sept. 10 that, in hindsight, appeared to predict an attack on America the next day. Media reports said the intercepted calls weren't translated until Sept. 12.

June 22, 2002
The Israeli military was preparing a "crushing and decisive" response to recent Palestinian attacks, and it could include an extended stay by Israeli troops in Palestinian areas

The FBI said yesterday it had information that terrorists using fuel tanker trucks might try to attack fuel depots, Jewish schools or synagogues and urged the nation's 20,000 law enforcement agencies to be vigilant for any suspicious activity.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told Congress yesterday he expects to be able to recruit and hire the agents he needs for the expanded counterterrorism efforts envisioned under his plan to reorganize the bureau. Mueller told members of a House Appropriations subcommittee that he does not expect any difficulty hiring 900 computer experts, linguists, scientists and other skilled employees for the bureau's new effort. Some 47,000 people have applied for FBI jobs since the bureau began an online recruiting effort in February, he said

The UK Foreign Office has warned Britons to be alert to "terrorist activity" in Spain after a fifth car bomb explosion in the country. The latest bomb - which was placed in a Renault Clio car - went off in the northern city of Santander.

The architectural firm that renovated Grand Central Terminal and the designers of downtown Brooklyn's MetroTech development are the two finalists to plan the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site

June 23, 2002
Members of Congress and Palestinian leaders on Sunday questioned President Bush's plan for an interim Palestinian state and urged stepped-up U.S. peacemaking efforts as Bush prepared to announce his Mideast blueprint.

Al-Qaida terrorists appear to be regrouping as a lethal threat with or without Osama bin Laden

Israel expanded its military hold on Palestinian towns Sunday as Yasser Arafat accused Israel of moving toward a return to the days of complete control over Palestinians' lives.

The anthrax investigation is producing a body of knowledge about the deadly germ but it has not led to an arrest, and that is drawing a hint of frustration in the capital

British marines broke into a suspicious village compound and chanced upon one of the largest weapons caches uncovered in southeastern Afghanistan — rooms stacked high with hundreds of mortars, rockets and heavy weapons

Osama bin Laden and his No. 2 man are both alive and well and their al-Qaida network is ready to attack new U.S. targets, bin Laden's spokesman said in audiotaped remarks aired Sunday. The message also claimed responsibility for a deadly April fire at a Jewish synagogue in Tunisia

More than half of all Americans believe their country is likely to be attacked again during the national 4 July holiday, according to an opinion poll. The findings came as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a warning about potential terrorism using fuel tankers, and follows other scares involving allegations of overheard phone calls and suspicious behaviour.

A team led by the Manhattan architectural company that renovated Grand Central Terminal was picked yesterday to create a plan for the World Trade Center site

June 24, 2002
President Bush urged the Palestinians Monday to replace Yasser Arafat with leaders "not compromised by terror" and adopt democratic reforms that could produce an independent state within three years.

Yasser Arafat welcomed President Bush's Mideast policy speech Monday as a "serious effort to push the peace process forward," but ignored Bush's calls for new Palestinian leadership. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon echoed Bush. A statement from his office said that "when the Palestinian Authority undergoes genuine reforms and a new leadership takes its place at its head ... it will be possible to discuss ways of moving forward by diplomatic means."

United Airlines asked the government Monday for $1.8 billion in loan assistance, making it the biggest carrier yet to seek help from a loan guarantee program created to prop up the ailing industry after Sept. 11.

Israeli forces clamped down harder on the West Bank, as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged to widen his military offensive against Palestinian extremists to the Gaza Strip, where a helicopter strike killed four Hamas members Monday.

Pakistani authorities working with the FBI have detained 45 Muslim militants for questioning about deadly car bombings at a U.S. Consulate and a Karachi hotel

A rocket was fired near U.S. special forces in southeastern Afghanistan a spokesman said Monday. The attack came soon after nearby British forces seized a large stash of weapons that may have been left by al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.

More than 1,000 people showed up in lower Manhattan last night to voice their vision for rebuilding the World Trade Center site. The first of five public hearings drew numerous comments from people concerned they would not be included in every step of the rebuilding process.

June 25, 2002
The Bush administration turned to the Arab world Tuesday for support in its campaign to oust Yasser Arafat and push the Palestinian Authority toward democratic reform and statehood within three years. Bush's spokesman said Israel's future could depend on it.

A federal judge refused Tuesday to change the site of Zacarias Moussaoui's trial and entered a plea of innocent on his behalf during a volatile hearing for the only man charged in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. Moussaoui renewed his claim in a sheaf of handwritten motions unsealed yesterday that he is not linked to "the so-called 19 Hijackers" of Sept. 11 and that federal authorities were watching him for several months before his arrest.

The FBI searched the home of a researcher near Fort Detrick, Md., who may have had access to anthrax while doing work for the Army base

One in three Americans say the United States is winning the war on terrorism, according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll. Half say the war is at a stalemate. Public confidence that the United States and its allies are winning has slipped to 33%, the lowest level since Sept. 11.

Agents from the diplomatic security service of the State Department and the FBI raided a house in Baltimore, looking for Rasmi Al Shannaq, who they believe was a roommate of at least two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. After investigators waited for seven hours, the Jordanian national was taken into custody for overstaying his visa and possible visa fraud. "They told him, 'You are arrested because your visa expired,'" said the man's father, Subhi Al Shannaq. "And that was it."

June 26, 2002
The inclusion of Palestinian factions in the European Union’s (EU) blacklist of terrorist organizations earlier this week is not worrying Palestinian officials. The blacklisting came as Lebanon signed the Euro-Med partnership agreement, which included a memorandum requiring Lebanon to cooperate with Europe in the “fight against terrorism.”

Zacarias Moussaoui tried to enter "no plea" during his arraignment yesterday on charges of participating in the plot to attack New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, then derided the federal judge handling his case after she entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. "You have no intention at all of allowing me to defend myself," Moussaoui, 34, told U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Alexandria after she ruled against him on a series of motions. "You are just preparing me for the gas chamber."

Americans strongly support the option of U.S. military strikes against enemies who have not attacked first. The survey appears to back President Bush's first-strike strategy against terrorists and states with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Bush said earlier this month that he would reserve the right not to wait until an enemy attacked the United States before taking pre-emptive action. Four out of five of those polled favor military action against a country that is planning to attack the United States or is aiding terrorists who target Americans. Almost three-fourths in the survey favor action against enemies that are developing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Prompted by last week's unhindered wandering of a private plane through prohibited airspace near the White House, the Pentagon said on Wednesday it would slash the response time by U.S. warplanes protecting Washington. "I think that we've found ways to do that," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters in response to questions about the embarrassing June 19 incident.

June 27, 2002
Working with experts at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the FBI traced trails of a broader reconnaissance. A forensic summary of the investigation, prepared in the Defense Department, said the bureau found "multiple casings of sites" nationwide. Routed through telecommunications switches in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Pakistan, the visitors studied emergency telephone systems, electrical generation and transmission, water storage and distribution, nuclear power plants and gas facilities.

By an almost unanimous vote, the House approved legislation yesterday that would make it easier for federal officials to share information concerning possible terrorist strikes with state and local authorities. The move represented a major step by Congress to revamp the nation's security apparatus and underscored lawmakers' eagerness to act before they have even finished reviewing President Bush's plan for improving intelligence coordination in a new Homeland Security department.

The world's leading industrial powers announced concerted steps yesterday to protect global transport systems from a new wave of terrorist attacks. A range of measures to protect containers, ships and aircraft was agreed by G8 leaders fearful that Osama bin Laden may be planning to follow last September's hijacking onslaughts with further attacks on the west.

The Massachusetts 9/11 Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Bay State residents who lost family or other loved ones in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, announced yesterday that it has distributed $512,000, and has set a new, $1 million fund-raising push for the week of July 4.

June 28, 2002
THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT plans to issue rules Friday requiring securities brokers and dealers to file suspicious-activity reports with the federal government for any dubious transaction or series of transactions greater than $5,000. The rules, which push the securities industry further than it wanted to go, require firms to report not only transactions they suspect may involve the proceeds of criminal activities, but also those that include legitimate funds that may be destined for terrorists or other criminals.

Since Sept. 11, the United States has seen a large increase in the number of people seeking citizenship. Nearly 470,000 people have applied in the seven months after the terrorist attacks, nearly a 61 percent increase during the same period in the previous year, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. "People are scared, and they don't want to get kicked out of the country," said Cesare Allesandre, a director of INS Experts Inc., an online immigration consulting firm in California's Silicon Valley.

The recent arrest of a Palestinian man from Florida has convinced U.S. officials that a network of al Qaeda operatives exists in the United States. Adham Hassoun, arrested earlier this month, was an "important link" to accused al Qaeda member American Jose Padilla, as well as other groups based in the United States who may be awaiting orders for future attacks.

Low-flying aircraft have been banned from the area around the Statue of Liberty to guard against a Fourth of July terrorist attack, federal officials said yesterday. The temporary airspace restrictions — which also apply to Gateway Arch in St. Louis and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota — were enacted at the request of the National Park Service. The agency worries that holiday crowds will be inviting targets for terrorist

June 29, 2002
Israeli troops searched Saturday through heaps of smashed concrete and metal, but found no sign of several wanted Palestinians who Israel said may have escaped massive explosions at the Palestinian headquarters in Hebron.

A Saudi Arabian delegation is on its way to see about 100 of its national being held at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to Saudi sources. The delegation made up of interior and foreign ministry officials had been waiting for weeks for permission to visit the Guantanamo base where the American military is keeping more than 500 suspected members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization and Taliban.

A recent power shift inside the Indonesian military has raised questions about a U.S. proposal to resume aid to the country's armed forces and is likely to have an impact on the war on terror in the world's most populous Muslim country. The Bush administration is moving to re-establish ties with the Indonesian army — cut off three years ago over human rights violations in East Timor — as a way of keeping al-Qaida-linked terrorists out of Southeast Asia.

The investigation into last fall's deadly anthrax attack has thrown an intense focus on Army scientists at Fort Detrick, putting the very people whose job has been to protect the nation from bioterror under suspicion.

Pakistan intensifies hunt for Al Qaeda. Authorities on Saturday intensified a hunt for suspected Muslim extremists in hideouts from hectic downtowns to craggy mountainsides, using wanted posters, reward offers and growing military force.

June 30, 2002
At the urging of the Bush administration, military commanders are quietly stocking up on anti-radiation pills and making plans to give them to U.S. troops should they be exposed to radioactive fallout from an attack or accident

A leading Spanish newspaper reported on Sunday that Mohamed Atta, suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, held a "summit" with other alleged conspirators in Spain last summer to plan the suicide flights.

An Israeli tank shelled a house in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, killing a suspected Hamas bombmaker whose work is blamed for the deaths of at least 100 Israelis in suicide bombings

Americans should take extra care on the Fourth of July because the national holiday is an attractive symbol to potential terrorists

The Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization, one of the world's most formidable terrorist groups, is increasingly teaming up with al Qaeda on logistics and training for terrorist operations, according to U.S. and European intelligence officials and terrorism experts. This new alliance, even if informal, has greatly concerned U.S. officials in Washington and intelligence operatives abroad who believe the assets and organization of Hezbollah's formidable militant wing will enable a hobbled al Qaeda network to increase its ability to launch attacks against American targets.

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