Chronology for May 2002

May 2002

28	29	30	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

May 1, 2002
The US Congress's hopes of discovering why American intelligence failed to get a hint of plans for September 11 dwindled further yesterday with news of the resignation of the former CIA man who was heading its investigation.

A large Muslim charity based in Illinois has been intimately connected to Osama bin Laden for years, moving large sums of money to fund the operations of his al Qaeda network around the world, authorities alleged in court papers today.

There is no evidence that the alleged leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Mohamed Atta, met in April 2001 with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague, a finding that eliminates a once-suggested link between the terrorist attacks and the government of President Saddam Hussein, according to a senior administration official.

The NATO military alliance said it was ending its unprecedented operation to patrol the skies of the United States, launched after the Sept. 11 attacks, because U.S. air defense security had been improved. NATO used seven airborne warning and control system planes, consisting of international crews, to watch over the skies of the United States to free up U.S. planes for the military operation in Afghanistan

The US Customs Service, acknowledging that it needs to increase its ability to detect radioactive material that is shipped to the United States, says that it is doubling its capacity to screen incoming packages.

The United States is moving parts of more than two battalions of the 101st Airborne Division to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, providing the latest and strongest sign that a major battle is brewing in that region

May 2, 2002
Tens of thousands of New York schoolchildren are suffering some kind of psychological damage as a result of the 11 September terror attacks on the city, says a survey. The study by Columbia University questioned 8,000 children in 94 schools. Some 87% showed one or more symptoms of post-traumatic stress such as major depression, panic attacks and chronic nightmares. About 10% showed six or more symptoms - enough to be diagnosed with the disorder. Many have also developed agoraphobia - the fear of open places.

Kurdish separatist rebels in Turkey and Iraq-based guerrillas fighting the Iranian government have been added to the European Union's list of banned "terrorist" groups

Before the terrorist attacks on Sept 11, government officials did not press hard enough to counter anti-American views being preached in mosques in the United States and the Middle East, a former State Department official said yesterday.

May 3, 2002
About half of all Americans feel no more safe and secure from terrorism today than they felt immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, according to a national poll by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The survey's results also suggested that public confidence in key institutions, which had surged immediately after the terrorist attacks, may be ebbing.

Three Muslim groups and 10 individuals in Northern Virginia who were raided in March by federal agents as part of a terrorism probe will ask a judge today to return their property and unseal the secret evidence that the government used to justify the seizures.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge yesterday gave his first public briefing on the administration's anti-terror agenda to a small group of senators, but the appearance did nothing to quell the dispute between Congress and the White House about whether Ridge should formally testify about his efforts.

May 4, 2002
A federal magistrate judge ruled yesterday that government agents can continue to examine the property they seized in March from three Northern Virginia Muslim groups and 10 homes as part of a terrorism probe.

The FBI was monitoring a group of Middle Eastern men at a Prescott, Ariz., aviation school for two months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, concerned the men were planning to infiltrate airport security or recruit others to aid them in a hijacking or bombing plot

U.S. businesses and medical facilities have lost track of nearly 1,500 pieces equipment with radioactive parts since 1996, according to a new federal accounting of radiological material that terrorism experts warn could be used in a "dirty bomb" attack against a U.S. city.

Nine men were arrested in the northern Philippines in raids on alleged cells of the al-Qaeda terror network, police said. The nine were arrested after a Muslim student was slain and another wounded in a gunfight with policemen in the northern province of Tarlac on Wednesday, allegedly while planning to disrupt Labor Day celebrations.

The United States needs to work more closely with its European partners or risk undermining its alliance in the war against terror, European Commission President Romano Prodi was quoted as saying Saturday

May 5, 2002
Palestinian officials said early Monday that a deal had been struck to end a standoff at the Church of Nativity as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrived in the United States for talks with President Bush.

Israel on Sunday presented documents it says prove Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was personally involved in terrorism. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is taking them with him to Washington to show President Bush.

Harsh conditions, not the enemy, have taken their toll on a handful of coalition troops looking for elusive al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan

Biding their time on the instructions of elusive leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban are regrouping in mountain hide-outs, waiting for the Afghan government to falter

To counter the wave of anti-American rhetoric emanating from the Middle East, the United States is fighting fire with fire by creating its own programming for the region. On Monday, the House International Relations Committee authorized a bill to spend $245 million over two years for television and radio broadcasts aimed at the Middle East.

May 6, 2002
Israel and the Palestinians appeared close to resolving the 35-day standoff at the Church of the Nativity, but were still at odds Monday on how many Palestinian gunmen would be removed from the shrine and sent into exile.

The United States said Monday it wants nothing to do with a treaty creating the first permanent international war crimes tribunal, a decision immediately criticized by human rights groups and some lawmakers. Others welcomed the move.

The Bush administration said Monday it believes Cuba "has at least a limited offensive biological warfare" program and may be transferring its expertise to other countries hostile to the United States

Assailants fired three rockets toward American troops stationed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday but nobody was reported injured

Pakistan's Supreme Court said Monday that the trial of Muslim militants charged in the kidnap-slaying of Daniel Pearl can't proceed until it rules on a defense request to move it back to its original venue in Karachi, where the Wall Street Journal reporter was abducted.

The United States has added Cuba, Libya and Syria to the nations it claims are deliberately seeking to obtain chemical or biological weapons. Bolton: singled out Cuba for particular criticism In a speech entitled "Beyond the Axis of Evil", US Under Secretary of State, John Bolton said that the three nations could be grouped with other so-called "rogue states" - Iraq, Iran and North Korea - in actively attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction. He also warned that the US would take action

May 7, 2002
A suicide bomber set off nailed-studded explosives at an Israeli pool hall late Tuesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding about 60, police said. It happened as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was meeting with President Bush to discuss peace talks with the Palestinians.

The low-slung door to the Church of the Nativity remained shuttered Tuesday after a deal to end a tense standoff was delayed when Italy said it had not agreed to take in 13 suspected militants who have spent weeks inside.

Iran, with an assist from Russia and other countries, is developing a long-range missile that would give it the ability to strike NATO countries in Europe, a senior administration official says.

A U.N. forensic team examining a large mass grave in northern Afghanistan found evidence some victims died of suffocation

Canadian troops and U.S. Army forensic specialists excavated 23 elaborate graves they said held the bodies of al-Qaida fighters — believed to be Osama bin Laden's bodyguards — who died in the bombing of the Tora Bora region.

May 8, 2002
A beleaguered Yasser Arafat vowed in a televised speech Wednesday to unleash his security services to prevent terrorist attacks, hours after the Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 15 Israelis.

President Pervez Musharraf ordered security forces on maximum alert Wednesday and said the suicide car bombing that killed 11 French workers and two of his citizens was an act of international terrorism

The war against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters inside Afghanistan is "all but won" and offensive operations by the U.S.-led coalition are grinding down as a result

Bomb-sniffing dogs and Danish explosives experts arrived Wednesday in Greenland to inspect a Seattle-bound jetliner diverted to the Arctic island after threatening messages were found at the Seattle airport and a nearby restaurant.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told Palestinians in a televised address Wednesday he has ordered security services to prevent "terror attacks against Israeli civilians."

In the post-Sept. 11 world of intelligence gathering, counting Russian tanks or aircraft from above just doesn't cut it anymore. Now, the bad guys move fast, hide underground and don't park their weapons out in the open. The prime threat to American national security isn't a discernible line of nuclear-armed bombers at a faraway airfield; it may be some nondescript laboratory in the third world where biological weapons are being cultivated.

May 9, 2002
The 5-week standoff at the Church of the Nativity neared an end Thursday with a complex deal to scatter 13 Palestinian militants among up to eight countries and clear the way for Israeli forces to withdraw from the last West Bank city they occupy.

In a sweep against Islamic militants Thursday, Pakistani authorities rounded up nearly 300 suspects while U.S. and French investigators searched for links between al-Qaida terrorists and a suicide bombing that killed 14 people, including 11 French engineers

British troops in eastern Afghanistan have found caves filled with anti-tank and anti-aircraft ammunition, and local residents said the caves were used by al-Qaida and Taliban fighters,

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a defense attempt to move back to Karachi the trial of Muslim militants accused in the slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

The 84 new detainees at this remote outpost are settling into a routine of socializing and praying — but most importantly — obeying orders, U.S. military officials said

May 10, 2002
Gaza Strip residents hoarded food and thronged bakeries Friday, while Palestinian gunmen patrolled streets and blocked camp entrances with mounds of rubble ahead of an anticipated Israeli military strike.

In a thunderous blast heard and seen for miles, coalition forces blew up four caves Friday packed with tens of thousands of rockets, shells and grenades that once belonged to the Taliban — and were apparently still being used

In an unprecedented challenge to Fidel Castro's 43-year-old rule, activists delivered more than 11,020 signatures to the National Assembly on Friday, demanding a referendum for broad changes in Cuba's socialist system less than two days before a visit by former President Carter.

A judge ordered the extradition Friday of an Algerian man suspected of links to Osama bin Laden and charged in the United States with masterminding a plot to blow up the Los Angeles airport.

Israeli troops and armor completed their pullout from Bethlehem Friday, after a tense standoff at the Church of the Nativity ended with 13 suspected Palestinians militants flying into exile.

In the U.S. view, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is a villain who deserves a violent death, although he is different from the al-Qaida and Taliban leaders previously targeted by the military and CIA in Afghanistan. The CIA took a shot at Hekmatyar with a missile from one of its unmanned Predator drones on Monday near Kabul, but missed, defense officials said. The missile killed some of his followers.

A tense standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen at the Church of the Nativity ended after 39 days Friday, with 13 suspected militants flown into European exile and 26 released into the Gaza Strip

Long before the terrorism of Sept. 11, an Arizona flight school warned federal aviation officials that Hani Hanjour lacked the flying skills and command of English required for the commercial pilot's license he already held

A judge ordered the extradition Friday of an Algerian man suspected of links to Osama bin Laden and charged in the United States of masterminding a plot to blow up the Los Angeles airport. A federal grand jury in New York indicted Amar Makhlulif, also known as Haydar Abu Doha, in August, and prosecutors described him as a key figure in bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorism network.

May 11, 2002
Israel put off its offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and pulled out of a West Bank town Saturday, leaving Palestinian-run territories free of Israeli troops for the first time in six weeks.

The chief defendant in the trial of suspected Islamic militants charged in the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl passed a message to reporters Saturday denying any link with the suicide bombing this week that killed 11 French engineers.

For the second time in two weeks, a rocket missed U.S. special forces hunting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in Pakistan's frontier tribal belt

Three key Middle East leaders on Saturday began talks on the prospects of an Israeli military offensive in Gaza and President Bush's meeting last month with the Saudi prince

Even after Sept. 11, there are insufficient safeguards to prevent would-be terrorists from getting licenses to haul truckloads of hazardous materials, government investigators say. "Existing federal standards and state controls are not sufficient to defend against the alarming threat" posed by individuals who seek to fraudulently obtain commercial driver's licenses, said a report by the Transportation Department's inspector general

May 12, 2002
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party voted early Monday to reject the creation of a Palestinian state, a major defeat for Sharon that he feared would increase international pressure on Israel and tie his hands in potential negotiations.

Flashing his trademark smile, Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba on Sunday and became the first U.S. president — in or out of office — to visit this communist country since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.

Coalition forces discovered — and blew up — more stashes of rockets, mortars and other weapons Sunday as they scour the desolate mountains of eastern Afghanistan for remnants of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

The four caves contained one of the biggest munitions caches found by the U.S.-led coalition, and it took British bomb disposal experts just a second to blow it all up. But in a country where the mountains and hillsides are honeycombed with caves that have been used for decades to hide arms for warlords, Islamic rebels, the Taliban and al-Qaida, few coalition commanders have any illusions about searching through them all.

A handful of grieving relatives paid a somber Mother's Day visit to the quiet seaside neighborhood where a jetliner crashed six months ago, killing 265 people.

King Abdullah of Jordan warned on Sunday that Osama bin Laden, "if he is alive," is drawing strength from the Middle East crisis. Abdullah said the recent escalation in fighting between the Palestinians and Israelis threatened to lose another generation of young Arabs to extremism

May 13, 2002
U.S. troops killed five enemy fighters and captured 32 during a raid on a suspected al-Qaida or Taliban compound, the first gunbattle in weeks to involve American forces,

Touring a major biotechnology lab with Fidel Castro, Jimmy Carter on Monday took issue with Bush administration claims that the island nation has exported technological know-how to rogue states for use in biological weapons

Thirteen Palestinian militants freed after a standoff at Church of the Nativity will receive refugee status in their host European nations and will not be arrested or detained

Written drafts of the e-mails sent by the kidnappers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl matched the handwriting of the chief defendant and one of his alleged accomplices, an expert testified Monday

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's defeat in a Likud party vote rejecting a Palestinian state first appeared to be a humiliating challenge to his leadership of the party. But many now view it as a boost — turning Sharon into a voice of moderation and shoring up his popularity with mainstream Israelis

When Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov meets his NATO counterparts to seal an accord that aims to take cooperation between the former foes to a new level, the venue could hardly be more symbolic. If all goes according to plan, Tuesday's meeting here will show how far relations have come by creating a new body where Russia sits alongside the 19 NATO allies to plot common policy against terrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons and other security threats.

U.S. intelligence officials have received threats that terrorists will strike a U.S. nuclear power plant July 4, and are reviewing the information to determine whether it is reliable.

The generosity and compassion Americans have shown after the attack on the World Trade Center are well documented. But the tragedy also has spawned deceit and greed. This week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) plans to hire four agents to investigate the misuse of Sept. 11 federal relief funds. Joseph Sullivan, the disaster relief agency's assistant inspector general for investigation, says the four will be on permanent swindle patrol in New York City.

May 14, 2002
Heralding the Cold War's funeral, NATO and Russia reached a historic agreement Tuesday to combat common security threats in the post-Sept. 11 era.

First lady Laura Bush, speaking up on the Mideast crisis with uncharacteristic bluntness, condemned young Palestinian suicide bombers and grown-ups who incite them. The former schoolteacher and librarian also called for children across the globe to be taught tolerance and a respect for life.

A senior U.S. diplomat visited New Delhi on Tuesday for talks aimed to ease tension between India and Pakistan, but her mission was complicated by the deadliest attack this year in Kashmir, the flashpoint of two previous wars.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told parliament Tuesday that he would not resume peace talks with the Palestinians until terror attacks end and the Palestinian leadership carries out reforms. He did not address the question of Palestinian statehood.

President Bush signed legislation Tuesday to hire more investigators and invest in new technologies to keep tabs on foreign visitors. "We must know who's coming into our country and why they're coming," Bush said.

May 15, 2002
The walls of a Gaza City community center are lined with row after row of drawings by Palestinian children asked to express what's on their minds. The answer is tanks, ambulances, corpses — of 1,500 sketches, only 10 do not depict violent scenes. Nearly 20 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting and a culture that increasingly glorifies violence have taken a heavy toll on Gaza's children.

Yasser Arafat responded Wednesday to mounting dissatisfaction of his rule in a rambling speech that included rare self-criticism and a pledge of new elections and government reform. But his address was short on specifics, and critics said similar promises in the past evaporated without action.

Eighteen British soldiers serving in Afghanistan have been struck by a contagious but unidentified fever, and 350 people have been quarantined to prevent it spreading

A day after using a nationally broadcast speech to call for free speech and elections on this communist island, Jimmy Carter put in a calmer day Wednesday as he visited social agencies and met with top Protestant leaders before joining host Fidel Castro in a farewell dinner.

A former Croatian Serb rebel leader and an ex-Yugoslav army officer turned themselves in Wednesday to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands. Milan Martic and Gen. Mile Mrksic were whisked from the tarmac at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport under a Dutch police escort and driven to the U.N. detention center outside The Hague. There they will await a summons from the court to appear within a week and plead to war crimes charges.

Rescue workers and city officials calculate the last load of World Trade Center debris will be hauled out in early to mid-June, and a ceremony is being planned to mark the completion of the work

May 16, 2002
Three new suspects in the slaying of Daniel Pearl directed police Thursday to a body they claimed was that of the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter.

Iraq begrudgingly accepted a new U.N. resolution that makes sweeping changes to the current sanctions program, but still criticized the new measures Thursday, saying they exposed America's "tendency toward harming Iraq."

A State Department report found "no clear evidence" that Yasser Arafat or other senior officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization planned or approved of terror attacks on Israel between mid-June and mid-December of last year.

President Bush will propose to Russian President Vladimir Putin next week that the two countries cooperate in joint projects to defend against missile attack,

Many rushed to write off the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after the U.S. military crushed the Taliban with a minimum of help from its allies. But in two days of talks the alliance has fought back. During the session, which wrapped up Wednesday, NATO (news - web sites) foreign ministers sealed a landmark deal with Russia to jointly fight terrorism and other threats, confirmed plans to take on new members from eastern Europe and pledged to build up the alliance's military might.

With Democrats in Congress leading impassioned calls for answers, the White House on Thursday defended President Bush for not disclosing intelligence before the Sept. 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden wanted to hijack U.S. airplanes

The grueling cleanup and search for remains at the World Trade Center site will end with a solemn ceremony on May 30 for workers and victims' relatives

May 17, 2002
Palestinian officials said Friday that Israel must pull back its troops and lift sweeping travel restrictions before they would hold an election that would require Yasser Arafat to face voters for the first time in six years

Hair and blood samples from a dismembered body were sent for DNA testing Friday as authorities sought to confirm whether they had found the remains of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl

Osama bin Laden is alive and the future of the United States in Afghanistan is "fire, hell and total defeat," fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was quoted as saying by a pan-Arab newspaper Friday

President Bush insisted Friday he didn't ignore warning signs about the Sept. 11 attacks and said "second guessing has become second nature" to Washington Democrats. New details emerged about terrorist threats last year, putting him on the defensive

May 18, 2002
The militant Islamic group Hamas left open the door Saturday to its participation in planned Palestinian elections, a move that would present a formidable challenge to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

India ordered the expulsion of Pakistan's ambassador Saturday, as shelling across their shared border escalated, renewing fears the nuclear neighbors are on the brink of another war over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

The al-Qaida group carried out last month's attack on a Tunisian synagogue that killed 19 people and will soon strike at the United States, a pan-Arab newspaper Saturday quoted a man identified as an al-Qaida

Arab foreign ministers resolved Saturday to press ahead with a Saudi peace initiative even though they consider the peace process damaged by Israel's five-week offensive on the West Bank

Backed by U.S. air power, some 1,000 coalition troops spread out into mountainous eastern Afghanistan Friday to find and fight suspected al-Qaida or Taliban soldiers who had fired on an Australian patrol.

Two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, an analysis prepared for U.S. intelligence warned that Osama bin Laden's terrorists could hijack an airliner and fly it into government buildings like the Pentagon

Five months before Sept. 11, the government warned airlines that Middle Eastern terrorists could try to hijack or blow up a U.S. plane and that carriers should "demonstrate a high degree of alertness." The warning, obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, came out after the April 6, 2001, conviction of Ahmed Ressam in connection with a failed plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebrations.

May 19, 2002
Shortly after a warning of a suicide attack, a Palestinian bomber disguised in an Israeli army uniform slipped into a produce market Sunday and blew himself up, killing two Israelis, wounding at least 50 and ending a brief period of relative calm inside Israel.

A U.S. special forces soldier was killed while on patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday when his unit came under heavy fire, a U.S. military spokesman said.

A contingent of Green Beret trainers landed in this ex-Soviet republic Sunday, adding Georgia to the list of countries where U.S. troops have deployed in the 8-month-old counter-terror campaign

Fierce gunfire across the India-Pakistan border and attacks by militants killed at least 15 people in disputed Kashmir over the weekend, as India considered on Sunday whether to take further military action against its rival.

A British newspaper said Sunday it had obtained a previously unseen video of Osama bin Laden, in which the Saudi-born dissident says that any country siding with Israel is a target for Islamic terrorists.

Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday he is almost certain that terrorists will attack the United States again. "It's not a matter of if, but when," he said

Security at city water facilities fails to meet federal and state guidelines, making them potentially vulnerable to biological or chemical attacks

The government has intercepted a series of vague but menacing messages that appear to be communications among al Qaeda terrorists who could be planning a strike in the United States, senior administration officials said yesterday. The recent surge is the highest detected since Sept. 11 and is nearly as worrisome as the spike seen in the months preceding the hijacking attacks, one senior U.S. official said.

A British-based Islamic news agency released video footage of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden Sunday that it said was filmed just two months ago. If the film were just two months old it would be the first proof that bin Laden survived the U.S. onslaught on his militant al Qaeda network and Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers after the Sept. 11 suicide attacks in the United States.

May 20, 2002
The Justice Department is preparing to give lie detector tests to hundreds of federal workers at two facilities where anthrax is stored, hoping to identify suspects in the letter attacks

It is inevitable that suicide bombers like those who have attacked Israeli restaurants and buses will strike the United States, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Monday as the White House answered criticism with fresh terrorism warnings.

As Russia and the United States step up security of their nuclear materials, a new report raises concerns about inadequate safeguards of uranium used at hundreds of civilian research reactors in 58 countries.

Questions about whether the administration properly handled warnings of possible terrorist attacks last summer have done little to diminish President Bush's standing with the American people. But for the first time since Sept. 11, more than half say they lack full confidence in government's ability to prevent future attacks, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

May 21, 2002
The FBI warned city officials Tuesday that it had received uncorroborated information that terrorists had made threats against the city and some of its famed landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge.

More than a thousand World Bank employees worked from home after an anthrax scare Tuesday, and a sister agency found evidence of spores in its mail room.

No guns in the cockpit, the Bush administration decided Tuesday, saying pilots should concentrate on flying their airliners and let trained air marshals defend against possible terrorists.

Canada announced Tuesday it was bringing home its ground troops from Afghanistan this summer, ending their six-month mission.

As many as 100 U.S. Special Forces troops raided a compound in eastern Afghanistan in an unsuccessful search for attackers who killed an American soldier in an ambush

The State Department branded Iran the world's most active sponsor of terror Tuesday as the Islamic fundamentalist state intensified support for Palestinian militants attacking Israel. On the other hand, Libya and Sudan were taking steps "to get out of the terrorism business" and North Korea and Syria took smaller steps in that direction, but continued to host militant groups, the department said in its annual report to Congress.

The sprawling Jacob K. Javits Convention Center will be all but empty. The banquet rooms at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel won't echo with the usual dinner and speech-making din. And tents for the city's fall fashion shows probably will go up later than normal. Event calendars are wide open the week of Sept. 11 in New York, as planners have postponed or moved conventions, celebrations and trade shows in deference to the one-year anniversary of the terror attacks against the United States.

May 22, 2002
A popular House bill throwing $29 billion at the fight against terrorism has become the battleground for an election-year tussle over the burgeoning national debt. After the House passed a hefty bioterrorism bill on Wednesday, GOP leaders were hoping for House approval of the next anti-terror measure Thursday.

Weeks before Sept. 11, an FBI agent connected several students at Arizona aviation schools to a militant Muslim group whose founder talked of attacking airports and received a letter from Osama Bin Laden encouraging the downing of commercial airliners

The Brooklyn Bridge was closed for an hour this morning as police checked out a suspicious package, one day after law enforcement officials said the Statue of Liberty and the bridge may be targeted by terrorists in future attacks. Traffic and pedestrians were diverted shortly after 5 a.m. The bridge was reopened at 6 a.m., after police determined that the package was an empty knapsack

President Bush spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday about his fears for himself and his family in the hours after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling a German television reporter he was "trying to get out of harm's way" before returning to the White House. "We were concerned about threats on the president. We were worried about future attacks, and there's a lot of belief that Flight 93 was headed to the White House," Bush added, referring to the hijacked commercial airliner that crashed in western Pennsylvania.

May 23, 2002
Bearing words of warning across a continent, President Bush told wary European leaders Thursday "we've got to use all means at our disposal to deal with Saddam Hussein" and urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to sever nuclear ties with Iran

The FBI has requested an internal investigation into an agent's allegations that the agency mishandled the pre-Sept. 11 terrorism investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui

A bomb attached to a tanker truck exploded Thursday at a huge fuel depot near densely populated Tel Aviv — part of what experts said is a relentless new campaign by Palestinian militants to carry out a large-scale terror attack.

The Senate, itself the target of an anthrax attack last year, sent President Bush a broad bioterrorism bill on Thursday devoting $4.6 billion to stockpiling vaccines, improving food inspections and boosting security for water systems.

The man suspected of trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with a bomb in his shoe told his mother that he had a duty as a Muslim to "help remove oppressive American forces," according to court documents released Thursday.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to keep international troops in Kabul for another six months, but rejected pleas from Afghanistan's leaders to expand the force throughout the war-battered country

India's prime minister softened his tone Thursday toward nuclear rival Pakistan, first saying his country was preparing for a "decisive victory against the enemy" but later saying he hoped for peace. Both countries continued to pound one another across their frontier

May 24, 2002
Beneath the Kremlin's gleaming domes, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the biggest nuclear arms-reduction treaty in history on Friday, writing a friendly postscript to their nations' Cold War rivalry

The deadliest firefight for U.S. forces in the Afghan war — a mountaintop battle that killed seven Americans — was beset by communications problems, including one that sent a helicopter into a harrowing crossfire

India warned the United States, Britain and Russia on Friday that it was losing patience with Pakistan in the impasse over Kashmir, as Islamabad said it would conduct "routine" missile tests this weekend

Israeli soldiers on Friday raided a West Bank refugee camp — a stronghold of Palestinian militants — following back-to-back attacks on Israel's largest fuel depot, a pedestrian mall and a nightclub.

The Pentagon said Friday it is ready for any assignment, anywhere, despite the strain from the war on terror. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said there are no plans to invade Iraq or any other country

Troops from the United States and its allies captured 50 people Friday from a compound which intelligence sources said was a refuge for senior Taliban and al-Qaida leaders. One person was killed in a shootout during the operation

Terrorism fears aren't expected to keep Americans off the road Memorial Day weekend, but many travelers are expected to avoid the skies, despite discounts from major airlines

May 25, 2002
Fidel Castro told Americans on Saturday that they should never fear an attack by Cuba and can always count on this communist country's support in the war against terrorism.

President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, fearing South Asia is catapulting toward war, joined forces Saturday in pressuring Pakistan's president to curb cross-border violence in Kashmir and ease tensions with neighboring India.

As visitors to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island board a ferry from Manhattan, a new surveillance system is taking their pictures and comparing them to a database of terror suspects compiled by the federal government.

Pakistan conducted the first in a series of missile tests Saturday amid growing fears of a war with its neighbor and fellow nuclear power, India.

May 26, 2002
A top congressman said Sunday he will examine whether concern the FBI would appear to be using "racial profiling" led it to remove key details from a search warrant request whose rejection kept the FBI from learning more about a terrorism suspect before Sept. 11

President Bush expressed hope Sunday that scrutiny of Yasser Arafat's leadership by fellow Palestinians could lead to changes in the Palestinian Authority, which White House advisers say is rife with division.

The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines more than three years ago to be on a "high degree of alertness" against possible hijackings by followers of Osama bin Laden

Pakistan test-fired a second missile capable of reaching neighboring India, as world leaders tried Sunday to contain the rising tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries.

An analysis of e-mail, phone calls and voice mail messages from the World Trade Center after the twin towers were attacked on Sept. 11 shows that most of those who died were on the upper floors of the towers, Of the 2,823 believed dead in the attack, at least 1,946, or 69 percent, were killed in the top 19 floors of the north tower and the top 33 floors of the south tower

Iran confirmed recent U.S. reports Sunday that it had conducted a successful test flight of a ballistic missile capable of reaching Israel.

May 27, 2002
On a holiday normally reserved for remembering the nation's war dead, victims of the Sept. 11 attacks were given a place of honor alongside soldiers who died in battle

Two former high-ranking Taliban talk of reorganizing their militant religious movement and describe a recovering al-Qaida — all while they sit secretly inside Pakistan, Washington's front-line ally in the war on international terrorism

A suicide bomber blew himself up at an ice cream parlor in an outdoor mall near Tel Aviv on Monday, also killing two others including a 2-year-old girl whose bloodstained stroller lay on its side after the blast amid a tangle of white plastic chairs. About 20 were wounded.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Monday that Pakistan would not initiate war over the disputed province of Kashmir, but he stopped short of promising a further crackdown on Islamic militants in a speech unlikely to mollify either India or the international community

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said there was an open agenda for Tuesday's meeting with Bush at the Vatican, although he suggested the Middle East and problems of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia may be discussed.

May 28, 2002
The FBI will form a new office of intelligence and strengthen its oversight of counterterrorism investigations in response to criticism over its efforts before the Sept. 11 terror attacks

NATO declared Russia a limited partner in the Western alliance Tuesday, embracing its former Cold War enemy as an ally in the battle against modern-day threats like terrorism

India said Tuesday that talks with rival Pakistan were impossible for now, the presence of U.S. troops in Pakistan was not a deterrent to war and President Pervez Musharraf's speech on the Kashmir crisis was "dangerous" as well as "offensive and tasteless."

May 29, 2002
FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday there may have been more missed clues before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and he suggested for the first time that investigators might have uncovered the plot if they had been more diligent about pursuing leads

Every Customs inspector will be equipped by January with a pocket-sized radiation detector, but "there are no guarantees" that increased border security will stop a terrorist from smuggling in a nuclear weapon

Hundreds of British troops have begun patrolling near the Pakistani border to stop al-Qaida and Taliban fighters from slipping back into Afghanistan in a remote area where a warlord opponent of the United States may be active

Libya's preliminary $2.7 billion offer to families of 270 people killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 is not the "be-all and end-all" to lifting sanctions against Moammar Gadhafi's country

If Pakistan wants peace, it must act urgently to stop Islamic militants from infiltrating Indian territory to carry out terror attacks in the dispute over Kashmir, India's foreign minister said Wednesday

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened top Cabinet ministers Wednesday after six Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks, but government officials said they did not expect a dramatic change in Israel's response — brief pinpoint incursions into West Bank towns.

The last steel column of the demolished trade center was removed in the first of a series of ceremonies marking the end of the recovery effort. With chants of "USA! USA!" in the background, the steel column was severed with a torch and placed on a flatbed truck, where construction workers draped the beam with an American flag and laid a wreath of red, white and blue flowers on top. Some wrote messages on the column; others touched it as if it were a coffin

May 30, 2002
The Bush administration gave the beleaguered FBI broad new powers to monitor Americans on Thursday, saying the agency needed a new weapon in the battle against terrorism and promising not to return to the file-building abuses of the past

President Bush took a tough line toward a major ally in the war on terror Thursday, demanding that President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan "live up to his word" and crack down on extremists' cross-border attacks that could lead to war with India.

An empty, flag-draped stretcher symbolizing all the victims of the World Trade Center attack who could not be found was carried from the rubble Thursday in a solemn, wordless ceremony marking the end of the agonizing, 8-month cleanup

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has signed a package of laws granting basic rights to his people and regulating his government, officials said Thursday, just before world diplomats began arriving to press him for reforms

The FBI told police departments an empty launcher for a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile found near a military base in Saudi Arabia was linked to al-Qaida, but cautioned there were no signs terrorists planned to fire on U.S. commercial jetliners

May 31, 2002
The State Department on Friday urged the 60,000 Americans in India, including hundreds of U.S. diplomats and their families, to leave the country because of a risk of conflict between India and Pakistan

Israeli troops rolled into a refugee camp on the edge of Nablus on Friday, rounding up hundreds of Palestinian men, imposing a curfew and blowing up the home of a suicide bomber.

The Bush administration is drawing sharp criticism from civil libertarians and others for new terror-fighting guidelines that will allow FBI agents to monitor Americans at religious services and in other public meetings

American Airlines chief executive Donald Carty said Friday another terrorist attack against commercial airlines was unlikely and urged some security measures added at airports be dropped.

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