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Al Qaeda mag: Airline plots a "good bargain"
Remnants of the underwear and explosive device allegedly carried by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab aboard Delta Flight 253.
(Credit: FBI)(CBS News) The author of al Qaeda's latest bomb-making magazine said that the terror group will continue to pursue attempts to blow up U.S. jetliners and isn't concerned that such plots might be foiled because they represent "such a good bargain."
Abdullah Zul Bejadayn, believed to be a Saudi explosives expert who has been featured in previous bomb-making video tutorials, said in the second edition of "Al Qaeda Airlines" that the militants "do not mind at all in this stage if [plots] are intercepted. It is such a good bargain for us to spread fear amongst the enemy and keep him on his toes in exchange [for] a few months of work and a few thousand bucks."
A double agent working with U.S., Saudi and British intelligence recently infiltrated al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and thwarted a plan to use an underwear bomb to attack a U.S.-bound airplane - a plot similar to a failed attack on Christmas Day 2009. The agent volunteered to carry out the suicide mission, which originated in Yemen, and instead delivered the updated non-metallic explosive device to American officials.
Continue »Bowe Bergdahl: Prisoner of war, politics and diplomacy
This image from a video released by a Taliban affiliated group on Nov. 24, 2010, shows captive U.S. Army Spc. Bowe Bergdahl alongside his suspected captor, Mullah Sangeen Zadran.
(Credit: CBS)(CBS News) In June 2009, U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was captured in Paktika Province, eastern Afghanistan, by men loyal to the Haqqani Network, a militant group based across the border in North Waziristan, Pakistan.
The Haqqani network is tied to, but not directly under the control of, Mullah Muhammad Omar, leader of the Afghan Taliban.
Bergdahl would have been taken away quickly on narrow paths through steep, rolling mountains and pine forests, through valleys, past small villages, and then down across the unmarked border into Pakistan.
The patriarch of the Haqqani Network is Jalaladin Haqqani, who was a U.S. ally in the 1980s, when America supplied his militants with billions of dollars in weaponry to fight the Soviet Union - then a common enemy which had invaded Afghanistan.
Bergdahl's parents, afraid of the Taliban, of the drone warfare in the tribal areas, and frustrated because they don't feel the U.S. is doing enough to try to free their son, have given their first interviews to newspapers, in a move aimed at putting pressure on the Obama administration.
Continue »Official: Cuba ready to talk about Gross case
Surrounded by security forces, U.S. government contractor Alan Gross, left, arrives to a courthouse to attend a trial in Havana, Cuba, March 5, 2011.
(Credit: AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)(CBS News) HAVANA - The Cuban government got a rare opportunity to put its position on a U.S. contractor jailed in Havana and on hostile U.S.-Cuba relations before an American audience Thursday when CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviewed a top Foreign Ministry official.
Josefina Vidal, via satellite from Havana, said that while Cuba is ready to dialogue with the U.S. about the case of Alan Gross they are not advancing any formula, such as a prisoner swap. Instead, the head of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's North America Division declared Havana wants to sit down at the negotiating table with Washington to discuss all outstanding issues in an effort to establish normal relations.
Continue »Yemeni terrorists vow war not over despite losses
Al Qaeda figure Fahd al-Quso was killed, along with an aide, in an airstrike in southern Yemen May 6, 2012.
(Credit: CBS/AP)The group, known as AQAP, made the comments in a statement dated Wednesday, a day before airstrikes in Yemen killed at least seven Qaeda militants, including the group's senior armament member, known as al-Galadi, according to The Associated Press.
U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan to leave post
This photograph taken on April 4, 2012 shows U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter in Islamabad.
(Credit: Getty)(CBS News) ISLAMABAD - U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter will leave his post this summer, ending his tenure after just two years - a year less than the typical ambassadorship - as tension between the two nations lingers.
"It's a personal decision" U.S. Embassy spokesman Mark Stroh tells CBS News. "It's not because either the Pakistani government or the U.S. government is dissatisfied with his performance."
While the Pakistani foreign ministry says a successor has yet to be formally named, an official at the ministry says Pakistani authorities have been informally told that a senior diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Afghanistan will likely take the position.
"We understand that Richard Olson, who is a senior U.S. diplomat in Kabul and is looking after U.S. aid and economy related matters, is being actively considered for the job," added the Pakistani foreign ministry official.
Continue »Bomb plot revealed day after alleged planner killed
Al Qaeda figure Fahd al-Quso was killed, along with an aide, in an airstrike in the southern Shabwa province, Sunday, May 6, 2012.
(Credit: CBS/AP)(CBS News) U.S. officials confirmed Monday that the CIA last month intervened in a plot to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner using an improved version of the "underwear bomb" that failed to detonate on a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit in late 2009.
Officials stress that the new plot -- organized by al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP - never posed a threat to aircraft or passengers because it was disrupted so early.
CIA thwarts new al Qaeda underwear bomb plot
Who was Fahd al-Quso?
The revelation of the new airliner plot comes one day after a CIA drone strike in Yemen killed Fahd Mohammad Ahmed Al-Quso, an al Qaeda figure indicted in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Terrorists.
Continue »French don't care about Hollande's domestic life
French president-elect Francois Hollande, left, embraces his companion Valerie Trierweiler after greeting crowds gathered to celebrate his election victory in Bastille Square in Paris, France handed the presidency Sunday to leftist Hollande, a champion of government stimulus programs who says the state should protect the downtrodden - a victory that could deal a death blow to the drive for austerity that has been the hallmark of Europe in recent years.
(Credit: Sipa via AP Images)(CBS News) PARIS - As the world adjusts to a France without Nicolas Sarkozy, scrutiny turns to president-elect Francois Hollande and his domestic partner, journalist Valerie Trierweiler. The couple have been living together since 2007 and have no intention to get married in the short term, which means Trierweiler can not technically be referred to as France's First Lady.
Just who is Francois Hollande?
Hollande defeats Sarkozy in French election
Sacre bleu! A domestic arrangement that is inconceivable by U.S. presidential standards is perfectly normal in France, says CBS Radio correspondent Elaine Cobbe, from Paris. Here is her take on the matter, below:
Continue »Who was Fahd al-Quso?
Al Qaeda figure Fahd al-Quso was killed, along with an aide, in an airstrike in the southern Shabwa province, Sunday, May 6, 2012.
(Credit: CBS/AP)Fahd Mohammad Ahmed Al-Quso, 37, from Yemen, was most notorious for being an alleged planner of the terrorist attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors and blew a 40-foot hole in the side of the warship 12 years ago.
Top al Qaeda figure killed in Yemen air strike
The U.S. Government had offered up to $5 million for information leading to Quso's capture after placing him on the "most wanted" list in May 2003.
Quso had trained in al Qaeda camps in the 1990s, according to federal prosecutors who brought an indictment against him nine years ago.
Syria opposition boycotts 1st multi-party vote
A Syrian man walks past campaign posters for the upcoming parliamentary election in Damascus, May 1, 2012.
(Credit: Getty)(CBS News) DAMASCUS, Syria - Amid a shaky truce and calls from the opposition to boycott the vote, Syrians headed to the polls Monday to cast ballots in the first multi-party parliamentary elections in five years, as President Bashar Assad's government sought to show it is providing space for a nascent political opposition in the restive country where thousands have been killed in a 13-month uprising.
The leading opposition group dismissed Monday's vote as a sham - an attempt by an obstinate Assad to prolong his rule - which they say will likely be rigged heavily in his Baath party's favor. Opposition activists said they would observe a general strike and themselves boycott the voting.
In spite of cries that any vote carried out under the threat of violence cannot be legitimate, polling booths opened for what will be the latest step in a process of limited political reform heralded by President Assad in response to the uprising, which began as a series of peaceful protests but quickly descended into violence in the face of a brutal assault on opposition strongholds by his forces.
Many opposition figures and groups insist no reform measures can be accepted until Assad himself steps down from power. Assad, and his father before him, have ruled Syria since 1963.
In the first serious challenge to that rule, the uprising has increasingly turned into a militarized campaign to topple Assad - with tacit backing from the U.S. and much more material support from nations on his own doorstep.
Continue »Gitmo hearing for 5 accused 9/11 plotters
Four of the 9/11 plot suspects are shown at an arraignment inside the war crimes courthouse at Camp Justice, the legal complex of the U.S. Military Commissions, at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, June 5, 2008. From top to bottom: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali.
(Credit: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)(CBS News) Five men accused of masterminding or facilitating the 9/11 terror attacks are headed back to a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay on Saturday, after the Obama administration withdrew an effort to try the al Qaeda operatives in a civilian court in New York City.
All five are accused of conspiring to organize, train or transfer funds to the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 plot, and are each charged with killing 2,976 people. Among the charges: Conspiracy, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, murder in violation of the law of war, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking or hazarding a vessel or aircraft, and terrorism.
If convicted, each faces the death penalty.
The chief defendant is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the purported mastermind of 9/11 who told military authorities he was responsible for the operation's planning "from A to Z." While Mohammed and others on trial had previously said they would plead guilty and welcome death as martyrs, they are now expected to fight the charges.
The arraignment Saturday, before an audience that includes a handful of people who lost family members in the Sept. 11 attacks as well as journalists and human rights observers, will be followed by a hearing on a series of defense motions that challenge the charges and the extreme secrecy rules imposed to prevent the release of information about U.S. counterterrorism methods and strategy. [The start of their actual trial is at least a year away.]
News cameras are not permitted inside the courtroom, where the media and other observers are kept behind double-paned, soundproof glass.
