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Karzai’s brother shot dead by bodyguard - (Read Full Story)

Ahmed Wali Karzai, a younger brother of Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, and one of the country’s most powerful men, has been shot dead by one of his bodyguards, according to a provincial official.

Mr Karzai was head of the provincial council in the southern Kandahar province, focus of last year’s US troop surge, and widely regarded as among the key-power brokers in southern Afghanistan.

One of his bodyguards shot him on Tuesday at his house, a heavily-fortified compound in Kandahar city, Zalmay Ayoubi, spokesperson for the governor of Kandahar province said.

“A guard of Ahmed Wali Karzai named Sardar Mohammad opened fire and killed him. The other guards shot and killed Sardar Mohammad,” Mr Ayoubi said. The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear.

Al Qaeda militants escape from jail in Yemen: At least 40 prisoners are on the loose - (Read Full Story)

At least 40 al-Qaeda militants made a daring prison escape in Yemen Wednesday, overpowering their guards and disappearing into the increasingly lawless countryside.

In a carefully choreographed escape, militant prisoners seized their guards' weapons as bands of heavily armed attackers struck the prison in Mukalla on the Arabian Sea.

Some of the escapees were militants convicted on terror charges or those being held in protective custody pending trial, officials confirmed.

It was the most alarming prison escape by al-Qaeda thugs in Yemen since 2006, when 23 escaped a detention facility in the capital of Sanaa.

The Associated Press's Case for Releasing the Bin Laden Photo - (Read Full Story)

President Obama's decision to withhold the visual evidence of Osama bin Laden's death has created a fundamental disagreement between the White House and one of the largest journalism organizations in the world. "This information is important for the historical record," said Michael Oreskes, senior managing editor at The Associated Press. "That's our view."

Last Monday, the AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the photographic and video evidence taken during the raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The organization's FOIA request included a reminder of the president's campaign pledge and a plea to be more transparent than his predecessor. "The Obama White House 'pledged to be the most transparent government in U.S. history," wrote the AP, "and to comply much more closely with the Freedom of Information Act than the Bush administration did."

Two days later, the president told 60 Minutes he would not release any of the footage related to the raid, including video of bin Laden's deep sea burial and photographs of his slain corpse. Though Oreskes voices his disagreement diplomatically, there's no way around it: The AP believes the president is wrong to maintain exclusive ownership of the evidence. "We're asking to see it," said Oreskes in an interview with The Atlantic Wire. "It's about us saying we would like to make our own news judgements about news worthy material."

The president insists that releasing bin Laden's photograph violates common decency and puts U.S. troops in harm's ways. "We don't trot out this stuff as trophies," he told Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes. "I think that given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk."

Paul Craig Roberts: Bin Laden “Assassination” Has Odor of Staged Event - (Read Full Story)

If today were April 1 and not May 2, we could dismiss as an April fool’s joke this morning’s headline that Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight in Pakistan and quickly buried at sea. As it is, we must take it as more evidence that the US government has unlimited belief in the gullibility of Americans.

Think about it. What are the chances that a person allegedly suffering from kidney disease and requiring dialysis and, in addition, afflicted with diabetes and low blood pressure, survived in mountain hideaways for a decade? If bin Laden was able to acquire dialysis equipment and medical care that his condition required, would not the shipment of dialysis equipment point to his location? Why did it take ten years to find him?

Consider also the claims, repeated by a triumphalism US media celebrating bin Laden’s death, that “bin Laden used his millions to bankroll terrorist training camps in Sudan, the Philippines, and Afghanistan, sending ‘holy warriors’ to foment revolution and fight with fundamentalist Muslim forces across North Africa, in Chechnya, Tajikistan and Bosnia.” That’s a lot of activity for mere millions to bankroll (perhaps the US should have put him in charge of the Pentagon), but the main question is: how was bin Laden able to move his money about? What banking system was helping him? The US government succeeds in seizing the assets of people and of entire countries, Libya being the most recent. Why not bin Laden’s? Was he carrying around with him $100 million dollars in gold coins and sending emissaries to distribute payments to his far-flung operations?

This morning’s headline has the odor of a staged event. The smell reeks from the triumphalism news reports loaded with exaggerations, from celebrants waving flags and chanting “USA USA.” Could something else be going on?

Al Qaeda sets up ‘Islamic emirate’ in Libya

AL-QAEDA has set up an Islamic emirate in Derna, in eastern Libya, headed by a former US prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

However, residents in the city have told reporters there is no substance to these rumours, which they claim the Libyan government is sowing to “scare Europe”.

“Al-Qaeda has established an emirate in Derna led by Abdelkarim al-Hasadi, a former Guantanamo detainee,” Khaled Khaim said.

“They have an FM radio station and have begun to impose the burqa” (head-to-toe covering for women) and have “executed people who refuse to cooperate with them.”

Critics Slam U.S. Government, Media for 'Weak' Response to Anti-Christian Attacks

At least 65 Christians have been killed in attacks across the Muslim world in recent months, sparking sharp criticism from human rights groups that charge the U.S. government and media aren’t doing nearly enough to speak out against the violence.

A shooting in Egypt last month that killed a Christian man and injured five Christian women was just the latest in the series of attacks, several of which occurred around the holiday season: A New Year’s bombing at a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt, killed 23 people and injured more than 100; Christmas Eve blasts in Nigeria killed at least 32 -- just part of a night of terror across the country that saw three other churches attacked and six worshipers killed; six perished in a Christmas Day Catholic Church bombing on the island of Jolo, in the Philippines; and a string of New Year’s Eve bombings in Iraq left two dead and at least 13 wounded.

American al-Qaida operative freed after less than 5 years in prison

An American who grew up in New York and became an operative at a terrorist training camp run by al-Qaida has been sentenced to 10 years probation after spending less than five years in prison, court records show.

It's a remarkably lenient outcome, but one that federal prosecutors say was appropriate given his subsequent cooperation with the FBI.

Mohmammed Babar was sentenced without fanfare — or the usual public notice — by a Manhattan federal judge in December, a fact just now coming to light.

Babar, a native of Queens, admitted going to Pakistan in 2004 to furnish cash, explosives, night vision goggles and camping equipment to al-Qaida. He later told investigators he stayed there to set up a training camp and met other terrorists who would become involved in the 2005 suicide bombing in London.

UK-based man in worldwide al Qaeda attack plot: court

A Pakistani man planned to bomb Manchester city center in northern England as part of a wider al Qaeda plot to carry out attacks in Britain, the United States and Norway, a London court was told on Wednesday.

Abid Naseer, who was arrested in a British anti-terrorism operation last year but never charged, faces extradition to the United States on allegations he provided material support to al Qaeda and conspiring to use a destructive device.

Gitmo transfers return to terrorism

Nearly one in four terrorists released from the detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, resumed terrorist activities against the United States and the number is expected to rise, according to a report to Congress by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

The report, made public Tuesday, stated that out of a total of 598 detainees released as of October, 150 were confirmed or suspected of "reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities after transfer," the two-page unclassified summary said.

Afghan Deadline Is Cutting Two Ways

When President Obama announced a new strategy for Afghanistan in December, he argued that by setting a deadline of next summer to begin drawing down troops he would create a sense of urgency for the Afghan government to take the lead in the fight, while acknowledging the limits of America's patience with the longest war in its history.

But over the past two weeks ? on Capitol Hill, in Kabul and even in conversations with foreign leaders ? Mr. Obama has been reminded how the goal has become what one senior American military commander called a "double-edged sword," one that hangs over the White House as surely as it hangs over President Hamid Karzai...

Al Qaeda Number 3 Killed. Again

The next time you consider voicing opposition to the illegal bombardment of Pakistan with drone delivered U.S. missiles, consider this - the drones are effective. So effective, in fact, that they can kill terrorists who have already previously been killed...