US admits letting Al-Qaeda slip off the noose in 2001

October 29th, 2009 BEIRUT - A group linked to Al Qaeda claimed Thursday to have fired a Katusha rocket from southern Lebanon into northern Israel without causing any damage. The Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, Ziad Jarrah's Battalion, said it was responsible for Tuesday's attack, according to a statement released by a site close to al Qaeda called al-Fajr.

October 29th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban and the Al Qaeda have distanced themselves from the deadly market blast in Peshawar that claimed 105 lives, saying they don't explode bombs in such areas, reported a Pakistani paper Thursday. The News quoted an Al Qaeda statement as saying the group was not involved in the killing of innocent people.

October 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has told Bloomberg Television that Al Qaeda-type terrorists are present in the country and are being tracked.

September 19th, 2009 COLORADO - A Colorado man under FBI investigation for his alleged role in a New York subway terror plot has admitted to having ties to Al Qaeda and is in negotiations to plead guilty to a terror charge, a source at the Department of Justice told Fox News. The source said 24-year-old Najibullah Zazi, who until now had protested that he had no connection to Al Qaeda, changed his story Friday.

September 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A suspect in an alleged terrorist plot in New York has told investigators he has ties to Al Qaeda and could plead guilty, US media quoted unnamed sources as saying Friday. The FBI had been questioning Najibullah Zazi in Denver since Wednesday, and he admitted his connections on Friday after two eight-hour interrogation sessions, the New York Daily News reported.

September 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan's 'double game' and its undercover relationship with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda helped Osama-bin-Laden escape the allied forces and prevented him from being nabbed, The Times online reports. Pakistan's connection with al-Qaeda dates back to 1980's when the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) helped the CIA to supply arms, ammunition and financial help to bin- Laden and other members of the Mujahideen resistance against Soviet forces.

August 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said that even though the allied forces have challenged Al-Qaeda and its allies in Afghanistan for eight years, the Taliban- Al-Qaeda alliance has now become stronger than ever before. In an interview to The Boston Globe, Admiral Mullen said the Taliban's alliance with Osama bin Laden and other top leaders of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network has become stronger than ever, highlighting that public support to the 'war on terror' in Afghanistan was 'waning'.

August 9th, 2009 LAHORE - The US drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas are forcing al Qaeda leaders to move into urban areas, the Daily Times reports. According to CIA sources, the drone attacks have killed 20 al Qaeda commanders in the past 18 months.

July 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A secret operation halted last month by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director planned assassinations of Al Qaeda targets, a newspaper reported Monday. The activities of the highly classified US operation weren't clear, and the agency refused to comment, but some officials said it followed a 2001 presidential directive to capture or kill Al Qaeda operatives, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing intelligence officials.

July 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has ruled out any negotiations with the Taliban until it lays down arms and severe all its ties with Al-Qaeda. When enquired about the statement of the Pakistan Army's spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, that the Pakistan military can bring the Taliban to the discussion table with the United States, the US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said such a possibility can only occur when the Taliban 'repudiates al-Qaeda publicly'.

July 10th, 2009 LONDON - What may be seen as a severe blow to Al-Qaeda, one of its ally, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) has decided to severe its ties with Osama bin Laden saying that the "indiscriminate bombings" and the "targeting of civilians" was not in accordance to its objectives. This is the first such instance when an ally of Al-Qaeda has parted ways with it due to its policy of 'indiscriminate violence.' The LIFG, which once aimed to topple Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, criticised Al-Qaeda for carrying out attacks on innocent civilians and said that such violent activities did not achieve the "aims of the group in removing oppression." Officials believe that the LIFG's back out is a great blow to Al-Qaeda which is facing a massive surge by the US led allied forces in Afghanistan at the moment.

May 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden's former Tanzanian cook is coming to New York to face charges for his role in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa 11 years ago, President Obama announced Thursday.

May 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Ali Al-Marri, a Qatari man held without charge by the Bush administration for seven years on suspicion that he was an Al Qaeda sleeper agent, has admitted in a US District Court that he was a member of the terrorist outfit and provided material support to a terrorist organization. Al-Marri's plea was entered in federal court in Peoria, Ill., after the Obama Administration indicted him and ended his detention at the Navy Brig in Charleston, S.C.

April 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), US vice president Joe Biden said, adding that the 'most radicalised part of Taliban' is there. 'In the FATA, the western part of Pakistan in the mountains on the Afghan border...

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While President Barack Obama's administration is still reviewing US strategy in Afghanistan, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that America, "at a minimum," must make efforts to ensure that the Taliban does not return to power in Afghanistan after being ousted in 2001. "I would say that at a minimum, the mission is to prevent the Taliban from retaking power against a democratically elected government in Afghanistan, thus turning Afghanistan, potentially again, into a haven for Al-Qaeda and other extremists," The News quoted Gates, as saying.