Captain Sharan and Flight Engineer Anil Jaggia both confirm that the hijackers seemed to know a lot about flying an aircraft. Without help from the ISI or the Pakistan army, it was impossible, points out Utkarsh Mishra.
Al Qaeda's English online mouthpiece Inspire has returned proclaiming that it is "still publishing America's worst nightmare" despite the killing of its two top editors in a United States drone strike.
A top French Al Qaeda terrorist linked to one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks has been arrested by Pakistani security agencies along the country's border with Iran.
'It may be only a matter of time before al Qaeda or other groups attempt to use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons,' said new CIA chief Porter Goss.
Close on the heels of the Barack Obama administration approving reconciliation efforts with the moderate elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the United States has categorically ruled out any similar settlement with the al Qaeda. "We have no interest in any kind of reconciliation or any rapprochement by anyone with al Qaeda," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "Only the Taliban, we never said al Qaeda," she said.
"An alert has been sounded in the district after the arrests yesterday in Delhi and Odisha," said an official.
The United States has appreciated the efforts of Pakistan security and intelligence agencies in capturing a senior al Qaeda operative, saying the action dealt a severe blow to the terrorist network.
United States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said that Al Qaeda is the primary enemy of United States in the Af-Pak region and those parts of the Taliban who support Al Qaeda is also American target.
Bin Laden's right hand man Ayman al-Zawahri surfaced on a video aired days before the 9/11 anniversary.
Acting on a tip off provided by the United States, police in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar arrested a top Al-Qaeda suspect believed to have links to the 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people. Polce also nabbed six others militants in the pre-dawn swoop.
Senior analyst B Raman notes that newly appointed Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zahawiri may further advocate for a global jihadi Intifada against 'crusaders and Zionist regimes.'
A top terrorist expert on Thursday said that the militants behind the high-profile attacks in Mumbai that killed at least 125 people followed a 'blueprint' created by the Al Qaeda."Al Qaeda set the blueprint for terrorist operations and now we see different people, different groups in different parts of the world, copying it," said George Kassimeris, an expert in conflict and terrorism.
Less than a year after the Central Intelligence Agengy warned of renewed threats from a resurgent Al Qaeda, its director Michael Hayden portrayed the terrorist movement as largely defeated in Saudi Arabia and Iraq and on the backfoot throughout the world, including in its stronghold along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Heaping scorn at a audio tape purported to be from Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri seeking the overthrow of his government, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Friday asserted he would "eliminate" all Al Qaeda terrorists.
A top commander of Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent and three of his associates were killed on Friday in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.
Bangladesh on Monday said it has launched investigations into the involvement of Al-Qaeda in the killing of atheist blogger Avijit Roy.
Al Qaeda is stronger than it was earlier thanks to President Pervez Musharraf's decision in 2006 to cut a ceasefire deal with Islamic militants in the region bordering Afghanistan, US intelligence agencies said. With the Pakistani security forces staying out of the region, Al Qaeda militants were able to resettle and even re-establish some training camps in the area, says Michael Leiter, acting director of the National Counter Terrorism Center.
European countries are being used as hot destinations by terror group Al Qaeda to route money to India, according to a report by Peruvian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
A 31-year-old Indian-American, caught in a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting operation, faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to providing thousands of dollars in material support to three terror groups operating under the Al Qaeda in war-torn Syria and Somalia.
'We have leaders who would rather that we cohabit with the Indian Mujahedeen than fight terror, as long as the payoffs are there in the next polls... Obviously, we are not headed down the best route to keep terror at bay,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Afghanistan's Taliban have been wrongly perceived as close ideological allies of Al Qaeda and they could be persuaded to renounce the deadly global terrorist group, American scholars say.
"Clearly, Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan does not just comprise Arabs and Uzbeks and Tajiks. It also comprises Pakistanis; and among such Pakistanis it comprises Pathans and Punjabis and possibly Urdu speakers who constitute the Pakistani Taliban," the Daily Times said in an article.
Al Qaeda will use women to carry out deadly attacks across the country, warns Intelligence Bureau.
Bush said the US is in constant communications with the Pakistan government over the issue.
The officials also said the peace deal with tribal leaders in Waziristan has not proved successful in combating extremism and fighting terrorists.
Al-Qaeda on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the brutal killings of Bangladesh's first gay magazine editor
The arrests have been made in cases related to blasts outside court premises in South India since April this year.
The Centre on Thursday sounded a country-wide alert after an Al Qaeda video appeared in which the terror outfit threatened to carry out campaign in India. Home Minister Rajnath Singh went into a huddle with top security officials as an initial assessment of the Intelligence Bureau found the video to be genuine.
Al Qaeda has first secured its base in northwestern Pakistan, and is now expanding its network through affiliations and even corporate-style takeovers of smaller Islamic groups.
Al Qaeda has made jihadi commander Ilyas Kashmiri as its chief military strategist for the region to plan and spearhead terrorist attacks against the West.
Laden tried to defend the roughly 3,000-person terror assaults against the United States in a long letter dated 2002.
He also told interrogators that Abu Omar al Baghdadi, who is identified as the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, is a fictional role created by al Masri and that an actor is used for audio recordings of speeches posted on the Internet.
Despite the military action taken by the Pakistani Army against the terrorist groups, the US remains concerned that Al Qaeda operates with impunity in Pakistani territory, a Congressional report has said. 'Al Qaeda and Affiliates: Historical Perspective, Global Presence, and Implications for US Policy' was released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for US lawmakers on February 5.
In days of smart, networked technology and no shame over collateral damage, what will blow up next -- cars, mobile phones, TV sets, refrigerators? And where?, asks Shyam G Menon.
In 2010, Al Qaeda's attempts to export terror to India, United States and Europe failed to quite an extent, analyses B Raman.
US officials warn of attacks on 'multiple targets in multiple venues.'
