'My father never asked me to join Al-Qaeda, but he did tell me I was the son chosen to carry on his work'
The White House has outrightly refused to negotiate with Al Qaeda for the release of its citizen, who was kidnapped by the terrorist outfit in Pakistan last year.
The hijackers had demanded release of Azhar Masood in order to release the passengers of the plane.
Former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto said she does not blame the government for the terrorist attack on her homecoming parade in Karachi.
"An attempt has been made to create a scare among the people. If it merits response, it will be there," Gupta said.
Al Qaeda and its followers, the New York Times says, have used the Internet to communicate and rally support for years, but in the past several months the Western tilt of the message and the sophistication of the media have accelerated.
The Pakistan Army, however, asserted that only 'three to four' of its personnel were being held for alleged links with extremist groups.
Voicing America's resolve to wipe out "apocalyptic cult" like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, President Barack Obama today said safe havens for terrorists will not be tolerated and called on Muslims worldwide to reject those who "distort Islam, to preach intolerance, and promote violence."
The British Intelligence Agency recently said the latest weapon of al Qaeda is to lay traps by equipping female suicide bombers with explosive breast implants, thus making it impossible to detect at security check-points.
The key Biden administration included the CIA's deputy director David Cohen and the State Department's special representative for Afghanistan, Tom West.
The US has warned of a possible Al-Qaeda attack by sea off the coast of Yemen and has alerted ships, including those from India, and maritime vehicles plying in the region.
The arms that Pakistan has requested includes new helicopter gunships, including AH-1W and the Apache-64-D; armed helicopters, such as the AH-6 and MD-530 Little Bird; and utility and cargo helicopters, such as the UH-60 Black Hawk, the CH-47 D Chinook and the UH-1Y Huey, The Washington Times reported on Wednesday.
'The shift of militants to Afghanistan this year suggests that Al Qaeda and its allies, armed with new tactics honed in Iraq, are coming full circle five years after US-led forces ousted the Taliban mullahs,' says the Los Angeles Times.
Eight people, including madrasa teachers, were taken into custody for allegedly being associated with the same terror group, also known as Ansarul Bangla Team, in the past two days in the district.
They figure on a secret list drawn up by Britain's domestic intelligence service MI5 in the aftermath of 7/7 terror attacks in London.
The top CIA official is said to have presented Musharraf 'compelling' evidence of Al Qaeda's resurgence in Pakistan, US officials were quoted as saying.
Blair's assessment came at Tuesday's hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee when panel chairwoman Senator Dianne Feinstein asked him to weigh up the possibility of an attempted attack in the United States.
The US is gearing up to attack Al Qaeda targets in Yemen possibly in retaliation to the failed attempt to bomb a US plane on Christmas Day, believed to have masterminded by extremists operating in that country.
US Coordinator on Counter-Terrorism Dan Benjamin said the aim of securing the world would remain incomplete unless LeT is defeated.
Death came calling for the 71- year-old terrorist from the sky on Sunday morning in Kabul.
Security has been increased in and around the ancient Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati in view of the Al-Qaeda threatening to spread its network to Assam.
The 23-year old Nigerian al Qaeda suspect, who tried to blow up a US plane, was arraigned on Sunday and faces a prison term of up to 20 years if convicted, even as aviation authorities beefed up security measures and flight rules for America-bound flights globally.
Al-Qaeda is obsessed with using commercial airliners to carry out terror attacks and it may try again to use aircraft to strike Western targets, a leading British defence think-tank warned on Tuesday. The warning comes a day after three British men of Pakistani origin were convicted of plotting to blow up flights from London to North America using bombs disguised as soft drinks.
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is warning that the situation on the sub-continent has turned "grave" as it appears that open warfare is about to break out between Pakistan and the United States, The European Union Times reports.
The explosion took place at 4 pm at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl workers' convention in Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal district.
Professor Deepa Ollapally said, "The way in which this was carried out, it does suggest that they needed some fairly sophisticated, coordinated planning. And, if the reports are true about their rounding up Americans and British, then it sounds like there is an Al Qaeda hand possibly, which again would be the most obvious difference between every other terrorist attack that has gone on before (in India)."
The United States has increased security at all its major airports and railway stations, and has taken a number of measures, that include temporary closure of its 22 diplomatic missions, following a "very specific" Al Qaeda threat emanating from the Arabian Peninsula.
The 55-year-old admitted that he had tried to dispose off five tons of hashish and a half-ton of heroin in exchange for cash and four shoulder-fired Stinger missiles, which he and the other defendants intended to sell to Taliban members.
Congressman Howard Berman, the chairman of the United States' House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, has predicted that Pakistan is "perhaps the most likely launching point of a future Al Qaeda terrorist strike." Berman said, "The tribal regions of Pakistan provide safe haven for thousands of militants and terrorists, who seek not only to destabilise Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan, but who also plan attacks around the globe."
"He (Zawahiri) and his organisation still threaten us. As we did both seek to capture and kill and succeed in killing bin Laden, we certainly do or will do the same thing with Zawahiri," Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told media persons at a Pentagon news conference.
The prime accused in the Mangaluru blast case, Mohammed Shariq, had professed the ideology of ISIS and shared the videos of the terror outfit with other accused in the case, police sources said.
It is learnt that China placed a hold on the proposal by India and the US to designate Mahmood as a global terrorist under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.
The US drone strike that killed Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on the balcony of a safe house in downtown Kabul points to the use of secret Hellfire missiles by the CIA as there was no explosion and, according to American President Joe Biden, "no civilian casualties" either.
In a bid to end the anti-jihad war, the United States has asked Saudi Arabia to secretly negotiate with the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and persuade them to part ways with the Al-Qaeda so as to deny the jihadis their last safe havens in those two countries.
The meetings were held by members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, which at that time included Vice President Richard Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, apart from CIA director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft. The principals not only discussed the tactics, but also approved them, reports ABCNews.com
The Musharraf regime has given tacit approval to attacks by pilot-less United States planes on Al Qaeda targets along Pakistan's restive border area. The strikes have been stepped up as officials fear that the new civilian government will be hostile to such an offensive.Since January, missiles reportedly fired from Central Investigative Agency operated Predator drones, have hit at least three suspected hideouts of Islamic militants.
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