Al-Qaeda No. 2 Puts Out English Recording

(AP) - Al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader warns the Pakistani people in a new audio message that the US poses a grave danger for Pakistan's future, and asks if they could help financially. "It is the individual duty of every Muslim in Pakistan to join the mujahedeen, or at the very least, to support the jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan with money," Ayman al-Zawahri said in English. Otherwise, "we shall deserve the painful punishment of Almighty Allah." More»

Strike could be linked to flap over Muhammad cartoons

(NEWSER) - At least eight people were killed and more than a dozen wounded when a car bomb exploded outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad today, reports the BBC. At least one embassy worker was among the dead, but no Danish nationals. The attack may be linked to a series of threats on Danish embassies since a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, considered offensive to Islam, was reprinted in Danish newspapers in February. More»

It may be creating more terrorists than it's killing: Gary Kamiya

(NEWSER) - Before 9/11, if the US president had announced that the government was going to "play God, reaching down from our high-tech heaven to kill whoever we want, whenever we want, wherever we want"—including US citizens, without a trial—the news would have been met with uproar. But that is indeed what we are doing today with our drones, "and nobody cares," writes Gary Kamiya in an extensive piece on Salon . As long as the government kills for the good of national security, the majority of Americans apparently have no problem with it, Kamiya writes. But how did this come about? He traces the shift in attitude back to the war in Afghanistan—which he calls "justified" in the wake of 9/11. Once the US established a precedent of killing Taliban members wherever they were found in Afghanistan or Pakistan, "it was a small step to killing bad guys in Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya." More»

Assailants in Pakistan grabbed Warren Weinstein in August

(NEWSER) - More than three months after gunmen kidnapped a 70-year-old American development worker in Pakistan, some news has finally emerged: al-Qaeda says it has Warren Weinstein, reports the Christian Science Monitor . Weinstein, who has a home in Rockville, Maryland, was captured at his residence in Lahore. In a new video, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri says he won't be released until the US stops airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, and releases terror suspects, notes AP . More»

Docs unveil bin Laden hideouts, tension within group

(NEWSER) - On 9/11, the bulk of al-Qaeda’s leadership was gathered in a single place: Karachi, Pakistan. One key figure was in a hospital following a tonsillectomy; another was preparing for a biological weapons program; and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was with other leaders in a safe house, watching the attacks on TV, the Washington Post reports. Within 24 hours, they returned to Afghanistan to brace for war, WikiLeaks documents show. Once there, Osama bin Laden told Arab fighters “to defend Afghanistan against the infidel invaders." More»