Author: Matt Apuzzo
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The secret, dirty cost of Obama’s green power push
CORYDON, Iowa — The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America’s push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply. Even the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a cornfield. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.…
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U.S. official: Al Qaida’s No. 2 killed in Pakistan
WASHINGTON — Al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, delivering another big blow to a terrorist group that the U.S. believes to be on the verge of defeat, U.S. officials said Saturday. The Libyan national had been the network’s operational leader before rising to al-Qaida’s No. 2 spot after the U.S. killed…
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AP IMPACT: At CIA, grave mistakes, then promotions
WASHINGTON — In December 2003, security forces boarded a bus in Macedonia and snatched a German citizen named Khaled el-Masri. For the next five months, el-Masri was a ghost. Only a select group of CIA officers knew he had been whisked to a secret prison for interrogation in Afghanistan. But he was the wrong guy.…
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Terrorist tapes found under CIA desk
WASHINGTON — The CIA has tapes of 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh being interrogated in a secret overseas prison. Discovered under a desk, the recordings could provide an unparalleled look at how foreign governments aided the U.S. in holding and questioning suspected terrorists. The two videotapes and one audiotape are believed to be the only remaining…
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CIA tracks Al-Qaida moving from Iran
WASHINGTON — It is one of the enduring mysteries of the war on terrorism: What will become of the al-Qaida leaders and operatives who fled to Iran after Sept. 11, 2001, and have been detained there for years? Their fate has long been a blindspot for U.S. intelligence. Recently, however, some al-Qaida figures have…
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U.S. has yet to verify suspect’s claimed terror training
WASHINGTON — U.S. counterterrorism officials fanned out across two continents to unravel the failed Times Square bombing Wednesday, but they have been unable so far to link the suspect to any terrorist group or training camp, law enforcement officials said. Faisal Shahzad was cooperating with authorities for a third day, but investigators remained uncertain whether…
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Obama seeks new tone in outreach to world Muslims
WASHINGTON — Less talk about “Islamic radicalism” and a lot more about doing business. In the year since President Barack Obama pledged a new beginning in the relationship with the world’s Muslims, the White House has begun to change the U.S. focus. Terrorism still dominates U.S. security priorities, but the White House believes it does…
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Al-Qaida leader believed killed
WASHINGTON — An al-Qaida leader believed to have played a key role in bombing a CIA post in Afghanistan last December was apparently killed by an American missile strike last week, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. The counterterrorism official said Hussein al-Yemeni was believed killed in a strike in Miram Shah, the main…
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Obama wants U.S. trials for some Guantanamo suspects
WASHINGTON — White House aides are increasingly convinced that accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will never face trial in a civilian court and are trying to cut a deal that would still transfer Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspects to the U.S., where many would faces charges, a senior administration official said Monday. President…
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Evolving U.S. strategy widens assault on terrorists
WASHINGTON — In the early months of his presidency, President Barack Obama’s national security team singled out one man from its list of most-wanted terrorists, Baitullah Mehsud, the ruthless leader of the Pakistani Taliban. He was to be eliminated. Mehsud was Pakistan’s public enemy No. 1 and its most feared militant, responsible for a string…