Portrait of al-Qaida's Mohammed comes into focus

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Iran denies holding teen

Iran confirmed Thursday that a daughter of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has turned up at the Saudi Embassy in Tehran but said it does not know how she entered the country.

A Saudi newspaper reported Wednesday that bin Laden's 17-year-old daughter, Eman, went to the embassy after eluding guards in Iran who have held her, her sister and four brothers under house arrest for eight years.

It has long been thought that Iran has held in custody a number of bin Laden's children since they fled Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion of that country in 2001.

The gain will be all on our side

The Justice Department's decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, in a federal court in New York City has elicited several criticisms. Most are pointless, but one - the idea that it will give a terrorist a platform from which he could stir up support in the Muslim world for his radical views - is well taken.

First, let's dispose of the straw men. John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House, accused the Obama administration of "treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue" - as though "law enforcement" is an epithet. In truth, the White House's counterterrorism team is composed largely of the same professionals who battled terrorists under President George W. Bush. They are generally in sync with the White House's insistence on a strategy that uses law enforcement where appropriate and military force in places, like Afghanistan, where conspirators can't be arrested by federal agents driving Fords.

Others complain that Mohammed might take advantage

Bin Laden tape promises new attacks

Osama bin Laden endorsed the failed attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day and threatened new attacks against the United States in an audio message released Sunday that appeared aimed at asserting that he maintains some direct command over al-Qaida-inspired offshoots.

However, U.S. officials and several researchers who track terrorist groups said there was no indication bin Laden or any of his top lieutenants had anything to do with or even knew in advance of the Christmas plot. The attack was carried out by a Yemen-based group that is one of several largely independent al-Qaida franchises.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said al-Qaida's core leadership offers such groups strategic guidance but depends on them to carry out terrorist attacks.

Yemen's instability beckons militants

The cave tucked in the remote Saudi mountains near the Yemeni border was clearly a way station for Islamic militants, Saudi police say, pointing to the stock of guns and ammunition, nooks for holding hostages and cameras for filming them.

It even had buckets of sugar, rice and flour, as well as boxes of charcoal, candles, pasta and beans -- supplies for a long stay by al-Qaida fighters moving across the border to prepare attacks in the kingdom.

The discovery in early April reinforced a growing fear in Saudi Arabia: that Yemen could become another Afghanistan right on its doorstep, an out-of-control state where al-Qaida runs free and exports violence to its neighbor.

Al Qaida plays key role on both sides of Pakistan-Afghan border

KHOST, Afghanistan — When a wave of 11 suicide bombers attacked this Afghan provincial capital in mid-May — among them several men dressed head to toe in blue burqas — panicked residents fled into their homes to avoid the street battles between the killers and local security forces. Twenty locals died in the melee.

That so many bombers could slip into town from North Waziristan in neighboring Pakistan on a single operation testified to the rising level of violence in Afghanistan, and the U.S. military said that al Qaida is playing a critical role in financing suicide bombings and other attacks on U.S. and NATO forces.

However, the relatively low death toll in the Khost assault indicated that the attackers' preparation was deficient, at least by comparison with far more devastating suicide bombings in Iraq.