Video: Bin Laden wife speaks to Pakistanis
Editor's note: CNN's Nick Robertson reports on what a wife of the late Osama bin Laden is telling Pakistani authorities.
Video: New details contradict earlier account of bin Laden raid
Editor's note: Anderson Cooper reports on how the latest info about the bin Laden raid contradicts earlier statements by the W.H.
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Post by: Filed under: 360° Radar • 360º Follow • Osama bin Laden • Pakistan |
New U.S. Rail Security Alert Tied to bin Laden Raid: Join the Live Chat
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a notice to law enforcement about a potential al Qaeda plot to target the U.S. on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The alert comes after information was obtained in the raid on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. Plus, new video from the night bin Laden was killed, showing the three-story building on fire. The video was shot by a neighbor.
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Evening Buzz: Osama bin Laden Considered Attack on Upcoming 9/11 Anniversary
The computer drives seized from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan contained suspected plans to attack U.S. rail lines on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, sources tell CNN.
The information has led the Department of Homeland Security to issue a notice to federal, state and local law enforcement.
No specific city or rail system is mentioned in the notice.
We'll get the latest details on the potential plot from CNN's Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve.
The notice comes on the same day President Obama traveled to New York to lay a wreath at ground zero and meet with survivors and victims' families.
Beat 360° 5/5/11
Ready for today's Beat 360°? Everyday we post a picture you provide the caption and our staff will join in too. Tune in tonight at 10pm to see if you are our favorite!
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Sam Meyer
“What’s this about a terror threat to trains? Now it’s personal, punk.”
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Michael Armstrong Sr., TX
"These new sunglasses will hide me sleeping during the meeting."
Kerry, Lugar defend Pakistan aid
(CNN) - Two of Pakistan's key supporters in the U.S. Congress have acknowledged "real and serious questions" about Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, but defend sending money to that country nonetheless.
During a Senate hearing Wednesday assessing the limits of U.S policy in Pakistan, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D- Massachusetts, said that although he is "curious" about whether components of Pakistan's military or intelligence services were involved in protecting the compound's infamous resident, the U.S. should not rush to judgment that might ultimately hurt its national security.
"No matter what we learn about the events that preceded the killing of Osama bin Laden, we still have vital national security interests in this region, and we have worked hard to build a partnership with Pakistan, fragile and difficult and challenged as it may be at times," Kerry said.
Committee Ranking Member Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, said that recent events have raised questions about Pakistan's reliability as an ally, but cautioned that it is "a strategically vital country with which we must engage."
"Distancing ourselves from Pakistan would be unwise and extremely dangerous," Lugar said, because it would weaken U.S. intelligence capabilities, limit America's ability to prevent conflict between India and Pakistan, and further complicate military operations in Afghanistan.
Lugar also pointed out that Pakistan is a nuclear-armed state, has a close working relationship with China, and is a neighbor of Iran, all of which he cited as worthwhile reasons to build stronger relations between Washington and Islamabad.
FULL STORYU.S. issues an alert about rail security, days after bin Laden raid
New York (CNN) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a notice tied to rail security Thursday, an alert that a law enforcement source said was tied to information taken from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.
The notice says that, in February 2010, al Qaeda members discussed a plan to derail trains in the United States by placing obstructions on tracks, according to a source who received the notice.
The plan was to be executed this fall, on the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks. But no specific city or rail system was identified in the notice, the source said.
The federal department confirmed the notice to federal, state, local and tribal authorities, with spokesman Matt Chandler stressing that "this alleged al Qaeda plotting is based on initial reporting, which is often misleading or inaccurate and subject to change."
"We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the U.S. rail sector, but wanted to make our partners aware of the alleged plotting; it is unclear if any further planning has been conducted since February of last year," Chandler said.
This development came days after U.S. commandos flew into an Abbottabad housing compound, killed bin Laden and four others, then took off with his body and numerous materials.
FULL STORYObama visits ground zero; honors 9/11 victims
New York (CNN) - Six picture frames hang inside a firehouse in Manhattan, each displaying a photograph of a man who died in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.
"We always say never forget," said one firefighter from New York's Engine 23.
He said President Barack Obama's visit to New York was an acknowledgement of "what we're going through."
"This is what New York is going through," said the man, who didn't want to share his name.
After nearly a decade of war prompted by the horrific events of September 11, 2001, Obama traveled to Manhattan Thursday to meet with 9/11 survivors and lay a wreath at ground zero, four days after the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"I wanted to just come up here to thank you," Obama said in prepared remarks, after eating lunch with firefighters and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. "This is a symbolic site of the extraordinary sacrifice that was made on that terrible day almost 10 years ago."
The president visited with members of Fire Engine 54, Battalion Nine, which lost 15 men after al Qaeda hijackers flew two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center's twin towers.
"Obviously we can't bring back your friends that were lost," he said. "I know that each and every one of you not only grieve for them, but have also over the last 10 years dealt with their family."
The men of Engine 54 left behind 28 children, collectively.
FULL STORYI stayed in compound 5 years, bin Laden's wife tells Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) - Osama bin Laden's wife has told interrogators she didn't venture outside the walled compound where the al Qaeda leader was killed for five years, a Pakistani military spokesman said Thursday.
The wife, who was wounded in the raid, said she lived in the compound in Abbottabad with eight of bin Laden's children and five others from another family, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told CNN. All of them have been in Pakistani custody since the pre-dawn U.S. commando raid Monday that killed bin Laden and they will eventually be returned to their country of origin, Abbas said.
The news came as Pakistan's armed forces acknowledged intelligence "shortcomings" after the world's most-wanted man was hunted down and killed in a city north of their capital. A military statement said an investigation would be launched, but warned that the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden has jeopardized its cooperation with American forces.
Abbas said he wasn't sure from the wife's questioning how long bin Laden had lived in the compound or whether he had ventured outside during the five-year period his wife described. He identified the wife as "Amal," but said he could not confirm her full name.
Amal al-Sadah, 29-years-old and originally from Yemen, is the youngest of bin Laden's five wives. The al Qaeda leader had a total of 20 children, and one of his adult sons was also reported killed in the weekend assault.
FULL STORYOpinion: Obama's no-win decision on bin Laden photos
Editor's note: Rick "Ozzie" Nelson is the director of the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research organization.
(CNN) - President Barack Obama faced a no-win decision over whether to release photographs of Osama bin Laden's corpse. In the short term, the president was right not to make public the graphic images, because doing so might inflame public opinion in Muslim-majority countries and actually feed support for al Qaeda's agenda.
In the longer term, however, Obama may be forced to release the photos - with time, conspiracy theories are likely to mount, and the photos may eventually be leaked anyway. And, of course, visual proof of bin Laden's death would serve as a powerful endpoint in this chapter of American history.
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