IRAQ REPORT

• Phil Carter saw Iraq as the next hotspot for al-Qaeda. Now we see escalating concern re: "foreign fighters." Plus, there's a tip about potential attacks in Texas around July 4, just as Iraq starts experiencing attacks on pipelines and oil infrastructure. Proof of concept? Joe is wondering about the conjunctions....

• The Baghdad Bulletin is a local English newsmagazine devoted to the reconstruction of Iraq. Looks like a good start, too - see this article about the challenges facing the banking sector.

• Latest big seller in Iraq: short videos that chronicle the torture chambers of Saddam Hussein. Buyers are people looking for relatives. Ponder that.

• Juan Cole has some insights into the recent incidents that led to the death of 6 British troops.

• Phil Carter thinks it's time to send the 3rd Infantry division home. Interviews sound like these guys are burned out.

• Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti was apparently captured with Belarusian passports, yet another indication of cooperation between Iraq and other dictatorships.

• It appears that the famous Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf may have been captured by US forces, though the Pentagon denies it. No doubt he had the Americans committing suicide by the hundreds on his relatives' doorstep.

• Which "cards" have we captured so far? The CENTCOM list. And the visual version of "Ba'ath Poker."

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops. American, British and Australian. Anyone out there with more information, incl. the Poles and Czechs? [updated April 1, 2003

• Also of note on the domestic front in the war on terror is the arrest of Iyman Faris, an al-Qaeda operative who appears to have lived quite an interesting life even before he traveled to Afghanistan. The good news is that Faris is cooperating with the authorities and providing information on the US al-Qaeda network.

• Armchair Analyst's Homeland Security and Liberty briefing on Tuesday may be worth your time.

• As I noted last week, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is the highest-ranking al-Qaeda operative inside the US who has been detained to date by the authorities. He has now been designated an enemy combatant and has evidently had at least some expertise in the making of hydrogen cyanide.

• Pejman has a TechCentralStation article up on the social and cultural factors that may be driving the Iranian revolts. Apparently, there are some armed attacks too.

• David Warren is dreaming of an Iranian Christmas without the mullahs, and what it would mean. He's partly right.

• An Iranian opposition group under scrutiny in France planned to assassinate former members suspected of betraying the MKO, according to a report by France's DST counterintelligence agency. This may be true - the DST is a very good anti-terror outfit.

• For great Korean coverage, go to our Regional Briefing partner The Hushoor. Start here, and just keep reading.

• CDI has two new profiles up, one on the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment that deals with how Chechen nationalism merged with al-Qaeda's Islamism around 1996 and another on the Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs, which was formed in the aftermath of the Moscow hostage seige in October 2001 as the principal organization for Chechen suicide bombers.

• Recently Saudi authorities claim to have disrupted an al-Qaeda cell planning attacks in Mecca. Or have they? As Alphabet City notes, there is at least a plausible scenario that this is yet more Saudi spin at work.

• Other al-Qaeda cells have also been disrupted in recent days in both Italy and Malawi. No vampires in the latter instance, though.

• Al-Qaeda has recently issued two communiques, one from Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj calling for attacks on Western media interests and claiming that the organization possesses an independent brigade in Iraq and another by Taliban potenate Abu Haris Abdul Hakim claiming responsibility for the recent attacks in Riyadh, Casablanca, and Kabul.

• Mullah Omar has evidently decided to emerge from the sewer surface as well, announcing the creation of a new Taliban leadership council to oversee attacks on US and interim government targets in Afghanistan.

• US and Afghan forces in Nangarhar province have recently launched an operation designed to route out Taliban and al-Qaeda enclaves. The only difference is, this time they're being joined by Pakistani forces on the other side of the border.

• Al-Qaeda's activity in the Lebanese refugee camp Ein al-Hilweh has been well-known for some time now, but now it appears that the group has taken control of the camp with the collaboration of Fatah leader Munir Maqdah and the late al-Qaeda leader Faruq al-Masri.

• Some people at the State Department seem to have come to the conclusion that Libyan dictator Muammar Qadaffi is out of the terrorism business. Unfortunately, the good colonel appears to be up to his old tricks once again, as can be evidenced by his recent contribution of $2.5 million dollars to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to finance terrorist attacks against Israel. There appears to be a great deal of cloak and dagger going on in the Palestinian Authority at the moment and only time will tell who ends up emerging on top.