IRAN REPORTS * Iranian officials are planning to upgrade their Shihab-3 missile to achieve a longer range. * Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is pleased with the capture of Saddam Hussein - though he would evidently prefer that Bush and Sharon join him behind bars. * Hasan Rowhani, the powerful head of Iran's National Security Council, is promising that Iran will punish any country that supports the US in bringing the issue of the nation's nuclear program to the UN Security Council. This comes as Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh is telling reporters that Iran will open up its nuclear weapons sites to IAEA inspectors. * Geostrategy Direct is reporting that Osama bin Laden and his lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri have entered Iran and are being harbored by members of the IRGC. USA HOMELAND SECURITY BRIEFING * The issue of Grover Norquist's ties to radical Islamists has come up before on Winds of Change, but now it appears that Norquist is only part of a larger puzzle involving the Safa Group that I first noted back in October. THE WIDER WAR * The Pakistani Daily Times is reporting that bin Laden fled to the city of Peshawar following the bombing of Tora Bora. I'm not sure what to make of this, but it does jive with reports at the time that bin Laden fled to home of Jamaat Ulema-e-Islami leader Fazlur Rehman after Tora Bora. * The assassination attempt on the life of General Musharraf used five bombs, though the dictator may have been saved through the use of a radio jamming device. So far, Pakistani authorities have arrested 40 and the main suspects are said to be al-Qaeda or its local flavor, the Harkat ul-Mujahideen al-Aalmi, both of which were involved in the bombing of the US consulate in Karachi a year earlier. * Yet more violence has rocked Kashmir despite the tentative cease-fire between India and Pakistan. * Bangladesh is becoming a weak link in the War on Terror, with the al-Qaeda affiliate Islami Oikya Jote serving as a member of the ruling coalition. * Al-Qaeda leader Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj's recent threats against Japan have apparently not gone unnoticed, as two articles from the Japan Times appear to indicate - nor is Japan the only place in East Asia that seems to have caught the terror network's interest. * Chechen terrorists rebels have crossed into Dagestan and attacked the town of Shauri, killing 3 and taking 30-40 hostages. In addition, a number of Chechen and Arab fighters have also attacked Galati, taking 8 additional hostages. * The Taliban have released a propaganda videotape in apparent collusion with unemployed potenate Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. * We try to end on a lighter note if possible. The venerable Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, variously known as Baghdad Bob and Comical Ali, has denied the capture of Saddam Hussein and has no doubt announced that US soldiers are committing suicide on the gates of Los Angeles ...