The Christian Science Monitor raises the question:
Reuters reports that as the US struggles to find a formula to return sovereignty to Iraq, officials are worried about the potential for civil war in a country marked by religious and ethnic tensions. Although US officials in Iraq say that a civil war would be unlikely with 123,000 US troops in the country, they are still wary because of the history of mutual grievances between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and Kurds.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressman back from a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan said on Thursday the United States should do more to complete the "unfinished business" of hunting down Osama bin Laden.
"I went on the trip because I felt that we have quite a lot of high-level attention on Iraq, but this remains unfinished business," said Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois. "I went there to ask basic questions like: how are we doing?"
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S. military is "sure" it will catch Osama bin Laden this year, perhaps within months, a spokesman declared Thursday, but Pakistan said it would not allow American troops to cross the border in search of the al-Qaida leader.
Thursday was also one of the deadliest days for American forces in Afghanistan. Seven soldiers were killed when a weapons cache exploded southwest of the capital. Three other American soldiers were wounded and another was missing after the blast, the U.S. Central Command said."
Meanwhile, largely as a result of our preoccupation with supremacy, something has gone fundamentally wrong with the war on terrorism. Indeed, war is a false metaphor in this context. Terrorists do pose a threat to our national and personal security, and we must protect ourselves. Many of the measures we have taken are necessary and proper. It can even be argued that not enough has been done to prevent future attacks. But the war being waged has little to do with ending terrorism or enhancing homeland security; on the contrary, it endangers our security by engendering a vicious circle of escalating violence.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) The Dutch Embassy in the Iraqi capital was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade late Friday, the Dutch foreign ministry said. A spokeswoman said the building was on fire.
Dutch Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Martine de Haan also said the building was empty and no one was injured.
The blast resounded through Baghdad, and a U.S. quick reaction force from the 1st Armored Division was sent to the scene, the U.S. command said.
The Netherlands maintains about 1,100 troops in Iraq.
The hajj pilgrimage, the biggest annual mass movement of people on the planet, approached its climax today as two million Muslims from around the world gathered in the tent city of Mina, Saudi Arabia - the last staging post for the holy city of Mecca.
As pilgrims prayed before dawn in cloud-cloaked valleys outside the holy city, Do'oa Labib, an Egyptian computer science professor, said he felt close to God.
"These holy lands fill your heart with such genuine emotions," he said. "I feel that with every step I take my heart is gradually purified from any blemishes and becomes totally dedicated to God."
From the Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 13, 2003
When they came for Adham Hassoun, America's counterterrorism forces took no chances. Federal agents and sheriff's deputies circled his car in a quiet residential area not far from his home in Sunrise, Fla., and whisked him into custody.
"It was like a movie, with helicopters above me," Mr. Hassoun recalls in a telephone interview from Miami's Krome Detention Center. "They thought I was somebody important.... They thought they hit the jackpot."
Now, 15 months later, Hassoun has yet to be charged with a violation of any US law. Nonetheless, he remains behind bars - and fears he is about to lose everything he has ever loved and worked for during 13 years in America.
Hassoun's experience is not unlike that of other immigrants of Middle Eastern or Islamic heritage swept up in a post-Sept. 11 dragnet aimed at disabling terrorists before they strike again. It is a nationwide antiterror campaign with tactics including preventive detention, coercive interrogation, and secret deportation hearings, targeting a community of noncitizens in America now living in silent dread of a knock at the door.
The release of the three juveniles brought to 91 the number of detainees removed from the U.S. Navy Base prison since the expanded facility was built there after the attacks. Four of those were returned to Saudi Arabia for continued detention and the others to their home countries to be set free.
"Senior leadership, in consultation with other senior U.S. government officials, determined that the juvenile detainees no longer posed a threat to our nation, that they have no further intelligence value and are not going to be tried by the U.S. government for any crimes," the Pentagon said.
"Age is not a determining factor in detention. We detain enemy combatants who engaged in armed conflict against our forces or provided support to those fighting against us."
Two of the three were captured during raids by U.S. and allied forces on Taliban camps and a third was arrested while trying to obtain weapons to fight American troops, the announcement said.
Although none of the prisoners has been charged, U.S. Defence officials have said that some could soon be charged and tried by military commissions authorised by President George W. Bush.
The Bush administration issued a veto threat Thursday against legislation introduced in Congress that would scale back key parts of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act.
In a letter to Senate leaders, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the changes contemplated by the Security and Freedom Ensured Act, or SAFE, would "undermine our ongoing campaign to detect and prevent catastrophic terrorist attacks."
If the bill reaches President Bush's desk in its current form, Ashcroft said, "the president's senior advisers will recommend that it be vetoed."
The threat comes a week after Bush, in his State of the Union address, called for Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act before it expires in 2005. The law, passed shortly after the 2001 terror attacks, expanded the government's wiretap and other surveillance authority, removed barriers between FBI and CIA information-sharing, and provided more tools for terror finance investigations.