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WASHINGTON – Despite the finding by the 9/11 commission staff that there is no evidence of a “collaborative relationship” between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, Bush administration officials continue to insist the two worked together. As evidence, they frequently cite Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the 37-year-old Jordanian who is arguably the most dangerous terrorist in the world today. Mr. Zarqawi, who fled his Afghan training grounds after the American invasion and found safe haven in Iraq, was most likely behind the string of bombings across Iraq on Thursday that killed more than 100; in May, he beheaded Nicholas Berg, an American communications engineer working in Iraq.

The White House preemptively gave the movie two thumbs down: “Outrageously false,” said communications director Dan Bartlett, when he was asked about some of its allegations.

Sizzling! countered Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), who plans a teach-in at a Seattle theater to tap into the “anger brewing against this administration.”

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning.NGUYEN: Let’s talk about Paul Johnson’s case. He is not the only American attacked in Saudi Arabia. How are these terrorist choosing their victims and why soft targets? BERGEN: Well, there’s been some 85 people who have died in terrorist attacks since May of 2003. Some have died because […]

A senior US intelligence official is about to publish a bitter condemnation of America’s counter-terrorism policy, arguing that the west is losing the war against al-Qaida and that an “avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked” war in Iraq has played into Osama bin Laden’s hands.
Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, due out next month, dismisses two of the most frequent boasts of the Bush administration: that Bin Laden and al-Qaida are “on the run” and that the Iraq invasion has made America safer.

Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language television network based in Qatar, broadcast Wednesday what it said was a new videotape showing members of Al Qaeda receiving military training at a camp in Afghanistan.

A leading terrorism expert said the scenes appeared to be authentic, but it was more likely that training was occurring inside Pakistan’s remote tribal areas.

As you look at this tape, Peter — and it just was released several hours ago — what jumps out at you? PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, unfortunately it’s reminiscent of some other videotapes we’ve seen — for instance, the Danny Pearl videotape and also the Nick Berg videotape. Danny Pearl executed by Khalid […]

In New Jersey, a family is holding out hope tonight that Paul Johnson will be found alive and well. The American contractor who works for Lockheed Martin is missing far away from home. He was kidnapped by terrorists in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. His son says he’s likely wondering how he got himself in the […]

From Holy War Inc.Arriving in Yemen in late 1998 was a group of second-generation British Muslims of Asian and Middle Eastern parentage, several of whom had ties to Abu Hamza. One was his son, Mohammad, another his son-in law, and another was the press officer for Abu Hamza’s SoS group. These eight Britons, between seventeen […]

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, Zarqawi had his own group, which was called al-Tawhid, which in Arabic means unity. And it was a separate group according to both European and American counterterrorism officials I’ve talked to in the past.

He had his own group. We also know from a letter that was also discovered in January in 2004, a letter from Zarqawi to the al Qaeda leadership implying some sort of separation. So on the one hand, he has his own group and is his own man. On the other hand, CNN’s Henry Shuster has reported in the past that Zarqawi received financing from al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, relatively few Americans had ever heard of a terrorist group called al Qaeda and its tall, bearded leader Osama bin Laden. The suicide hijackings that brought planes down that day in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania seemed to come out of nowhere. And in part because they felt taken by surprise, the vast majority of Americans cut President Bush a great deal of slack over these horrific incidents that happened on his watch. He and his administration were new on the job, and who could possibly have foreseen such attacks anyway?