Operation Enduring Freedom - April 2002

• Day 206: Tue, 4/30/02 - British-led Operation Snipe began today.
• Day 205: Mon, 4/29/02 - 
• Day 204: Sun, 4/28/02 - 
• Day 203: Sat, 4/27/02 - 
• Day 202: Fri, 4/26/02 - 
• Day 201: Thur, 4/25/02 - 
• Day 200: Wed, 4/24/02 - Homefront: Although there is not an official alert, the FBI warned of possible terrorist attacks against shopping centers or supermarkets, and banks.  The Burlington Northern freight train is claimed to be at fault in yesterday's train wreck.  Officials claim it did not stop at the red signal and crashed into the Metrolink commuter train which had halted on the tracks when its engineer saw the other engine coming.
• Day 199: Tue, 4/23/02 - The US Embassy in Sana'a, Yemen closed after terrorist threats.  The Embassy urged local Americans "to lock all their car doors and keep their windows rolled up when driving."  The U.S. Navy oiler ship Walter S. Diehl (T-AO193), a support vessel with the Military Sealift Command near Iran in the Persian Gulf, had to fire on six small boats that may have attempted to pirate it in the Straits of Hormuz.  After the Diehl opened fire with a .50-caliber machine gun, the boats took off.  Homefront: A Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train heading north to Clovis, NM from Los Angeles, hit the Metrolink 809 commuter train which was heading south from Riverside, CA to San Juan Capistrano.  260 people were injured, and two died.  A sweep, dubbed "Fly Trap" has resulted in the arrest of at least 100 workers at Washington Dulles International and Ronald Reagan Washington National airports.  Charges were based on immigration violations and falsified employment applications, and at least one individual had already been deported and returned to resume work at the airport.  Those arrested held jobs as baggage screeners, janitors, food workers, and construction workers.
• Day 198: Mon, 4/22/02 - The US Embassy in Yemen received information that a terrorist attack could occur there tomorrow against US interests.  Iraq is moving more surface-to-air missiles into position at its "No Fly" zones.  A car bomb exploded in Madrid near Repsol offices, Spain's largest oil company.  No injuries reported.  As Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Rabbi Michael Melchoir began to speak at the Fifth Euro-Mediterranean Summit in Valencia, Spain, Arab foreign ministers walked out.  Syria and Lebanon did not even show up for the summit because of Israel's involvement.  The summit was supposed to help build economic and political stability between the European Union and its Mediterranean neighbors.  Homefront:  In US custody since last month after his capture in Pakistan, senior al Qaeda commander Abu Zubayda claims the terror network can build dirty bombs.
• Day 197: Sun, 4/21/02 - Three bombs exploded in General Santos city in the Philippines, killing at least 14 people and injuring 45 others.  A man claiming to be a member of Abu Sayyaf called a radio station beforehand and claimed that 18 bombs were planted around the city and would start detonating after lunch.  He claimed this was in retaliation for alleged attacks against Muslim citizens by the Philippine military.  Two suspects, members of the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, have been arrested.
• Day 196: Sat, 4/20/02 - 120 British Royal Marines arrived in Bagram to help the US-led coalition hunt pockets of al Qaeda and Taliban.  In retaliation to the March 20th increase in US-imposed steel tariffs, the European Commission is proposing up to 100% tariffs on US goods, including some steel products, clothing, footwear, gaming tables, linens, cardboard boxes, citrus fruit, nuts, and fruit.  After three weeks, with missions completed, Israeli troops and tanks began pulling out of the West Bank city of Ramallah.  Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound is still surrounded, though, and will remain so until he hands over suspects in the October assassination of Israel's Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.  Israeli troops will also remain in Bethlehem where Palestinian gunmen are still holed up in the Church of the Nativity.
• Day 195: Fri, 4/19/02 (Seven years since the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed.) - Homefront: Information from an al Qaeda leader, Abu Zubaydah, currently in US custody, prompted the FBI to issue an alert warning over 1200 financial institutions and banks in the northeastern US of a possible suicide bombing by al Qaeda operatives.  FBI Director Robert Mueller said "be suspicious of people entering banks who normally don't come into banks and of trucks parked alongside the building."  He also said that banks shouldn't close but "be on heightened alert."  View the FBI's press release.  The Bush administration ordered US banks to freeze the assets of nine individuals and one Pakistan-based group (al Rashid Trust, also known as The Aid Organization of the Ulema), because of their al Qaeda/Taliban connections.  US government lawyers plan to seek the death penalty for alleged spy Brian Patrick Regan, who "intended to sell Iraqi president Saddam Hussein secret details about American satellites that could help Iraq hide its anti-aircraft missiles."
• Day 194: Thur, 4/18/02 - President Bush uses the plan Gen. George C. Marshall (President Harry S. Truman's secretary of state) developed for rebuilding Europe following WWII as a model for rebuilding Afghanistan.  "...military force alone could not bring 'true peace' to Afghanistan...stability would come only after the war-ravaged country reconstructed its roads, health care system, schools and businesses just as Europe and Japan did after 1945."  The 25th floor of the tallest building in Milan, Italy (the Pirelli building) was struck by a small plane, killing at least three and injuring 60.  Eyewitnesses said the plane was on fire before crashing into the 30-story building.  US officials say a mosque and cultural center there is "the main al Qaeda station house in Europe."  The crash sparked losses in the US stock market.  Israeli forces captured Hossam Atef Ali Badram, a top Hamas official who they say is responsible for several terror attacks against Israeli citizens in recent years.  He was captured after an air and ground chase in the West Bank that left three other Palestinians dead.  Afghanistan's former king, 87-year-old Mohammad Zahir Shah, returned to a red carpet at Kabul airport after 29 years in exile.  Homefront:  An Amtrak Auto Train derailed in northern Florida killing four passengers and injuring over 150.  Investigators say the rail may have been out of alignment.  It was visually inspected eight hours earlier, and four trains had traveled on those rails since.
• Day 193: Wed, 4/17/02 - There is a good chance that bin Laden was injured at Tora Bora late last year, based on reports from captured al Qaeda militants.  US officials say they can only speculate on whether  bin Laden escaped with help from sympathetic Afghans on the frontlines of the US-led coalition ground force, or if he was killed.  The latest bin Laden video released (taped in December after Tora Bora) shows the left-handed terrorist leader gesturing with his right hand, and never moving his left arm or showing his left hand.  In this latest videotape, bin Laden proudly tells of the psychological and financial damage the 9/11 attacks did to the US.  A US soldier was shot in the face by a drive-by gunman on a busy street in Kandahar and officials feel al Qaeda is responsible.  Locals were surprised that the armed American soldiers did not open fire after the incident, like the "Russians" might have done.  Four Canadian troops were killed when a US F-16 jet fighter pilot bombed the location thinking they were enemy forces.  Five Pakistanis were arrested in Paris for possibly giving aid to Richard Reid aka the "Shoebomber".  Homefront: After a 10-day visit to the Middle East, Secretary of State Colin Powell returned to the US unable to negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians.
• Day 192: Tue, 4/16/02 - US-led coalition forces are sweeping an undisclosed area for al Qaeda/Taliban holdouts in its first large-scale combat mission since Operation Anaconda last month.  Pamphlets are circulating in Afghanistan warning "Stop sending your women to offices and daughters to schools. It spreads indecency and vulgarity."
• Day 191: Mon, 4/15/02 - Four US soldiers were killed and a fifth was wounded near Kandahar while attempting to destroy 107 mm rockets found in an al Qaeda cache.  The rockets accidentally detonated during the procedure.  The US is seeking permission from Pakistan to raid the mountainous area along it's Afghan border, claiming Osama bin Laden is possibly hiding there.  Musharraf doesn't want to grant permission "because the fierce tribes in the region are well-armed and sympathetic to Afghanistan's former Taliban regime."  Another bin Laden tape surfaces via Al Jazeera TV.  It is believed to have been put together last month, but the footage of bin Laden ranges from pre-9/11 to late last year.  Suicide terrorist Ahmed Ibrahim Al Haznawi, believed to have been aboard Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania, also makes a statement on the video - "It is time to kill the Americans on their own soil among their sons and next to their soldiers and intelligence agencies. ...We killed them outside their country, praise is to God, and today we kill them on their own soil."  An Arabic daily newspaper, al-Hayat, published what it claims to be statements from Mullah Omar - "The war against Islam and the Muslims is a flagrant crusader war...The Jews and the Americans are one army on one mission in their war against us, and are cooperating openly to implement it."  Saudi ambassador to Britain, Ghazi Algosaibi, praises suicide bombers as martyrs in a poem and also writes "We complained to the idols of a White House whose heart is filled with darkness."  Britain's liberal Defence Ministry placed step-by-step instructions for building a nuclear bomb in public records, including "complete cross-sections, precise measurements and full details of materials used for all the components, including the plutonium core and the initiator that sets off the chain reaction causing the blast."  Also included were various ways the bomb "could be smuggled into the country."  The information was declassified because the department felt there was no threat as in order to build the bomb, weapons-grade plutonium was needed.  Homefront: A Tanzanian, Issaya Nombo, who received airline transport pilot certification in Titusville, Florida, was arrested and is being held on a visa violation - it expired August 2001.  Some peculiar facts on Nombo - he was from Dar es Salaam, where al Qaeda/bin Laden is accused of bombing the US Embassy in 1998; several 9/11 hijackers also took pilot training in Florida; he held counterfeit social security and green cards; Voyager Aviation in Florida had posted a congratulations notice on their website to several students, including Nombo, and this printed document turned up in a cave in Afghanistan.
• Day 190: Sun, 4/14/02 - Three rockets were fired at the US-controlled airstrip outside of Khost, an area with the last believed major pockets of al Qaeda/Taliban in Afghanistan.
• Day 189: Sat, 4/13/02 - There are still about 300 detainees being held in Afghanistan, most at the Kandahar base.  As each is interrogated, if it turns out he is not al Qaeda or a top-ranking Taliban, then he is released.  US special forces and Afghan allies came under fire while on patrol in an undisclosed area and returned the fire killing several al Qaeda fighters.  Heavy fighting breaks out in central Afghanistan between rival warlords vying to be Big Cheese, including dueling trucks - "Two black trucks mounted with 27 mm anti-aircraft guns dueled for several hours. Neither side appeared to hit any major targets."
• Day 188: Fri, 4/12/02 - Bin Laden will be considered alive until DNA testing of tissue samples proves otherwise.  In Kabul, British international peacekeepers were fired upon by 30 gunmen bearing AK-47 assault rifles, which started a firefight.  No injuries.  Armed attackers opened fire on Russian guards at the Tajik-Afghan border, a major drug smuggling route into Russia and Europe.  No guards were injured.  After two government workers were killed by land mines in fields, the anti-poppy drive in Afghanistan has been halted.  Homefront: The IRS erroneously paid out $30 million in "slavery reparations" tax credits to black tax payers in 2000 and 2001; credits that don't even exist.  One IRS employee that helped process the returns is under investigation and at least 12 present and former IRS employees applied to receive the credit.
• Day 187: Thur, 4/11/02 - Canadian troops secure crash site of a US Apache helicopter that went down outside Kandahar during the night.  Only minor injuries were sustained in the crash.  Afghan Interim leader Karzai said the nations promising aid need to deliver soon or the country will fall back into chaos.  Afghan farmers ignore today's deadline to destroy their poppy crops.  Second wave of British commandos arrive in Afghanistan.  151 Chinese-made rockets were found in Taliban/al Qaeda hideouts in Kabul and several rebels were arrested by the International Peacekeepers and Afghan forces.
• Day 186: Wed, 4/10/02 - Public demonstrations, normally not allowed, are being held throughout Saudi Arabia against Israeli aggression and the US's support of Israel.  Nine people were arrested in connection with attacks on the International Peacekeepers and an assassination attempt on the defense minister in Afghanistan.  Anti-drug security forces killed eight poppy-growing Afghan farmers and wounded 35 more during a protest over their wanting more money for not growing the crop.  Homefront: President Bush said the Mid East events "bolster the argument for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska".
• Day 185: Tue, 4/9/02 - The Pentagon claims that 75% of all munitions deployed by the US Navy and Marine Corps "destroyed or disabled the intended targets" in Afghanistan, up from only about a 50% accuracy rate in the 1991 Gulf War and the action in Kosovo of 1999.  An Israeli commuter bus was blown up by a Palestinian suicide bomber during morning rush hour near Haifa, killing at least eight.  Demonstrations continue against Israeli incursions, including a pro-Palestinian march led by Queen Rania of Jordan, who is from Tulkarem of the West Bank.  At least 80 Afghans have entered England illegally after sneaking aboard a Channel Tunnel freight train.  Homefront: Civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart, Arabic translator Mohammed Yousry, NY postal worker Ahmed Abdel Sattar, and Yassir Al-Sirri, former head of the Islamic Observation Center based in London, were indicted for helping convicted terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman pass messages to followers from jail.  Stewart defended Abdel-Rahman, who is serving a life sentence in prison for his part in a conspiracy to blow up NYC landmarks in 1993 and was also a " spiritual leader of the men convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing".  The FBI has been trying to clean up its act since the arrest of its employee in Feb. 2001, traitor/spy Robert Hanssen.  Many breaches of security have been revealed via lie detector tests required for agents.  2000+ blank birth certificates, 300+ blank death certificates, and an electronic seal were discovered missing in Colorado from the vital statistics office in Denver County.
• Day 184: Mon, 4/8/02 - Poppy farmers in eastern Afghanistan opened fire on officials who were surveying their fields in preparation to eradicate the produce.  The Afghan interim government is offering farmers $500 per poppy acre to destroy the crop.  Two rockets struck a middle class suburb in Kabul and four more Chinese-made 107-mm rockets were found aimed at the international peacekeepers' installations.  The 3-foot long rockets "were on primitive launchers attached to a wrist-watch timing device that allowed" remote firing.  A Palestinian police officer was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper while attempting to put out a fire caused by a stun grenade tossed into the compound of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, which is under siege by Palestinian gunmen.
• Day 183: Sun, 4/7/02 - Two rockets were fired at the compound housing German and Danish international peacekeepers in Kabul.  Those responsible are believed to be linked to Hezb-e-Islami, headed by former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and the 200+ arrests made Thursday.  British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saddam Hussein must allow international weapons inspectors into Iraq or suffer consequences that will be dealt "in a calm, measured, sensible but firm way".  US may send 300 more troops to join the 660 already in the Philippines, to assist with large-scale infrastructure projects like rebuilding roads, seaports, an airstrip and drinking water facilities "in order to help local forces fight Muslim rebels".  11 people were killed when a car bomb exploded in an entertainment district in Bogota, Colombia.  FARC rebels are believed to be responsible.  They set a 40-lb bomb off first near the car, and as people approached to investigate, a 150-lb bomb went off in the car.  "Israeli troops have taken over most Palestinian population centers in the West Bank in their 10-day-old offensive.  But the fighters in Jenin and Nablus have prevented the Israelis from taking full control of the cities and conducting house-to-house searches for militants, as has been the case elsewhere in the West Bank."  After Israeli forces came under fire near the Golan Heights, they launched air attacks against suspected Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.  The United Nations is urging both sides to try restraint.  Pro-Israeli demonstrators gathered in New York City and Paris while pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied in cities worldwide including Athens, Sydney, Jakarta, Rabat (Morocco), Dortmund & Bonn (Germany).  In Rabat they shouted "Allah Akbar (God is the greatest) ... We want the jihad (holy war)... Sharon is a butcher. America! America, enough wars ... America enemy of peoples!"  Homefront: Gasoline prices continue to rise because of "continued crude oil price strength...nervousness among oil traders about the worsening crisis in the Middle East...seasonal increase in demand and an improving economy."  According to the FBI, cybercrime is steadily increasing, with the majority of unauthorized activity going unreported.  "The most serious financial losses from cybercrimes occurred through theft of proprietary information and financial fraud -- $170 million and $115 million, respectively."  Cyberattacks ranged from Web site defacement to
  DOS (denial-of-service) attacks, "which are meant to overwhelm a site and render it unusable", to computer viruses.  There was also employee abuse via the Internet, like downloading pornography, accessing pirated software, and inappropriate e-mail usage costing employers $35-$50 million.
• Day 182: Sat, 4/6/02 - US soldiers return to Bagram Air Base after sweeping 15 al Qaeda caves, some with steel ceilings and concrete floors, in eastern Afghanistan.  They found "big, long caves that intersect for about one to two miles" and rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition, mortar rounds, rocket launchers, anti-tank weapons, heavy machineguns and thousands of rounds.  Israeli troops meet strong Palestinian resistance in its assault on Nablus and Jenin.  US President Bush called for Israel to "withdraw without delay" and demanded of the Palestinians "an immediate and effective cease-fire."  Neither demand was met.  Homefront:  Six months after the 9/11 attacks, hundreds of commercial aircraft are being stored at desert locations due to lack of need.  Over 300 are parked at Mojave Airport in CA and about 260 are currently stored at Southern California Logistics airport.  The majority of the planes are from US Airways, Continental, American, Southwest Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, FedEx, United, Delta, and the former TWA, now owned by American.
• Day 181: Fri, 4/5/02 - Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan and Lebanon burned flags and called for death to America and Israel.  In Manama, Bahrain, protestors threw rocks and set fire to the satellite dish and a sentry box at the US Embassy.  Iran joined Iraq in calling for an oil embargo on countries that support Israel.  Leaflets known as "night letters", slipped under people's doors at night, offer "$50,000 for any Westerner delivered dead, and double that for people taken alive".  American-born detainee Yasser Esam Hamdi was flown to the Navy base in Virginia.  Homefront: Crude oil prices fell by 88 cents, to $25.70 per barrel.
• Day 180: Thur, 4/4/02 - Over 200, mostly ethnic Pashtuns, have been arrested in Kabul for participating in a plot to overthrow the Afghan interim government.  The conspiracy is believed to be led by long-time warlord-in-exile Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.  Another American-born al Qaeda militant revealed: Yasser Esam Hamdi, born in Baton Rouge, LA in 1979 to Saudi Arabian parents; the family then moved back to Saudi Arabia a few years later.  Hamdi was captured at the November '01 uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, and is presently being held at Guantanamo Bay.  The US is giving another $22.5 million to international organizations assisting with Afghanistan's recovery, including the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, who gets $20 million.  The U.N. Security Council demands that Israel immediately pull out from  Palestinian-controlled West Bank cities.  Homefront: The VeriChip, a "computer ID chip that can be
  embedded beneath people's skin" is about to go on the market.  It will sell for $200 and is inserted with a needle-like device by a doctor.
• Day 179: Wed, 4/3/02 - The first 120 British Royal Marines arrived in Afghanistan to join US forces in tracking down Mullah Omar and other Taliban/al Qaeda.  They'll take a few days to acclimate to altitudes of 6,000 ft to 13,000 ft, in which briefing will be conducted for this Operation Jacana.  Regrouping al Qaeda militants fired rockets at coalition troops near the "whale" in the Shah-e-Kot region, site of Operation Anaconda.  The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) in Pakistan wants the US to give them $50 million to "arrange guarantees and collateral for construction companies interested in taking part in Afghanistan's reconstruction process".
• Day 178: Tue, 4/2/02 - After battles with Israeli troops firing from helicopters and tanks, about 120 Palestinian gunmen made it inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, site of Jesus' birth.  In addition, there is a massing of Hezbollah forces in Syria and Lebanon along Israel's northern border.  Yasser Arafat continues to be trapped in his compound in Ramallah for the fifth day, surrounded by razor wire, and refused Israel's offer to release him if he would go into exile.  Israel produced a document found in Arafat's compound showing costs for explosives, bomb-making supplies, and ammunition incurred by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a military group that is linked to Arafat's Fatah movement.  View the document's English translation, or the original page 1, page 2.  A Palestinian official tries to coerce Egypt and Jordan to cut Israeli ties and protest Israel's military stand in the West Bank.  US State Dept issues MidEast travel warnings and advised Americans living in Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza to consider relocating.  Also, "dependents of US diplomats and other American workers at the US consulate in Jerusalem were authorized to go home at government expense.  The US does not consider Yasser Arafat a terrorist because of his previous peace work with Israel and the US.  Homefront:  Some charities in northern Virginia recently raided by US government have strong ties with the royal family of Saudi Arabia, including Safa Trust, the Saar Group, the Wafa Humanitarian Organization, Muslim World League, the International Institute of Islamic Thought and others.  Overseas Americans should apply early for soon-to-expire passports as replacements will take more time to process due to new security procedures.  The Federal Trade Commission created a new nationwide task force that will try stomp out Web-based scams/con artists.  Soldiers must follow the rules of war with help from the "Kandahar Bar Association".
• Day 177: Mon, 4/1/02 - International peacekeepers in Kabul are trying to stamp out the crime wave caused by Northern Alliance fighters-turned-criminal.  With the Afghan Army still in the making, these warriors are far from home with no responsibility and no income.  Abu Zubaydah's capture, identity is confirmed, is a major blow to the al Qaeda network.  The 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference met today with hopes that the United Nations will define terrorism, as they themselves can't agree whether Palestinian suicide bombings are terrorism or not.  "Muslims everywhere must condemn terrorism, once it is clearly defined.  Bitter and angry though we may be, we must demonstrate to the world that Muslims are rational people when fighting for our rights and we do not resort to acts of terror.''  They unanimously felt that Israel is "dragging the region toward an all-out war'' and called for U.N. sanctions to stop Israeli military action.  Arab protestors in Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Yemen demonstrated against Israel's military actions: "No peace with the Zionists", "Death to Israel", "Terrorism is Zionist and the weapons are American!"  Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declared "If Arabs want to put an end to Zionism, they are able to do so in 24 hours", by all OPEC countries withholding their oil.  Homefront:  US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Iran, Syria, and Iraq are inspiring and funding Palestinian suicide attacks on Israel.  Sentencing for the Y2K bomber, Ahmed Ressam, was postponed for another year because he is cooperating with US officials by supplying terrorist information.  Ressam is an Algerian who trained at al Qaeda guerrilla camps in Afghanistan in 1998.  His mission was to detonate a suitcase bomb at Los Angeles International Airport.