Operation Enduring Freedom - August 2002

• Day 329: Sat, 8/31/02 - Israelis fired missiles from a helicopter at a car in northern West Bank targeting militants from the Al Aqsa Brigade, killing five Palestinians.  Israeli soldiers in Ramallah arrested Hamas leader Hasan Yousef.  A Palestinian gunman representing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine cut through a fence and entered a Jewish settlement then opened fire, wounding two people.  After being wounded in the leg by a soldier on leave, he was killed by the community's emergency squad.  Two Americans were killed and seven injured near a US-owned gold mine (the largest in the world) in Indonesia's Papua province when unidentified gunmen opened fire.  5-year anniversary of the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi al Fayed (a Muslim) in a car crash in a tunnel in France.  Homefront: With a drawn gun, fire marshalls on Delta flight 442, en route from Atlanta to Philadelphia, had to detain "a passenger who was acting in an odd and obstreperous manner".  The man was released after the plane landed, and officials refused to release any information about him.  Three small planes flew in the restricted airspace over President Bush's Crawford, TX ranch at three different times, and each was escorted by F16s to Waco Regional Airport.  No arrests were made.  So far, 555 people in 26 states have contracted the mosquito-born West Nile virus over the past few months, and at least 28 have died.
• Day 328: Fri, 8/30/02 - If the US decides to try to topple Saddam Hussein because of allegations he has weapons of mass destruction (biological warfare), Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan says it won't be like bringing down the Taliban.  The United Nations is considering a new Security Council resolution "to approve any American military action against Iraq."  US Allies: Britain, Jordan.  Oppose invading Iraq: Russia, China, France, Saudi Arabia.  US special forces learned of Mullah Mohammed Omar's location about six weeks ago, living back near his old stomping grounds in Kandahar.  They then lost his trail, but now have intelligence saying he's in Oruzgan, a mountainous province north of Kandahar.  Evidence suggests he fled last December shortly before the Taliban fell via an underground tunnel leading from his compound outside Kandahar, to the other side of the mountain.  From there, he hopped a motorcycle and sped off.  Afghan deputy defence minister (and north Afghanistan warlord) Abdul Rashid Dostum admitted that at least 200 Taliban prisoners died in containers while in his custody late last year while being transported from Kunduz to Shebarghan prison in northern Afghanistan.  Others say that about 960 Taliban suffocated in the shipping containers en route and were buried in a mass grave near Dasht-e-Leili.  The international donors' meeting in Tokyo early this year yielded $1.8 billion pledged to Afghan assistance.  $600 million has been received so far, and was used for civil servants' payroll ($100 mil), humanitarian aid ($300 mil), and allocated for rebuilding the country's infrastructure ($200 mil).  Quick to pay - US, European Union, Germany, and Japan; not paid yet - Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates.  Homefront: The Federal Aviation Administration ordered US airlines to inspect 1,440 Boeing jets for potentially faulty fuel pumps within the next four days.  The pumps were made by Hydro-Aire Inc. of Burbank, CA "and were installed in January and April on Boeing 737s, 747s and 757s."  The faulty pumps have a wiring problem that could possibly cause a spark, resulting in an explosion of the fuel tank containing it.  Until they are cleared through inspection, suspect planes have been ordered to fly with enough fuel in the tanks to keep the pumps completely submerged, even on an extreme bank, in order to prevent a sparking faulty pump from coming into contact with empty space containing oxygen.
• Day 327: Thur, 8/29/02 - US special forces, acting on a tip, found a truck smuggling a large stash of weapons across northern Afghanistan.  Troops removed the piles of fruit and produce from the truck, then found the weapons in a false floor.  A Swedish man, Kerim Chatty, 29, of Tunisian origin, was detained in Sweden at Vaesteraas airport as he tried to board a Ryanair FR685 jet to London while packing a gun in a small carry-on toiletries bag.  He claims he has nothing to do with terrorism or hijackings and was merely "on his way with a group to an Islamic conference in Birmingham, England."  Chatty had previously been convicted of assault and theft including "a 1997 brawl with a group of U.S. Marines at a gym in Stockholm."  He had also taken some flight training courses at the North American Institute of Aviation in Conway, South Carolina in 1996.
• Day 326: Wed, 8/28/02 - An Arab intelligence source claims two al Qaeda deputies, Saif al-Adel and Mahfouz Ould Walid (previousley believed killed), along with dozens more al Qaeda militants are staying in hotels and guesthouses in Iran's border cities Mashhad and Zabol.  Three rockets were fired at Jalalabad's airport and another rocket fell close to a US forces headquarters outside Gardez.  No damage or casualties reported.  300+ Afghan soldiers and about a dozen US special forces troops raided a police station in Meivand, Afghanistan and arrested 170 officers.  Local citizens were dismayed that it appeared the new Afghan government "was turning on its on forces".  Afghanistan will retake its opium crown from the Golden Triangle as its production triples that supplied by Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.  The United Nations expects Afghanistan to produce 2,952 tons this year.
• Day 325: Tue, 8/27/02 - While clearing mines in Afghanistan, a US special operations soldier and a Swiss land mine clearer were wounded when a mine detonated.  An editor of a London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper claims an al Qaeda associate informed him that Osama bin Laden is firmly back in command and "the group is digging in for guerrilla attacks on US troops in Afghanistan" and "planning new attacks on the United States".
• Day 324: Mon, 8/26/02 - Coalition forces captured ten suspected al Qaeda militants and seven women were found carrying nine rocket-propelled grenade rounds under their burqas in the village of Narizah.
• Day 323: Sun, 8/25/02 - Two US Air Force A-10 aircraft fired seven rockets and 950 Gatling gun rounds in response to three rockets that were launched at an observation post outside a US special operations
  base in the Kunar province.  Two of the three rockets detonated, and countless rounds were also fired.  No casualties were reported.  Operation Mountain Sweep ended today, and US special forces feel it wasn't successful because of Afghan intelligence leaks.  Everywhere they went, no Taliban or al Qaeda could be found.  Villagers were very cooperative, and troops always waited respectfully for the elders to okay the searches.  US and British air strikes on Basra in southern Iraq killed eight Iraqis and injured nine others.  Al Wafa Humanitarian Organization denies any terrorist connections.
• Day 322: Sat, 8/24/02 - The US State Department's Diplomatic Security Service will begin providing bodyguards for Afghanistan's new president Hamid Karzai in September, taking the job from US special forces.  These security officers will provide "inner ring" security while American military will continue to provide "outer ring" security.  Afghan police found 16 different chemicals and documents in a suspected terrorist laboratory in a house in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood.  The house, in a diplomatic area, was used by Al Wafa Humanitarian Organization, a Saudi Arabian charity that supposedly aided construction and food distribution in Afghanistan.  The US State Department lists Al Wafa as a front for terrorism linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.  Tests are being done on the chemicals in an effort to identify them.  The Islam Online Network claims to have a letter written several weeks ago by the leader of al Qaeda network.  The letter () calls on the Afghan people to resist American forces and to engage in holy jihad.  It claims they will all closely witness the fall of the US, and that the views of the Taliban and Afghan leader Gulbudin Hekmatyar are being brought together.  It's signed "Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden".
• Day 321: Fri, 8/23/02 - US forces and Afghan allies continue to scour the southeast for al Qaeda resistance holdouts.  While in Khost, the troops searched from house-to-house and had to disarm some individuals.  US forces in Asadabad came under attack when rocket-propelled grenades were fired over their base in Afghanistan's Kunar province along the Pakistan border.  No casualties.  Four enemy and their grenade launcher were captured and 12 others were detained for questioning.
• Day 320: Thur, 8/22/02 - US and Afghan forces found a large weapons cache and documents that may have belonged to the Taliban near Kandahar.  The weapons were destroyed and the documents were handed over to US-led coalition intelligence officials.  Two US Army pilots were killed when their AH-64A Apache helicopter crashed into a hill in South Korea, "13 miles south of Camp Page, an American base at Chuncheon, 50 miles east of Seoul."  The cause is under investigation.  Israeli troops arrested Mohammed Wajeh Quoa, a Hamas leader in the northern West Bank town of Qalqiliya.  A Nigerian Islamic court ruled that a woman, Amina Lawal, who had sex outside of marriage would be stoned to death.  Her appeal was rejected Monday.  Homefront: As part of Operation Tarmac, federal agents raided southern California airports and arrested at least 81 people who had used phony IDs to get high-security clearance jobs at Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Long Beach Municipal and John Wayne airports.  Most of those arrested at John Wayne were illegal Hispanic immigrants.  Hundreds of airport high-security clearance employees have been arrested in sweeps across the country since 9/11/01.  The war on terror has helped the recruitment effort in all branches of the military, and the Army, with its new "An Army of One" slogan, has already met its enlistment goal for the year.  Better marketing, a surge in patriotism, and a sluggish economy have contributed to the increase.  The 64 "terror" tapes that CNN took possession of help show the global extent of al Qaeda's tentacles and prove that the group is "an organization of organizations".  The video tapes were found in an Afghan house where Osama bin Laden reportedly stayed, and almost all were recorded prior to 9/11/01.  The tapes show similar scenes of Arab jihadi fighters in Algeria, Bosnia, Burma, Chechnya, Eritrea, Uzbekistan and many other countries.  Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claims al Qaeda has operatives in over 60 countries, including the US.
• Day 319: Wed, 8/21/02 - US special forces found two weapons caches in the Oruzgan province in central Afghanistan.  The Abu Sayyaf terrorists beheaded the two men they took hostage yesterday and dumped them at food stands at the public market in Jolo.  The six hostages were Jehovah's Witnesses.  The two heads, each in a bag with a note calling them "infidels", were placed 100 yards apart.  Pakistan's President Musharraf publicly announced that he had decreed 29 new amendments to Pakistan's constitution granting himself many new powers including " the power to dismiss parliament, establishing a National Security Council to oversee the government and extending his stay in office by five years."  He is taking charge of a lot of power previously held by the prime minister, including "appointing the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the heads of all three military branches."
• Day 318: Tue, 8/20/02 - Patrolling US forces engaged in a 10-minute firefight with allied Afghan troops in southeastern Afghanistan when the American troops were unable to give a post-curfew password at a checkpoint outside Zormat in the Paktia province.  A bomb was found at a shop on the main road between Kabul Airport and the US Embassy in Kabul.  No one knows how the bomb got there.  Leaflets distributed in Kabul by rebel forces identifying themselves as "Devotees of Islam's Path" warn "Mr. Karzai and his masters to base his government's policy on Sharia (Islamic) law and to ask his cabinet to seriously observe Sharia law in their families, society and governmental institutes.  They also state they "will not let him spread disease, indecency and corruption in the name of democracy and freedom in our society."  A man hired by US/Afghan militia to guard the checkpoint near the Kandahar air base started shouting "I came for my target; You are sons of Americans; I want to kill them and you;" then opened fire.  He killed two Afghan fighters before troops returned his fire and killed him.  Afghan troops then hung his body from a post for two hours.  Israeli troops pulled out of Bethlehem, handing control to it and parts of the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinians.  Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups said they'll "step up their attacks" on Israelis.  Al Qaeda-linked group Abu Sayyaf took 6 Filipinos hostage, two men, four women; they've not declared their reason.  Homefront: The FBI issued a bulletin seeking the capture of Saud A.S. al-Rasheed, 21, of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a newly identified suspected associate of the 9/11/01 hijackers, and he is armed and dangerous.  His current location is unknown.  Mohamed el-Atriss, who provided fake IDs to two 9/11/01 hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Abdulaziz Alomari, was arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York after returning from Egypt.  A naturalized US citizen, el-Atriss fled to Egypt July 31 when his home and businesses were raided by authorities.  Another of CNN's 64 al Qaeda video tapes shows recruits being trained in urban tactics in simulated western-style cities in Afghanistan, most likely to bring what they learned to Western cities.
• Day 317: Mon, 8/19/02 - Unidentified attackers fired a rocket at a US special forces base near Lwara in the Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan.  A security patrol found six more rockets with timing devices at a suspected launch site.  Homefront: CBS rushed to air al Qaeda tapes that it thought it had an exclusive to.  CNN & CBS both claim the money they paid for the tapes did not go into terrorist hands.
• Day 316: Sun, 8/18/02 - Two US soldiers were wounded in an attack while gathering intelligence in the Uruzgan province in central Afghanistan.  This is the area where a US air raid "killed at least 46 civilians and wounded 117" on 7/1/02 at a wedding.  The United Nations' "crop experts" admit that Afghanistan failed at eradicating the opium poppy crop this year, and the crop will be even larger next year.  Homefront: CNN aired al Qaeda tapes showing dogs being given poison gases.
• Day 315: Sat, 8/17/02 - US forces found three weapons caches in Afghanistan along the Pakistani border.  Two British soldiers died from gunshot wounds at Kabul Airport, which were not enemy-inflected.
• Day 314: Fri, 8/16/02 - The US is putting together a proposal to present to the United Nations Security Council designed to ease some of the restrictions on those companies/groups and individuals whose assets have been frozen because of their association with Osama bin Laden.  The US is doing this in response to individuals on the sanctions list who have complained that they are becoming destitute with no funds for living expenses.  A former Taliban deputy, Mullah Mohammed Khaksar, claims that bin Laden had ordered the assassination of then Afghan opposition leader Ahmed Shah Massood, having him killed on 9/9/01 (two days before 9/11 attacks) by two Arabs who were diverted from their trip to Indonesia.  It's believed that "bin Laden may have killed Massood to ingratiate himself further with Taliban leader Mohammed Omar to ensure his protection if the Americans retaliated for the attacks he knew were only days away in the United States."
• Day 313: Thur, 8/15/02 - After viewing truck activity at Iraq's Taji complex just north of Baghdad via spy satellites, US intelligence agencies say Saddam Hussein may be moving items out of the suspected biological weapons and missile production facility to prepare for a possible US attack on it.  Taji was previously bombed by the US in 1991 during the Gulf War and again by the US and British in December of 1998 after the UN inspections ended.  Homefront: The "9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism" group, made up of 600+ relatives of 9/11/01 victims, electronically filed a 258-page suit against almost 100 defendants including Osama bin Laden, "the Bin Laden Corporation, banks, charities, the government of Sudan," and Saudi royal family members and institutions including "Mohammed al Faisal al Saud, Turki al Faisal al Saud, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, Khalid bin Salim bin Mahfouz, the National Commercial Bank and the Faisal Islamic Bank."  The head of counterterrorism within the FBI, Dale Watson, 52, is retiring a short month after he surprised the FBI and Bush administration by announcing in a press conference that he thought bin Laden might be dead.  Pentagon tenants begin moving back into the Phoenix Project, the rebuilt E-ring section that was destroyed by the 9/11/01 hijackers and has now "risen from the ashes".
• Day 312: Wed, 8/14/02 - US/British coalition patrol planes bombed two air defense sites in southern Iraq while flying over the southern no-fly zone.  Precision-guided weapons were used.  Palestinian terrorist leader Abu Nidal (aka Sabri al-Bann) died from three self-inflicted gunshot wounds after Iraqi intelligence agents raided his home in Baghdad.  Homefront: Franklin Graham, leader of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is frightened by the silence of Islamic clerics around the world.  He says, "How come they haven't come to this country, how come they haven't apologized to the American people, how come they haven't reassured the American people that this is not true Islam and that these people are not acting in the name of Allah, they're not acting in the name of Islam?"  He also upset Islamic clerics in his book The Name, stating that "Islam -- unlike Christianity -- has among its basic teachings a deep intolerance for those who follow other faiths."  See for yourself.  Read the Quran, and not the edited/westernized versions for sale at Barnes & Noble and other bookstores.  Over 500 people with ties to 9/11/01 victims are planning to sue groups they believe helped finance the attacks, including Islamic charities, members of the royal family of Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.  The group, 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism, wants $1,000 trillion from the groups and one trillion from individuals.
• Day 311: Tue, 8/13/02 - Two US troops received minor injuries when their Army AH-64 attack helicopter crash-landed during military operations 20 miles south of Kabul.  Six US airmen were injured when their Air Force HH-60 medivac helicopter made an aborted takeoff after dropping off an injured civilian in Urgun, Afghanistan.  Eight people were injured by rebel rocket fire in the outskirts of Asadabad in eastern Afghanistan.  The rockets missed a government building and hit three homes instead.  Communications equipment and cash was stolen from the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Afghan compound in Ghazni by three armed men who locked the eight employees in the restroom.
• Day 310: Mon, 8/12/02 - Iraqi officials claim they are the "victim of false US propaganda", that Saddam Hussein has no weapons of mass destruction, and "inspections have finished in Iraq".  Homefront: A mail collection box adjacent to the Princeton University campus in New Jersey tested positive for anthrax spores, and may be where last fall's anthrax letters were mailed from.
• Day 309: Sun, 8/11/02 - Ten remote controlled missiles hit a residential complex housing US-led coalition troops in Gardez in the Paktia province of Afghanistan, killing at least 11 and critically injuring 18.  Allied forces pursued the attackers, but have not located them yet.  Homefront: An Iberia Air Lines Boeing 747 bound for Madrid, Spain, made an emergency return to New York's Kennedy Airport shortly after takeoff because an engine was on fire.  Seven passengers were injured during the evacuation process.
• Day 308: Sat, 8/10/02 - Pakistani police are searching for 15 to 20 militants who have divided into small groups " to attack Western and Christian interests in Pakistan in response to military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S. war against Afghanistan's Taliban and Al Qaeda."  They're believed responsible for Monday's attack on the Murree Christian School, and for yesterday's attack at the Christian church in Taxila.  India gave Afghanistan a 280-passenger Air India Airbus-300B4 twin-jet airliner to add to Ariana Afghan airlines' fleet of two.  Two bombmakers were killed as their current project blew up prematurely while they worked on it in an apartment in San'a, Yemen.  The name of one was Mohammed Abdel Khaleq al-Boreihi.  Homefront: The Bush administration has warned the airline industry again to be vigilant in watching for imposters wearing stolen airline employee uniforms, as there appears to be a trend in the thefts.
• Day 307: Fri, 8/9/02 - Three attackers lobbed grenades at "women leaving a Christian church in Taxila," 20 miles west of Islamabad, Pakistan, killing three nurses and injuring 25 others.  One attacker was killed.  Homefront: San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was placed on a "heightened" state of alert after intelligence sources claimed there was a terrorist threat to crash a plane into it.  The two Command Center laptop computers, missing since last Thursday, were recovered at the residence of a military employee who had access to the "secure" area where the laptops were.
• Day 306: Thur, 8/8/02 - A team of behavioral scientists, sent by the FBI, is creating psychological profiles of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay in an effort to help directors and field agents "understand the new generation of young terrorists."
• Day 305: Wed, 8/7/02 - One US soldier died from wounds he received when his group of allied troops was ambushed July 27th in eastern Afghanistan.  US coalition forces may have moved out most of al Qaeda, but rebel fighters continue to battle, engaging in a three-hour firefight with the Afghan army in Kabul, resulting in the deaths of at least 16 people.  The Afghan government claims the 13 rebels involved, all killed, "were high-ranking al-Qaeda members who had escaped from a prison in Kabul."  A US soldier was wounded by sniper fire in the Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan.  He was evacuated to a hospital in Germany and is in stable condition.  Homefront: The Joint Chiefs of Staff "are unanimously behind a US-led military mission to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein."  The JCS, a six-man group, consists of: Chairman Gen. Richard B. Myers, Vice Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, Navy Adm. Vern Clark, Air Force Gen. John P. Jumper, and Marine Corps Gen. James Jones.  "Pentagon officials say they have specific evidence of Saddam reinstituting his chemical and biological weapons programs, and he is working hard to finish a nuclear bomb."  Turkey, to the north of Iraq, will allow the US to base from there and Kuwait is needed for the south.  Saudi Arabia to the west says no way.  Neither Germany or France is interested in the quest.  Across Europe, many people feel attacking Iraq will "radicalise many more Muslims".  Spain and Italy may join, and, of course, the UK would support, although PM Tony Blair has reservations.
• Day 304: Tue, 8/6/02 - Five men in a car opened fire on US soldiers who were patrolling in eastern Afghanistan, north of Asadabad.  The troops returned fire killing four of the attackers.  An ammunition depot blew up in the south Afghan town of Spin Boldak, injuring several local soldiers.  It was claimed to have been an accident.
• Day 303: Mon, 8/5/02 - The US Consulate closed in Karachi, Pakistan because of security threats.  Five unidentified gunmen attacked the Murree Christian School in Pakistan, just north of Islamabad, killing at least six people.  Officers exchanged gunfire until the terrorists fled after about 20 minutes.  Mullah Omar, leader of the ousted Taliban, has regularly been seen constantly on the move on motorcycle or on foot in southern and central Afghanistan.  A serious power struggle is on between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, hinting of a possible split in the new government and a return to factional fighting and civil war.  Foreign investments and aid could come to a halt.  Israeli forces fired three missiles from helicopters into a Gaza City car parts factory, alleged to house a weapons factory.  Israel also sent tanks to block Palestinian travel in the northern West Bank.  Islamic militants hurled hand grenades and opened fire on a group of Hindus in Indian Kashmir, killing five.  US and British allied aircraft, monitoring the no-fly zone in southern Iraq, bombed a military command and control facility using precision-guided weapons.
• Day 302: Sun, 8/4/02 - The brother-in-law of Mullah Mohammad Omar, Noorullah, was captured and his companions fled.  Afghan and US troops are searching for those who ran.  A Palestinian Hamas terrorist suicide-bombed a rush hour bus in Israel, killing nine passengers.  1,500 people in Gaza City celebrated the bombing.  Another Palestinian gunman, this time from Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, opened fire on a Bezeq phone company truck near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City, and Israeli police returned the fire.  Two people were killed, including the gunman.  Homefront: A 29-year-old man was arrested at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for trying to smuggle razor blades hidden in his shoes past the security checkpoint.
• Day 301: Sat, 8/3/02 - A grenade was launched onto the grounds of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation's headquarters in Kandahar, the first attack since the service reopened late last year.  Two rockets were fired at a US special forces camp about 90 miles south of Kabul; no casualties.
• Day 300: Fri, 8/2/02 - US Special Operations has been issued its own orders straight from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to "'capture or kill' the top leadership of al Qaeda."  This chain-of-command bypasses US Central Command in Florida which has been in charge of the war on terror in Afghanistan and is an effort for troops to use more clandestine methods in seeking out al Qaeda heads.  US troops may stay in the Philippines until the middle of 2003, and protestors are demonstrating at the US Embassy in Manila against any further US occupation and US Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit today.  Israeli troops blew up two buildings that housed explosives labs and arrested 50 Palestinians as they seized control of Nablus, West Bank.  Israel is also tearing down houses of the families of Palestinians who attack Israel.  European airlines have such low bookings on flights traveling to the US this 9/11 that many transatlantic flights are being canceled.  Homefront: Almost 1,200 people have been detained in the US on terrorism-connections suspicions since 9/11/01, and most have been deported.  There are still about 150 people being detained and federal judge Gladys Kessler has ordered the Department of Justice to release their names within 15 days.  An attorney for the department argued that the list of names will give the al Qaeda network too much information.  Kessler will allow the locations of the detainees to be kept secret, in order to protect them.
• Day 299: Thur, 8/1/02 - To substitute for the loss of its Afghanistan base, the al Qaeda network already has extensive roots in place in southeast Asia, the Middle East, Kashmir and Chechnya.  Afghanistan is still far from being a stable government as ethnic Tajiks and Pashtuns fight it out in the west, killing at least 50.  The Iraqi government invited the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector to visit Baghdad.  Homefront: US Deputy Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam told a Senate subcommittee that even though over $135 million in cash and assets have been seized from al Qaeda's possession, the terrorist network still has adequate cash and resources to fund more attacks.  The extremist group saves money by no longer needing to finance Afghan's ousted Taliban, and continues to accumulate millions of dollars through Islamic charities.  Two laptop computers containing classified information vanished from Central Command at MacDill AFB in Florida.