The Insider: Daily Terrorism Report

Apr. 2, 2004 -- Police found a bomb Friday under the tracks of Spain's bullet train line between Madrid and Seville, the interior minister said, less than a month after a deadly commuter rail attack that killed 191 people, news wires reported today. Bomb-disposal experts alerted by a railway employee found 22-24 pounds of explosives about 40 miles south of Madrid, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. The explosives were connected to a detonator with a 450-foot cable, the minister told a news conference. Acebes said it was not clear who was behind the bombing. Acebes has also confirmed that the explosives are the Spanish brand Goma 2 Eco, the same used in the March 11 terrorist bombings in Madrid.

And more on the hunt for al Qaeda — Pakistan sends new troops to fight in the offensive to root al Qaeda out of the tribal areas along the Pakistani-Afghan border and Pakistani tribesmen living along the Afghan border have agreed to hand over fellow tribal leaders who have been sheltering foreign al Qaeda fighters, after being threatened with a fresh military offensive.

THE WAR ON TERROR

INVESTIGATIONS

Spain

Bomb Found On Rail Line in Spain

Police found a bomb Friday under the track of Spain's bullet train line between Madrid and Seville, the Spanish interior minister said. Bomb-disposal experts alerted by a railway employee found 22-24 pounds of explosive that might be dynamite about 40 miles south of Madrid, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. (AP)

Pakistan

Pakistan Sends Fresh Troops in Al Qaeda Push

Pakistan is sending fresh troops to its lawless tribal region near the Afghan border as part of its campaign to clear the country of al Qaeda and other foreign militants, intelligence officials said on Friday. (Reuters)

Terror Suspect Arrested

Pakistani police arrested a suspected militant with explosives yesterday and some officials said he had been plotting an attack on the prime minister but others denied the premier was a target. (Arab News)

Tribesmen Agree to Hand Over Al Qaeda Supporters

Pakistani tribesmen living along the Afghan border have agreed to hand over fellow tribal leaders who have been sheltering foreign al Qaeda fighters, after being threatened with a fresh military offensive, an official said. (AFP)

Pakistani Governor Offers Amnesty to 'Foreign Fighters'

Foreign fighters hiding in Pakistan's remote tribal areas along the Afghan border will be allowed to stay if they lay down arms and give up "negative activities," a provincial governor said. (AFP)

U.K.

Ninth Suspect Held As London Bomb Plot Inquiry Widens Police investigating the alleged plot to bomb London arrested a ninth man yesterday as part of the counter-terrorist operation conducted in London and the Home Counties. (The Guardian)

U.S.

'I Saw Papers That Show U.S. Knew Al Qaeda Would Attack Cities With Aeroplanes'Whistleblower the White House wants to silence speaks to the Independent. (The Independent)

Editor's Note: Congressional sources tell ABCNEWS that Edmonds should not be considered credible; her story has changed upon numerous occasions.

Jordan

Detained Terror Suspects in Jordan Belong to Al Qaeda

Terror suspects arrested in Jordan this week are linked to al Qaeda and were planning to carry out an attack under orders from Jordanian Mussab al Zarqawi. (AFP)

Jordan On Hunt for Two Cars Laden With Explosives

Jordanian authorities were searching for two cars carrying explosives that entered the kingdom from neighboring Syria, as well as three suspects, a newspaper reported on Friday. (Reuters)

Morocco

More Arrests in Casablanca

More terror suspects were arrested in Casablanca, Moroccan sources told Asharq Al Awsat newspaper. The number and identity of those arrested is still unclear, but the sources believe many suspects are being questioned for possible relations to those suspected of involvement in the Madrid attacks on March 11. (Asharq Al Awsat)

9/11 Commission

Bush Aides Block Clinton's Papers from 9/11 Panel

The commission said that it was pressing the White House to explain why it had blocked the documents. (NY Times)

Date Set for Rice 9/11 testimony

The White House's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, will appear before the 9/11 commission on 8 April. (BBC)

Saudi Arabia

Arms Seized, Smugglers Arrested in Asir, Jizan

Saudi border guards foiled an attempt to smuggle large quantities of explosives including hand grenades in Asir and Jizan regions in the southern part of the Kingdom and arrested three weapons dealers, including one Eritrean, along the Kingdom's border with Yemen. (Arab News)

Malaysia

Outcry Over TV3 Plan to Air Terror Confessions

A Malaysian television station's plan to air pre-trial confessions by four alleged leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network detained in Indonesia drew fire from a rights group Thursday. (AFP)

U.K.

Center Corrects U.S. Information On Al Qaeda's Seif Al Adl

An Islamist Center in London claimed there was U.S. confusion surrounding the identity of al Qaeda's senior leader Seif Al Adl, who is described on the FBI website as being the same person as an Egyptian officer called Mohammed Ibrahim Al Mekkawi. An Islamist Center in London published yesterday the picture of the Egyptian officer. Yasser Serri, who head the center, explained that they were two different people and said the only thing they have in common was that they both served in the Egyptian armed forces. Other fundamentalist sources confirmed that they were two different people. (Asharq Al Awsat)

LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

Yemen

Cole Bomb Suspects Reportedly Face Trial

Eleven terror suspects involved in the bombings of the USS Cole and the French oil tanker Limburg will stand trial this month, a weekly newspaper close to Yemen's Defense Ministry reported Thursday. (AP)

Germany

9/11 Prisoner Asks for Freedom

A German court is preparing to decide whether to release a Moroccan man awaiting retrial on charges of helping some of the 11 September hijackers. (BBC)

COUNTER-TERRORISM

U.S.

FBI: Terrorists May Enter U.S. With Visas

U.S. officials have received intelligence indicating terrorists might attempt to slip into the United States using cultural, arts or sports visas, according to the FBI. (AP)

Untested Islamic Militants Emerging, U.S. Official Says A new cadre of untested Islamic militants is emerging to take the place of leaders in Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which is now under "catastrophic stress" as a result of international operations over the past 30 months, the senior State Department counterterrorism official told a House International Relations subcommittee yesterday. (Washington Post)

THE WAR IN IRAQ

Iraq Suicide Bomber Kills Self, 2 Others

A suicide bomber detonated explosives at the entrance to a town hall near the northern city of Kirkuk on Friday, killing himself and two other people, police said. (AP)

Iraq Cleric Vows to Denounce Mutilation

Iraqi Muslim clerics say they'll condemn mutilation of four dead Americans in weekly prayers. (AP)

Private Armies for Hire

Outsourcing military security to private companies has risks. (ABCNEWS)

A Secret World of Security in IraqThe Fallouja victims were among thousands of guards from private firms, largely beyond government control. (LA Times)

Baghdadis Express Shock, Shame After Gruesome Murders of 4 American Civilian ContractorsBremer to vow to avenge deaths as grisly aftermath of ambush triggers fierce condemnation from Washington. (AFP)

Brutal Killing of Americans in Iraq Raises Questions Over Security Firms The four Americans killed, burned and mutilated in Falluja worked for a private security company, and their deaths have brought scrutiny of the increasing role played by hired guns in Iraq. (The Guardian)

Unknown Group Claims Responsibility for Fallujah Killings

A previously unknown group claimed the gruesome killing of four US contractors in Fallujah, western Iraq, in revenge for Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. (AFP)

After 2 Months, Bush's Iraq Panel Starts to Stir

Nearly two months after President Bush named a bipartisan commission to look into intelligence failures on Iraq and weapons proliferation, the panel is only now beginning its work, a spokesman for the group said Thursday. (NY Times)

Lashkar Militants Held in Iraq, Claims Indian Paper

U.S. forces had arrested a group of defunct Lashkar-e-Taiba rebels near Baghdad, an Indian newspaper said on Thursday. (Daily Times — Pakistan)

S. Korea to Send Troops to Northern Iraq

South Korea to send nearly 3,600 troops to the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq. (ABCNEWS)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

A Hotbed of Contention

Anti-coalition sentiment in central Iraqi province is vastly higher than in all Iraq. (ABCNEWS)

Savagery The spectacle of the mutilated remains of four American contractors being paraded through the streets of Fallujah will have turned the stomachs of all who saw this savagery on their television screens. This was mob violence at its worst. Those who participated in the butchery must be punished. (Arab News)

Four Deaths in Falluja

The United States cannot afford to paper over the situation in Iraq with the sort of facile slogans and wishful thinking that have characterized the debate so far. (NY Times)

What the Papers Say: 'The U.S. Must Not Cut And Run' America is urged to see the job through despite the atrocities in Falluja. (The Guardian)

An Offer Of Help On Iraq

The gruesome killings and mutilations in Fallujah on Wednesday and the new attacks yesterday raise serious doubts about the administration's confident predictions that it will be able to hand over power to Iraqi authorities by June 30. (Washington Post)

Despite All, Iraq's Shiites Are Confident

Nearly a year after the downfall of Saddam Hussein, consolidation of the embryonic institutions of the new Iraqi polity has begun in earnest. Indeed the approach of the June 30 deadline for handing power to a largely appointed Iraqi authority may well speed up this process. (Daily Star — Lebanon)

Europe Meets Terror Head-OnThe continent draws on its values to confront violence while preserving cherished freedoms. (LA Times)

The Insider Daily Terrorism Report (DTR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to international terrorism and the war in Iraq. The DTR is edited from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham, Hoda Osman, and Brinda Adhikari of the ABCNEWS Investigative Unit. The outside views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.