DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issue:

Turkey Catches Istanbul Bombmaker (Reuters)
    Turkish police have arrested a man they believe built the four car bombs that killed 61 people in Istanbul last month in suicide attacks on British and Jewish targets, newspapers reported on Sunday.
    The man had been arrested while trying to cross from Turkey into Iran.
    The man told police that he had only made the four bombs used in November, something that may ease public fears that more bombings were planned.
    Ankara says the bombings were carried out by Turks.

    See also Al-Qaeda's New Strategy - Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball (Newsweek)
    The investigation into last month's devastating suicide bombings in Istanbul has uncovered compelling new evidence pointing to a highly sophisticated operation carried out by homegrown militants, but planned by al-Qaeda operatives who may have included Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.
    One of the key ringleaders of the operation, a previously obscure Islamic fighter named Azad Ekinci, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, left Turkey for Dubai 19 days before the attacks.
    Arrested suspect Yusaf Polat told police that the ringleaders of the attacks, Ekinci and another Turkish accomplice, Habib Aktas, had several meetings with al-Zawahiri, the fanatical Egyptian physician who merged his Islamic Jihad organization with al-Qaeda in the early 1990s and became bin Laden's second in command.
    Some U.S. officials say the Turkish bombing, represents the new face of international terror. Al-Qaeda operatives, perhaps inspired if not directed by leaders such as al-Zawahiri, essentially "piggyback" on the activities of local militants, providing training, skills, and financing that allows the indigenous groups to commit attacks that are more deadly and sophisticated than would otherwise be possible.

How the Chinese Helped Iraq Fight the U.S. - Con Coughlin (Telegraph-UK)
    Chinese military advisers played a key role in helping Saddam's air defenses withstand coalition air strikes in the months preceding Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Iraqi Lt.-Col. al-Dabbagh, who said he worked with a number of Chinese air-defense specialists during 2002 and the early part of this year.
    "They arrived in the spring of 2002," said al-Dabbagh, who commanded an air defense unit in Iraq's western desert. "They were personally greeted by Saddam and seemed very happy to be in Iraq. A couple of them even grew moustaches and wore keffiyehs (Arab scarves)."
    The Chinese devised a sophisticated decoy device that forced missiles fired by allied warplanes to hit the wrong targets. "The American pilot would return home thinking he had hit three of our radar units, when in fact all he would have hit were three $25 decoys," said al-Dabbagh.