More Arrests, New Threats In The Fight Against Terror

By Amanda Bower

U.S. forces may not have captured bin Laden, but since Sept. 11, officials in 98 countries have rounded up more than 2,700 al-Qaeda or allied terror suspects. Yet as new indictments were handed up in the U.S. and Europe last week, evidence of further plots emerged. Al-Qaeda, it seems, maintains a global reach. --Amanda Bower

U.S.

A federal grand jury last week indicted a second U.S. citizen for al-Qaeda related activity; the first was John Walker Lindh (see box). Earnest James Ujaama allegedly conspired to set up a jihad training camp in Oregon and provide support and resources for al-Qaeda. He maintains his innocence. Also last week, four north Africans were indicted in Detroit, accused of operating a sleeper cell.

Germany

The 9/11 terrorists boasted of their plans to attack the World Trade Center as far back as the spring of 2000, according to German officials who last week revealed new details of the Hamburg-based hijackers' actions. The information came from an investigation of Moroccan Mounir El Motassadeq, who was charged with 3,116 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terror organization. El Motassadeq has denied involvement in the attacks.

Iran

Dozens of al-Qaeda fighters and two key lieutenants are holed up in two border cities in eastern Iran, the Washington Post reported last week, and are plotting more terror attacks. A senior U.S. intelligence official tells TIME the information is plausible, although the CIA has no evidence to substantiate it.

Pakistan

Officials are on high alert for the anniversary of the attacks on America after revealing last week that they had received credible threats of Sept. 11 strikes on foreign and domestic targets within Pakistan. The warning was not a surprise, given the number of terrorist attacks that Afghanistan's neighbor has suffered this year. In February, U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl was murdered; in March, five people including two Americans were killed in an Islamabad church; in April, President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped assassination; in May, 11 French citizens died in a bus bombing; in June, an attack outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi killed 12 Pakistanis; and in August, a Christian hospital was attacked.

THE HUNTED WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO...

Osama bin Laden ASSUMED ALIVE --Pakistani and Afghan intelligence reports suggest the terror master is still living, sneaking from one mountain hideout to another along the two countries' common border. Bin Laden and his entourage are said to be traveling by foot and horseback under cloud cover, to avoid detection by surveillance aircraft.

Ayman al-Zawahiri ASSUMED ALIVE --Initially reported killed last year, bin Laden's right-hand man apparently survived, as did Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Mustafa Ahmed, operations and finance heads, respectively.

Mohammed Atef DEAD --Bin Laden's military operations chief, who was indicted in the 1998 embassy bombings and suspected of planning the 9/11 attacks, was killed last November in American air strikes.

Abu Zubaydah DETAINED --The operations chief was caught in Pakistan in March. U.S. investigators are leery of his statements to them, but evidence found during his capture is helping widen the hunt for terrorists.

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith ASSUMED ALIVE --Once thought to have perished in the bombing campaign, al-Qaeda's spokesman evidently left an audio statement on an affiliated website in July, with new threats to the U.S.

Saif al-Adil ASSUMED ALIVE --The onetime Egyptian army officer, formerly bin Laden's personal security chief, is now believed to have succeeded Abu Zubaydah. The Washington Post says intel sources place him in Iran.

Saad bin Laden ASSUMED ALIVE --Osama's son is only about 22 but Arab sources claim he has taken over the reins of al-Qaeda. U.S. officials downplay the likelihood that junior is in charge, but they say his role has increased since 9/11. Intel reports suggest Saad, a finance and logistics guy, is hiding out separately from his father on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Abu Hafs al-Mauritania ASSUMED ALIVE --U.S. officials reported in January that bin Laden's spiritual counselor was killed in Afghanistan. But the Post report suggests he may be with al-Adil in Iran--and plotting more attacks.