Terrorism Notebook
FBI denies spying on protesters

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WASHINGTON — Senior FBI officials took the unusual step yesterday of publicly declaring that agents are not using the war against terrorism as a cover to collect information on people who demonstrate against the government.

John Pistole, assistant FBI director for counterterrorism, said recent allegations by civil-liberties groups and some members of Congress about such an intelligence effort are "flat-out wrong."

"We have to have some type of predicate, some foundation, some basis for saying, 'This person poses some type of threat,' " he said. "The endgame is not to collect intelligence for political purposes. The endgame is to prevent terrorism or criminal activity."

Some members of Congress are calling for hearings into a bulletin the FBI sent to more than 17,000 state and local police agencies Oct. 15. It warned about anti-war protests being planned for later that month in Washington and San Francisco and urged authorities to report suspicious behavior to the FBI.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups say the bulletin raises concerns that the FBI might return to the abuses of the 1960s and '70s, when agents gathered intelligence intended to neutralize anti-Vietnam War protesters, civil-rights demonstrators and other dissenters.

Suspected al-Qaida mastermind captured

SAN'A, Yemen — Security forces yesterday captured one of the top al-Qaida members in Yemen, a suspected mastermind of the deadly suicide bombings of the USS Cole and a French oil tanker off the country's coast.

Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal was arrested after Yemeni forces surrounded his hide-out west of the capital, San'a, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried on the official SABA news agency.

A U.S. counterterrorism official in Washington confirmed al-Ahdal's capture.

Al-Ahdal played a role in the terror group's finances, weapons smuggling and operational planning and was well-connected to other extremists in Persian Gulf countries, the official said.

In neighboring Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, security forces foiled a planned terror attack in the capital yesterday, killing two militants and seizing a car bomb ready to detonate on the first day of festivities marking the end of Ramadan, the Saudi government said.

Al-Ahdal has been described as the main coordinator of al-Qaida activities in Yemen, ranking second to Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant in Yemen who was killed last November in a missile attack from a CIA-operated Predator drone.

Guantánamo Bay official says kids to be freed soon

GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The three children captured in Afghanistan and held for months here as enemy combatants will be released and sent home "very quickly," the commander of the joint military task force at Guantánamo Bay said yesterday.

Their detention in a special program, apart from some 660 older prisoners who also have been held indefinitely, has drawn broad international criticism.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller described the youngsters, whose ages the military estimates at 13 to 15, as victims who were kidnapped into terrorism, had willingly shared valuable intelligence and taken advantage of classes and counseling at Camp Iguana, the compound set up for them.

Miller said his recommendation to release the juveniles awaits final approval by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

Their guards include service members with civilian backgrounds in teaching or juvenile justice, and they receive lessons in math and reading in their native language, counseling and Quran study.

Miller said the children, all illiterate when they arrived, now can read — one, at a sixth-grade level.

Also...

The U.S. has promised not to seek the death penalty against two Australian citizens being held at a detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, with others captured during the war on terrorism, Australian officials said yesterday. The two detainees — identified as David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib — have been held since late 2001. ... Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Jack Reed of Rhode Island say they will spend Thanksgiving in Afghanistan and then travel to Iraq to meet with soldiers.

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