Terrorism Notebook
U.S. issues new Saudi terror alert

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The warning also urged the estimated 37,000 private American citizens in the oil-rich Persian Gulf state to "consider departing." Free flights will be offered to all nonemergency diplomatic staff and any family members at the embassy in Riyadh or two U.S. consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran.

The latest step came because U.S. intelligence "continues to receive indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western targets, including the targeting of transportation and civil aviation," the State Department warned.

The Bush administration stressed that the reduction is not permanent. The decision will be reviewed within 30 days.

"This is not a full bug-out. The core mission will remain," a senior U.S. official said.

The United States has issued a growing number of travel alerts since three suicide bombings in Riyadh on May 12 killed 35 people, including nine Americans. All three bombings, blamed on the al-Qaida network, targeted housing compounds for Westerners.

The Saudi newspaper Okaz reported yesterday that police arrested a Saudi citizen believed to have helped smuggle in from Yemen weapons used in the November bombing of a Riyadh housing compound that killed 17.

Suspect says Turkish blasts defied bin Laden's orders

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Osama bin Laden proposed attacking a Turkish military base used by the United States, but militants stymied by tight security bombed civilian targets instead, killing Muslims and upsetting al-Qaida leaders, Turkish officials told The Associated Press.

The information came from interrogations of a top suspect in last month's deadly bombings in Istanbul that authorities believe were carried out by Turkish militants trained by al-Qaida in Afghanistan, the officials said.

The suspect, Fevzi Yitiz, told interrogators that bin Laden approved attacks in Turkey on condition that Turks were not killed, a top intelligence source said.

But the militants instead bombed two synagogues, a London-based bank and the British Consulate, killing 62 people, mostly Muslims.

The synagogues were bombed Nov. 15 and the two British targets five days later.

A break in the case came when Yitiz was arrested Dec. 10 after infiltrating Turkey from Iran, a police official said.

Deadline nears for fund aiding Sept. 11 victims

WASHINGTON — The administrator of a fund to compensate victims of the Sept. 11 attacks now hopes that 90 percent of eligible families will file applications before the Monday deadline.

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 promised swift and generous awards for survivors of the nearly 3,000 people who died and for those who had been seriously injured.

There were few takers at first. But now, with the application deadline at midnight Monday, the trickle has turned into a flood.

"Six weeks ago we were at 44 percent; today we're at 77 percent," said Kenneth Feinberg, the fund's top administrator.

Also ...

Sahim Alwan, 31, the sixth and final member of a terrorist cell that operated out of a blue-collar Buffalo, N.Y., suburb, was sentenced to nine years in prison yesterday, saying he was ready to accept "full responsibility." ... Mohammed Aatique, 31, a Pakistani man who conspired to help a Muslim terrorist group, was sentenced yesterday in Alexandria, Va., to a mandatory 10-year term for a federal firearms violation and to six months on a charge of aiding and abetting a conspiracy.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company