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‘Head office has gone missing' - The Globe and Mail : "Most, although not all, terrorism experts believe that there is now no al-Qaeda “central,” the pre-9/11 organization. The bin Laden cadre has been isolated militarily and many of its original leaders have been killed or captured. What has replaced the pre-9/11 structure is an al-Qaeda brand, a spreading syndicate of autonomous al-Qaeda franchises and affiliates and a stunningly powerful media unit (as-Sahab, “The Clouds”) creating high-quality documentary films, iPod files, cellphone videos and websites – a six-fold production output since 2005, all of it aimed at radicalizing young Muslims."

‘Outrage’ in Israel as US Envoy Mentions Revoking Loan Guarantee -- News from Antiwar.com : "Israeli officials are riled up tonight after an offhand comment by US envoy George Mitchell in an interview with PBS mentioned that the US could hypothetically revoke loan guarantees to Israel if the nation refused to re-start negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Members of the ruling Likud Party vowed that Israel would not “give in to threats” while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that “everyone knows” the Palestinian Authority is to blame for the stalled peace process. One minister added that it was an empty threat. Even US Senators John McCain (R – AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I – CT) condemned Mitchell’s comment, saying that Congress would never allow the president to withhold any support for Israel under any circumstances . Mitchell, for his part, quickly backpedaled, insisting that he didn’t mean to suggest that revoking the loan guarantees was at all appropriate and ...

Yemen Eyes al-Qaeda Deal -- News from Antiwar.com : "Faced with an unwelcome level of attention in its newfound war against al-Qaeda, the Yemeni government is now taking the virtually unprecedented step of suggesting they would be willing to come to some sort of deal with the international terror organization."