Terrorism: A Tense Impasse In Yemen | Newsweek Periscope

'Borderline Torture'
Michael Isikoff 5/20/2008 12:00:00 AM
The CIA last year refused to permit Justice Department investigators to question a key Al Qaeda detainee about what happened to him in the agency's custody, including reports that he was subjected to "waterboarding" and other abusive interrogation methods.
Dialing For Dollars
Michael Isikoff 1/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
A little-known State Department program that pays rewards for tips about terrorism is facing new scrutiny on Capitol Hill amid allegations that it forked over $5 million to the wrong tipster. In a private ceremony attended by top U.S. counterterrorism officials last Friday, Clarence Prevost, a former flight instructor at the Pan American International Flight Academy in Minnesota, was given a $5 million check for his help in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui--the convicted Al Qaeda operative who was arrested just three weeks before the September 11 attacks. Moussaoui aroused suspicion at the flight school when he signed up to learn to fly 747 jumbo jets, even though he'd had no previous flight experience. It was the first-ever payment in a domestic-terrorism case under the State Department program called Rewards for Justice.
A Slap in the Face
Michael Isikoff 10/31/2007 12:00:00 AM
President Bush's top counterterrorism adviser flew to Yemen last week to praise that country's cooperation in the war on terrorism just days before Yemeni authorities reportedly pardoned and released one of the principal architects of the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
SUMMER OLYMPICS
This Watch Won’t End
Mary Hennock
Beijing is cleaning house for the Summer Olympics. Last month security czar Ma Zhenchuan promised the extravaganza in August would provide "a sound and safe social environment." He kicked off a campaign to nab terrorists and murderers, wipe out prostitutes and porn, and even "strengthen controls over knives, bows and crossbows," according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. With less than 200 days to go, security forces are on "combat footing," authorities say. They've huddled with Interpol, consulted Australian and Greek Olympic security experts, imported bomb-sniffing technology and sent 400 police abroad to learn how Western nations "conducted criminal investigations and dealt with group turbulence, with an aim of offering world-class security," says the Web site of the Olympic organizing committee.
INTERNATIONAL
A Terrorist Walks Free
Michael Isikoff
One of the first big breakthroughs in the U.S. government's war against Al Qaeda came in January 2001, when a grimly determined FBI agent named Ali Soufan broke Jamal al-Badawi. A fanatic Yemeni follower of Osama bin Laden, Badawi had been arrested on suspicions that he was involved in the suicide bombing of the USS Cole—an attack that killed 17 American sailors, wounded 39 others and shocked counterterrorism officials in Washington.
The Threat in Our Midst
Michael Isikoff