January 5th Morning Readbook

Yemen; a failed state?

Battling two separatist movements, an invigorated Al Qaeda presence and an unemployment rate of more than 40% is the country on the verge of becoming a failed state?




U.S. embassy reopens in Yemen after attacks
The U.S. Embassy in Yemen reopened its doors Tuesday after a two-day closure, citing successful attacks by the government in suppressing the militant threat. The Yemeni Interior Ministry, however, issued its own statement saying the security situation in the capital had always been under control.


Obama to get update on terror plot inquiry
President Barack Obama will meet with his top security officials Tuesday to get an update on the inquiry into security lapses that allowed a bombing suspect to board a U.S.-bound flight.


Reaction: Air travelers face stricter screening




Intelligence overhaul ordered for Afghanistan
The new strategy is to move beyond simply hunting extremists and gather information about local concerns, people and leaders in an effort to win over Afghans and marginalize the insurgency.


U.S. spy effort in Afghanistan "ignorant": U.S. report
The U.S. military's intelligence chief in Afghanistan sharply criticized the work of U.S. spy agencies there on Monday, calling them ignorant and out of touch with the Afghan people.


General Dynamics to build tanks for Iraq
General Dynamics, the maker of tanks and Gulfstream business jets, won a U.S. Army contract valued at $198 million to build 140 tanks for Iraq under the foreign military sales program.


Iraq to take Blackwater to court 
Iraq will file lawsuits in US and Iraqi courts against Blackwater, a private security firm, after an American court threw out charges against five of its guards accused of killing 14 civilians in Baghdad.


The latest news from Al Jazeera

January 1st Morning Readbook

(AFP/File/John D McHugh)


Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan doubles in 2009
The year's tally was 318, compared with 155 in 2008, due mostly to the crude but ever larger and deadlier roadside bombs employed by the Taliban. And Western military fatalities are expected to spike.


Afghanistan Suicide Bomber May Have Been Helped by CIA Informant
The suicide bomber who killed eight Americans, including seven CIA officers, this week might have been able to get through multiple layers of security at the U.S. compound aided by an Afghan informant with the agency, a Western official said Friday.


Attacked CIA base oversees air strikes
The CIA base attacked by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan on Wednesday was at the heart of a covert program overseeing strikes by the agency's remote-controlled aircraft along the border with Pakistan.


Afghan tensions rise amid civilian and CIA deaths




U.N. to Cut Foreign Staff in Pakistan for Safety
The United Nations is moving as many as 60 foreign employees, or about one-quarter of its international staff, out of Pakistan for at least six months over safety concerns, a United Nations official said Thursday.


Top US general stresses importance of Iraq vote
Gen. David Petraeus, the leading American general who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, speaks with reporters in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Jan. 1, 2010. Gen. Petraeus, who used to be the top American commander in Iraq, says the upcoming Iraq election in March is of "enormous importance" to the country's future, but warned of violence leading up to it.


Focus on Internet Imams as Recruiters for Al Qaeda
The apparent ties between the Nigerian man charged with plotting to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day and a radical American-born Yemeni imam have cast a spotlight on a world of charismatic clerics who wield their Internet celebrity to indoctrinate young Muslims with extremist ideology and recruit them for Al Qaeda, American officials and counterterrorism specialists said.


Report to Obama Shows Intelligence Lapses Persist




Al Shabaab urges Muslims to support Yemeni Qaeda
Somalia's hardline Islamist rebel group al Shabaab said on Friday it was ready to send reinforcements to al Qaeda in Yemen should the U.S. carry out retaliatory strikes, and urged other Muslims to follow suit.


TSA nominee misled Congress about accessing confidential records
The White House nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration gave Congress misleading information about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws, documents obtained by The Washington Post show.


The latest news from Al Jazeera

December 29th Morning Readbook

The underwear with the explosive worn by alleged Northwest 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is shown in this undated photo. (ABC News)


EXCLUSIVE: Photos of the Northwest Airlines Bomb
A singed pair of underwear with a packet of powder sewn into the crotch, seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, is all that remains of al Qaeda's attempt to down an American passenger plane over Detroit.


Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the wing of al-Qaeda operating in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, is led by a Yemeni who was once a close aide to Osama bin Laden.


Airport security 'not effective'




Explosive in Detroit terror case could have blown hole in airplane, sources say
A dangerous explosive allegedly concealed by Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in his underwear could have blown a hole in the side of his Detroit-bound aircraft if it had been detonated, according to two federal sources briefed on the investigation.


Attack Puts Afghan Leader and NATO at Odds
The killing of at least nine men in a remote valley of eastern Afghanistan by a joint operation of Afghan and American forces put President Hamid Karzai and senior NATO officials at odds on Monday over whether those killed had been civilians or Taliban insurgents.


Pakistan mourns 43 killed in attack on Shiite holy day
Pakistan's financial capital Karachi shut down Tuesday to mourn its worst attack in two years and count the cost of rioting after a suicide bomber killed 43 people at a Shiite Muslim procession.



The latest news from Al Jazeera

"Suspicious Activity"

(AFP/Paul J. Richards)


In an effort to demonstrate the uselessness of TSA, two flights today have made headlines; one in Detroit again, the other in Phoenix. Hopefully anyone traveling over the next few weeks speaks English as a first language. Also, I would recommend sticking to animated movies.

Transportation Security Administration officials said passengers aboard U.S. Airways Flight 192 from Orlando, Fla., on Saturday night reported that two men, described as Middle Eastern, were acting strangely and talking loudly to each other in a foreign language.

A nearby passenger also observed one of men watching what appeared to be footage of a suicide bombing, but was actually a scene from the 2007 movie "The Kingdom." The man also got up from his seat while the seat belt warning sign was still lit, FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson said.

Having to use the bathroom during turbulence is considered suspicious activity. Keep that in mind next time the drink cart comes your way.

And the cause of the Detroit false alarm?

The Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight is the same one targeted Friday in what prosecutors called a failed attempt to blow up a jetliner. Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman for the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Detroit, said Sunday's alert was caused by a passenger who "spent a lengthy time in the restroom."

The good news is that President Obama was notified immediately of the Detroit flight's passenger that "spent a lengthy time in the restroom."