Trial of 85 Qaeda suspects begins in Saudi

RIYADH: Eighty-five Al-Qaeda suspects went on trial in a special Saudi security court on Sunday in connection with deadly attacks carried out in the kingdom, state news agency SPA said.

The defendants face charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda, of taking part in attacks on public buildings and residential compounds, and of smuggling and possession of weapons, it said.

Thirteen of the group are accused of participating in the May 2003 car bombings of three residential compounds that left 129 people dead or wounded, including women and children, SPA said. Nine US nationals were among 35 of those killed.

SPA said the arrests of the 85 suspects had foiled plots to attack two air bases, a residential compound in the Eastern Province of the Gulf state and on state oil giant Aramco.

In April, a judicial source said a total of 5,080 terrorist suspects either faced trial or had already been tried before the special court which has come in for criticism from lawyers. (AFP)

Hackers claim hit on CIA website

SAN FRANCISCO: The public website of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was apparently knocked out of commission by hackers on Wednesday.

The US spy agency's cia.gov website stopped responding and members of a hacker group called Lulz Security claimed credit in a message on Twitter at @LulzSec.

"Tango down - cia.gov," the message read. "For the lulz."

Attempts to reach cia.gov were met with a message saying the Web page was not available.

Cia.gov was back online within two hours.

Asked about the Lulz Security claim, a CIA spokesman said "We are looking into these reports."

Lulz Security has claimed in recent weeks to have staged attacks on the online operations of Sony, Nintendo, the US Senate, the Public Broadcasting System news organization and Infragard, a company that works with the FBI. (AFP)

Zawahiri named new Qaeda chief

DUBAI: Al-Qaeda has named Ayman al-Zawahiri as its new chief following the killing in Pakistan of long-time leader Osama bin Laden by US commandos, the jihadists said in a statement Thursday.

"The general command of Al-Qaeda announces, after consultations, the appointment of Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri as head of the group," said the statement, issued in the name of the general command and posted on an Islamist website.

Zawahiri has been Al-Qaeda's number two for years.

US troops can stay in Afghanistan for decades: report

LONDON: According to a report published in the Guardian, US and Afghan officials are engaged in secret talks which could likely lead to US presence in Afghanistan for decades.

According to the report, the secret negotiations about a long-term security arrangement have been underway for over a month and seek to secure a strategic partnership agreement which would include an American presence beyond the end of 2014, the agreed date for all 130,000 combat troops to leave the country.

American negotiators will arrive later this month in Kabul for a new round of talks. The Afghans rejected the Americans' first draft of a strategic partnership agreement in its entirety, preferring to draft their own proposal. This was submitted to Washington two weeks ago.

Pakistan arrests CIA informants in bin Laden raid: NY Times

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s top military spy agency has arrested some of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the months leading up to the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, according to American officials.

Pakistan’s detention of five CIA informants, including a Pakistani Army major who officials said copied the license plates of cars visiting bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in the weeks before the raid, is the latest evidence of the fractured relationship between the United States and Pakistan. It comes at a time when the Obama administration is seeking Pakistan’s support in brokering an endgame in the war in neighboring Afghanistan.

At a closed briefing last week, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Michael J. Morell, the deputy C.I.A. director, to rate Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism operations, on a scale of 1 to 10.

“Three,” Mr. Morell replied, according to officials familiar with the exchange.

The fate of the C.I.A. informants arrested in Pakistan is unclear, but American officials said that the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, raised the issue when he travelled to Islamabad last week to meet with Pakistani military and intelligence officers.

Some in Washington see the arrests as illustrative of the disconnect between Pakistani and American priorities at a time when they are supposed to be allies in the fight against Al Qaeda — instead of hunting down the support network that allowed Bin Laden to live comfortably for years, the Pakistani authorities are arresting those who assisted in the raid that killed the world’s most wanted man.

The Bin Laden raid and more recent attacks by militants in Pakistan have been blows to the country’s military, a revered institution in the country. Some officials and outside experts said the military is mired in its worst crisis of confidence in decades.

American officials cautioned that Mr. Morell’s comments about Pakistani support was a snapshot of the current relationship, and did not represent the administration’s overall assessment.

“We have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts and work through issues when they arise,” said Marie E. Harf, a C.I.A. spokeswoman. “Director Panetta had productive meetings last week in Islamabad. It’s a crucial partnership, and we will continue to work together in the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups who threaten our country and theirs.”

In a sign of the growing anger on Capitol Hill, Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who leads the House Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that he believed elements of the ISI and the military had helped protect bin Laden.