Word: binning
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...soon-to-be-released congressional report on 9/11 is expected to detail U.S. knowledge of Saudi financial backing for terrorists. The fact that Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens has focused attention on the kingdom's role as a breeding ground for religious extremism. So former CIA agent Robert Baer's new book, Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude (Crown; 226 pages), is nothing if not timely. It offers a picture of the Saudi royal family as degenerate, dangerous and doomed...
...Baer, the clan is "as violent and vengeful as any Mafia family," and the monarchy is "hanging on by a thread." There are alleged kickbacks by bin Laden family businesses to Saudi overlords and princes living large as the kingdom's 23 million people endure a steady decline in their living standard. Baer cites data indicating that the Saudis funneled half a billion dollars to al-Qaeda over a decade, while Wahhabi-controlled religious schools indoctrinated a new generation of fanatics...
History keeps repeating itself in Afghanistan. In December 2001, when the allies encircled al-Qaeda's craggy mountain retreat of Tora Bora, Osama bin Laden and his cronies slipped away, leaving foot soldiers as decoys for the bunker busters and special-ops bullets. Last month another opportunity to round up al-Qaeda terrorists was botched--this time by fighting among U.S. allies. Afghan fighters and some 2,000 Pakistani troops deployed to help hunt down al-Qaeda holdovers not far from Tora Bora instead turned their weapons on one another. By the time things calmed down, two weeks later...
...pushed Pakistan for months to launch this operation. Military intelligence suggested that a dozen terrorists--possibly including bin Laden--might be holed up in the feisty Mohmand tribe's mountain stronghold, which straddles the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The plan was to have the Pakistanis sweep into the tribal area while U.S. troops sealed off the Afghan side, trapping the terrorists. Things went awry when Mohmand tribesmen and Afghan fighters supporting the U.S. forces attacked the Pakistani soldiers. The Pakistanis, unsurprisingly, shot back. All together a dozen were killed or injured, and the U.S. was left to referee...
...Sentenced. Yang Bin, 40, Chinese-born Dutch citizen who once ranked as China's second-richest man; to 18 years in prison for crimes including bribery and fraud; in Shenyang, China. Yang became wealthy raising flowers, before expanding into real estate. In 2002, he was selected to head a North Korean Special Administrative Region in the city of Sinuiju, apparently without Beijing's prior consent. He was arrested shortly afterward...