Search results for

A day after the White House released a briefing document on the al Qaeda threat that President George Bush received a month before the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush says the brief lacked "actionable intelligence." Security experts say the paper leads them to question the Bush administration's judgment of the information. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly reports.

Members of the Sept. 11 panel think National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's testimony this week will illuminate what went wrong with U.S. anti-terror policy before the attacks. Republicans hope Rice will rebut Richard Clarke's charges that the White House ignored the growing threat. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards and NPR News Analyst Cokie Roberts.

Commissioners on the Sept. 11 panel call on the White House to declassify a presidential briefing dated Aug. 6, 2001. The document warned that Osama bin Laden was planning attacks inside the United States. In Thursday's testimony, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said that and other pre-Sept. 11 warnings were too vague to act on. Hear NPR's Pam Fessler.

The American Civil Liberties Union files a lawsuit challenging the federal "No-Fly" list of people barred from flying due to suspected terrorist ties. The plaintiffs in the suit are U.S. citizens who the ACLU says are wrongfully on the list, with no way to have their names removed. Those on the list are routinely stopped and searched during travel. NPR 's Larry Abramson reports.

As U.S.-led forces in Iraq confront a growing insurgency, they face an ominous new developmtent: hostage-taking. American Marines continue to battle for control of the town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. In southern Iraq, Shiite fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Sadr are said to be in full control of two towns and parts of another. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and NPR's Philip Reeves.

As the United States reports the death of another soldier in Iraq, the head of a visiting U.N. delegation says security must improve if the country is to hold general elections by January. The U.S. military has accepted responsibility for the shooting deaths early this month of two Arabic television reporters, but insists the incident was an accident. Hear NPR's Ivan Watson.

Renowned British broadcaster Alistair Cooke, the longtime host of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre, has died at his home in New York at the age of 95. No cause of death was given, but earlier this month, Cooke retired because of heart disease. For 58 years, Cooke's Letter from America program was heard on the BBC's World Service and Britain's Radio 4. NPR's Bob Edwards has a remembrance.

The national commission examining U.S. counter-terrorism policy prior to the Sept. 11 attacks hears from defense secretaries and secretaries of state from the Clinton and current Bush administrations. The commission's preliminary report says both administrations relied primarily on diplomacy, rather than military force, to counter al Qaeda. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and NPR's Pam Fessler.

U.S. administrator for Iraq Paul Bremer declares militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr an "outlaw" and says the U.S.-led coalition is determined to restore law and order to Baghdad and other restive Iraqi cities. On Sunday, al-Sadr called for anti-American protests that turned violent in several cities, killing dozens of Iraqis, eight U.S. servicemen and a Salvadoran soldier. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep.

President Bush will briefly address the nation on the subject of Iraq Tuesday night before taking questions from White House reporters. The bulk of the questions are expected to deal with stiffening resistance to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and intelligence reports on terrorist activity prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Hear NPR's Don Gonyea and NPR's Melissa Block.