The Department of Justice today issued a "fact sheet" today, outlining some of its successes using cooperating defendants and the criminal justice system against terror suspects. I think it is in response to critics who have suggested that Mirandizing terror suspects and providing criminal trials is dangerous. Two of the current examples provided:

• David Headley, arrested in 2009 and charged in connection with a plot to bomb a Danish newspaper and his alleged role in the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, has provided extremely valuable intelligence regarding those attacks, the terrorist organization Lashkar y Tayyiba, and Pakistan-based terrorist leaders.

• Adis Medunjanin, an alleged associate of Najibullah Zazi, was taken into custody in January 2010, and, after waiving his Miranda rights, provided detailed information to the FBI about terrorist-related activities of himself and others in the United States and Pakistan. He has been charged with conspiring to kill U.S. nationals overseas and receiving military-type training from al-Qaeda.

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Osama bin Laden released a videotape yesterday claiming credit for AQAP and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed bomb plot on the Delta flight to Detroit on Christmas Day.

In a short recording carried by the Al-Jazeera Arabic news channel, bin Laden addressed President Barack Obama saying the attack was a message like that of Sept. 11 and more attacks against the U.S. would be forthcoming.

"The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the Sept. 11," he said.

"America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine," he added. "God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support to the Israelis will continue."

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AQAP will really get a chuckle over this one: A teenager praying loudly caused a plane to divert.

A U.S. Airways jet was diverted to Philadelphia International Airport Thursday after a praying Jewish man's religious item was mistaken for a bomb, police said....Officials said another passenger had become alarmed by seeing the teen's phylacteries — boxes containing verses from the Bible which observant Jews strap around their arms and heads as part of morning prayers.

"Someone on the plane construed it as some kind of device," said Christine O'Brien, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Police Department.

Between the TSA and hyper-alert (and ignorant) fliers, is everything out of the ordinary going to considered a potential terrorist threat?

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing today on Yemen and Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula. Here is the written testimony of Gregory Johnson (pdf) who also writes the blog Waq al Waq. On pages 17 to 23, he accurately outlines the formation,activities and events related to AQAP this year. He concludes the section with:

[T]he US and Yemen seem more prepared to fight the enemy al-Qaeda was rather than the one that it has become.

It was one year ago today that Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula announced its formation. Today, it released a statement (English translation)congratulating itself on its achievements during the past 12 months, and honoring its members who died during suicide missions. Some snippets: [More...]

The Washington Post has obtained FBI internal memos and e-mails showing that the FBI illegally collected thousands of phone records from 2002 to 2006 by lying to phone companies and inventing fake terror emergencies. From the memos, and through interviews, it has learned:

E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats.

A Justice Department inspector general's report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.

FBI General Counsel Valerie Peroni tells the Post the FBI violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Actby invoking non-existent emergencies to obtain the records. [More...]

Update: The Yemen Observer retracts: it confused Saeed with his brother Yousef, who was captured. But Yousef was killed in October, this makes no sense. Another version of Yousef's death here.

The Yemen Observer reports AQAP deputy leader al Shehri has been captured:

A car carrying members of al-Qaeda was turned over when attempted to bypass a newly established sudden checkpoint by the Yemeni security units today and resulted in the capture of Saeed al-Shehri, the second person in command of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, security source told the Yemen Observer. The car was going in a high speed and was carrying al-Shehri and other al-Qaeda militants and flipped over in the district of Sylan in Shabwah near the borders of Marib province. All the militants were captured.

Saeed al Shehri is the former Guantanamo detainee who went through the Saudi rehabilitation program and emerged as the group's Deputy Leader in the video announcement of AQAP. (Leader #1 is Nasir al-Wuhayshi. More on the top leaders here.))

Is the news report valid? AQAP is now saying Yemen did not kill Qassim al Raymi this week as previously claimed: [More...]

Say hello to the new incancation of the narco-terror war, which I've been predicting for many years, ever since the aborted attempt to introduce the Victory Act.

The United States attorney in Manhattan is merging the two units in his office that prosecute terrorism and international narcotics cases, saying that he wants to focus more on extremist Islamic groups whose members he believes are increasingly turning to the drug trade to finance their activities.

The new unit, he said, would be better able to bring drug charges to bear against some terrorists, as well as use a new law that gives federal drug agents the authority to pursue narcotics and terrorism crimes committed anywhere in the world if they can establish a link between a drug offense and a terrorist act or group.

This seems like a step down the slippery slope. [More...]

The Washington Post reports the details on the mismanagement of informant Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who killed 7 CIA officers at an Afghan base a few weeks ago.

The Jordanians initially turned and worked him, but in mid-2009, they let the Americans and CIA take charge of him. [More...]

Yemen's Interior Ministry today confirmed that the military commander of AQAP, Qassim al Raymi, was killed in yesterday's strike.

In a statement on its website, the ministry said Rimi had died when a missile struck his vehicle in the eastern part of Saada province. Also killed were Ayed al-Shabwani, Ammar al-Waili, Saleh al-Tais, Egyptian Ibrahim Mohammed Saleh al-Banna and an unidentified sixth person.

They believe AQAP leader Nasser al-Wahaishi is hiding in the area, along with cleric Anwar al Awlaki. Today, Yemen says it captured three more AQAP leaders near the Saudi border. No names yet.

Will flying without an overcoat be the next item to place you on the terrorism watch list?

The would-be Christmas Day bomber boarded his flight in Amsterdam to frigid Detroit with no coat — perhaps the final warning sign that went unnoticed leading up to what could have been a catastrophic terrorist attack, lawmakers were told.

..."He was flying into Detroit without a coat. That's interesting if you've ever been in Detroit in December," New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said after a briefing by presidential counterterrorism adviser John Brennan.

How will they distinguish between someone who originated their trip in a cold climate, flew to warm climate and then was on their way back to the cold? When I've flown home to Colorado in the winter from a warm climate, I don't have a coat with me. I've either left one in the car I parked at the airport or asked the person picking me up to bring it. Who wants to schlep a winter coat to the tropics?

As for not having luggage, many people (including me) ship it via Fedex ahead of time. [More...]

The New York Times on the over-hyped threat of al Qaeda.

[T]he politically charged clamor has lumped together disparate cases and obscured the fact that the enemies on American soil in 2009, rather than a single powerful and sophisticated juggernaut, were a scattered, uncoordinated group of amateurs who displayed more fervor than skill.

By the numbers:

Exactly 14 of the approximately 14,000 murders in the United States last year resulted from allegedly jihadist attacks: 13 people shot at Fort Hood in Texas in November and one at a military recruiting station in Little Rock, Ark., in June.

Even Captian Underpants is overblown: [More...]

Marc Lynch has a new post at Foreign Policy, Don't Let Captain Underpants Bring Back the GWOT, on the mass over-hysteria about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his failed bomb plot on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

But is too much to ask that the national discourse over the failed bomber be more mature and analytical than "Captain Underpants vs Professor Poopypants "?

Lynch cites with approval this WAPO op-ed, "Don't Panic, Fear is Al Qaida's Real Goal," which is well-worth a read. He also correctly notes: [More...]