BARCELONA, SPAIN — A decade after al-Qaeda issued a global declaration of war against America, U.S. spy agencies have had little luck recruiting well-placed informants and are finding the upper reaches of the network tougher to penetrate than the Kremlin during the Cold War, according to U.S. and European intelligence officials.
Some officials say their agencies missed early opportunities to attack the network from within. Relying on Cold War tactics such as cash rewards for tips failed to take into account the religious motivations of Islamist radicals and produced few results.
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, officials said, al-Qaeda has tightened security at the top, placing an even greater emphasis on personal and tribal loyalties to determine who can gain access to its leaders.
“We’re facing a very disciplined organization,” said Louis Caprioli, former chief of international counterterrorism for France’s domestic security service and now a consultant for GEOS, a global security firm. “These people have well understood they are the target of informants, so it makes it all the more difficult to penetrate them.”
SUV hits crowds, injures at least 12
CRESTWOOD, ILL. — An out-of-control sport utility vehicle plowed into crowds at a suburban Chicago auto auction Wednesday, injuring at least a dozen people. Three were critically hurt.
The vehicle was inside the Tri-State Auto Auction building in Crestwood when it suddenly sped up, struck a group of people and hit a minivan. It then drove out a doorway and plowed into another cluster of people, witness said.
Police are investigating what caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle.
Son of wrecking-yard owner booked in deaths
SANTA MARIA, CALIF. — Police alleged Wednesday that a son of an auto wrecking-yard owner shot four people to death at the business.
Panicked customers fled the busy yard Tuesday afternoon as the gunman shot his victims at close range, police said.
Lee Isaac Bedwell Leeds, 31, of Santa Maria was booked for investigation of murder. At least one of those killed at Black Road Auto was related to Leeds, two were employees and the fourth victim appears to have been a customer, investigators said.
Cheesesteak shop’s English-only signs OK
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia agency has ruled that English-only signs at a famous cheesesteak shop are not discriminatory.
The Commission on Human Relations says in its Wednesday ruling that the sign at Geno’s Steaks does not violate the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance.
Joe Vento posted the signs at his shop in October 2005. They read “This is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING ‘PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH.’ ”
Critics allege the signs discourage non-English speakers from going to the shop. Vento says he has never refused service to anyone because they couldn’t speak English.
Fire forces hundreds to evacuate
SAN MANUEL, TEXAS — A wildfire blamed on a fallen power line in the Rio Grande Valley spread to about 25,000 acres Wednesday, forcing hundreds from their homes. A small grass fire near Laredo also caused a power plant to shut down as a precaution for about two hours and led the state’s electric power grid to import power from Mexico for a time.
Kilauea volcano spouts off
VOLCANO, HAWAII — An explosion at the erupting Kilauea volcano has scattered rocks over an area including a tourist lookout. No one was reported injured.
A scientist says Wednesday’s explosion was the first in the Halemaumau Crater in the Kilauea volcano since 1924.
Uighurs at Guantanamo issue plea
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — In a rare direct appeal from Guantanamo Bay, a prisoner from western China says the U.S. is holding him and fellow Chinese Muslims in harsh conditions, even though authorities told them years ago they are innocent and would be released.
The prisoner complains in a letter obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press that he and the other Uighurs were told in 2004 and 2005 that they would be let go, yet they languish in windowless, cramped cells. The men, who say they fled China to escape persecution, have been in captivity for six years.
The U.S. holds 17 Uighurs at Guantanamo and their lawyers say all have been cleared for release and none will be prosecuted.
American officials have acknowledged the Chinese Muslims cannot be sent back to their homeland, but diplomatic efforts to place them in other countries have stalled.
Five Uighurs from Guantanamo were given refuge in Albania in 2006 amid Chinese protests.
