Terrorism Expert

France's top terrorism investigator, who was heavily criticized for freeing an Iranian implicated in bombings that terrorized Paris in 1986, died today after shooting himself in the mouth. Judge Gilles Boulouque, 40, was eulogized by former Prime Minister Jacques Chirac as a man of great integrity who brought "a very important contribution to the fight against terrorism." Police sources said they found a letter addressed to Boulouque's wife concerning his intended suicide.

The danger dots Re "Patt Morrison Asks: Brian Jenkins," Opinion, Nov. 20 Brian Jenkins agrees with Condoleezza Rice that "security has to be right 100% of the time but terrorists only once. " Actually, as Jenkins points out, it seems that terrorists don't have to be "right" (successful attacks) at all anymore. Just by attempting attacks, they send us into a fear-driven frenzy of responses that disrupt our society and economy without making us significantly more secure.

A terrorism expert was barred Monday from telling a federal jury that evidence seized from accused bomb smuggler Ahmed Ressam's Montreal apartment links Ressam to Islamic militant Osama bin Laden. The testimony, before a federal judge in Los Angeles without the jury present, marked the first time that authorities have publicly disclosed alleged ties between Ressam and Bin Laden. Authorities consider Bin Laden responsible for anti-U.S. attacks, including the 1998 bombings of two U.S.

The abrupt transformation of Colleen R. LaRose from bored middle-aged matron to "JihadJane," her Internet alias, was unique in many ways, but a common thread ties the alleged Islamic militant to other recent cases of homegrown terrorism: the Internet. From charismatic clerics who spout hate online, to thousands of extremist websites, chat rooms and social networking pages that raise money and spread radical propaganda, the Internet has become a crucial front in the ever-shifting war on terrorism.

The FBI has summoned an expert in terrorist explosives to San Diego to help investigate last week's bombing of a van owned by Navy Capt. Will Rogers III, a federal source said Tuesday as the cruiser Vincennes sailed for the first time since the incident. Hours before Rogers took the Vincennes to sea, a bomb threat was called in to the La Jolla private school where his wife, Sharon Rogers, is a teacher. A search found no evidence of a bomb, and San Diego Police Lt. William L.

As a Green Beret captain in Vietnam, Brian Jenkins developed an understandable interest in guerrilla warfare. But when he returned to the United States in 1968 as a consultant for RAND Corp., he found himself wondering whether a new tactic would become an accepted form of warfare--terrorism. Jenkins began recording the occasional political kidnaping or hijacking on 3-by-5 index cards and wrote memos at RAND, the Santa Monica-based "think tank," warning of a possible trend to come.

It was a major terrorism case with a flaw. Prosecutors strongly suspected that the defendants had been visiting terrorist websites, yet they could not prove it. The sites had disappeared from the Internet. But Evan Kohlmann had them, stored on the computer in his studio apartment here. In part because of his testimony, the defendants were all convicted last month in federal court in Virginia on charges of supporting terrorism.

The abrupt transformation of Colleen R. LaRose from bored middle-aged matron to "JihadJane," her Internet alias, was unique in many ways, but a common thread ties the alleged Islamic militant to other recent cases of homegrown terrorism: the Internet. From charismatic clerics who spout hate online, to thousands of extremist websites, chat rooms and social networking pages that raise money and spread radical propaganda, the Internet has become a crucial front in the ever-shifting war on terrorism.

Driven by an increase in Afghan-sponsored terrorist attacks in Pakistan and a spurt in Latin American terror, the global count of terrorist incidents is expected to set a record again in 1988, the State Department's top terrorism expert said Tuesday. Terror attacks are up by one-third over last year, when there were a record 832 terrorism incidents, according to L. Paul Bremer III, chief of the State Department's counterterrorism office.

As Americans calculate how to vent their wrath over last week's terror, defense strategists around the world are offering time-tested advice for going after the perpetrators and deterring security broadsides in the future: Stop. Look. Listen. Stop and make sure the targets to be destroyed are both appropriate and reachable with minimal "collateral damage," the killing of innocent civilians that would incense the Islamic world.

The Obama administration, grappling with a spate of recent Islamic terrorism cases on U.S. soil, has concluded that the country confronts a rising threat from homegrown extremism. Anti-terrorism officials and experts see signs of accelerated radicalization among American Muslims, driven by a wave of English-language online propaganda and reflected in aspiring fighters' trips to hot spots such as Pakistan and Somalia. Europe had been the front line, the target of successive attacks and major plots, while the U.S. remained relatively calm.

Last week's attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan should not increase the threat faced by athletes and sports fans globally, leading international terrorism experts say. "Nothing has changed since the days right after Sept. 11, when people were asking me if they should go to the Super Bowl," said Brian Jenkins, senior terrorism advisor at the Santa Monica-based Rand Corp. "My response was, 'If you don't want your tickets, I will take them.'

Federal and local investigations were underway Thursday into allegations by a Marine gunnery sergeant that he gave stolen top-secret antiterrorism files to a Los Angeles Police Department officer and an L.A. County sheriff's detective. Authorities said the probes by the FBI, LAPD internal affairs and Naval Criminal Investigative Service come after Gunnery Sgt.

President Bush made provocative new assertions Tuesday about Al Qaeda's role in Iraq, using recently declassified information to make his case that the global battle with the terrorism network -- and Americans' safety at home -- hinges on keeping U.S. troops there to fight. Bush's comments were met with skepticism by some terrorism experts and former U.S. intelligence officials, who said the president exaggerated or even misrepresented the facts in Iraq.

The bottom half of any presidential ticket traditionally belongs to the campaign hit man, the guy who sticks the shiv in while the presidential nominee floats above the fray. With his recent charge that a vote for John Kerry could return us to the bad old days of feckless counter-terrorism and be a prelude to terrorist attack, Vice President Dick Cheney has redefined the role downward. The Kerry campaign has called the remark out of bounds and divisive.

Heightened terror alerts and high-profile arrests of suspected Islamic extremists have international security experts and officials concerned that the Bush administration's actions could jeopardize investigations into the Al Qaeda network. European terrorism analysts acknowledge that the U.S. and its allies are under threat by Al Qaeda, but some suggest that the White House is unnecessarily adding to public anxiety with vague and dated intelligence about possible attacks.

The assault on the Rashid Hotel by Iraqi resistance fighters Sunday was designed to grab attention by flaunting their ability to inflict casualties on U.S. soldiers and civilians, even those ensconced within the most secure compound in Iraq, according to terrorism experts and law enforcement officials in Baghdad. The onslaught, in which one U.S. colonel was killed and 15 people were wounded, did not cause as many casualties as previous attacks on other high-profile targets in the capital.

Fearful of potential terrorist attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered sharply increased security measures at the nation's airports Tuesday as a direct result of the arrest in Washington state last week of an Algerian man driving a car containing ingredients for four crude bombs. The effort, as well as a separate move by the U.S.

In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, CIA analysts were ordered repeatedly to redo intelligence assessments concluded that Al Qaeda had no operational ties to Iraq, according to a veteran CIA counter-terrorism official who has written a book that is sharply critical of the decision to go to war with Iraq.

It was a major terrorism case with a flaw. Prosecutors strongly suspected that the defendants had been visiting terrorist websites, yet they could not prove it. The sites had disappeared from the Internet. But Evan Kohlmann had them, stored on the computer in his studio apartment here. In part because of his testimony, the defendants were all convicted last month in federal court in Virginia on charges of supporting terrorism.