History

The iconic World Trade Center cross -- two intersecting steel beams that held up when the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001 -- was moved Saturday to its new home at the nearby 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

The CIA organised a fake vaccination programme in the town where it believed Osama bin Laden was hiding in an elaborate attempt to obtain DNA from the fugitive al-Qaida leader's family... CIA agents recruited a senior Pakistani doctor to organise the vaccine drive in Abbottabad, even starting the "project" in a poorer part of town to make it look more authentic... The doctor, Shakil Afridi, has since been arrested by the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) for co-operating with American intelligence agents. [And given a medal?? Oh...]

The FBI has not found videotapes from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that are being sought by a Utah lawyer and do not believe another records search is reasonable or will uncover the information, the agency has told a federal judge. FBI officials are "unaware of the existence or likely location of additional tapes" that would fulfill the Freedom of Information Act request filed by Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, agency attorneys said in court papers filed last week.

In recent years, however, I've come to think of that day as more than just the birthday of a nation. It also commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history.

In a response filed yesterday to a federal judge's order May 11, an FBI official offered no denials about the existence of video images captured by more than 20 surveillance cameras operating prior to 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, in the vicinity of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Instead, he explained that officials at the bureau merely cannot find the tapes and raised the possibility that they "might have been misfiled and thus could be located somewhere other than in the OKBOMB file (though it would be impossible to know where)."

There were two stories of Sino-American relations in the 1960s and 1970s, the oft-told tale of normalization with tbe People s Republic of China and the less-noted saga of friction with, and final abandonment of, the Republic of China. [How Kissinger and Nixon threw Taiwan under the bus in their haste to be the first to open up Communist China]

Survivors from a World War II-era minesweeper sinking have traveled from across the state and country to celebrate their reunion in the City of Legends this week. During their stay in Bartlesville, the veterans — who survived an attack on the USS Salute on June 8, 1945 — will see local hot spots such as Discovery 1 Park, Frank Phillips Home and Woolaroc.

The makers of Silver Bullet Gun Oil claim it contains 13 per cent USDA liquefied pig fat thus making the product 'a highly effective counter-Islamic terrorist force multiplier.'

In August 1998 al-Qaeda killed 12 Americans and 200 others in bombings at two American embassies in east Africa. President Clinton ordered the CIA to dismantle al-Qaeda and, in Scheuer's words, "take care" of bin Laden. The Pentagon launched cruise missile attacks on bin Laden's training camps, but he had left the compound hours earlier. Scheuer estimates they had at least eight further opportunities to assassinate bin Laden in the following months. "I'm not saying it would have been simple to take care of the problem, but it got progressively harder when we didn't take those opportunities. One 50 cent round could have put us all out of our agony." In June 1999, he sent off an angry memo to senior officers asking why his men were risking their lives on someone America apparently had no interest in stopping. "I don't know what you are doing when you talk to the President but he will not get a better opportunity than this," he told them. Scheuer was dismissed from his job and spent the next two years running counter-heroin operations in Pakistan and the Middle East. On September 11, 2001, he was back at CIA headquarters in Langley. Arriving home exhausted at 11.30pm, he took a shower and crawled into bed when his phone went. It was his successor at the bin Laden unit. "We need you back," he said. ...And the next generation of al-Qaeda? "They will be even more cruel and bloody-minded."

United Airlines is apologizing for briefly restarting use of flight numbers of two planes that crashed after being hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001. United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson says the airline regrets the recent use of flight numbers 93 and 175, and has acted to remove the numbers from the airline's computer system.

The former president said he was "not overjoyed" to hear that elite US commandos had taken out bin Laden in Pakistan, explaining that the covert strike had been carried out not "out of hatred but to exact judgment." "The guy is dead. That is good," Bush said, according to an ABC news contributor who attended the event. "Osama's death is a great victory in the war on terror. He was held up as a leader."

60-year-old Staten Island resident, a retired MTA employee, says he's spent at least that sum -- his life savings -- on 1,000 subway-car placards, and even more ads on bus kiosks and subway cars. They say: "Global Earthquake: The Greatest Ever! Judgment Day May 21, 2011." In a self-published book, "The Doomsday Code," Fitzpatrick says the Bible offers "proof that cannot be dismissed." ... If you want to set an alarm clock, the quake will happen just before 6 p.m.... book is based on the teachings of Harold Camping, an 89-year-old radio host with a poor track record of end-of-the-world prophecies....

The first member of Congress to view [photos] ... was Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe. [Said] "They are gruesome, of course, because it was taken right after the incident..." bin Laden was in his underwear at the time of his death.

Only one of the five people killed in the raid that got Osama bin Laden was armed and fired any shots, a senior defense official said Thursday