The mangonel was the big gun of antiquity. But this siege engine, used to catapult rocks, burning objects or dead animals into fortified cities, troubled Islamic scholars. Some early authorities disallowed it on the ground that it was an indiscriminate weapon. ...more

July 27, 2008

Regarding "Company Pulls Plug On Jihadist Web Site" (Metro, Feb. 20): According to a tiny article in the Metro section, a Web site considered to be "al-Qaida supporters' oldest and most stable Web sites" was dismantled on Tuesday. This site was hosted by a Tampa firm and running unabated for an unknown amount of time. ...more

February 22, 2008

Tampa continues to be the focus of an international game of Internet whack-a-mole between jihadists who put up Web sites and organizations and individuals who try to shut them down. ...more

February 21, 2008

For the third time in a month, Sarasota-based private investigator Bill Warner has tracked to a Tampa hosting company what he considers a significant Web site used by jihadists for communications, recruitment and fundraising. The company is based in the same building as the United States attorney's office. ...more

February 21, 2008

Truck bombs exploded minutes apart Tuesday in central Algiers, heavily damaging U.N. offices and partly ripping the facade off a government building. At least 26 people were killed, including U.N. workers, and scores were wounded, officials said. ...more

December 12, 2007

Why is Pakistan important to the United States? Osama bin Laden may be hiding there. Intelligence experts say a resurgent al-Qaida and Taliban run training camps in tribal territories along the Afghan border. Their strategists operate openly in Pakistani cities. Also, the country possesses what the West most fears terrorists might obtain: nuclear weapons. ...more

November 4, 2007