Several of this week's new entries focus on the 9/11 Commission, in particular its Executive Director Philip Zelikow, who offered public support for the invasion of Iraq in 2002, but did not want the commission to investigate false claims of links between 9/11 and Iraq. After the commission's investigation started, one staffer was sent to review CIA documents, and another, Warren Bass, was sent to review NSC material. Bass came to favor the account of events in the Bush Administration in the summer of 2001 given by counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke over that given by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. However, Zelikow distrusted Clarke and tried to protect his friend Rice; it was these ties to Rice which caused both Bass and Commissioner Bob Kerrey to threaten to quit the commission, although neither of them made good on their threat.

About half of the new entries in the History Commons' 9/11 Timeline this week deal with the actual day of 9/11. One set focus on Flight 93, on which passenger Todd Burnett reportedly said a hijacker had a gun, although the 9/11 Commission disagreed. Burnett's wife informed the FBI of her husband's calls before the plane crashed. United Airlines informed its staff of the crash at 10:17, American Airlines at 10:27, and the public at 11:17.

Many of the new entries this week deal with Pakistan. President Pervez Musharraf expressed his public support for the Taliban in May 2000, and the ISI then assisted an autumn offensive by the Taliban. After taking office, the Bush administration was slow to develop a new policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and only gave Pakistan vague warnings about its links with Osama bin Laden three months before 9/11. After the attacks, Richard Armitage made his disputed "stone age" comment, but the ISI secretly advised the Taliban to resist the US-led invasion.

One large group of new additions to the 9/11 Timeline this week concerns London-based imam Abu Hamza al-Masri, a key figure in the global militant network and an informer for the British security services.

The largest chunk of new entries this week deal with al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia in general and the 2002 Bali bombings in particular. A 1994 phone tap in the Philippines indicated that Hambali, a leader of the al-Qaeda affiliate Jemaah Islamiya (JI), was involved in the Bojinka plot, and after he was arrested in 2003 President Bush falsely promised he could be tried in Indonesia, where Jemaah Islamiya attacked the Philippine ambassador in 2000. Al-Qaeda-linked figures also helped militant Islamists fight Christians in the spice islands in 2000-2001, and the US unsuccessfully pressured Indonesia to allow the rendition of JI's spiritual leader in 2002.

Defendants 'attracted to Islam'

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

By Chris Summers
BBC News, Woolwich Crown Court

The 21 July bomb plot trial has heard from a former school friend of two of the defendants about how they first became interested in Islam.

Stephen Bentley went to school with Adel Yahya and also befriended Yassin Omar, who attended a different school.

Mr Bentley, a 26-year-old data analyst, said he had known both men since the age of 13.

He said they had shared a love of football and computer games.

Asked by Max Hill, prosecuting, what Mr Yahya was like as a youngster he said: "He was a very friendly guy, very into football, Arsenal fan. Very into computer games, boys' stuff, you know."

Mr Bentley, who was brought up in a Christian family, said after leaving school in north London he went to university and only came back to see his friends in the summer holidays.

He said both had become very interested in Islam and he said they had talked to him about the religion and even persuaded him to convert.