AL-QAEDA’S CHRISTMAS

For (1) of the last few years, al-Qaeda terrorists have sought to make the holiday season anything (2) jolly. Based (3) the reappearance and arrest of operatives involved (4) past plots, investigators are increasingly concerned that preparations (5) new-year-end attacks may be (6) way. “Al-Qaeda has threatened and attempted attacks during the holiday season (7) 1999, and we have to assume it will be the same this year,” says a French official. In an effort to disrupt (8) potential strikes, French authorities last week arrested Slimane Khalfaoui, a 27-year-old French citizen (9) Algerian origin and a veteran of jihads in Bosnia and Afghanistan. Material evidence ties Khalfaoui (10) a Frankfurt cell busted in December 2000 it prepared an attack (11) Strasbourg Cathedral. Khalfaoui has also been linked to “Millennium Bomber” Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaeda operative convicted in the U.S. (12) his foiled plan to strike the Los Angeles airport in December 1999. Evidence and testimony indicate (13) actions were overseen from London by al-Qaeda’s main European terror commander, Abu Doha, an Algerian Islamic extremist arrested in February 2001 trying to flee to Saudi Arabia. French investigators say Khalfaoui is also an associate of Rabah Kadre (a.k.a. Toufik), one of three North Africans arrested last month amid media reports that they were planning a gas attack (14) the Underground. Investigators suggest new attacks may (15) planned. Last year, “shoe bomber” Richard Reid tried to blow (16) a Paris-Miami flight. French police last week detained several Pakistanis suspected (17) having met Reid and given him a place to sleep. However, officials tell TIME that NONE (18) of their palm prints match those found on the plastic explosive packed (19) Reid’s shoe - meaning that those operatives are (20)at large this holiday season.