AP sources: No sign of US entry for terror plot (AP)

WASHINGTON – Senior U.S. officials say there's no evidence that anyone linked to al-Qaida has entered the country to carry out an attack on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The officials insisted on anonymity to discuss the investigation.

Police and FBI agents remain on alert as investigators look for proof of a plot against Washington or New York.

Since late Wednesday, counterterrorism officials have chased a tip that al-Qaida may have sent three men to detonate a car bomb. At least two of those men could be U.S. citizens.

By Saturday, there was still no intelligence backing that up and officials continued to question the validity of the initial tip.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Al-Qaida may have sent American terrorists or men carrying U.S. travel documents to launch an attack on Washington or New York to coincide with memorials marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, government officials say.

One U.S. official says al-Qaida dispatched three men, at least two of whom could be U.S. citizens, to detonate a car bomb in one of the cities. Should that mission prove impossible, the attackers have been told to simply cause as much destruction as they can. But U.S. intelligence officials say they have no evidence there is anyone inside the United States tied to the plot.

Although the initial tip suggested terrorists, including U.S. citizens, may be traveling to the country, that remains unconfirmed.

Word that al-Qaida had ordered the mission reached U.S. officials midweek. A CIA informant who has proved reliable in the past approached intelligence officials overseas to say that the men had been ordered by newly minted al-Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahri to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Sunday by doing harm on U.S. soil.

The tipster says the would-be attackers are of Arab descent and may speak Arabic as well as English. Counterterrorism officials were looking for certain names associated with the threat, but it was unclear whether the names were real or fake.

Intelligence analysts have looked at travel patterns and behaviors of people entering the country recently. And while they have singled out a few people for additional scrutiny, none has shown any involvement in a plot.

Counterterrorism officials have been working around the clock to determine whether the threat is accurate, but so far, have been unable to corroborate it, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

In the meantime, extra security was put in place to protect the people in the two cities that took the brunt of the jetliner attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon a decade ago. It was the worst terror assault in the nation's history, and al-Qaida has long dreamed of striking again to mark the anniversary. But it could be weeks before the intelligence community can say whether this particular threat is real.

Undaunted by talk of a new terror threat, New Yorkers and Washingtonians wove among police armed with assault rifles and waited with varying degrees of patience at security checkpoints.

"We're watching," James McJunkin, FBI assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, said Saturday. "We expect we're going to get an increase in threats and investigative activity around high-profile dates and events. He added: "This is a routine response for us. It's routine because it's muscle memory."

For months, the FBI had planned to increase staffing around the anniversary and police knew they were going to be out in force in Washington, he said.

In New York on Friday, security worker Eric Martinez wore a pin depicting the twin towers on his lapel as he headed to work in lower Manhattan where he also worked 10 years ago when the towers came down. "If you're going to be afraid, you're just going to stay home," he said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, too, made a point of taking the subway to City Hall.

Briefed on the threat Friday morning, President Barack Obama instructed his security team to take "all necessary precautions," the White House said. Obama still planned to travel to New York on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary with stops that day at the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa.

Washington commuters were well aware of the terror talk.

Cheryl Francis, of Chantilly, Va., said she travels over the Roosevelt bridge into Washington every day and doesn't plan to change her habits. Francis, who was in Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, said a decade later the country is more aware and alert.

"It's almost like sleeping with one eye open," she said, but she added that people need to continue living their lives.

The intelligence community regularly receives tips and information of this nature. But the timing of this particular threat had officials especially concerned, because it was the first "active plot" that came to light as the country marked the significant anniversary, a moment that was also significant to al-Qaida, according to information gleaned in May from Osama bin Laden's compound.

The U.S. government has long known that terrorists see the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and other uniquely American dates as opportunities to strike. Officials have also been concerned that some may see this anniversary as an opportunity to avenge bin Laden's death.

Britain, meanwhile, warned its citizens who are traveling to the U.S. that there was a potential for new terror attacks that could include "places frequented by expatriates and foreign travelers."

Acutely aware of these factors, law enforcement around the country had already increased security measures at airports, nuclear plants, train stations and more in the weeks leading up to Sept. 11. The latest threat, potentially targeting New York or Washington, prompted an even greater security surge in those cities. U.S. embassies and consulates abroad had also boosted their vigilance in preparation for the anniversary.

At Penn Station in New York, transit authority police carried assault rifles and wore helmets and bullet proof vests as they watched crowds of commuters. Police searched passengers' bags as they entered the subway, and National Guard troops in camouflage fatigues moved among riders, eyeing packages.

In Washington, Police Chief Cathy Lanier warned that unattended cars parked in suspicious locations or near critical buildings and structures would be towed.

Speaking in New York, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was "a specific, credible but unconfirmed report that al-Qaida, again, is seeking to harm Americans and in particular, to target New York and Washington."

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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Christopher Hawley, Colleen Long and Samantha Gross in New York, Ben Feller, Jessica Grescko, Matthew Lee, and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Kimberly Dozier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier and Eileen Sullivan at http://twitter.com/esullivanap

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AP IMPACT: 35,000 worldwide convicted for terror (AP)

At least 35,000 people worldwide have been convicted as terrorists in the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. But while some bombed hotels or blew up buses, others were put behind bars for waving a political sign or blogging about a protest.

In the first tally ever done of global anti-terror arrests and convictions, The Associated Press documented a surge in prosecutions under new or toughened anti-terror laws, often passed at the urging and with the funding of the West. Before 9/11, just a few hundred people were convicted of terrorism each year.

The sheer volume of convictions, along with almost 120,000 arrests, shows how a keen global awareness of terrorism has seeped into societies, and how the war against it is shifting to the courts. But it also suggests that dozens of countries are using the fight against terrorism to curb political dissent.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: After the 9/11 attacks, the world launched a war on terror. Here, in the first tally of anti-terror prosecutions ever done, The Associated Press examines how many people have been put behind bars under anti-terror laws, and who they are. AP reporters in more than 100 countries filed requests under freedom of information laws, conducted interviews and gathered data for this story.

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The AP used freedom of information queries, law enforcement data and hundreds of interviews to identify 119,044 anti-terror arrests and 35,117 convictions in 66 countries, accounting for 70 percent of the world's population. The actual numbers undoubtedly run higher because some countries refused to provide information.

That included 2,934 arrests and 2,568 convictions in the United States, which led the war on terror — eight times more than in the decade before.

The investigation also showed:

‧ More than half the convictions came from two countries accused of using anti-terror laws to crack down on dissent, Turkey and China. Turkey alone accounted for a third of all convictions, with 12,897.

‧ The range of people in jail reflects the dozens of ways different countries define a terrorist. China has arrested more than 7,000 people under a definition that counts terrorism as one of Three Evils, along with separatism and extremism.

‧ The effectiveness of anti-terror prosecutions varies widely. Pakistan registered the steepest increase in terror arrests in recent years, yet terror attacks are still on the rise. But in Spain, the armed Basque separatist group ETA has not planted a fatal bomb in two years.

‧ Anti-terror laws can backfire. Authoritarian governments in the Middle East used anti-terror laws broadly, only to face a backlash in the Arab Spring.

"There's been a recognition all around the world that terrorism really does pose a greater threat to society," said John Bellinger, former legal adviser to the U.S. State Department. "Also, more authoritarian countries are using the real threat of terrorism as an excuse and a cover to crack down in ways that are abusive of human rights."

Since 9/11, almost every country in the world has passed or revised anti-terror laws, from tiny Tonga to giant China.

Turkey, long at odds with its Kurdish minority, tops all other countries AP could tally for anti-terror convictions and their steep rise. The Kurdistan Workers' Party is responsible for much of the violence in the country of 75 million.

Naciye Tokova, a Kurdish mother of two, held up a sign at a protest last year that said, "Either a free leadership and free identity, or resistance and revenge until the end." She couldn't read the sign, because she cannot read.

She was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison under anti-terror laws.

"Of course, I'm not a terrorist," said Tokova, who is free on appeal. She was defiant, replying curtly to questions after long pauses.

Turkey passed new and stricter anti-terror laws in 2006. Convictions shot up from 273 in 2005 to 6,345 in 2009, the latest year available, according to data AP got through Turkey's right to information law.

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says the country is fair to its Kurds.

"We have never compromised on the balance between security and freedom," Erdogan said.

Turkey clearly reflects the saying that one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. What makes a terrorist depends on where you are and whom you ask. In the U.S., the FBI, the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department don't agree on what terrorism is.

"If anything should have revealed to the world the essence of unacceptable terrorism, it was 9/11. Unfortunately, a decade later, we seem no closer to reaching agreement," said law professor Kent Roach at the University of Toronto.

China considers terrorism part of a vague charge of "endangering state security," and calls strong laws necessary to ensure safety. The people arrested under the laws come mostly from Xinjiang, known as East Turkistan to ethnic Uighurs fighting for an independent homeland.

Two years ago, Uighur entrepreneur Dilshat Perhat warned visitors to his popular Uighur-language website not to post political comments. Even so, someone posted a call for a demonstration in the middle of the night.

Perhat deleted the comments the next day and informed the police, as required. But he was arrested anyway, convicted in a one-day trial and sentenced to five years in prison.

"They wanted to use him as an example, to threaten and show their power to the Uighur people," said Perhat's brother Dilmurat, a graduate student in the U.S. "Inside China, any peaceful protest by the Uighurs is labeled as an act of terrorism by the Chinese government."

The increase in anti-terror prosecutions worldwide reflects how much they have become a weapon, however blunt, against terrorism, but their record is spotty.

Pakistan had the steepest rise in terror arrests of any country the AP examined, with the help of billions of dollars from the U.S. Pakistan amended its terror laws in 2004. Arrests went up from 1,552 in 2006 to 12,886 in 2009, partly because of four military operations that year.

Yet terrorism in Pakistan is still on the rise, and only Iraq beats Pakistan for deaths from terror. One reason may be a conviction rate of only 10 percent in terrorism cases, compared to 90 percent in the U.S.

Like Pakistan, Spain is no stranger to terrorism, but has had some success fighting it. Spain has about 140 convictions a year, according to data from AP's freedom of information request.

ETA, the Basque separatist group, once was responsible for killings every month. Today it is severely weakened.

"The terrorist attacks 10 years ago on the World Trade Center and the Madrid bombings helped forge a strong feeling of rejection toward ETA," said Spanish journalist Gorka Landaburu, who is Basque and himself a victim of an ETA mail bomb in May 2001 that blew off his thumb and fingertips. "Society lost a bit of its fear."

Under tough new anti-terror laws passed after 9/11, convicted terrorists in Spain face a maximum of 40 years, 10 more than for other crimes.

"Every democratic country has to resort at one time or another to exceptional measures to defend itself," said Roman Cotarelo, a political science professor at Spain's Open University.

For Landaburu, the terror is still there, in his pinched brow and in the two bodyguards who follow him. When he gestures with his hands, which he often does, there's a stump where his thumb once was.

But he feels ETA's days are numbered.

"Things are much calmer," he said. "People can breathe more easily."

Anti-terror laws are still playing out in unexpected ways, particularly in the Middle East, long seen as the cauldron of terrorism.

After 9/11, many Middle Eastern countries quickly adopted strict anti-terror laws. Secular Tunisia used its 2003 laws to crack down on piety and protect against Islamic militancy. It convicted 62 people under the laws in 2006, 308 in 2007 and 633 in 2009, according to the U.N.

Former prisoner Saber Ragoubi joined an anti-government group in 2006 because he says he wanted religious freedom. The group was trained by an Algerian group that later declared allegiance to al-Qaida.

Ragoubi says he never held or planned to hold a weapon, but he did support plans to attack the police.

When the police found him, Ragoubi was tried and sentenced to life in prison. For years, he said, he was kicked and beaten, his hands and legs chained to an iron bar in what was called the "chicken on a spit" position. He said he was shackled to a metal chair and electrically shocked, and told his mother and sisters would be raped in front of him if he didn't sign a confession.

"To this day, I don't know how I bore all that torture during that time," said Ragoubi. He was just fitted with two new front teeth to replace the ones kicked out of his mouth by the heavy boot of a prison guard, he said.

Under former leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, as many as 2,000 Tunisians were detained, charged or convicted on terrorism-related charges. The U.N. says some were tortured.

But five days after Ben Ali fled in January, the new ministers released everyone convicted under the anti-terror laws, even those who had indeed committed violent crimes.

The role of anti-terror laws in — and against — the Arab Spring continues.

Bahrain and Syria have charged protesters under anti-terror laws. Saudi Arabia, citing concerns about al-Qaida, is considering an anti-terror law with a minimum prison sentence of 10 years for disloyalty to the king.

Ten years after 9/11, the push for a global assault on terrorism still runs strong. Mike Smith, director of the U.N.'s Counter-Terrorism Committee, calls prosecuting terrorists "incredibly important."

But almost everyone, including the U.N. and the U.S., agrees that the cost is some erosion of human rights.

"Originally the approach was the more the merrier, the stronger counter-terror laws, the better for the security of the world. But that was a serious mistake," said Martin Sheinin, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism. "Nowadays people are realizing the abuse and even the actual use of counterterror laws is bad for human rights and also bad for actually stopping terrorism."

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AP staff writers who contributed to this report include: Christopher Torchia from Turkey; Christopher Bodeen from China; Paul Schemm from Tunisia; and Ciaran Giles from Spain.

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Businesses play critical role in thwarting terror (AP)

KILLEEN, Texas – Ultimately, it was the keen eye of a Texas gun shop clerk that helped authorities find an AWOL soldier who'd stashed bomb-making material in his nearby motel room for a planned attack on Fort Hood soldiers.

The tip that led Killeen police to Pfc. Naser Abdo on Wednesday prevented what could have been the second terrorist attack on the Army post, following a 2009 shooting rampage in which an Army psychiatrist is charged with killing 13 people. Earlier this year in Texas, a shipping company that told the FBI about a suspicious order for a chemical explosive foiled an alleged plot to blow up former President George W. Bush's Dallas home.

The enduring lesson for a post-9/11 world: America's work force plays a crucial role in preventing potential terror attacks.

"A vigilant public and informed local law enforcement make it much more complicated for people wishing to carry out attacks to do so," said John Cohen, principal deputy counterterrorism adviser at the Homeland Security Department.

Federal and local law enforcement agencies have established programs over the past decade that encourage the public to report suspicious activity, and tips from businesses have led to multiple high-profile arrests.

Abdo, 21, who went absent without leave from Fort Campbell, Ky., early this month, was arrested Wednesday at a motel outside Fort Hood and charged with possession of an unregistered destructive device. Police say he was perhaps only a day away from unleashing bombs in a restaurant frequented by soldiers and attacking the Army post.

Abdo's alleged plan was cut short when Guns Galore employee Greg Ebert became suspicious after the soldier acted oddly while purchasing smokeless gunpowder, shotgun ammunition and a semi-automatic pistol magazine. Ebert's call to police and the soldier's subsequent arrest was a proud moment for employees of the store — the same place Maj. Nidal Hasan bought a pistol used in the Fort Hood shooting spree two years ago.

Store clerk Dave Newby said Hasan's purchase, while legal, devastated store workers and put everyone on higher alert.

"I think we all changed," he said. "It was terrible. We thought about coulda, shoulda, woulda."

Ebert noted this week that although there was "nothing extraordinary" about Abdo, he saw just enough to make him suspicious.

The retired police officer said Abdo arrived at the Killeen gun shop in a taxi — unusual for the Central Texas town — and proceeded to buy 6 pounds of smokeless gunpowder, while asking what it was. Abdo didn't say much as he paid in cash, and he didn't bother to collect his change or a receipt before returning to the waiting taxi.

"Now, he hasn't done anything unlawful — it doesn't prevent me from being curious," said Ebert, who retired from the police force last year.

Federal authorities say actions like Ebert's can keep America safe.

"The willingness of an individual to contact law enforcement about an event or incident that may be indicative of a possible threat is vital to our mission," FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said. "It may turn out not to be a threat but at least we have the opportunity to check it out."

Other business tips have been credited with preventing disaster.

A clerk at a Circuit City store in New Jersey told police in 2006 that customers had asked him to make a DVD out of video footage of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad. The FBI later tracked six men, now known as the Fort Dix Six, who plotted to kill soldiers in a raid at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey.

Earlier this year, two companies — Carolina Biological Supply Co. in North Carolina and Con-way Freight in Lubbock — contacted federal and local authorities about suspicions each had surrounding a purchase by Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, who has been charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and schedule for trial later this year.

Federal authorities said Aldawsari bought explosive materials online and planned to hide them inside dolls and baby carriages to blow up dams, nuclear plants and Bush's home. A former Texas Tech University chemical engineering student from Saudia Arabia, Aldawsari was arrested after the North Carolina company reported $435 in suspicious purchases to the FBI.

The freight company notified Lubbock police and the FBI with similar suspicions because it appeared the order wasn't intended for commercial use. Con-way Freight spokesman Gary Frantz said since Sept. 11, 2001, the company has worked with local, state and federal authorities to develop training programs employees participate in at least once a year.

"I think we can be a force multiplied, which is a term often used by law enforcement, where private industry serves as additional eyes and ears to help authorities to uncover these activities to protect the public," Frantz said.

Carolina Biological Supply spokesman Keith Barker said his company has procedures to closely monitor orders involving "chemicals of a high degree of hazard."

"We've taken it upon ourselves to be vigilant," Barker said.

Meanwhile, "Operation Tripwire" is an FBI effort that asks certain businesses and industries — such as airlines and cruise ships — to look for and report suspicious behavior. The Department of Homeland Security has a national "If You See Something, Say Something" public awareness campaign that works with businesses and groups, such as the National Basketball Association, to promote public vigilance.

Some local law enforcement agencies also have partnered with businesses. New York Police Department detectives have asked thousands of companies to be on the lookout as part of "Operation Nexus."

"In a sense we don't know what we deter," because people don't commit crimes and get arrested, said Paul Browne, spokesman for the nation's largest police department. "But by making these things harder, and by educating people who may become unwitting players in terrorist plots, we hope to have that deterrent impact."

The Los Angeles Police Department created "iWatch," which uses brochures, public service announcements and meetings with community groups to provide advice on how to detect and report suspicious behavior.

LAPD Cmdr. Blake Chow said the program is augmented by a web-based system that lets private businesses and security firms exchange information about suspicious activities. The intelligence gleaned with these systems, along with phone tips, has helped disrupt the financing of suspected overseas terrorist organizations, he said.

"The general public is the ones that go to the same place every day to work, they know their neighbors," Chow said. "We rely on them to tell us if they see something or an individual's activities that seem out of place."

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Associated Press writers Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Colleen Long in New York City, Eileen Sullivan in Washington and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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US: bin Laden death ups terror risk for Americans (AP)

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration says Osama bin Laden's death has raised the risk of anti-American violence worldwide.

The State Department said in a global travel warning Tuesday that Americans should take precaution and maintain vigilance about terrorist threats, demonstrations and the possibility of violence against U.S. citizens.

It said al-Qaida and other groups are planning terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in Europe, Asia, Africa and Middle East.

The department said attacks may be in the form of suicide operations, assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings.

Americans should consider the potential for attacks on transportation systems and tourist infrastructure, it said. It noted such attacks in Moscow, London, Madrid, Glasgow and New York in recent years.

The department also warned Americans to avoid demonstrations in the Arab world because they can turn violent.

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Multiple blasts kill 13 in Mumbai 'terror' strikes (AFP)

MUMBAI (AFP) – Three simultaneous blasts rocked India's financial hub Mumbai on Wednesday evening, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 80 in what the government called a "coordinated" terror strike.

"I have been informed that 13 are dead, and 81 injured," Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told reporters.

Mumbai police confirmed three blasts, one in central Mumbai and two in the south of the city, which is still scarred by the militant attacks of 2008 blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"This was a coordinated attack by terrorists," Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi.

"The entire city of Mumbai has been put on high alert. I would appeal to the people of Mumbai and people all over the country to remain calm," Chidambaram said, adding that federal investigative teams were being rushed to the city.

The targets included a predominantly middle class residential area, a wholesale gold market and a building housing diamond traders and jewellery shops, with the explosions reported at rush-hour, at around 6:30pm (1300 GMT).

"It is clear that the attackers wanted to hurt as many as people as possible. A lot of people are injured," a minister in the Maharashtra state government, Chhagan Bhujbal, told reporters.

In November 2008, 10 Islamist militants attacked multiple targets in Mumbai, including five-star hotels, in a deadly assault that killed 166 people.

India blamed the the Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the assault and broke off a peace dialogue with Islamabad. Talks between the two nuclear-armed rivals only resumed earlier this year.

Eyewitnesses outside the diamond trader building in South Mumbai said a car bomb had exploded at around 6:45 pm (1315 GMT) when the area was packed with office people returning home from work.

"There were lots of people badly injured. We don't know how many are dead but it was a very big blast," Nimesh Mehta, 38, who runs a local food stall, told AFP.

"It was a cowardly attack," said Ravinder Singh, 48, the owner of a spare parts shop. "These were innocent people. Poor as well as rich."

The last major bombing incident in India was in February last year in the western city of Pune, when a blast at a packed restaurant killed nine people including one foreigner.

In 2006, a series of seven high-powered blasts on suburban trains in Mumbai killed 187 commuters and left 800 injured -- an attack that India also blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Islamabad swiftly condemned Wednesday's attacks in a statement issued by the Pakistani foreign ministry.

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India: Terror attack kills 17, wounds 81 in Mumbai (AP)

By RAJESH SHAH and MUNEEZA NAQVI, Associated Press Rajesh Shah And Muneeza Naqvi, Associated Press – 3?mins?ago

MUMBAI, India – Near-simultaneous bomb blasts rocked three busy neighborhoods during evening rush hour in India's busy financial capital Wednesday, killing 17 people in what the government called an apparent terrorist attack on the city besieged by militants nearly three years ago.

Blood-covered bodies lay on the streets and people hugged and wept. Others carried the wounded to taxis. Crowds gathered in the blast areas as police questioned witnesses, and bomb squads inspected the undercarriages of vehicles searching for clues and other explosives.

Motorcycles were charred, shopfronts shattered and a bus stop ripped apart. A photograph showed victims crowding into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.

The first blast struck the Jhaveri Bazaar at 6.54 p.m., tearing through the famed jewelry market. A minute later, a second blast hit the busy business district of Opera House, several miles (kilometers) away in southern Mumbai. At 7:05 p.m., the third bomb exploded in the crowded neighborhood of Dadar in central Mumbai, according to police.

Because of the close timing of the bomb blasts, "we infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.

Indian officials refused to speculate on who might be behind the blasts. Past attacks have been blamed on Pakistan-based militants, and Indian officials have accused Pakistan's powerful spy agency of helping coordinate and fund some of those strikes, including the Mumbai siege.

A U.S. official says there are no claims of responsibility, or firm indication of which terrorist group might be behind the attack at this time. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

"The entire city of Mumbai has been put on high alert," Chidambaram said. "I would appeal to the people of Mumbai and people all over the country to remain calm and to maintain peace."

An eyewitness at Jhaveri Bazaar described two motorcycles exploding in flames and saw at least six bodies.

"People were shouting 'Help me, help me,'" the man told Headlines Today television.

Another witness showed cell phone clips of several bodies sprawled across the street to the NDTV news station.

Prithviraj Chavan, the top official in the state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai was located, said the blasts killed 17 people and wounded 81 others. Chidambaram said the toll was likely to rise.

The blasts marked the first major attack on Mumbai since 10 militants laid siege to India's financial capital for 60 hours in November 2008.

That attack, which targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station, killed 166 people and escalated tensions between India and Pakistan. Peace talks were suspended and resumed only recently.

Pakistan's government expressed distress on the loss of lives and injuries soon after Wednesday's blasts were reported.

Some media incorrectly reported the blasts happened on the birthday of Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunmen from the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Kasab, who was sentenced to death in Mumbai, was born on Sept. 13.

Mumbai has been on edge since the 2008 attack. In December, authorities deployed extra police on city streets after receiving intelligence that a Pakistan-based militant group was planning an attack over New Year's weekend. Police conducted house-to-house searches in some neighborhoods for four men who authorities believe entered the city to carry out a terrorist attack, and computer-aided photographs of the four suspects were released.

In March 2010, Mumbai police said they prevented a major terrorist strike after they arrested two Indian men, who, police said, were preparing to hit several targets in the city. In September, police issued a terror alert for the city during a popular Hindu festival.

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Naqvi reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writers Ravi Nessman in New Delhi and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.

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Terror by any other name: Osama eyed name change (AP)

WASHINGTON – As Osama bin Laden watched his terrorist organization get picked apart, he lamented in his final writings that al-Qaida was suffering from a marketing problem. His group was killing too many Muslims and that was bad for business. The West was winning the public relations fight. All his old comrades were dead and he barely knew their replacements.

Faced with these challenges, bin Laden, who hated the United States and decried capitalism, considered a most American of business strategies. Like Blackwater, ValuJet and Philip Morris, perhaps what al-Qaida really needed was a fresh start under a new name.

The problem with the name al-Qaida, bin Laden wrote in a letter recovered from his compound in Pakistan, was that it lacked a religious element, something to convince Muslims worldwide that they are in a holy war with America.

Maybe something like Taifat al-Tawhed Wal-Jihad, meaning Monotheism and Jihad Group, would do the trick, he wrote. Or Jama'at I'Adat al-Khilafat al-Rashida, meaning Restoration of the Caliphate Group.

As bin Laden saw it, the problem was that the group's full name, al-Qaida al-Jihad, for The Base of Holy War, had become short-handed as simply al-Qaida. Lopping off the word "jihad," bin Laden wrote, allowed the West to "claim deceptively that they are not at war with Islam." Maybe it was time for al-Qaida to bring back its original name.

The letter, which was undated, was discovered among bin Laden's recent writings. Navy SEALs stormed his compound and killed him before any name change could be made. The letter was described by senior administration, national security and other U.S. officials only on condition of anonymity because the materials are sensitive. The documents portray bin Laden as a terrorist chief executive, struggling to sell holy war for a company in crisis.

At the White House, the documents were taken as positive reinforcement for President Barack Obama's effort to eliminate religiously charged words from the government's language of terrorism. Words like "jihad," which also has a peaceful religious meaning, are out. "Islamic radical" has been nixed in favor of "terrorist" and "mass murderer." Though former members of President George W. Bush's administration have backed that effort, it also has drawn ridicule from critics who said the president was being too politically correct.

"The information that we recovered from bin Laden's compound shows al-Qaida under enormous strain," Obama said Wednesday in his speech to the nation on withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. "Bin Laden expressed concern that al-Qaida had been unable to effectively replace senior terrorists that had been killed and that al-Qaida has failed in its effort to portray America as a nation at war with Islam, thereby draining more widespread support."

Bin Laden wrote his musings about renaming al-Qaida as a letter but, as with many of his writings, the recipient was not identified. Intelligence officials have determined that bin Laden only communicated with his most senior commanders, including his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, and his No. 3, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, according to one U.S. official. Because of the courier system bin Laden used, it's unclear to U.S. intelligence whether the letter ever was sent.

Al-Yazid was killed in a U.S. airstrike last year. Zawahri has replaced bin Laden as head of al-Qaida.

In one letter sent to Zawahri within the past year or so, bin Laden said al-Qaida's image was suffering because of attacks that have killed Muslims, particularly in Iraq, officials said. In other journal entries and letters, they said, bin Laden wrote that he was frustrated that many of his trusted longtime comrades, whom he'd fought alongside in Afghanistan, had been killed or captured.

Using his courier system, bin Laden could still exercise some operational control over al-Qaida. But increasingly the men he was directing were younger and inexperienced. Frequently, the generals who had vouched for these young fighters were dead or in prison. And bin Laden, unable to leave his walled compound and with no phone or Internet access, was annoyed that he did not know so many people in his own organization.

The U.S. has essentially completed the review of documents taken from bin Laden's compound, officials said, though intelligence analysts will continue to mine the data for a long time.

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Follow Matt Apuzzo at http://twitter.com/mattapuzzo

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