Will we ever learn

From CNN comes news that "Two convicted terrorists who had been freed in an amnesty carried out the suicide bombings at U.N. and government buildings that killed 37 people," or so "an Algerian security official has said."

My comments in bold.

Rescuers in the shaken city Thursday were still extracting the living and the dead from the crumpled remains of U.N. offices in Algiers that were bombed by al-Qaeda's self-styled North African affiliate.

Victims caught in Tuesday's twin truck bombings, which happened 10 minutes apart, included U.N. staff from around the world, police officers and law students.

One of the bombers was a 64-year-old man in the advanced stages of cancer, while the other was a 32-year-old from a poor suburb that has produced many Islamic militants, the security official said Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The government has offered amnesties to try to end a 15-year Islamic insurgency, resulting in thousands of militants turning themselves in, but sparking fierce criticism from the families of victims.

Initial reports of the number killed had much higher figures, though the government insisted it had no reason to conceal the full tally.

Rescue work Thursday was focusing on five or six people who were in the basement of the U.N. building at the time of the attack and who could still be alive, said the chief of the emergency team, Djamal Khoudi.

Earlier in the day, seven survivors were pulled from beneath chunks of concrete, Khoudi said. One 40-year-old woman was transferred to a hospital where both her legs were amputated, he said.

The attacks -- and their targeting of the United Nations -- drew international condemnation.

Islamic insurgents have been battling Algeria's government for 15 years, but have largely focused on symbols of Algeria's military-backed government and civilians. The other target of Tuesday's attack was Algeria's Constitutional Council.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all nations on Wednesday to stand united against terrorism, calling it "the scourge of our times."

"This attack on the U.N. is an attack on us all and our highest ideals," he said in a video address from Bali, Indonesia, to the 192-member General Assembly. He said the U.N. will not be deterred in its mission "to help those most in need."

It was the deadliest single attack against U.N. staff and facilities since August 2003, when the world body's headquarters in Baghdad was hit by a truck laden with explosives. That attack killed 22 people, including the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and was blamed on a group that later affiliated with al-Qaeda.

The United Nations provided a list Wednesday of nine staffers confirmed to have died in Algiers, including six Algerians, one Senegalese, one Dane and one citizen of the Philippines. A day earlier, the U.N. said 11 staff members had died. U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Wednesday that was a preliminary figure and noted confusion at the scene.

The Interior Ministry said five of the dead were foreigners, including two people from China, and that three other foreign U.N. employees -- two from China and one from Lebanon -- were hospitalized.

Four police officers who were guarding the Constitutional Council also were among the dead, according to police at the site Wednesday.

Two law students were also killed, said law professor Rachid Ourari, choking back tears. "They were preparing for the bar," he said.

Pink-jacketed emergency workers delicately navigated the rubble at the U.N. offices while sniffer dogs scampered alongside. Families of the missing stood outside police cordons, waiting for news.

Workers for a private company housed in the building tried to save documents and computer equipment.

Police helicopters circled overhead, moving from the old port section of town to the tony neighborhood where the U.N. offices and Constitutional Council were targeted.

Residents of Algiers gathered around newspaper kiosks Wednesday, some expressing surprise the official death toll was so much lower than that reported elsewhere.

A national official at the civil protection agency said Wednesday that 45 people were killed. Soon after the bombings, a doctor said at least 60 were killed, and Algeria's independent daily El Watan reported up to 72 killed and 200 wounded."


They are terrorists, if released from prison they are still terrorists and are likely to carry out terrorist acts.