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Bush optimistic for serious peace dialogue

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush expressed optimism that Israeli and Palestinian Authority leaders could continue a "serious dialogue" for peace in the Middle East.

Bush met Monday separately with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the day before diplomats from more than 40 countries were to gather in Annapolis, Md., for the latest effort to reach a Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

"I'm looking forward to continuing our serious dialogue with you and the president of the Palestinian Authority to see whether or not peace is possible. I'm optimistic," Bush said after his meeting with Olmert.

Olmert said he was "delighted" to be back in Washington, "because we are going to have lots of participants in what I hope will launch a serious process of negotiations between us and the Palestinians."

While the process was a bilateral one, Olmert said international support was important.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, told reporters Sunday the number of Arab states sending delegations to Washington was noteworthy, the Baltimore Sun reported.

"All the Arabs are coming -- the whole world is coming, the world is here to tell us, 'We are with you -- do it,'" Erekat said.

U.S. cyberattacks increasing

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. officials and security experts warned that cybercriminals are using increasingly sophisticated methods to attack military and government computers.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security statistics showed that 37,000 attempted breaches of government and private computer systems were reported in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30, marking a dramatic increase from the 24,000 reported in 2006, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported Monday.

Cyberattacks against federal agencies rose 152 percent during the same time period, from 5,143 to 12,986.

"We're vulnerable every day," Greg Garcia, assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees cyberprotection for the federal government and private systems, told the Star-Telegram. "Everybody is seeing some form of intrusion or attack."

A Government Accountability Office report said in September that command-and-control systems that run nearly the entire public infrastructure, including banking and utility systems, face "increasing risks" and "are more vulnerable to cyberattacks than in the past."

The report said terrorists may become a larger threat on the cyberbattleground as younger, more tech-savvy recruits join the organizations.

Threat led to security change at U.S. base

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Law enforcement documents have revealed security measures at Fort Huachuca in Arizona were changed after warnings of a possible terror attack.

The documents said an estimated 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were planning with the help of Mexican drug cartels to sneak into the United States through underground tunnels and attack the base, the largest intelligence-training center in the country, with high-powered weapons, The Washington Times reported Monday.

"A portion of the operatives were in the United States, with the remainder not yet in the United States," said one of the documents, a Federal Bureau of Investigation advisory that was circulated among law enforcement agencies. "The Afghanis and Iraqis shaved their beards so as not to appear to be Middle Easterners."

Lt. Col. Matthew Garner, spokesman for Fort Huachuca, said details of the investigation and the security changes made after the threat came to light in May "will not be disclosed."

"We are always taking precautions to ensure that soldiers, family members and civilians that work and live on Fort Huachuca are safe," Garner said. "With this specific threat, we did change some aspects of our security that we did have in place."

Protests greet Oxford Holocaust denier

OXFORD, England, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Oxford University's scheduled debate between a convicted Holocaust denier and an ultra-right politician drew hundreds of protesters in England Monday.

Busloads of protesters headed for the Oxford campus for the evening debate involving David Irving and British National Party leader Nick Griffin, The Guardian reported.

Irving was jailed in Austria for his Holocaust denials and Griffin's party is anti-immigration, anti-Muslim.

University unions President Luke Tryl, denied claims the forum was simply about garnering publicity.

"I find the views of the BNP and David Irving awful and abhorrent but my members agreed that the best way to beat extremism is through debate," he said.

Oxford Member of Parliament Evan Harris, a Liberal Democrat, also a part of the debate, said protests weren't an effective way to deal with the controversy, the Oxford Mail reported.

"I don't want a bunch of students telling other students or my constituents or me who I can talk to within the law because that way lies effective despotism," Harris said.

Gunmen slay 11 of Iraqi reporter's family

BAGHDAD, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- An exiled Iraqi journalist claimed Monday sectarian gunmen massacred 11 members of his family in their Baghdad home.

On his Web site maintained at his home in Jordan, Dia al-Kawwaz said his two sisters, their husbands and seven children were shot by Shiite gunmen who were allowed to flee the shooting Sunday without police intervention, the BBC reported.

It wasn't divulged how Kawwaz got his details, but a Baghdad police source confirmed to the BBC the shooting had occurred.

Elsewhere, the U.S. military issued a statement saying its forces had killed 10 members of al-Qaida in an operation north of Baghdad, Kuwait's KUNA news agency reported. It said in a separate operation, U.S. troops detained eight insurgents near Samara.

Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Ed Cardon, deputy commander for support of Multinational Division-Center told a Baghdad news conference there has been a "definite period of progress" in security in Iraq, which he attributed to the addition of 30,000 troops earlier this year. He also cited improvements in Iraq's security forces and more cooperation from Iraqi citizens in reporting insurgent activity, CNN said.