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So this was the reason for all the hub-bub? On June 23, 2009, Director of Central Intelligence Leon Panetta learned of a highly compartmentalized program to assassinate al Qaeda operatives that was launched by the CIA in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. When Panetta found out that the covert program had not been disclosed to Congress, he canceled it and then called an emergency meeting June 24 to brief congressional oversight committees on the program. Over the past week, many details of the program have been leaked to the press and the issue has received extensive media coverage. That...

Free after 32 years in prison, Sara Jane Moore says she was wrong, “misled” and “mistaken” in trying to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford in September 1975. However, she added: “I still believe if I hadn’t done it, someone else would.” “It was a time people don't remember. We had a war in this country, the Vietnam War,” Moore told Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview on TODAY Thursday. “This is going to sound a little strange, but I really thought that it would trigger a new revolution. We were saying the country needed to change, the only way it...

TROY — The Sanctuary for Independent Media will host a controversial exhibit in which an artist portrays himself as a suicide bomber on a mission to kill the president starting at 6 p.m. Monday. The exhibit, created by Wafaa Bilal, is described as a “Virtual Jihadi” and was recently suspended by officials at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute because of concerns about its intent and al-Qaida content. “Like many others, I did not have a chance to see Wafaa’s exhibit in its original form and hope the community will take advantage of this chance to appreciate it,” said Steve Pierce, an adjunct...

A Jordanian prosecutor on Wednesday revealed a previously unannounced plot by three alleged militants to assassinate US President George W. Bush during his last visit to the kingdom. The military prosecutor charged the three Jordanians, Nidhal Musleh al-Momani, Sattam al-Zawahrah and Tharwat Daraj, with plotting to carry out terrorist attacks and the illegal possession of explosives. The three also were planning to attack the American and Danish embassies in Amman, the prosecutor alleged during the opening day of the trial. The Jordanian authorities arrested the three men on Nov. 28, one day before Bush's arrival in Amman for talks with...

Prosecutors deny this, but even U.S. law-enforcement officials admit there is a good chance Abu Ali could eventually walk out of prison a free man. The indictment of Abu Ali shows how the administration's aggressive pursuit of the global war on terror is increasingly getting tangled up in legal constraints at home. So for the next 20 months, Justice let Abu Ali, a U.S. citizen, languish in a Saudi jail cell. He had no access to a lawyer, and no charges were filed against him. But is this a legitimate tactic in the war on terror? In the aftermath of...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 - An American student who was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for the last 20 months was returned to the United States and accused by the Justice Department on Tuesday of plotting with members of Al Qaeda in 2003 to assassinate President Bush. In an indictment unsealed in federal court in Alexandria, Va., the student, a 23-year-old American citizen named Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, is charged with providing material support for terrorism. Mr. Abu Ali is accused of training with Al Qaeda overseas and wanting to "become a planner of terrorist operations" like Mohammed Atta or Khalid Shaikh...

Virginia man charged in alleged plot to assassinate Bush By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A former high school valedictorian in Virginia was charged Tuesday with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and conspiracy to support the al-Qaida terrorist network. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, a U.S. citizen, made an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court. He claimed that he was tortured while detained in Saudi Arabia since June of 2003 and offered through his lawyer to show the judge his scars. The indictment said that in 2002 and 2003 Abu Ali and an unidentified coconspirator...

Feb 22, 10:51 AM (ET) By MATTHEW BARAKAT ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A former Virginia high school valedictorian who had been detained in Saudi Arabia as a suspected terrorist was charged Tuesday with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and with supporting the al-Qaida terrorist network. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, a U.S. citizen, made an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court but did not enter a plea. He claimed that he was tortured while detained in Saudi Arabia since June of 2003 and offered through his lawyer to show the judge his scars. The federal indictment said that in...

SYDNEY, Australia (DPA): Hunting and killing known terrorist kingpins makes more sense than invading a country to get at them, a former top-ranking Australian diplomat said on Saturday. Duncan Campbell, a former ambassador to Rome and Vienna, said Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the leader of South East Asian terror network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), would be a prime target for a state-sponsored assassination. "Why should we wait for a murderous fanatic such as Ba'asyir in Java to strike against us first?" Campbell asked The Sydney Morning Herald. The Java-based Islamic cleric is widely believed to have ordered the October 2002 bombing in...

THE KERRY vs. BUSH DEBATE by: Chris Bjornberg I finally had time to listen to the tape of the debate. Kerry continually repeated the mantra, "I can do it better." Bush has caught 75% of the Al Quida terrorists and has them in prison. Pakistan is catching terrorist leaders. Even Yemen is supporting us and gave the death penalty to two terrorists who bombed the U.S.S. Cole. How's Kerry going to do better? Oh, maybe he'll claim our troops were cutting off Iraqi's ears and raping women. Kerry has continually voted over the years to cut funding to the CIA,...

<p>May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela has evidence of a plot to assassinate leaders from both the government and opposition groups, Defense Minister Jorge Garcia said.</p> <p>Garcia didn't say what person or group the government believes is planning the assassinations or what actions the government may take against them.</p>

Yahoo Group Advocates Killing Bush, American Soldiers in IraqBy Jeremy ReynaldsTalon NewsApril 19, 2004ALBUQUERQUE, NM (Talon News) -- A Yahoo-hosted Internet group is openly advocating the killing of President George W. Bush and American soldiers serving in Iraq.The group's introductory page (web site) reads, "Kill every Gi [sic] in Iraq, stick every American pig in this country! Every time an american [sic] soldier dies, I applaud. In this group: Iraqi Resistance Report, news about the deadliest strikes against U.S. forces and... some pictures of dead Gi's. [sic]"The same page also has a picture of four soldiers carrying a coffin.Expanding on...

Plot to assassinate Saudi royals uncovered By David Rennie (Filed: 31/12/2003) Islamic fundamentalists have mounted an unprecedented series of assassination attempts on senior Saudis, American officials said yesterday, lifting a veil of secrecy imposed by Riyadh. The attacks appear to be a concerted effort to destabilise the kingdom's ruling elite. They include the failed shooting of the counter-terrorism chief, Maj Gen Abdelaziz al-Huweirini, the New York Times was told. Gen Huweirini was lightly wounded and his brother seriously injured in the Dec 4 attack, which was not disclosed by Saudi authorities, senior American officials said. In addition, a car bomb...

Israel has no plans to kill PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, despite the government's pledge to remove him from power, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the visiting European parliamentarians yesterday. "I don't see any plans to kill him, although the man is responsible for the deaths of hundreds, of thousands, of mostly civilians because his strategy is a strategy of terror," Sharon told the delegation during its visit to the Knesset. The statement was in response to a question from Irish parliamentarian David Norris, who demanded to know how Israel could talk about executing Arafat if it is indeed, as it...

Plot to assassinate Arafat feared Ramallah |By Ala Mashharawi, Special to Gulf News | 12-09-2003 Print friendly format | Email to Friend Palestinians have thrown a tight security cordon around President Yasser Arafat fearing his assassination by unconventional means that could be construed as "a natural death", highly informed sources told Gulf News yesterday. The new security steps include searching and clo-se monitoring of all Arafat's visitors. The sources said that one speculated method of assassination could be the direction of poisonous rays towards Arafat's brain. These rays can cause palpitations in the heart leading to a failure of brain...

Former Iraqi general says coup possible A former Iraqi general believes a military coup against Saddam Hussein could take place before the U.S. military launches operations against him. Former Iraqi army Brig. Gen. Tawfiq Al-Yasiri told an opposition Kurdish newspaper last week that, "It is possible that with the start of U.S. air and missile strikes, the central government might lose control to command its bodies and over the Iraqi streets," he said. "The information we received from the regions, which are under the Iraqi control, suggest that under such circumstances, some commanders in some military units, who are against...

Saddam orders agents to assassinate Iraqi opposition leaders sheltering in Britain By Con Coughlin (Filed: 03/11/2002) Saddam Hussein has instructed his security officials to kill Iraqi opposition leaders based in Britain to prevent them from forming an alternative government in the event of an Allied military attack to remove his regime, The Telegraph can reveal. According to highly classified information received by British and American intelligence officials in the past week, Saddam has issued a presidential decree authorising the murder of leading members of the Iraqi opposition "by any means necessary". He is also said to have approached the Libyan...