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A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a U.S. man convicted of plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush and conspiring with al Qaeda to 30 years in prison. In November, Abu Ali was found guilty of all charges in a nine-count indictment, including conspiracy to assassinate Bush, conspiring to support al Qaeda and conspiracy to hijack aircraft.

FAIRFAX, Va. - A CIA worker was arrested and charged with being a serial burglar responsible for more than a dozen incidents near the spy agency's headquarters. Fairfax County police said Tuesday that George C. Dalmas III had been charged with 17 burglaries in McLean, Va., between October and last month. Dalmas, 44, of Falls Church, faced numerous counts of burglary and grand larceny, and investigators said other charges were possible. Investigators said Dalmas was tracked down after a Jan. 24 robbery at the home of Lori Myer, who was able to give police information from the license plates of...

Wearing a brown golf cap against the cold drizzle, Rocky Omary stood outside Walima Cafe in Falls Church, where he and about 50 other men of Middle Eastern descent had just watched the Tunisian soccer team take a drubbing from the Nigerians. That trouncing was bad enough. But Omary had other, more disturbing, insults on his mind: specifically, the recent publication in European newspapers of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. (Nikki Kahn - The Washington Post) "I've been getting a lot of e-mails about it, and I'm distributing them all," said Omary, a Damascus native who sells...

(CNSNews.com) - Fourteen miles from the U.S. Capitol, a basement-run organization with alleged ties to Hamas and al Qaeda is a crucial link in the planning of any future terrorist attacks against the United States, according to several terrorism experts who analyzed documents and other information obtained in a CNSNews.com investigation. The United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), based in Springfield, Va., is publicly identified as a Muslim think tank but has multiple ties to the terrorism underworld, according to the CNSNews.com sources, who are both inside and outside government. "UASR is a front organization for a terrorist group,"...

Virginia's largest Episcopal parish, in a letter to the church's 2,200 members, yesterday called on Virginia's the Rt. Rev. Peter J. Lee to "repent and return to the truth" over supporting the ordination of the openly homosexual bishop of New Hampshire. Leaders of the Falls Church Episcopal said in their eight-page, single-spaced letter that "no compromise on this issue is possible," although they refrained from specific threats. In the past, the parish's rector has threatened schism. "A Christian leader does not approve of sin, or purport to declassify it," the letter said to Bishop Lee, who backed the 2003 consecration...

A Falls Church notary public was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court to 33 months in prison for helping thousands of undocumented immigrants from out of state illegally obtain Virginia driver's licenses and state identification cards. Jennifer Wrenn, 58, was convicted in August of identification document fraud, encouraging aliens to live in the United States illegally and money laundering. Click here for rest of story

Tough times for Prozac Democrats By Gary J. Andres Published December 22, 2005 While visiting a Starbucks in suburban Washington last week, I picked up a copy of a small, liberal weekly newspaper called the Falls Church News Press. Somewhere between its regularly featured reprints of New York Times columnists Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman, its own editorial titled "More Worry Than Hope" argued Americans are "stressed out" this holiday season. The war in Iraq, Katrina and gas prices all contribute to malaise and victimhood.     Even the haven of bankruptcy, it writes, is less of an option for "people who...

Associated Press FORT LEWIS — After logging thousands of miles during their first two years in Iraq, the Army's Stryker vehicles are getting an overhaul before being sent back with soldiers. The eight-wheeled, armored vehicles are being worked on by mechanics from General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc., which made the Strykers and has a $69 million Army contract to restore them. Maintenance is taking place at this post south of Seattle and at a company yard in Auburn. The Strykers arrived home by ship in late October. They were used for a year in Iraq by the 3rd Brigade, 2nd...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The United States has deported a Saudi man who was director of a Muslim charity after his conviction for conspiring to commit immigration fraud. Abdullah Alnoshan of Falls Church, Va., was returned to Saudi Arabia during the weekend after he pleaded guilty to one count of immigration fraud last month. Alnoshan, 44, had been working as director of the Virginia office of the Muslim World League, one of the largest non-governmental organizations in the world, the Washington Times said Tuesday. He was arrested in July after a raid by immigration and FBI agents on his...

A Saudi national who served as director of the Virginia office of the Muslim World League (MWL) has been deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on immigration charges. ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said Abdullah Alnoshan, 44, of Falls Church, was returned to Saudi Arabia over the weekend. He was arrested in July by ICE and FBI agents assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force. A criminal complaint charged Alnoshan with conspiring to commit immigration fraud by using fake employment documents to enter, exit and live in the United States. Alnoshan also was accused of seeking to deter...

ASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — Federal law enforcement authorities said in court documents unsealed on Friday that they suspected a group of Islamic charities in Northern Virginia of laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars or more from Saudi Arabia to help finance terrorist attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.The authorities said in documents that they suspected that the network of charitable and educational institutions known as the Saar group in Herndon, Va., used an elaborate system of domestic and overseas financial transactions to "blur the trail" of its revenues and disguise the fact that it was sending money to aid...

Terror Suspect: 'Everyone Makes Mistakes' Thursday November 3, 2005 12:01 AM By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - After confessing to FBI agents that he joined al-Qaida and discussed plans to assassinate President Bush, an American student wrote a letter to his parents saying that ``everyone makes mistakes.'' ``I know this will be difficult for you ... but I've been detained here in Saudi Arabia for some charges of terrorism,'' wrote Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, who is on trial in federal court for conspiracy to assassinate the president, providing support to al-Qaida and other charges. ``It...

Although the results of Iraq’s constitutional referendum were almost immediately cast into doubt by fraud allegations, Reza Aslan, whose bestselling book No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam predicted a bright future for democracy in the Islamic world, remained optimistic: “Even before Iraq’s constitution was ratified, dire predictions were being made that it would pave the way for the creation of an Islamic theocracy. But whatever problems the new constitution poses for the future of Iraq, the role of Islam in the state is not likely to be one of them.” Aslan maintained this even while...

A Falls Church man charged with conspiring with al Qaeda to kill President Bush told Saudi interrogators that he dreamed up the plot on his own but that it never got past the "idea stage," prosecutors say in court documents unsealed yesterday. Abu Ali, 24, also said during the same interrogation that he "wanted to be in al Qaeda so bad that I decided to go to Afghanistan for jihad." He said he was unable to get a visa to travel there but did join an al Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia. Abu Ali is charged in U.S. District Court...

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A man accused of plotting to assassinate President Bush was indicted Thursday on additional charges that could bring life in prison, and prosecutors now say he also planned to establish an al-Qaida cell in the United States. Prosecutors say Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, of Falls Church joined al-Qaida in 2002 while studying in Saudi Arabia and that he discussed possible terrorist operations, including a plot to kill Bush either by shooting or by a suicide bombing.Prosecutors also allege Abu Ali discussed plans to assassinate members of Congress and to hijack aircraft and fly them into...

FAIRFAX, Va. -- The mother who allegedly abandoned her toddler on the Capital Beltway then hit him with the car as he tried to get back in was ordered held without bond Friday. Channoah Alece Green, 22, of Newport News, will stand trial Aug. 26 on felony child endangerment charges. Authorities said that on Tuesday night, Green got angry with her 4-year-old son and left him on the side of the highway near the Lee Highway overpass in Falls Church. She was arrested hours later in Hanover County, about 90 miles south, following a traffic accident there, Virginia State Police...

FBI and Homeland Security agents raided the Northern Virginia office of a Saudi-based charity that has been under scrutiny for possible terrorist ties and detained one of its employees on immigration charges, officials said yesterday. The Muslim World League office in Falls Church had also been searched in 2002 in a dramatic series of raids of Muslim organizations in Northern Virginia. The charity has not been charged. Abdullah Alnoshan, 44, a Saudi citizen who worked at the charity, was arrested at 6 a.m. Friday at his house in Alexandria, according to officials of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the...

Federal Authorities Detain Muslim Charity Director Falls Church, Va. (AP) - Federal officials have raided the Northern Virginia office of a Saudi-based charity and detained its director. The Muslim World League office in Falls Church had been under scrutiny for possible terrorist ties. It was also searched in 2002 during a series of raids of Muslim organizations in the area. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent Allan Doody tells The Washington Post authorities have seized computers, photos and immigration documents. The charity's director, 44-year-old Abdullah Alnoshan, has been charged with immigration fraud. The Saudi citizen had been granted a work visa...

Virginia Muslim leader gets life in prison "Islamic Scholar Sentenced to Va. Prison," from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in: ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A prominent Islamic scholar who exhorted his followers after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison. Ali al-Timimi of Fairfax was convicted in April of soliciting others to levy war against the United States, inducing others to aid the Taliban, and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law. The cleric addressed the court for 10 minutes before his sentencing....

FALLS CHURCH The voice of the new imam at one of the largest mosques on the East Coast rang loud from the pulpit during Friday services: "The call to reform Islam is an alien call."

The voice of the new imam at one of the largest mosques on the East Coast rang loud from the pulpit during Friday services: "The call to reform Islam is an alien call." People who do not understand Islam are the ones seeking to change it, said Shaker Elsayed, the new spiritual leader at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. "Ignorance comes from outside circles who know nothing about us," Mr. Elsayed said during noon services to more than 500 men and women, with women worshipping in a separate room. It was one of three services Dar al-Hijrah holds...

This came from a friend of mine in DHS: Immigration Charge A man arrested Tuesday at a Starbucks in Falls Church has been charged with immigration fraud for allegedly failing to disclose on his application for U.S. citizenship that he had been a member of two terrorist organizations, officials said. Maher Amin Jaradat, 43, of Falls Church was a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Al-Fatah, the military arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization, according to an affidavit filed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The indictment filed against Jaradat was unsealed Tuesday. He faces...

Move follows two-year sting operation NEW YORK - The FBI arrested a Florida doctor and a New York martial arts expert on federal terrorism charges, saying they conspired to treat and train terrorists, federal prosecutors announced Sunday. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a Boca Raton physician, and Tarik Shah, a self-described martial arts expert in New York, were both charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. Both men are American citizens. Prosecutors said Sabir agreed to treat jihadists, or holy warriors, in Saudi...

Ali al-Timimi, 41, who recently got a doctorate in computational biology at George Mason University, was convicted last week on ten federal counts of supporting and encouraging terrorist activities. He was convicted of urging his followers to join Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime and Lashkar-e-Taiba, a violent Pakistani radical group known for participating in the decade-long insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir and for attacking the Pakistani Shi’ite minority. That group may have been involved in the massacre latst week of Pakistani Shi'ites. Although the charges on which al-Timimi was convicted carry a mandatory prison sentence of life in prison without the possibility...

The conviction last week of Ali al-Timimi, an American-born Islamic scholar, on terrorism charges thrust the so-called "Virginia Paintball Jihad" case to the forefront as the federal government's greatest court victory against terrorism. All told, federal prosecutors counted 10 convictions in the case. Al-Timimi's conviction marked the first post-Sept. 11 case in which the government won a terrorism conviction for actions tied to philosophy and words designed to help the enemy, rather than deeds, such as providing money, equipment or actual combat help to that enemy. "Until now these people have escaped. It is a very powerful position to be...

President Bush has proven to be one of the more adept and agile politicians of the modern era. Time and again, he and his political team have shown the ability to turn potential political vulnerabilities — think 9/11 — into weapons deftly applied to opponents. Democrats would do well to remember that as they gloat over two of the larger political stories out here — the fight over Social Security reform and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ethics controversies. Friday in Falls Church, Va., the president not only condemned opponents — presumably Democrats — for fighting his Social Security proposal,...

Today President Bush traveled across the Potomac River for a discussion on Social Security at James Lee Community Center in Falls Church Virginia. He also took part in a Tree Planting on the North Lawn at the White House in honor of Arbor Day.

U.S. case against Muslim scholar is religious attack: defense 04/18/2005 By MATTHEW BARAKAT / Associated Press The government's prosecution of a prominent Islamic scholar accused of recruiting for the Taliban in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks is an assault on religious freedom, a defense lawyer said Monday during the trial's closing arguments. "The government wants you to think Islam is your enemy," said Edward MacMahon, who represents Ali al-Timimi, 41, of Fairfax. "They want you to dislike him so much because of what he said that you'll ignore the lack of evidence." Prosecutors, on the other hand, said...

A man described as a high-ranking operative of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was arrested last week as he videotaped the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Virginia, and he then was held as a material witness in an unrelated case, authorities said. Ismael Selim Elbarasse of Annandale, Virginia, long suspected by authorities of having financial ties to the Palestinian extremist group, was taken into custody Friday, the U.S. attorney's office in Maryland said Monday. He was held as a material witness in a Chicago terrorism case. Elbarasse made an initial appearance in Baltimore's federal courthouse Monday before U.S. District Magistrate...

The Islamic organization poised to build the largest mosque in the Northeast on a site in Roxbury has long-standing ties to an Egyptian cleric who praises suicide bombings and a Muslim activist indicted last week in a terrorism financing probe. The Islamic Society of Boston, which has city approval to build a sprawling $22 million Islamic cultural center and mosque on Malcolm X Boulevard, has had a long association with Dr. Yusuf Abdullah al-Qaradawi, whose vocal support of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas prompted the State Department to bar him from entering the U.S. four years ago. The local religious...

[World News]: By March 18 : An anthrax sensor -- the third in the Washington, D.C. area this week -- went off Friday afternoon in a remote mail-handling facility of the Defense Intelligence Agency located at Bolling Air Force Base southeast of the U.S. Capitol. "This morning the DIA remote delivery facility was closed due to an initial positive test of incoming mail for hazardous biological agents," Defense Department spokesman Major Paul Swiergosz told United Press International.Personnel on the scene were asked to stay, Swiergosz said, and local officials were called. Friday's alarm follows two similar alerts, one at a...

Only a slight "flicker of hope" remains in Richmond for the otherwise doomed photo red light program that numerous Northern Virginia jurisdictions, including the City of Falls Church and Fairfax County, have utilized in recent years. The requirement that the state legislature act to extend the program fell short during the just-ended legislative session with the speaker of the house stripped a transportation bill of an amendment that would have preserved it. Falls Church City Manager Dan McKeever, briefing the City Council on the development at its meeting Monday, said that the governor can still add the amendment back in...

A federal judge denied bail yesterday for an American student charged in an alleged conspiracy to kill President Bush after an FBI agent testified that the man had admitted plotting with al Qaeda to conduct a Sept. 11-style terror attack in the United States. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, of Falls Church, told FBI agents that he and other members of an al Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia planned to hijack airplanes overseas and crash them into targets on the East Coast, according to testimony. They also discussed plans to kill members of Congress, blow up ships in U.S. ports...

Ahmed Omar Abul Ali, the Virginia Muslim charged with conspiring to assassinate President Bush, met several times with Zubayr al-Rimi—Al Qaeda’s number two man in Saudi Arabia, killed in a shootout with Saudi forces in September 2003: Abu Ali linked to Saudi Arabia al Qaeda leader. (Hat tip: The Jawa Report.) A Falls Church man accused of conspiring to assassinate President Bush met several times with an al Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia who once was the target of a global manhunt and a key suspect in an attack that killed nine Americans in Riyadh, law-enforcement authorities said. Ahmed Omar...

Have you heard of "cutting"? If you're a parent, you'd better read up. "Cutting" refers to self-mutilation – using knives, razor blades or even safety pins to deliberately harm one's own body – and it's spreading to a school near you. Actresses Angelina Jolie and Christina Ricci did it. So did Courtney Love and the late Princess Diana. On the Internet, there are scores of websites (with titles such as "Blood Red," "Razor Blade Kisses" and "The Cutting World") featuring "famous self-injurers," photos of teenagers' self-inflicted wounds and descriptions of their techniques. The destructive practice has been depicted in films...

Case Adds to Outrage for Muslims in Northern Virginia By JAMES DAO and ERIC LICHTBLAU ALLS CHURCH, Va., Feb. 25 - When the Saudi police burst into a classroom at the Islamic University of Medina during final exams two years ago and whisked away an American exchange student named Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, his imprisonment swiftly reverberated among Muslims in this Washington suburb. Mr. Abu Ali was never charged, and he spent 20 months in a Saudi prison where his family says he was whipped, tortured and starved. This week, he was finally returned to Virginia - only to face...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The source of one of the most sensational accusations against an American allegedly involved in a plot to kill President Bush is dead. According to the most recent government filings in the case against Ahmed Omar Abu Ali (search) that advocate his pretrial detention, the Virginia resident discussed a plot to kill the president with a member of Al Qaeda who was later killed in a shootout with Saudi law enforcement around September 2003. Abu Ali was charged Tuesday with the alleged plot, which prosecutors said was hatched while he studied in Saudi Arabia in 2002 and...

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...

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. citizen Ahmed Omar Abu-Ali was charged in federal court Tuesday with plotting to assassinate President Bush with either a gun or a car bomb. Abu-Ali was named in a six-count terrorism indictment in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., upon his return from Saudi Arabia, where he had been held for nearly two years, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. He was ordered held without bond and a detention hearing was scheduled for Thursday.

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...

With the Journal Newspaper organization abandoning Northern Virginia as its primary coverage area for the first time since its founding 70 years ago, the Falls Church News-Press announced this week its latest circulation increase, to go into effect immediately. As the Northern Virginia Journal, under new ownership, morphed into the Washington Examiner beginning this Monday, the News-Press' circulation will move above the 30,000 mark for the first time. Neighborhoods in the Bailey's Crossroads section of greater Falls Church will be added to the free home delivery of the paper starting this Thursday, bringing the audited circulation total to 30.108. Since...

Tuesday: The president talked about Social Security reform, laying more groundwork for understanding among the citizenry and their Congressional representatives. Bush nominated Judge Michael Chertoff to replace Tom Ridge, outgoing Homeland Security director. President Bush granted The Washington Times an extensive and exclusive interview: Bush: 'I don't see how you can be president without a relationship with the Lord' Today: President Bush spoke at J.E.B Stuart High School in the Washington suburb of Falls Church, VA, to promote his second-term education agenda under the No Child Left Behind law. Inaugural dress and gowns info found here! I get my wish...

Living in Fear in Falls ChurchBy Robert Spencer FrontPageMagazine.com | September 14, 2004 As the world recoils in horror at the massacres of children by Chechen jihadists in Beslan, Russia, security agencies are examining the possibility that such an attack could happen in an American school. And why couldn’t it? After all, at a conference held last weekend, security was tight because of death threats from people holding the same ideology as that of the Beslan barbarians: radical Islam. The conference was held in Falls Church, Virginia. That’s right: Falls Church, Virginia. Right here in America, converts from Islam to...

A Falls Church man who worked as a federal informant on terrorism set himself on fire in front of the White House yesterday, hours after announcing his suicide attempt and citing his growing despondency over how the FBI managed his case. Mohamed Alanssi, 52, approached the northwest guardhouse on Pennsylvania Avenue about 2:05 p.m. and asked the security detail to deliver a note to President Bush. When uniformed Secret Service officers turned him away, he stepped about 15 feet from the guard post and used a lighter to ignite his jacket, according to the U.S. Park Police.

Last Friday at the Arlington Circuit Court in Arlington, Virginia, former award-winning George Mason High School drama instructor Frank Marino was sentenced to eight years in prison on six counts of indecent liberties with a minor stemming from incidents over a 13 month period that led to his arrest in February. Under Virginia's no parole provisions, Marino will serve a minimum of six years and nine months. Judge Joanne Alper imposed the sentence, considered at the highest end of Virginia's sentencing guidelines. Marino, pleading guilty to eight counts, was sentenced to eight two year terms run consecutively with half suspended....

FALLS CHURCH, Virginia, Oct 17 (AFP) - White House aspirant John Kerry is hailed by his Democratic Party as a Vietnam War hero but the senator is waging an uphill battle convincing 1.5 million Vietnamese Americans to vote for him. Many of them are expected to vote for incumbent George W. Bush in the November 2 presidential polls because decorated naval officer Kerry returned from combat to denounce the United States for going to war against then communist North Vietnam, community leaders say. Another reason Vietnamese Americans are reluctant to vote for Kerry, who spent four months in South Vietnam,...

In a strongly-worded letter citing the appearance of three dozen armed protesters at the Falls Church City Council meeting last month, Rep. Jim Moran Tuesday urged the leadership of the Virginia legislature to "allow localities to protect the well-being of their constituents."

"I will accept the fact that those carrying guns into the meeting were polite, non-threatening, and even pretty good citizens for the most part. But in the very act of carrying guns into a hearing on a policy issue that they oppose they were “acting like thugs,” at least where I come from (South Louisiana). It is a simple truth, and I certainly will not apologize for that." See link for the rest of the article....

The latest in a series of anti-gun screeds by the Falls Church News Press: Our Man in Arlington By Richard Barton This is supposed to be a column about Arlington, though at times I have written about other places, such as our vacation destinations and an occasional foray into Richmond topics. This time, however, it was an event in Falls Church that aroused my interest, and then my ire. As reported in this newspaper last week, about three-dozen pro-gun advocates graced the Falls Church City Council with their presence, most of them packing their pieces on their hips. That means...

It seemed simple enough. Falls Church officials recently drafted a policy that would require city workers to call 911 immediately if anyone stepped onto city property carrying a gun. Police who responded would check to see if the gun was properly licensed and report their findings to city officials. ............snip.................. About 30 people, pistols strapped to their hips, strode into the council's meeting this week protesting the policy and warning that it violates their constitutional right to bear arms -- and possibly state laws, as well.