Free Republic

Abu Hamza, the militant, London-based Muslim cleric, maintained close contact with the leadership of al-Qa'eda during the years when it operated a worldwide terrorist network from Afghanistan, according to FBI files. Documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph state that Hamza, the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque, north London, dealt personally with Abu Zubeidah, Osama bin Laden's director of operations. Zubeidah, a Palestinian who is now in US custody, communicated bin Laden's instructions and messages from his hideout in Afghanistan to al-Qa'eda cells around the world. Hamza had the power to refer recruits to Zubeidah for "leadership training" in Afghan...

LONDON (Reuters) - An Algerian man lost a legal challenge in a court on Friday to his planned extradition to France over a plot to blow up a police station in Lille ahead of a 1996 summit of rich nations. Mustapha Labsi, who was arrested in November 2000, had argued that France could transfer him to Algeria, where he says he had been mistreated by the authorities. He also says that he had already served more time in jail than any sentence likely to be imposed in France. Last April, the government ruled that he should be extradited to France....