Free Republic

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 31 — It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the full United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit would be receptive to the Bush administration’s contention that it has the authority to detain people it calls enemy combatants. The court’s conservative reputation is well known, and in August it decided to rehear the case in which a three-judge appeals panel rejected aspects of the administration’s position. But, based on the pointed, practical and frequently passionate questioning here on Wednesday in the case of Ali al-Marri, the judges of the Fourth Circuit are divided and troubled,...

Al-qaida military chief killed, taliban confirms The military chief of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network was killed along with seven colleagues in a US bombing raid three days ago, a Taliban official has confirmed. Mullah Najibullah, a Taliban official in the south-east Afghan border town of Spinboldak, confirmed Atef's death but would not identify the location of the airstrike or the other al-Qaida members who died with him. It was the first time a senior Taliban official has confirmed Friday's claim by US officials that Atef was killed in an airstrike outside Kabul. Atef's death is seen as a ...

Excerpt: Use of poisons U.S. intelligence officials believe that Marri trained for two years in Afghanistan, among other things receiving instruction in the use of poisons and toxins at the Derunta camp near Jalalabad, sources said. He is believed to have trained under Abu Khabab al-Masri, an Egyptian specialist in chemical and biological weapons who was killed ... *** U.S. authorities allege that Marri had gone to the United Arab Emirates in August 2001 to get more than $13,000 in cash from Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, the alleged paymaster for the Sept. 11 plotters. *** The Islamic Assembly of North America,...

It started with a police officer's intuition in a Central Peoria neighborhood just south of Northwoods Mall three days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Peoria officer noticed a car was being driven erratically and pulled it over. The driver had an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court 10 years before on another infraction, and offered to pay a cash bond on the spot, even reaching into a briefcase full of money. Something just didn't feel right, so the officer hauled the driver in on the warrant as well as the new traffic ticket. That everyday...

In the 16 months since the Sept. 11 attacks, thousands of Middle Eastern men have been questioned and detained by the FBI. Many Americans have wondered what became of these people. How many were actually terrorists? How many were actually rabid followers of Osama Bin Laden's jihad against America? One of them, Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri — a 37-year-old from Qatar who returned to the United States on Sept. 10, 2001, less than 24 hours before the World Trade Center attacks — has become the target of a massive terrorism investigation. FBI agents first questioned Al-Marri at his West Peoria,...