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Finding that a Yemeni cleric and his assistant had been deprived of a fair trial because of errors by the presiding judge, a federal appeals panel in New York on Thursday overturned their convictions in a prominent terrorism case once hailed by the Bush administration as a significant blow to Al Qaeda. The appeals court judges found that the defendants, Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, did not receive a fair trial because the trial judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., allowed the jury to hear inflammatory testimony and other evidence that prejudiced the defendants’ case.

Islam convert gets 35 years in plot to attack mall The Associated Press - 30 Sep 2008 CHICAGO (AP) — A 24-year-old convert to Islam has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for plotting to set off hand grenades in a crowded shopping mall ... Man gets 35 years in '06 terror plot Chicago Tribune

A 24-year-old convert to Islam has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for plotting to blow off hand grenades in a crowded shopping mall during the Christmas season. Federal Judge David Coar said Tuesday he didn't believe Shareef was evil. But he said people could have been severely hurt if federal agents hadn't broken up the plot.

Aafia Siddiqui is believed to be an al-Qaeda operative. Among the documents in her possession were handwritten notes referring to a “mass-casualty attack” listing locations commonly known to be targets: Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building. But one target, Plum Island, remains virtually unknown to the American public. If Siddiqui really is an al-Qaeda operative, the consideration that this government facility (officially known as the Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center) is a target is unnerving....

Aggressive surveillance has damaged the effectiveness of Osama bin Laden's network. Nevertheless, anti-terrorism officials remain wary of the evolving nature of the threat. The trial of eight Britons charged with plotting to blow up transatlantic flights ended in London this week with a mixed verdict. But to anti-terrorism officials, two things are clear: The 2006 plot was an ambitious effort by Al Qaeda to match the carnage of the Sept. 11 attacks. And it failed. Today's seventh anniversary of the attacks on the United States finds anti-terrorism officials optimistic that they have damaged Osama bin Laden's network and its offshoots,...

SECURITY forces are on high alert as Indonesia prepares to execute the three Islamists convicted over the 2002 bombings. But local survivors and foreign visitors are united in their determination not to dwell on the October night when 202 people, mostly tourists including 88 Australians, were killed when bombs ripped through packed bars. And the overwhelming feeling on the mainly Hindu island of temples, rice paddies and tropical beaches is that the government should not wait another day before standing the bombers before a firing squad. "The execution will deliver a message that the government is serious about upholding the...

For the first time in more than five years, a prominent Palestinian Arab activist, Sami Al-Arian, is free from jail. His respite from jail may not last long: The former college professor faces a second round of criminal charges in his lengthy legal battle with federal prosecutors. Al-Arian had been in government custody since he was charged with being the leader in America of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad more than five years ago. He was not convicted at trial, although he subsequently pleaded guilty to lending aid to that group and received a sentence of 57 months. Al-Arian's incarceration has...

Aafia Siddiqui, the alleged Mata Hari of Al Qaeda, was indicted by federal authorities in New York today for allegedly attempting to kill the FBI agents, US soldiers, interpreters and others who attempted to interview her following her July capture in Afghanistan. The seven count indictment detailed her alleged possession of detailed handwritten notes on "dirty bombs," terrorist recruiting, New York targets, and the relative casualty rates for various weapons of mass destruction.

An Iranian-born former student has been sentenced to up to 33 years in prison for plowing his SUV into a crowd at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

KANSAS CITY — A date in 2009 has been set for former Southwest Michigan Congressman Mark Siljander to stand trial on charges in connection with an alleged international terrorism ring. U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey, of the Western District of Missouri, signed an order last month setting a trial date of Nov. 2, 2009, for Siljander and other defendants in the case involving the Islamic American Relief Agency. Siljander was indicated in January on charges of money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. The government alleges the agency used stolen money to pay Siljander for lobbying efforts and that Siljander...

Five months in jail for driving Mr. bin Laden? Only in America! Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s former chauffeur, recently won an appallingly light sentence for aiding al-Qaeda. Hamdan’s apologists call him a hapless, innocent motorist. If so, anyone steering a bank-job getaway car is “just a driver.” Hamdan is no naïf. He is a camp-trained al-Qaeda member who a Guantanamo military tribunal convicted of giving “material support” to America’s chief enemy in the War on Terror. Hamdan transported weapons (including two shoulder-launched missiles with which he was caught), drove and hid bin Laden, and guarded this mass murderer with...

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled Saudi Arabia could not be held liable for the September 11 attacks against the United States despite charitable donations that ended up in the hands of Al-Qaeda. Upholding a 2006 decision by a lower court, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled inadmissible a lawsuit in which families of victims of the 9/11 attacks charged that Saudi Arabia, four Saudi princes, a Saudi charity and bank had given material support to Al-Qaeda. The plaintiffs in the case cited Saudi donations to Muslim charity groups that were later transferred to the Al-Qaeda...

A federal appeals court Friday threw out the 22-year sentence imposed on Algerian Ahmed Ressam for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium. The three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to U.S. District Court in Seattle to recalculate a sentence for his conviction on nine felony counts. It was the second time the appellate court has scrapped Ressam's sentence. The San Francisco-based panel noted that the U.S. Supreme Court reversal of its first decision to vacate the term failed to take into consideration recent federal sentencing guidelines...

A federal appeals court today rejected lawsuits by victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against Saudi Arabia and senior members of the Saudi royal family, alleging that they helped foster al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, ruling in Manhattan, said Saudi Arabia and members of its royal family were protected from being sued because the State Department had not officially designated the desert kingdom as a supporter of terrorism. Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, foreign governments are immune from such lawsuits unless the State Department finds in advance that...

In an astounding finale to the first military-commission trial, Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s personal aide, has been sentenced by a military commission to five-and-a-half years in prison — five-and-a-half years — upon conviction for the war crime of providing material support to al-Qaeda.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2008 – The first detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to have his case brought to trial was sentenced today by a military panel there to 66 months in prison for providing material support to terrorism. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who served as Osama bin Laden’s driver, was tried and sentenced under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Following a two-week trial, a military jury yesterday found Hamdan guilty of providing material support to terrorism, but not of the more serious charge of conspiracy. Navy Capt. Keith Allred, the military judge, sentenced him to 66 months confinement but...

Update: After all the MSM ranting of an unfair trial, Hamdan gets 66 months including five years and a month time already served. As soon as Salim Ahmed Hamdan was convicted Wednesday, July 6, there were several things expected

A military jury gave Osama bin Laden's driver a stunningly lenient sentence on Thursday, making him eligible for release in just five months despite the prosecutors' request for a sentence tough enough to frighten terrorists around the globe.

The military tribunal verdict convicting Salim Hamdan of providing material support to terrorism was eminently just. The guy was, after all, Osama Bin Laden's driver, and he was, after all, arrested with two surface-to-air missiles in the back of his car. And there was, after all, the video of a 1998 Al Qaeda news conference for Pakistani journalists that at one point showed Hamdan with a machine gun and at another juncture captured him smiling at Bin Laden. And there were, after all, the undisputed facts that Hamdan fell in with Bin Laden in 1996 and worked with him through...

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — A panel of six military officers convicted a former driver for Osama bin Laden of one of two war crimes charges on Wednesday but acquitted him of the other, completing the first military commission trial here and the first conducted by the United States since the aftermath of World War II.

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain issued the following statement on today's verdict in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan: "I welcome today's guilty verdict in the first trial held under the Military Commissions Act (MCA). This process of bringing terrorists to justice has been too long delayed, but I'm encouraged that it is finally moving forward. I supported that legislation, which was a good-faith effort by Congress to meet the Supreme Court's direction to establish a process to bring terrorist detainees to trial. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a trusted confidante of Osama Bin Laden, was provided a full hearing...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Lawyers for three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings lodged a legal challenge on Wednesday over Indonesia's method of executing convicts by firing squad, calling it inhumane. The three men -- Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron -- face a firing squad for their roles in the nightclub bombings on the island of Bali that killed 202 people. "We believe that execution by way of a gunfire is inhumane. It is for these reasons that the defense attorneys are applying to challenge the legislation," said lawyer Wirawan Adnan, adding...

The following is a statement by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on the Military Commission ’s guilty verdict in the Salim Hamdan case. “I commend the military officers who presided over this trial and served on the hearing panel under difficult and unprecedented circumstances. They and all our Armed Forces continue to serve this country with valor in the fight against terrorism. That the Hamdan trial — the first military commission trial with a guilty verdict since 9/11 — took several years of legal challenges to secure a conviction for material support for terrorism underscores the dangerous flaws in the...

Gitmo Tribunal Has Reached Verdict in Bin Laden-Driver Case

A military jury convicted Salim Hamdan on charges of providing material support to terrorism at his hearing at Guantanamo Bay. Hamdan was acquitted on additional charges of conspiring with al Qaeda to commit war crimes. The US military accused him of transporting missiles for al Qaeda and helping Bin Laden escape US authorities following the September 11 attacks by driving him around Afghanistan. Hamdan's defence team said he was merely a low-level Bin Laden employee. The Yemeni, who now faces a maximum life sentence, held his head in his hands and wept at the defence table. The White House welcomed...

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - A potential mistrial was avoided in the first Guantanamo trial on Tuesday when the U.S. military judge ruled it was too late to challenge his war crimes instructions to the jury deliberating the case of Osama bin Laden's driver. But the judge acknowledged he may have erred and prosecutors sought clarification on the law that they said could affect plans to try up to 80 more Guantanamo prisoners.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- The commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention center said Saturday he has been researching new potential accommodations for Osama bin Laden's driver, who could be held here indefinitely regardless of the verdict at his war crimes trial. A jury of American military officers is expected to begin deliberations Monday in the case of Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni who faces a maximum life sentence on charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism. Even if he is found innocent, he may not leave this U.S. Navy base. The military retains the right to hold those considered to...

Boy, what a mess the highest court in the land can create. It was less than two months ago that a bare majority of the Supreme Court ruled that enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay naval base could proceed with lawsuits challenging their detention in our federal courts. In those seven weeks, not only has the entire legal landscape changed, but so has the real possibility that these suspected terrorists will be released - back to battlefields abroad, or worse into our midst here at home. The Court decided not only that the suspected terrorists had a legal right to...

FORT WORTH, Texas -- An East Texas congressman wants Gitmo moved to Supreme Court grounds You can practically see the sarcasm dripping off the wording in this bill U.S. Rep. Louis Gohmert of Tyler filed last week proposing a new location for Guantanamo Bay. In light of the Supreme Court's recent ruling that Gitmo detainees are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s habeas corpus protections, Gohmert wants to move the controversial jail to the Supreme Court grounds, "confined by adequate fencing." "There can be no better way for the United States Supreme Court to exercise its new self-appointed war powers than...

Alleged 9/11 Architect (KSM) Says bin Laden's Driver Was 'Not a Soldier'

Excerpt - A jury trying three men accused of helping the 7/7 London bombers plan their attack has failed to reach verdicts. Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil visited the London Eye, the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium while allegedly pinpointing potential targets during the trip seven months before the 2005 atrocity. The trio, from Beeston, Leeds, stood trial charged with conspiring with the four bombers and others unknown to cause explosions between November 17, 2004, and July 8, 2005. But following the three month trial at Kingston Crown Court, a jury of eight women and four...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — In his seventh of month of U.S. captivity, Osama bin Laden's driver told a pair of FBI agents that it was America's fault that the al Qaida leader was alive. The message was, ''You had these opportunities, America. You didn't do anything,'' FBI agent George Crouch Jr. testified Friday at Salim Hamdan's war crimes trial. The United States could have killed bin Laden in Khartoum, Sudan, before he moved to Afghanistan in 1996, Hamdan told his interrogators. They could have killed him after al Qaida's 1998 twin bombings at the U.S. Embassy bombings in...

Some interesting testimony from an FBI interrogator in the trial of Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan. GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, July 23 — Osama bin Laden’s driver witnessed the al-Qaeda leader being briefed on the day of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and overheard him express satisfaction that the death toll had exceeded expectations, an FBI interrogator testified Wednesday. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, now held at the U.S. military prison here, had said under questioning six years ago that bin Laden was “happy about the results� of the terrorist strikes because he had expected “only� 1,000 to 1,500 people to...

He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "We have various options. The Nuremberg Trials are certainly an example of the kind of tribunal that we could move forward with. I don't think we'd have any difficulty in devising an international -- internationally supported mechanism that would mete out justice. There's no problem there." McCain said it would be a "good thing to reveal to the world the enormity of this guy's crimes, and his intentions, which are still there."

Excerpt - GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba, July 24 (Reuters) - A driver for Osama bin Laden was not told of any rights against self-incrimination under years of interrogation, FBI agents told the Guantanamo war crimes court on Thursday. "Our policy at the time was not to read Miranda rights," FBI special agent Robert Fuller said in testimony at the U.S. military commission trial of Salim Hamdan on charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. Fuller was referring to the Miranda v. Arizona U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1966, which held that potential criminal suspects in custody...

Bin Laden happy with September 11 toll, war court told Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:58pm EDT By Jim Loney GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden's driver overheard the al Qaeda leader saying he was happy about the death toll in the September 11 attacks and thought the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was shot down, according to one of the driver's interrogators. The evidence by Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent, was meant to support the case by prosecutors at the Guantanamo Bay war crimes tribunal that the driver, Salim Hamdan, was close to...

INDONESIAN prosecutors have scouted possible sites for the impending executions of the three death row Bali bombers. Islamic militants Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra could be executed at any time over the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians. Indonesia's Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji has said authorities want the trio put before a firing squad "as soon as possible" and before the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in early September. Indonesia carries out executions by firing squad, but does not disclose the time or place.

Nearly eight in 10 Canadians who saw Omar Khadr's interrogation video say it did not change their opinions of his case, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by Ipsos Reid for the National Post, suggests 52% of Canadians have viewed clips of the seven-hour video since it was made public last week. Among those who have seen the footage, 78% said it had not altered their views on Mr. Khadr while just 22% said it did have an effect. The tape shows Mr. Khadr being questioned at the U. S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by Canadian...

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden's driver knew the target of the fourth hijacked jetliner in the September 11 attacks, a prosecutor said on Tuesday in an attempt to draw a link between Salim Hamdan and the al Qaeda leadership in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial.

CHICAGO (AP)--Prosecutors accused an Islamic charity leader of extensive ties with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, saying he ushered dozens of armed warriors into Bosnia to establish a base there. Enaam Arnaout ``allowed violent persons both inside and outside of the al-Qaida network to flow to areas of conflict and survive there under the cover of an American charity,'' prosecutors said in court papers made public Friday. Arnaout, 41, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday on racketeering charges. He admitted defrauding donors to Benevolence International Foundation by sending supplies to military-style units in Bosnia and Muslim rebels fighting Russians in...

THREE death-row Bali bombers will be executed "as soon as possible," Indonesia's attorney general said today after the Islamic militants declined to seek clemency from the President. Hendarman Supandji said he hoped that so-called "smiling assassin" Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra would be executed before the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in September. The three bombers face death by firing squad for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and three New Zealanders. "We want it as soon as possible," Mr Supandji he said. "Legally they can be executed because they...

A California terrorist who plotted to wage war against the United States was sentenced Monday to more than 12 1/2 years in prison, prosecutors said. Gregory Patterson, 24, of Gardena was part of a domestic terrorist cell that intended to wage jihad, or holy war, against U.S. military facilities, as well as Israeli and Jewish targets and "infidels," the U.S. Justice Department said. Another member of the cell, Levar Washington, 30, was sentenced to 22 years in prison last month. The men had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court last December to conspiring to wage war against the United States....

The sickening specter of a monster like Samir Kuntar being welcomed home in Lebanon as a conquering hero should turn the stomachs of all who repose faith in humanity. Even for a generation neutered to horror stories, his crimes stand out. In April, 1979, after killing a police officer and then shooting Danny Haran at close range in the back in front of his four-year-old-daughter Einat, Kuntar proceeded to smash the head of the little girl on beach rocks and then crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle. The coup-de-grace was when, in an attempt to hide her...

A former college student who was sentenced to 12½ years in federal prison today broke down crying as he apologized for his part in a rare domestic terrorism plot to kill Jewish civilians, as well as attack U.S. military sites and recruiting centers in Southern California. Gregory Patterson, 24, of Los Angeles pleaded guilty in December to two counts: conspiracy to levy war against the United States through terrorism and conspiracy to possess and discharge firearms. "Your honor, I'm thoroughly embarrassed and appalled by my actions," a shackled Patterson told U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney. "I don't even...

Three Bali bombers have exhausted their appeals and will soon be executed by firing squad, according to Indonesia's attorney general.Imam Samudra and the brothers Amrozi and Ali Ghufron have never shown any remorse for the 2002 bombings and have repeatedly said that they embrace death and wish to be martyrs. Indonesia's attorney general Henderman Supanji, in announcing that no further legal avenues are available to the condemned men, said, "the process would not be drawn out". The bombers' lawyer, Fahmi Bachmid, said afterwards: "All of them have repeatedly said they will only ask pardon from God, not the president. This...

Madrid, Spain (AHN) - The Spanish Supreme Court decided on Thursday to acquit five bombers in the 2004 Madrid commuter train blast which killed 191 people and injured 1,800.An Egyptian, Rabei Osman, was acquitted due to double-jeopardy provisions, he has already been sentenced to an eight-year prison term in Italy. The court said there was insufficient evidence to charge him with mass murder.The court likewise upheld the acquittal of Basel Ghalyoun, Muhammad Almallah Dabas, Abdelilah el Fadual el Akil and Raul Gonzalez, all of whom had convictions ranging from five to 12 year prison terms.The sentence of several suspects were...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ruled to allow the first Guantanamo Bay war crimes trial to move forward, blocking an appeal by lawyers for Salim Hamdan, a former driver for Usama bin Laden.

A retired U.S. soldier who was ambushed by armed fighters holed up in the mud compound where Omar Khadr was captured said on Tuesday the Canadian deserves to be at Guantanamo Bay. Sergeant Layne Morris said he had not seen the dramatic interrogation video released by Mr. Khadr's lawyers, in which the young detainee cries for help, but he brushed off the footage as a public relations exercise. Sgt. Morris said the defence lawyers' strategy seemed to be to win sympathy for their client, and that he found it "troublesome" the public had to be constantly reminded of what Mr....

A former drive of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, has claimed that he was sexually humiliated and groped by a touchy-feely female interrogator at the Guantanamo Bay prison. According to the New York Post, a lawyer representing Salim Ahmed Hamdan, said the woman put her hand on his thigh and behaved in an "improper" way that made him uncomfortable as a Muslim. "She came very close with her whole body toward me," he testified through an interpreter. "I couldn't do anything." Hamdan, a 37-year-old Yemeni, became visibly disturbed when his lawyer asked him about the female interrogator. He refused...

Three British Muslims yesterday admitted plotting to explode a homemade bomb at the Houses of Parliament in protest at the UK's role in Iraq and Afghanistan. The men and two others also admitted conspiring to cause public nuisance by distributing Al Qaeda- style videos threatening suicide bomb attacks in Britain. But prosecutors claimed they made 'inherently improbable' and 'bogus' confessions to these charges to distract attention from the main allegations - a plot to blow up airliners flying from Heathrow to major U.S. cities. They accused the men of being in a gang wanting to kill thousands of passengers by...