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Twenty months after a traffic stop in Goose Creek, S.C., catapulted two University of South Florida students into a federal explosives case that raised the specter of terrorism, one of those students has been set free by a panel of 12 jurors. Youssef Megahed, 23, is not guilty, the jury said. Not guilty of illegally transporting explosives materials. Not guilty of possessing a destructive device.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the United States to release a prisoner from the Guantanamo detention center who said he fears for his life after informing against senior al-Qaida leaders. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle issued a one-page judgment ordering the release of Yasin Muhammed Basardh, a 33-year-old from Yemen. The judge didn't say in the ruling why Basardh should be let go, but she said it was explained during a closed hearing in her courtroom earlier in the day.

TAMPA, Fla. — An Egyptian college student charged with carrying explosives is facing trial in Tampa federal court. Jury selection for Youssef Samir Megahed's trial is scheduled to begin Monday. The former University of South Florida engineering student is charged with transporting explosives and possessing a destructive device. ... Megahed's companion, 27-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, was sent to prison for 15 years for making a YouTube video showing would-be terrorists how to turn a remote-control toy into a bomb detonator.

March 10, 2009 Truther heartache: 5 Gitmo detainees admit to planning 9/11 This won't kill the 9/11 Truther Movement. That's because the movement is not grounded in reality and too many people have too much of an emotional investment in conspiracy to let it go. But the confessions voluntarily given by the 5 Guantanamo detainees who are being charged with planning the 9/11 attacks should seal the deal for all but the looniest of 9/11 truthers: The five detainees at Guantánamo Bay charged with planning the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have filed a document with the military commission at...

Just in case anyone had any doubt, the Gitmo detainees held on charges relating to 9/11 want everyone to know that the US made no mistake in keeping them locked up for the last seven years. In fact, not only have they confessed to their involvement during CIA questioning, they have just issued a press release bragging about it:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks mock U.S. authorities and proclaim themselves "terrorists to the bone" in a war crimes court filing released Tuesday. The five Guantanamo prisoners use the six-page document to try to justify the killing of nearly 3,000 people, portraying the attack as a response to U.S. actions in Israel, Iraq and elsewhere that is supported by their Muslim faith. "We fight you over defending Muslims, their land, their holy sites, and their religion as a whole," they write in the document, which was submitted to the Guantanamo war crimes...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Wednesday that Khalid Al-Jawary, a dangerous Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist convicted of a 1973 New York City bomb plot and implicated in multiple terrorist attacks spanning two decades, was deported to Sudan. He had served only half of his thirty year sentence. Recently declassified information additionally reveals that Al-Jawary got help from New York's Iraqi diplomatic mission in communicating with his PLO masters. In March of 1973, Al-Jawary and possible accomplices planted three powerful car bombs: two along 5th Avenue near Israeli-owned banks, and one at Kennedy Airport. Timed to explode upon...

President Obama's Justice Department defended former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo in a San Francisco federal court Friday, arguing that a prisoner formerly held as an enemy combatant had no right to sue Yoo for writing legal memos that allegedly led to his detention and torture. "We're not saying we condone torture," department attorney Mary Mason said at a hearing on the government's request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Jose Padilla. But any recourse against a government lawyer "is for the executive to decide, in the first instance, and for Congress to decide," not the courts, she said. "You're...

Terror Trials in U.S. Are A Worry Classified Data Just One Hurdle By Jerry Markon Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 6, 2009; Page A04 When suspected al-Qaeda sleeper agent Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri was indicted on criminal charges last week, the Obama administration said it was sending a message that the U.S. courts can deal with terror suspects. But Marri says he was subjected to painful stress positions, extreme sensory deprivation and violent threats and was denied access to lawyers when he was held in a military brig in South Carolina. Those claims are likely to become part of...

Vince Li has been found not criminally responsible in the unprovoked killing and beheading of fellow passenger Timothy McLean on a Greyhound bus last summer. Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Judge John Scurfield said Thursday that Li, 40, could not be found guilty of murder and is not criminally responsible for the crime because he was mentally ill at the time of the killing. "These grotesque acts are appalling... but are suggestive of a mental disorder," the judge said. "He did not appreciate the act he committed was wrong." Li had pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder....

"Unindicted co-conspirator in terror funding case complains about FBI informants in mosques" SNIPPET: "ANAHEIM, Calif. -- A Muslim advocacy organization said Friday that American Muslims are feeling "anger, disillusionment and mistrust" toward the FBI in the aftermath of reports that it used an informant to infiltrate Southland mosques. "The American Muslim community has never wavered from its commitment to keeping America safe, nor has it hesitated from cooperating with various law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, in ensuring the security of all U.S. citizens," the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement."

The Obama DOJ's embrace of Bush's state secrets privilege in the Jeppesen (torture/rendition) case generated substantial outrage, and rightly so. But it's now safe to say that far worse is the Obama DOJ's conduct in the Al-Haramain case -- the only remaining case against the Government with any real chance of resulting in a judicial ruling on the legality of Bush's NSA warrantless eavesdropping program. Here's the first paragraph from the Wired report on Friday's appellate ruling, which refused the Obama DOJ's request to block a federal court from considering key evidence when deciding whether Bush broke the law in...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The Obama administration has lost its argument that a potential threat to national security should stop a lawsuit challenging the government's warrantless wiretapping program. A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Friday rejected the Justice Department's request for an emergency stay in a case involving a defunct Islamic charity. Yet government lawyers signaled they would continue fighting to keep the information secret, setting up a new showdown between the courts and the White House over national security. The Obama administration, like the Bush administration before it, claimed national security would be compromised if a lawsuit brought...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/February/09-nsd-168.html Iraqi-Born Dutch Citizen Pleads Guilty to Terrorism Conspiracy Against Americans in Iraq Defendant Also Agrees to Plead Guilty to Beating D.C. Prison Guard Unconscious WASHINGTON – An Iraqi-born Dutch citizen today pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to murder Americans overseas, including by planting roadside bombs targeting U.S. soldiers in Fallujah, Iraq, and by demonstrating on video how these explosives would be detonated to destroy American vehicles and their occupants. The guilty plea by Wesam al-Delaema, a/k/a Wesam Khalaf Chayed Delaeme, age 36, was announced today by Matthew G. Olsen, Acting Assistant...

In a stark departure from Bush administration policy, the Justice Department is preparing to charge the only alleged enemy combatant held on U.S. soil in the federal court system, ABC News has learned. U.S. officials said Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri, a Qatari national whom FBI agents arrested in Illinois in December 2001, could face charges for allegedly providing material support to terrorists. One day before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, al Marri and his family legally entered the United States so he could begin a master's degree program at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. He had received a bachelor's...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday over allegations he joined al-Qaida and helped plot terrorist bombings in the U.S. and overseas. American-born Christopher Paul, who has never publicly discussed the case, declined the judge's invitation to make a statement. U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost said he was at a loss to explain how Paul, 44, got himself caught up in such a mess. The judge said it was difficult to understand "how you allowed yourself to pervert the religion that you supposedly follow." Paul's attorney, Jim Gilbert, declined to comment...

WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors plan to move an alleged al-Qaida sleeper agent out of a Navy brig in South Carolina and send him to federal court in Illinois to face trial. Two people familiar with the case of Qatar native Ali al-Marri said Thursday the government plans to transfer him to the civilian court system. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because it's a pending criminal case. The transfer could avert a Supreme Court hearing in April and a subsequent ruling that would govern other cases against accused terrorists. To justify holding al-Marri, the Bush administration claimed the...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration hit an unexpected rough patch on Thursday in its plan to give itself time to decide how to prosecute Guantánamo detainees. A military judge in the case of one of the best-known terrorism suspects declined an administration request to delay an arraignment scheduled for Feb. 9. The decision differed from rulings by two other military judges in the war crimes system at the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who last week granted requests filed by military prosecutors for four-month delays so the new administration could study detainees’ files and its legal options.

A military judge at the Guanatanamo Bay detention facility has rejected a request by US President Barack Obama to suspend the trial of a detainee.

A military judge has refused the Obama administration's request to delay proceeding for 120 days in the case of a detainee held at the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who is accused of planning the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship, an al-Qaeda strike that killed 17 service members and injured 50 others. The decision throws into some disarray the administration's plan to buy some time as it reviews individual detainee cases as part of its plan to close the prison. The Pentagon may now be forced to withdraw the charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a...

January 27, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/nyfo012709b.htm FOUR DEFENDANTS PLEAD GUILTY TO ALL CHARGES, INCLUDING CONSPIRING TO ACQUIRE ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES AND PROVIDE MATERIAL SUPPORT TO THE LTTE, A FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION Defendants Were Caught in an FBI Undercover Sting Operation Attempting to Purchase Surface-to-Air Missiles, Missile Launchers, and Hundreds of AK-47 Automatic Rifles Earlier today, in the midst of jury selection at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, defendants Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam and Sahilal Sabaratnam pled guilty to conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a designated foreign terrorist organization,...

Three families of firefighters killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 want to meet with President Barack Obama to urge him to reverse his decision to suspend the trial of five detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who admit roles in the terror attacks. In a meeting with reporters at their attorney's office on Sunday, the families deplored what they called "delays and confusion" in the former Bush administration's effort to prosecute suspects in the 2001 attacks, which killed about 3,000 people, saying they want "a firm commitment" that the same process won't continue under Obama. "Seven and a...

In 1973, a young terrorist named Khalid Duhham Al-Jawary entered the United States and quickly began plotting an audacious attack in New York City. He built three powerful bombs - bombs powerful enough to kill, maim and destroy - and put them in rental cars scattered around town, near Israeli targets. The plot failed. The explosive devices did not detonate, and Al-Jawary fled the country, escaping prosecution for nearly two decades - until he was convicted of terrorism charges in Brooklyn and sentenced to 30 years in federal penitentiary. But his time is up. In less than a month, the...

In view of the significant concerns raised by these detentions, both within the United States and internationally, prompt and appropriate disposition of the individuals currently detained at Guantanamo and closure of the facility would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice," the draft order said. At least three military prisons — in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Charleston, S.C. — could house some of the Guantanamo detainees,.. Also under consideration, .. the Supermax prison Florence, Colo.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- Military judges on Wednesday will consider motions by the Obama administration to suspend the Guantanamo war crimes trials for 120 days during a review of the system for prosecuting suspected terrorists. The motions, filed late Tuesday at the direction of President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will be heard in the cases of five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks and of Canadian Omar Khadr, who is accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan in 2002.... snip ...Relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, who were...

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Hours after taking office on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered military prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals to ask for a 120-day halt in all pending cases.

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Hours after taking office on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered military prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals to ask for a 120-day halt in all pending cases.

Two of the five men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks offered unapologetic admissions of guilt Monday in a sometimes chaotic - and possibly final - session of the Guantanamo war crimes court. The hearings, scheduled over several days, could be the last at Guantanamo, since President-elect Barack Obama has said he would close the offshore prison at the U.S. base in Cuba and many expect him to suspend the military tribunals and order new trials in the U.S. Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect of the terrorist attacks, casually admitted guilt during a series of...

A full week of pretrial hearings is set to begin at the US naval base here Monday as incoming US president Barack Obama prepares to shut down the controversial "war on terror" detention camp. A mental competence hearing is scheduled for Ramzi bin al-Shibh, alleged co-conspirator of the September 11, 2001 attacks. All five men charged with plotting the attacks are expected to appear at the hearing. In December, the self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants said they would submit guilty pleas to terror charges pending mental competency evaluations. Judge Stephen Henley said the defendants also wanted...

IN NEVADA... SNIPPET: "A 30-year-old man from Fresno, Calif., is facing a federal charge after allegedly driving onto Nellis Air Force base in a rental truck that he said contained a bomb." SNIPPET: "Anhwar Telly Young appeared Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on a charge of threat to kill or cause damage by explosive, a felony."

ALEXANDRIA, VA - A federal judge on Friday cleared the way for Sami Al-Arian to stand trial for criminal contempt, ruling there is an "insufficient legal basis" for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad supporter's claim of selective government prosecution. U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema set a March 9 jury trial date for Al-Arian.

Susan Crawford, the retired judge in charge of determining which Guantanamo detainees should be tried by a U.S. military commision, has refused to refer the case of Mohammed al-Qahtani to prosecutors because of that assessment, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. "We tortured (Mohammed al-) Qahtani," Crawford told the Post. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution. Military prosecutors have accused al-Qahtani of helping to plan the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, and believe he may have sought to participate, possibly as the "20th hijacker." The United States had...

The Pentagon early Tuesday morning sent Osama bin Laden's driver home to Yemen, a month before the first Guantanamo captive convicted of war crimes by a military jury completed his 66-month prison sentence. Salim Hamdan, 40, had been held prisoner by American forces for seven years. He was being returned to his homeland under a diplomatic deal that will have him finish his sentence in detention in his homeland, according to military sources familiar with the arrangement.

Nearly three years ago, Brian Morgenstern was a college dropout more or less content with his job as an assistant manager at a Mount Laurel Circuit City. Then a man dropped off a videotape, asking that it be converted to DVD. Morgenstern's life hasn't been the same since. On the tape, he saw men firing rifles and shouting "Allah akbar," Arabic for "God is great." He found the images disturbing enough that he contacted local police, prompting an investigation that culminated in Monday's convictions of five Muslim immigrants from South Jersey on charges of plotting to kill U.S. soldiers. Today,...

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen has freed Osama bin Laden's former driver after he served out his prison term following his return home from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in November, his lawyer said on Sunday. "Salim Hamdan was released on Thursday to live with his family in Sanaa," attorney Khaled al-Ansi told Reuters. He said Hamdan had signed a pledge not to commit any violent acts.

The Bush administration's ringing victory in last year's Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial could provide a tailwind for President Barack Obama's efforts to carry on the war on terror. There's much in the Bush administration's counterterrorism toolbox that the new president wants to throw out – Guantánamo Bay, secret foreign prisons, torture and warrantless wiretapping. But one weapon now proven effective by the Holy Land trial is the use of intelligence on complicated terrorist networks to pursue criminal cases.

When the five Muslims convicted this month of plotting to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix were charged, the New Jersey mosque where four of the men worshipped reacted to negative publicity by holding an "emergency town hall meeting" to calm neighbors and persuade Americans that Islam poses no threat. But having investigated the Islamic Center of South Jersey one year ago, Middle East expert and former Air Force special agent Dave Gaubatz insists not only is the mosque a threat to national security, it represents a pattern that has prompted him to launch a massive project to systematically classify...

War On Terror: The jihadists who plotted to kill American soldiers have been convicted. Their apologists say this was racial profiling and entrapment, and that they weren't serious. Fortunately, we were.The Fort Dix Six are going to prison, with five convicted of conspiracy to murder U.S. servicemen and facing possible life sentences. Four were also convicted of weapons charges. A sixth member of the group charged only with weapons charges pleaded guilty earlier. It was a signal of victory in the war on terror. It was also treated by the left as paranoia in search of a real threat. In...

According to a recent survey, fewer Americans believe terrorism is a threat now than at any time since September 10, 2001. But if five Muslim men in New Jersey had had their way, this threat might loom larger in the public mind today. These men face life in prison after being convicted Monday of plotting to enter the U.S. Army base in Fort Dix, New Jersey and murder as many soldiers as they could.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2008 – A federal jury yesterday found five men guilty of conspiracy to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J., but acquitted them of attempted murder. After nearly six days of deliberation, the jury rendered the guilty verdict for three brothers -- Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka -- and two other defendants, Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar. They face a maximum of life in prison, according to a Justice Department news release published yesterday. Federal prosecutors said the five men, all Muslim immigrants who were arrested in Cherry Hill, N.J., in May 2007, were planning to...

Five Muslim immigrants face the potential of life in prison after being convicted of scheming to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix. The five men were found guilty Monday in federal court of conspiring to kill military personnel, but they were acquitted of attempted murder after prosecutors acknowledged the men were probably months away from an attack and did not necessarily have a specific plan. Muslim leaders reacted with frustration Monday after the verdict.

The Ft Dix terrorists were caught because they were trying to make a DVD from a tape about Jihad, one of the plotters was taped by the FBI as saying, "In the end, when it comes to defending your religion, when someone attacks your religion, your way of life, then you go jihad. Today their own pictures and their own words helped to convict them of conspiracy. And as expected Muslim Groups such as CAIR cried entrapment:

5 convicted of plotting to kill Fort Dix soldiers CAMDEN, N.J. – Five Muslim immigrants were convicted Monday of plotting to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in a case that tested the FBI's post-Sept. 11 strategy of infiltrating and breaking up terrorist conspiracies in their earliest stages. The men could get life in prison when they are sentenced in April. The five, who lived in and around Philadelphia for years, were found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel. But they were acquitted of attempted murder, after prosecutors acknowledged the men were probably months away from an attack...

Some people continually say that American Muslims are different from Muslims everywhere else, but their actions show us that is just not true. Here is just one more example, as five Muslims were found guilty of planning to kill US soldiers at a US military base in New Jersey.

Fort Dix five guilty of conspiracy to kill soldiers by John P. Martin/The Star-Ledger Monday December 22, 2008, 1:30 PM Five Muslim immigrants from South Jersey were convicted today of plotting to kill American soldiers, a crime that prosecutors said demonstrated how Al Qaeda was using the Internet to recruit, train and incite supporters for attacks in the United States and around the world. The jurors, however, acquitted the men of an additional charge of attempted murder. The verdicts represented a victory for prosecutors and validation of tactics the FBI has increasingly used nationwide to detect and disrupt suspected terror...

The jury in the Fort Dix plot case has resumed deliberations in the case of five men accused of plotting an attack on the Army base. The panel resumed their deliberations in Camden, N.J., on Monday. On Sunday, they told Judge Robert Kugler they expected to reach a decision Monday.The five defendants, all foreign-born Muslim men who lived for years in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, N.J., are charged with conspiring to kill military personnel and attempted murder. They would face life in prison if convicted on those charges. Their lawyers maintain none of the defendants were plotting anything.

Ahmed Mohamed, one half of the Goose Creek two, received the maximum sentence yesterday for creating a jihad video that was to be used by Muslim “martyrs” fighting American soldiers in Arab countries. He and his apologists still insist on painting Mohamed as a regular college guy. The judge didn’t buy it. Good: ~~~ Former University of South Florida student Ahmed Mohamed received a maximum 15-year federal prison sentence Thursday for providing material support to terrorists. In court, U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday pondered the 27-year-old’s potential aloud, gazing at the former engineering doctoral student and teaching assistant who...

TAMPA -- Former University of South Florida student Ahmed Mohamed got a 15-year sentence today for providing material support to terrorism. "I still wonder why this young man in front of me at his age, at his intelligence, how he has become committed to this path," said U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday, who gave Mohamed, 27, the harshest penalty allowed by law

Note: The following text is a quote: http://detroit.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/de121208.htm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DEARBORN MAN SENTENCED ON CHARGES OF SUPPORTING HIZBALLAH A former resident of Dearborn was sentenced today to 10 years in prison after having pleaded guilty to providing material support to Hizballah, a designated foreign terrorist organization, Acting United States Attorney Terrence Berg announced today. Mr. Berg was joined in the announcement by Andrew Arena, FBI Special Agent in Charge, and Brian Moskowitz, Special Agent in Charge of Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Fawzi Assi, 47, formerly of Dearborn, Michigan, entered the guilty plea in United States...

The good doctor on the day of his grand jihad Cambridge alum guilty of plotting the jihad deaths of untold numbers. Poverty Causes Terrorism Update: "Iraqi doctor found guilty of Glasgow airport bomb plot," by Steve Bird in the Times, December 16 (thanks to all who sent this in): An NHS doctor who waged a terrorist car-bomb campaign intended to kill and maim hundreds of people in London and Glasgow has been found guilty of conspiracy to murder. Dr Bilal Abdulla was part of a cell that set up a bomb-making factory and bought five cars to convert into firebombs...