SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out the sentence of a man who was convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport at the turn of the millennium.
Ahmed Ressam was arrested near the U.S.-Canadian border in December 1999 after customs agents found 124 pounds of explosives in the trunk of his car. Prosecutors said he was intent on bombing the airport on the eve of the millennium. The arrest raised fears of terrorism attacks and prompted the cancellation of millennium celebrations at Seattle's Space Needle. p>Ressam was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being convicted off all nine charges. On Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed his conviction on one of the charges and sent the case back to a lower court to issue a new sentence and explain the rationale behind the original 22-year term.
The decision does not necessarily mean Ressam will get a shorter term. Judges are given wide latitude to sentence defendants as they see fit. After his conviction in 2001, Ressam began cooperating with authorities in hopes of winning a reduced sentence. Over the next two years, according to court documents, he provided information on more than 100 potential terrorists and testified against coconspirator Moktar Haouari and Sept. 11 plotter Mounir el-Motassadeq.
Ressam told authorities he saw Zacarias Moussaoui at a training camp in Afghanistan in 1998. He also told investigators about the type of shoe bomb Richard Reid attempted to detonate on a U.S.-bound airline flight in 2001, and provided information about a network of Algerian terrorists in Europe.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour of Seattle, who sentenced Ressam, said the information he provided was "startlingly helpful." But Ressam's cooperation came to a halt by early 2003, resulting in charges being dropped against two other coconspirators. His lawyers said years of solitary confinement, broken by periods of intense interrogation, had taken their toll on his mental health and corrupted his memory.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070116/ap_on_re_us/millennium_terror_3
LONDON - An international terror suspect who had been under a controversial loose form of house arrest is on the run, Home Secretary John Reid said.
The unidentified person is the third to slip the net since Prime Minister Tony Blair's government introduced control orders in 2005. They were brought in as a compromise measure after a court ruled it could not hold foreign terror suspects indefinitely in prison without charge or trial. In a written statement to lawmakers, Reid, who is already under pressure over a series of administrative blunders by his department, said that the individual had absconded earlier this month.
The individual, who was compelled to report daily to police and surrender travel documents, had "recently been radicalised and wanted to travel abroad for terrorism-related purposes", Reid said. It was not believed that the person was a threat to the public, he added.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070116/wl_uk_afp/britainsecuritylaws_070116191643
Russian Security on High Alert After Being Warned About Possible Terror Attack on Mass Transit
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
MOSCOW — Russian authorities have ordered security forces on high alert after receiving information from foreign officials pointing to the threat of a terrorist attack on public transportation, officials said Tuesday. Authorities were checking information about the potential threat, they said.
A federal anti-terrorism headquarters received information "from foreign partners ... about the possibility a subversive terrorist act could be committed on ground transport and in the metro," according to a statement confirmed by a Federal Security Service official who said he was not authorized to give his nam
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,243986,00.html
Hezbollah Inside America: FOX News Tells All in Documentary
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Does any terrorist organization pose a greater threat to Americans than Al Qaeda? The shocking answer to that question unfolds this Saturday, January 20th, at 8 p.p. EST, as FOX News Channel presents a breakthrough documentary, “Smokescreen: Hezbollah Inside America.”
While Americans are still largely focused on Al Qaeda and Usama bin Laden — who’s presumably rotting away in some cave — the terrorist group Hezbollah has been setting up shop right here in America’s heartland. And most Americans don’t know a thing about it. But we should no more about Hezbollah — a lot more.
As tensions with Iran are increasing, it’s important to keep in mind that Hezbollah is largely funded by Iran and has operated as its tool in terror operations around the world. As former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte recently reminded us: “Hezbollah’s self-confidence and hostility toward the U.S. as a supporter of Israel could cause the group to increase its contingency planning against U.S. interests.”
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THIS IS TOTALLY DISCONCERTING and it is the top story today (at least for me).
Shaking my head at this news..............