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ABC on Tuesday night considered a lawyer's allegation that Ahmed Omar Abu Ali had been tortured just as important as the government's charge that the al-Qaeda member plotted to assassinate President Bush. Peter Jennings teased: "On World News Tonight, an Arab-American is charged with conspiring to assassinate the President. His lawyers say the U.S. let the authorities in Saudi Arabia torture him." Brian Ross began his story not with the charges but with how the suspect's "friends and family were at the courthouse in Virginia this morning, hoping for his release after 20 months in custody in Saudi Arabia" where...

A federal judge on Monday denied a request by a U.S. citizen, who has been charged with plotting to kill President George W. Bush, to throw out confessions he signed while in Saudi custody where he claims he was tortured. U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee issued brief orders denying requests by Ahmed Abu Ali, 24, to throw out the confessions he signed and to dismiss the case. Lee said he would explain his ruling at a later date. The ruling comes the day before jury selection is due to begin. Abu Ali was arrested in June 2003 while taking...

A suspected terrorist accused of conspiring to assassinate President Bush said he proposed the plot but it wasn't pursued, and he was frustrated that other members of his al-Qaida cell lacked initiative, according to prosecutors. A government motion unsealed this week by a federal judge reveals new details in the case against Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, who is scheduled to go on trial next month. Prosecutors say the Falls Church resident has admitted joining al- Qaida while attending college in Saudi Arabia and that he discussed numerous terrorist plots, including plans to assassinate Bush and hijack airplanes. Abu Ali...

An even more devastating terrorism charge could be laid on Iran's doorstep if intelligence reports linking Iran to al-Qaeda are confirmed. Insight has learned of new links between top Iranian intelligence officials and the al-Qaeda leadership that suggest direct Iranian government involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. mainland. Documents and information provided to this magazine by a recent Iranian defector, if confirmed as authentic, could open a new front in the war on terror. The defector, Hamid Reza Zakeri, says he worked in the intelligence office of Supreme Leader Ali Khameini and personally handled security at two...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI made a series of arrests in three states Friday of men suspected of ties to an anti-U.S. terrorist organization whose main goal is driving India out of the disputed Kashmir territory in South Asia. The arrests of at least seven suspects were made in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, said federal law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity. Federal charges against the men, and several others who are overseas, were to be announced later in the day. The men are alleged to be part of an extremist Muslim organization called Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is on the...

JIZAN, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Blood and bullets littered the halls Wednesday of a Saudi housing complex where a shootout with security forces left three suspected militants dead, including a man wanted by the FBI for possible terrorist threats against the United States. The hours-long gunfight ended Tuesday afternoon after Saudi security forces stormed the three-story complex in Jizan, 600 miles south of the capital, Riyadh, shooting their way through the doors. At least one security officer also died and two suspected militants were arrested, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency....

Health officials are investigating at least 29 suspected cases of people in three Midwestern states who may have been stricken in the outbreak so far, which state and federal health officials are urgently working to contain. State and federal authorities are tracing about 200 animals that were distributed in 15 states by an exotic pet dealer in Illinois. The dealer sold rodents known as prairie dogs, which are believed to be the source of the outbreak. In addition to trying to prevent more infections, officials are worried that the animals could spread the disease to wild rabbits and other indigenous...

There is one chair in the room, and they sit him in it. He pulls out his wallet. He's looking for a number. A phone number, an address. That is why he is here. Fernando the lawyer. Fernando the drug trafficker. He's got a load of marijuana, and they want it.Fernando thinks he's in the company of friends. He thinks this man standing in front of him, this Lalo, is going to deliver the marijuana for him to New York. That's what the numbers are for. They are contacts. They are the people Lalo will call, the people who are...

New Joint Command Stands Ready to Defend Capital By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service FORT LESLEY J. MCNAIR, D.C., Sept. 22, 2004 – A new headquarters here will concentrate the military mission to help defend the nation's capital. Army Maj. Gen. Galen Jackman holds the Joint Force Headquarters - National Capital Region activation order during a ceremony at Fort Myer, Va., Sept. 22. Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Inge, deputy commander of U.S. Northern Command, presented the certificate. The new command's component commanders surround Jackman. Photo by Jim Garamone(Click photo for screen-resolution image); high- resolution image available. The Joint Force...

June 12, 2003 Retiring Army Chief of Staff Warns Against Arrogance By THOM SHANKER FORT MYER, Va., June 11 ?Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the Army chief of staff who pushed his tradition-bound service on a difficult path toward transformation, retired today, warning against arrogance in leadership. General Shinseki's four-year term was marked by clashes with the Pentagon's civilian leadership over weapons systems and troop strength, and he did not mention Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in his parting remarks. The defense secretary did not attend the ceremony because he was traveling in Europe en route to a NATO meeting. "You...

No one yet has the full story on the infamous June 29 Northwest Airlines Flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles, on which thirteen Syrian musicians acted so suspiciously that passenger and WomensWallStreet.com writer Annie Jacobsen feared she was about to be killed by terrorists. The identity of the band remained unknown for a while until I identified them as the backup band for Canaanite crooner Nour Mehana, whom I dubbed the "Syrian Wayne Newton." Regardless of the behavior of Nour Mehana's band, Ms. Jacobsen's story has focused international attention on the very serious issue of terrorists sizing up our...

Was Plane That Vanished From Angola the Same One That Crashed off Benin on Christmas Day? ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press Writ By Nafi Diouf and Published: Jan 2, 2004 DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - American authorities are investigating whether a Boeing 727 shattered in a deadly Christmas Day crash off West Africa was the same jet that vanished in Angola last year, setting off a worldwide search, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Friday. Also, a Canadian humanitarian-flight pilot told The Associated Press he saw a 727 with the missing Angola jet's tail number at Guinea's airport in June - a...

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran, which the United States accuses of secretly pursuing nuclear weapons, has a stake in the world's biggest open-pit uranium mine in the African state of Namibia, the mine's owner told Reuters. Rossing Uranium Limited, which is majority owned by Anglo-Australian firm Rio Tinto, sells its uranium to nuclear power plants in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Sweden. Graham Davidson, the general manager for operations at Rossing, said in a letter to Reuters that the company's board of directors only permits the sale of uranium for use in generating electricity. "The government of Iran has...

Judge's Report Shows Cheney Aide Is Accused Of Broad Deception The special prosecutor in the CIA leak case alleged that Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff was engaged in a broader web of deception than was previously known and repeatedly lied to conceal that he had been a key source for reporters about undercover operative Valerie Plame, according to court records released yesterday. The records also show that by August 2004, early in his investigation of the disclosure of Plame's identity, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald had concluded that he did not have much of a case against I....

Quislings: At the same time our president springs dangerous terrorists from prison, he has quietly promoted an Islamic cleric who has issued fatwas calling for the death of U.S. troops with "child bombs." The State Department last week had to apologize for singing the praises of the creep — Sheik Abdallah Bin Bayyah — in a Tweeted message promoting his Muslim Brotherhood organization. But officials there are only sorry they got caught. The same bunch last year issued a visa for the radical cleric so he could visit, of all places, the White House. That's right, the administration knew full...

What's up in the spy world? William F. Buckley (archive) The Big Bad Russians have pulled a fast one which bears pondering. The victim is one Aleksandr Zaporozhsky, by U.S. lights a hero, by Russian lights, a traitor. We learn that in November, 2001, he was enticed to revisit his homeland, on stepping foot in which he was whisked off, tried, and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Several questions immediately arise. True, Zaporozhsky spied against Moscow, but when he did that, he was spying against a Soviet regime ultimately repudiated by the Russian people. It was ten years between...

The Moscow Military District Court has ruled that it was Colonel Aleksander Zaporozhsky who gave up Robert Hanssen to the CIA. The court ended up giving the former intelligence officer an even stiffer sentence than the prosecutor had demanded. On Wednesday the former Colonel of the Foreign Intelligence Service Aleksander Zaporozhsky was found guilty of high treason in the form of revealing state secrets to the USA. Zaporozhsky was sentenced to 18 years in a high security labour camp and stripped of his military rank and all state decorations, though his property will not be confiscated. During his service, Zaporozhsky...

In an indication of their growing estrangement with the Bush administration, neoconservatives are slamming the White House for failing to stop what they describe as an antisemitic campaign to marginalize them being conducted by the CIA and the State Department. This view was outlined in a memo circulating among neoconservative foreign policy analysts in Washington. Obtained by the Forward, the memo criticizes the White House for not refuting press reports on the FBI's investigation of Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin that suggest wrongdoing on the part of Jewish officials at the Defense Department. "If there is any truth to any of...

The head of Iran's nuclear program is in Moscow for talks with senior Russian officials, amid continuing international concern that Tehran is secretly trying to develop atomic weapons. Iranian nuclear energy chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov are expected to meet Monday to discuss bilateral cooperation. Russia is helping Iran build a nuclear power plant in the port city of Bushehr, despite pressure from the United States to end the effort. Moscow also has been urging Iran to cooperate more closely with U.N. nuclear inspectors, to ease concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Iran insists its nuclear program...

To Serve, to Protect, to Brag You could see it coming. Minutes after the news flashed around the nation, FBI agents, active and retired, were preening themselves before the TV cameras, once again basking in the limelight of an arrest they had absolutely nothing to do with. Let this be said loud and clear before it becomes part of the self-created image of an agency that, like the Mounties, says it always gets its man: Eric Robert Rudolph was nabbed by a local cop on the beat. The FBI didn't have a damned thing to do with the capture of...