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McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A man accused of plotting to assassinate President Bush was indicted Thursday on additional charges that could bring life in prison, and prosecutors now say he also planned to establish an al-Qaida cell in the United States. Prosecutors say Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, of Falls Church joined al-Qaida in 2002 while studying in Saudi Arabia and that he discussed possible terrorist operations, including a plot to kill Bush either by shooting or by a suicide bombing.Prosecutors also allege Abu Ali discussed plans to assassinate members of Congress and to hijack aircraft and fly them into...

Ahmed Omar Abul Ali, the Virginia Muslim charged with conspiring to assassinate President Bush, met several times with Zubayr al-Rimi—Al Qaeda’s number two man in Saudi Arabia, killed in a shootout with Saudi forces in September 2003: Abu Ali linked to Saudi Arabia al Qaeda leader. (Hat tip: The Jawa Report.) A Falls Church man accused of conspiring to assassinate President Bush met several times with an al Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia who once was the target of a global manhunt and a key suspect in an attack that killed nine Americans in Riyadh, law-enforcement authorities said. Ahmed Omar...

I'm angry. I'm going to let off some steam. But don't think for a minute that the recommendations I make in this commentary are made in haste or without careful reflection. I waited a few days to cool off after I read the news stories that prompt this column. I didn't want to say something I would regret later. Now I feel like I will regret it later if I don't say something right now. Last month, the United States pressed charges against Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, a U.S. citizen of Arabic extraction, for plotting to assassinate President Bush....

Prosecutors deny this, but even U.S. law-enforcement officials admit there is a good chance Abu Ali could eventually walk out of prison a free man. The indictment of Abu Ali shows how the administration's aggressive pursuit of the global war on terror is increasingly getting tangled up in legal constraints at home. So for the next 20 months, Justice let Abu Ali, a U.S. citizen, languish in a Saudi jail cell. He had no access to a lawyer, and no charges were filed against him. But is this a legitimate tactic in the war on terror? In the aftermath of...

WASHINGTON - The federal indictment of a graduate of a Saudi-backed Islamic school in suburban Virginia for plotting to kill President Bush is the latest example of the school's links to troubling activity, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., charged on Wednesday. Schumer said he is asking Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, to explain where the school receives all of its funding, and whether the school may be "a breeding ground for anti-American sentiment - and, possibly even terrorist activities." It has been widely reported the school receives substantial funding from the Saudi kingdom. Schumer...

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...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. - By the U.S. government's account, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali used his time studying in Saudi Arabia to plot the assassination of President Bush. But to supporters here, the young man's studies at Saudi Arabia's University of Medina were nothing more than a spiritual break before a settled life in American suburbia. Two divergent stories about Abu Ali emerged yesterday as the 23-year-old student from Northern Virginia sat in federal custody. To U.S. officials, the young man is a shadowy would-be assassin who hatched a plan with an al-Qaida member in 2002 and 2003 to shoot the...

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. citizen held in Saudi Arabia since June 2003 plotted to assassinate President Bush and aspired to plan Al Qaeda terrorist operations, according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, of Falls Church, Va., did not enter a plea during an initial appearance in federal court in Alexandria, Va., but said through his lawyer that he had been tortured while in Saudi custody. A six-count, 16-page indictment accuses Abu Ali of conspiring to kill Bush, either by getting "close enough to the president to shoot him on the street" or by detonating a...