Free Republic

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A federal judge ruled Monday that prosecutors can use a confession by a man charged with joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President Bush, despite defense claims that the confession was obtained through torture. The ruling came after a six-day hearing in which Ahmed Omar Abu Ali testified that Saudi Arabian security officers whipped his back, kicked him in the stomach and pulled on his beard to obtain a confession. U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee issued a one-page ruling and said he would explain his reasoning in a forthcoming order. Abu Ali's lawyers wanted the confession...

An alleged member of Al-Qaeda, charged with plotting to kill President George W. Bush, claims Saudi Arabian interrogators used torture techniques, including chaining, beating and whipping, to make him talk. Ahmed Abu Ali, an American citizen, said he was beaten and whipped shortly after being detained in Medina, Saudi Arabia during his first days of a 20 month captivity. The 24-year old suspected terrorist and assassin testified about his ordeal in a court hearing in Washington, DC being held to examine Abu Ali's confessions and whether they will be admitted into evidence during an upcoming trial. His lawyers claimed their...

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU 'My goal is to kill Ariel Sharon' Terror leader makes threats during ABC Radio segment -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: October 21, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com In case he wasn't clear enough during an exclusive interview this week with WorldNetDaily in which he said his terror group would target the ranch of Israel's prime minister with rockets, the spokesman for a coalition of three Palestinian terror groups warned on an American radio show the same day his "first and foremost goal" is to kill Ariel Sharon. Listen to ABC Radio's John Batchelor and WND's Jerusalem chief...

London, Oct. 19 – An Iranian-backed militia group which has penetrated key positions in the Iraqi Interior Ministry has been ordered to assassinate Iraqi Sunni Muslim activists, Iraqi media reported. Iran had prepared to launch a large intelligence operation aimed at eliminating secular and Sunni activists in Iraq, the al-Molf Net website wrote, adding that armed groups with ties to Tehran have been ordered to “assassinate the more influential and active Sunni Arab activists in Iraq”. A "central body" responsible for the assassinations has been set up in the Iraqi Interior Ministry, the report said. The body is run by...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A U.S. citizen accused of joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President Bush said in a videotaped confession that he was motivated by hatred of American support for Israel. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali also said on the tape, played in court for the first time Tuesday, that a top al-Qaida operative in Saudi Arabia "made it clear I became one of them and that I could speak in the name of al-Qaida." The 13-minute confession was videotaped in 2003 by authorities in Saudi Arabia, where Abu Ali attended college. His attorneys want the confession thrown out....

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - A possible attempt to assassinate a Lebanese judge was foiled Saturday after neighbors alerted him to suspicious activity around his car and police found batteries and wires beneath the vehicle, security officials said. No trace of explosives was found near the car of Judge Nazem Khoury, who is overseeing the investigation into the financial scandals of Lebanon's Al-Madina Bank and ordered its closure. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give official statements, said Khoury had recently received threats from unknown sources. The incident comes as a U.N.-mandated probe...

Guardian angels founder Curtis Sliwa couldn't believe his eyes: The Mafia boss who - according to a key witness - ordered him killed 13 years ago managed to escape conviction. Here, the outspoken radio host tells Daily News reporter Adam Nichols that he now fears John A. (Junior) Gotti wants the botched job finished: Now he wants me dead. I am a dead man walking. John Gotti Jr. will rejoin his family, and I know there are Gotti cohorts who have taken a solemn vow to do what they failed to do before: end my life. They're going to celebrate...

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...

<p>Lawyers for the man who shot President Reagan in 1981 are scheduled to return to a federal courtroom in Washington today to renew his efforts to make overnight visits to his parents' home near Williamsburg.</p> <p>A judge last fall denied John Hinckley Jr.'s request, citing a continuing relationship with a former girlfriend.</p>

A Falls Church man charged with conspiring with al Qaeda to kill President Bush told Saudi interrogators that he dreamed up the plot on his own but that it never got past the "idea stage," prosecutors say in court documents unsealed yesterday. Abu Ali, 24, also said during the same interrogation that he "wanted to be in al Qaeda so bad that I decided to go to Afghanistan for jihad." He said he was unable to get a visa to travel there but did join an al Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia. Abu Ali is charged in U.S. District Court...

A British citizen has been arrested on suspicion of being involved in a plot to smuggle surface-to-air missiles into the United States, ABCNEWS has learned. The man was arrested in Newark, N.J., this morning as part of an international sting pulled off by the FBI, British and Russian authorities. Other arrests are under way. The person arrested allegedly sought to smuggle a Russian-made surface-to-air missile into the country and believed he was selling missiles to would-be terrorists, sources said. The name of the person has not been disclosed

London, September 11: British police thwarted an al-Qaeda plot to assassinate Prime Minister Tony Blair during celebrations to mark Queen Elizabeth's 50 years on the throne, according to the former London police chief. Ex-Metropolitan Police commissioner John Stevens, who was Britain's most senior officer, said officers had learned that al-Qaeda snipers intended to kill Blair and his wife Cherie in front of a major parade through the capital in June 2002. In extracts of his new autobiography serialised in Sunday's News of the World newspaper, Stevens, who retired in January, said the plot was foiled after a huge covert operation...

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...

Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson prompted a firestorm of media outrage on Tuesday after he suggested that the Bush administration should assassinate a foreign leader who posed a threat to the U.S. - in this case, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. But when senior Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos publicly argued for the same kind of assassination policy in 1997, the press voiced no objection at all. Fresh from his influential White House post, Stephanopoulos devoted an entire column in Newsweek to the topic of whether the U.S. should take out Saddam Hussein. His headlined? "Why We Should Kill Saddam." "Assassination may...

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Georgian police working with the FBI discovered dangerous substances in the house of the suspect who admitted throwing a live grenade toward President Bush at a rally in Tbilisi in May, officials said Wednesday. Sergo Dzagnidze, chief of the criminal police department at the Interior Ministry, told The Associated Press that 5 gallons of sulfuric acid, several boxes of mercury thermometers, a centrifuge, a microscope and other devices and dangerous chemicals were found in the cellar. The suspect, Vladimir Arutyunian, was detained last week after a police shootout. He was charged Tuesday with terrorism over the...

Former Ghanaian President Denies Murder Allegations Carrie Giardino Abidjan 12 Feb 2004, 21:36 UTC AP Former Ghanaian president Jerry Rawlings has denied allegations he was involved in the abduction and murders of three high court judges and a retired army officer while he was in office. This is the first time Mr. Rawlings has appeared before Ghana's reconciliation commission to testify about the murder of three judges and an army officer back in 1982. He was specifically called before the commission to testify about the existence of taped confessions made by the convicted murderers. Of the five men who were...

TBILISI, Georgia — A man who confessed to throwing a live grenade toward President Bush during a rally in Georgia intended its shrapnel to hit the area where the president and others were standing, the suspect said video footage broadcast Saturday. "I threw the grenade, not directly at where there was bulletproof glass, but toward the heads ... so that the shrapnel would fly behind the bulletproof glass, you understand?" Vladimir Arutyunian said. Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili (search) were on a podium protected with bulletproof glass at a massive rally in Tbilisi in May when the grenade was...

Dow Jones Report

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi said he had escaped an attempt on his life during a recent visit to Lebanon. Members of the Lebanese Shiite movement Amal helped foil the attack, Allawi said at a joint press conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, although he did not say how or when it occurred. "I must thank my brothers from the Amal movement, especially the intelligence services that thwarted the attack. I owe them a lot," said Allawi, who frequently travels to Lebanon.

An Iowa man with white supremacist leanings was arrested after he told truck drivers over "citizens' band" radio that he was planning to set off a bomb in Washington, police said. Terry Daniels, 44, was found at a roadside gas station about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Chicago at 3:45 a.m. after truck drivers called police with his license plate number and a description of which direction his blue Ford van was heading. "We didn't find any explosives," Princeton, Illinois police chief Tom Root said. "We found a lot of documents like anti-government stuff and white supremacist stuff. There...