Free Republic

Alvarado police officer shot while responding to suspicious person call near Prairieland Detention Facility The shooting of a Texas police officer near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility and the firing of shots at federal officers over the weekend was a "planned ambush" on the building, resulting in 11 people being charged, authorities said Monday. An Alvarado, Texas, police officer was shot Friday night near the Prairieland Detention Facility, authorities said. "This was an egregious attack on federal and local law enforcement officers and it is part of an increasing trend of violence against them," said Nancy...

WASHINGTON (AP) - An American accused in court papers of having ties to Osama bin Laden is now working for the Iraqi government's Foreign Ministry, U.S. officials and a former CIA counterterrorism chief say. Iraqi-born Tarik A. Hamdi was the ``American contact'' for one of bin Laden's front organizations and gave a satellite telephone battery to a bin Laden aide in Afghanistan for a phone used by the terrorist leader, according to an affidavit from Customs Agent David Kane.The affidavit was unsealed this week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., along with a federal indictment charging Hamdi with lying...