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Eavesdropping Program Netted Local Man Dec 16, 2005, 02:35 PM Reported by Kurt Ludlow A former Columbus truck driver linked to Al-Qaeda was nabbed as part of a secret operation that's now out of the bag. The government spied on him and hundreds of other Americans without warrants. It was a front page New York Times article that divulged for the first time that the National Security Agency spied on Americans, monitoring international phone calls and emails of hundreds of people including a Columbus man. Columbus truck driver Iyman Farris pled guilty in 2003 to helping Al-Qaeda plan terrorist attacks...

Federal authorities expect to file terrorism charges soon against a detained Pakistani man with ties to the shipping industry and links to a senior al Qaeda leader, law enforcement officials said yesterday. Uzair Paracha, 23, has been secretly detained as a material witness since his arrest March 31 in the offices of a New York clothing import firm owned by his father, sources said. Authorities believe the Paracha family business may have been used as cover for attempts to smuggle al Qaeda operatives or weapons into the United States, according to several sources familiar with the case. Paracha's father, who...