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Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a Falls Church man and a member of al Qaeda who admitted he was planning to assassinate then-President George W. Bush, was sentenced to life in prison Monday at federal court in Alexandria. Abu Ali was originally sentenced in 2005 to 30 years in prison. U.S. Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the U.S. District Court for eastern Virginia ruled Monday that Abu Ali should spend life in prison partially because he never renounced his al Qaeda ties. After the initial sentencing, both sides filed appeals. Abu Ali completed some of his sentence in solitary confinement at...

Muslim-American attorney Ashraf Nubani dreams of building an ordinary law practice. Meanwhile, there are terrorists—alleged and otherwise—to defend. Ashraf Nubani had a plan when he left the bustle of New York City in 1998, relocating with his wife and four children to the gentler northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. He took a job with a 10-lawyer firm and began developing a specialty in one of its practice areas—immigration. His ever-expanding ties to the metro area's large Muslim community would help grow a general practice in a way he describes only half-jokingly: Step 1: Help the foreign national get an...

A Palestinian activist and former college professor who has been in federal custody in Chicago since September has been indicted on a single criminal contempt charge for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury investigating the terrorist group Hamas. Federal prosecutors in Chicago announced the indictment Friday against Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar, the same day U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and Chicago FBI Agent-in-Charge Tom Kneir paid a visit to the heavily Palestinian Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview. Ashqar, 45, a Palestinian native and former adjunct business professor at Howard University, had been granted immunity from prosecution for his testimony by U.S....

A Virginia man accused of joining al-Qaida and plotting to kill President Bush can have an independent medical exam to corroborate his claim that he was tortured, a judge ruled Wednesday. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, claims that the U.S. government's evidence against him was obtained through torture while he was jailed in Saudi Arabia. Federal prosecutors deny Abu Ali was mistreated and say no evidence of torture was found by government doctors who examined Abu Ali last month, when the Saudi government turned him over to face federal charges. Abu Ali is a former high school valedictorian in Virginia...

Virginia man charged in alleged plot to assassinate Bush By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A former high school valedictorian in Virginia was charged Tuesday with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and conspiracy to support the al-Qaida terrorist network. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, a U.S. citizen, made an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court. He claimed that he was tortured while detained in Saudi Arabia since June of 2003 and offered through his lawyer to show the judge his scars. The indictment said that in 2002 and 2003 Abu Ali and an unidentified coconspirator...

An attorney of the Global Relief Foundation last week described to members of the Cornell community the harms the USA PATRIOT Act has presented for immigrants. Ashraf Nubani, a Palestinian immigration lawyer, detailed a lawsuit facing the Global Relief Foundation, which stems from the act, as well as how international students can protect themselves in the United States. The six-month-old legislation excludes foreign students from the protections of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, and allows government agencies to obtain information about students' academic records and computer files. Cornell, however, has mitigated the effects of the act, and is...