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Osama bin Laden´s son-in-law has been captured and is in the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, two administration officials said on Thursday. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, was captured within the last week in Jordan, according to a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Peter King of New York. The lawmaker had been told of the capture by law enforcement officials. Congress was notified when Ghaith was taken into U.S. custody, the officials said.

LONDON (AP) - A British judge Friday imposed a 13-year prison sentence on a man who admitted conspiring with shoe-bomber Richard Reid to blow up a U.S.-bound trans-Atlantic jet in 2001. Prosecutors said they believe British-born Saajid Badat, 25, may have backed out of an alleged plot with Reid, who was subdued by passengers when he attempted to detonate a bomb aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22, 2001. ``Turning away from crime in circumstances such as these constitutes a powerful mitigating factor,'' Judge Adrian Fulford said. ``It can take considerable courage to plead guilty...

From Gloucester to Afghanistan: the making of a shoe bomber Saajid Badat this week pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up a plane. What drove this quiet football fan to thoughts of terror? Mark Honigsbaum and Vikram Dodd Saturday March 5, 2005 The Guardian He seemed the model British Muslim citizen - a poster boy for integration whose knowledge of the Qu'ran and achievement at grammar school made Gloucester's close-knit Islamic community proud. When in November 2003 anti-terrorist police turned up at the terraced house in the Barton and Tredworth district of the city that Saajid Badat shared with his...

Police success leaves Muslim leaders in shock SAAJID BADAT’S guilty plea to conspiracy to destroy, damage or endanger an aircraft was hailed as a major success by counter-terrorist detectives and left many Muslim leaders shocked. Police say that the conviction is not only important in showing that the huge resources put into fighting terrorism get results but may also help to convince the Muslim community that there is a genuine threat in Britain. For several years police have been trying to counter criticism from Muslim communities unhappy at what they have described as heavy-handed tactics. Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commissioner...

 A British-born Muslim admitted yesterday conspiring to blow up a passenger aircraft at the same time as Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, tried to bring down an American Airlines flight.Saajid Badat, 25, who trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey after being linked to an al-Qa'eda plot.   Saajid Badat Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, said: "Three years of intensive and painstaking international investigation brought us to the point where Badat had no option but to plead guilty to this horrendous offence."His conviction demonstrates the reality of the threat...

Terror suspect Saajid Badat has become the first al-Qaeda suspect to be convicted in Britain. Badat had trained as a suicide bomber in Afghanistan and Pakistan and had conspired with Richard Reid, the British man who became known as the shoe-bomber, to blow up an aircraft. Badat had been preparing to attack – he had booked a flight to the United States, via Amsterdam. At the Old Bailey today he admitted that he had conspired to put an explosive device on a plane in the months after September 11 2001. The 25-year-old said he had been given the training and...

LONDON (Reuters) - "Shoe bomber" Richard Reid had planned with an accomplice to bring down more than one aircraft at around the same time, a London court heard Monday. Reid failed in his bid to blow up an American Airlines plane from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22, 2001 after passengers and crew overpowered him as he tried to ignite explosives in his shoe. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a U.S. court in January 2003. At the Old Bailey Monday, his accomplice Saajid Badat, 25, pleaded guilty to conspiring to use an explosive device identical to that of...

LONDON (AFP) - A British Muslim pleaded guilty to conspiring with jailed "shoe bomber" Richard Reid to try and blow up airliners, an admission police hailed as a major breakthrough in anti-terrorism efforts. Intelligence services believe Saajid Badat, 25, who was arrested in Britain in late 2003, had volunteered to mimic Reid's failed suicide bomb attack by igniting a shoe packed with explosives during a commercial flight. Fellow Briton Reid, a self-professed follower of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), was jailed for life by a US court in early 2003 for trying to blow up a...

A British-born suicide bomber plotted to bring down a packed passenger aircraft over the Atlanttic at the same time that the shoe bomber Richard Reid targeted an American Airlines flight, the Old Bailey heard today. But Saajid Badat changed his mind and dismantled his own shoe bomb, which was designed to evade airport security. Badat, 25, from Gloucester, admitted conspiring to blow up an aircraft between January 1 1999 and November 28, 2003 in a surprise change of plea today. He had been due to stand trial for the offence. Intelligence services believe Badat had been conspiring with Reid, a...

WASHINGTON — U.S. authorities brought charges Monday against a British man they claim conspired with admitted Al Qaeda (search) member Richard Reid (search) to use shoe bombs to blow up planes in midair. A federal grand jury indictment unsealed in Boston charges Saajid Badat, 25, with attempted murder, trying to destroy an aircraft and other counts related to the alleged conspiracy with Reid, who also is a British citizen and Muslim convert. Reid's attempt to blow up a Paris-to-Miami flight on Dec. 22, 2001, was thwarted by attendants and passengers after he tried to light a fuse leading to the...