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One would hardly know it from the tendentious political speech delivered by federal District Judge John Coughenour Wednesday in sentencing al Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Ressam to 22 years in prison for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, but the Ressam case shows what is wrong with a strategy of using the courts as our primary means of fighting terror -- as the Clinton administration did for eight years. The case also serves as an illustration of the potentially catastrophic consequences to Americans that can result from lax border-enforcement, asylum and welfare policies in countries like France and Canada. In...

The Algerian terrorist who plotted to blow up Los Angeles International Airport at the height of New Year celebrations five years ago was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Wednesday. Defence lawyers had asked for 12½ years for Ahmed Ressam, 38, while prosecutors wanted 35 years. Mr Ressam, who had briefly co-operated with authorities in tracking down other terrorists, said nothing in court, but Thomas Hillier, a federal public defender, said his client had given John Coughenour, a US district judge, a note prior to the sentencing. The note, according to Mr Hillier, said: “I am sorry for what...

Seattle -- A man who plotted to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium was sentenced Wednesday to 22 years in prison, a penalty that reflected some of his cooperation in telling international investigators about the workings of terror camps in Afghanistan. Still, Ahmed Ressam, 38, could have received a shorter sentence had he not stopped talking to investigators in early 2003. Prosecutors argued that his recalcitrance has jeopardized cases against two of his coconspirators. In sentencing Ressam on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said he hoped to balance the United States' resolve to...

SEATTLE - The man convicted of plotting to blow up the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium was sentenced Wednesday to 22 years in prison. Ahmed Ressam got a lighter sentence than prosecutors had requested, reflecting his cooperation in telling international investigators about the workings of terror camps in Afghanistan. In sentencing Ressam, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said he hoped to balance U.S. resolve to punish potential terrorist acts with Ressam’s cooperation. Coughenour also said he hoped to send a message that the U.S. court system works in terrorism cases. “We did not need to...

The Algerian man convicted of plotting to blow up the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium was sentenced Wednesday to 22 years in prison. Ahmed Ressam got a lighter sentence than prosecutors had requested, reflecting his cooperation in telling international investigators about the workings of terror camps in Afghanistan. ... In sentencing Ressam, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said he hoped to balance U.S. resolve to punish potential terrorist acts with Ressam's cooperation. Coughenour also said he hoped to send a message that the U.S. court system works in terrorism cases. "We did not need to...

SEATTLE -- Security will be high Wednesday for the sentencing of Ahmed Ressam at the federal courthouse in Seattle, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reported. Ressam was convicted four years ago of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium.

Algerian radical spills beans on bin Laden "terror network" An Algerian Islamic radical arrested in France has proved a goldmine for investigators probing Osama bin Laden's militant network in Europe in the wake of the September 11 attacks, magistrates told AFP. French investigators now believe that after key testimonies from a handful of well placed members of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network the exiled Saudi extremist's secret organisation in Europe is unravelling fast. Since his arrest in Paris last Monday 27-year-old Yacine Aknouche has revealed his links with several al-Qaeda suspects including "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th...

Osama bin Laden tried to purchase the world's largest pearl, the Pearl of Allah, as a gift to Saddam Hussein "to unite the Arab cultures," and Hussein was prepared to accept, according to the pearl's owner. Victor Barbish, who owns sixty-six percent of the pearl on behalf of his daughter, told WorldNetDaily he received an offer in 1999 from individuals who said they were "from bin Laden's group" to purchase the pearl for $60 million to give to Hussein as an overture of unity between al-Qaida and the Iraqi government.

Intelligence agencies have had some success in tracking suspected al-Qaeda operatives. But the organisation is changing to continue its fight against the West. The West has never encountered an enemy like al-Qaeda before. The problem for the world's intelligence agencies is that it is not a unified organisation with an identifiable structure, like the IRA, but an amalgam of groups around the world whose members embrace Osama bin Laden's ideology of global jihad, or holy war. These Jihadi warriors share the belief that they have an obligation to fight the oppressors of their Muslim brothers, from Palestinians in the Middle...

FRENCH anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-Louis Bruguiere claims a mystery man in Australia was connected to the "millennium bombing plot" to blow up Los Angeles airport in 2000. Judge Bruguiere said telephone intercepts had linked a suspect in Sydney to Algerian Ahmed Ressam, who was arrested in December 1999 in Canada before he could cross the US border in a vehicle with explosives, large amounts of money and fake identities. He said the Sydney man was identified during an extensive international sting operation involving his office. The information was passed on to Australian authorities by the French counter-terrorism branch, the DST. But...

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (Reuters) - The U.S. government is stepping up efforts to patrol its porous northern border with Canada by using helicopters, airplanes and boats to monitor illegal immigration and drug traffic, officials said on Friday. The first of five planned facilities, the Air and Marine Branch, has begun operations 80 miles north of Seattle, with the aim of "maximizing" security with Canada, a country known for its friendly ties with the United States. Similar patrols already operate extensively along the southern border with Mexico, where thousands of illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America pass through into the United...

Sandy Who? Two weeks ago, Republicans were filled with glee, as Democrats fell all over themselves, trying to diminish the fact that Bill Clinton’s former national security adviser, Samuel Berger, better known as Sandy, was caught stuffing classified documents and national secrets down his drawers, in his jacket, in his socks, and in a leather portfolio, in order to steal them from the National Archives, and to later destroy some of them. (Berger returned some documents, but only after he was caught, and had “accidentally” destroyed the most important ones.) Note that Berger reportedly burgled the Archives on as many...

Republicans are filled with glee, as Democrats fall all over themselves, trying to diminish the fact that Bill Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, was caught stuffing classified documents and national secrets down his drawers, in his jacket, in his socks, and in a leather portfolio, in order to steal them from the National Archives, and to later destroy some of them. (Berger returned some documents, but only after he was caught, but had "accidentally" destroyed the most important ones.) Note that Berger reportedly burgled the Archives on five separate occasions. Watergate, meet BVDgate. For the past thirty years,...

Republicans are filled with glee, as Democrats fall all over themselves, trying to diminish the fact that Bill Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, was caught stuffing classified documents and national secrets down his drawers, in his jacket, in his socks, and in a leather portfolio, in order to steal them from the National Archives, and to later destroy some of them. (Berger returned some documents, but only after he was caught.) Watergate, meet BVDgate. For the past thirty years, many observers have thought it the height of paranoia for Pres. Richard Nixon's men to burglarize the offices of...

Terror-threat paper at center of criminal probe not shared with incoming Bush administration In testimony before the 9-11 Commission in April, Attorney General John Ashcroft pointed to a National Security Council document now at the center of the FBI's investigation of former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, urging the panel to ask why its warnings and "blueprint" to thwart al-Qaida's plans to target the U.S. were ignored by the Clinton administration and not shared with the incoming Bush security staff. Drafts of the sensitive NSC "Millennium After Action Review" on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the...

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told the 9/11 Commission Thursday morning that it was an alert Customs agent - and not the Clinton adminsitration "shaking the trees" for intelligence on al Qaeda - who deserves credit for foiling the December 1999 al Qaeda plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport. "It's questionable to me . . . that somehow shaking the trees was what broke up the Millennium [Plot]," Rice told the 9/11 probers, referring to claims by Clinton terrorism czar Richard Clarke that White House alerts had the nation's security apparatus on the lookout for trouble. In fact, said...

<p>Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.</p> <p>A former Canadian resident is a key commander and ideologue with Ansar al-Islam, a group the United States considers to be the terrorist link between Al Qaeda and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, says a captured Ansar member.</p> <p>Ali and another Ansar prisoner interviewed by the Star, 20-year-old Didar Khaled Khedr, said two former Iraqi intelligence agents are among Ansar's leaders - Abu Zurbeh and Abu Wahil.</p>

MONTREAL (CP) - The family of accused terrorist collaborator Mourad Ikhlef said Monday they fear for his life after he went missing following his deportation to Algeria. Ikhlef, who was flown to Algiers from Montreal on Friday, had claimed he might be killed if he were sent back to his North African homeland. An official with the federal Immigration Department, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed Ikhlef's deportation on Monday, adding the department didn't know his whereabouts. "I don't know what the situation is," said the official. "I'm not even going to speculate why he hasn't shown." Ikhlef's brother,...

SEATTLE (AP) — German officials in Seattle Wednesday questioned Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian convicted in an unsuccessful plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, about the structure of the al-Qaida terrorist network, an attorney taking part in the proceedings said. ``The question is how the network of al-Qaida works,'' said Ulrich von Jeinsen, a German attorney who represents the Families of Sept. 11 Organization. German law allow relatives of crime victims or their lawyers to participate in trials. ``Ressam is a member of al-Qaida. He had been in Afghanistan for training,'' von Jeinsen said. ``The reason we are here is...

Seattle man may give U.S. way to nab London cleric By David Heath Seattle Times staff reporter LONDON ? From one of the largest mosques in Great Britain, he preaches hatred, advocates killing and praises terrorist attacks on the United States. Abu Hamza al-Masri, the reputed al-Qaida recruiter, has been designated a terrorist by the world's largest industrial nations. He is wanted in Yemen on terrorism charges. So far he has eluded prosecutors overseas. Now federal authorities in Seattle have set their sights on prosecuting Abu Hamza. He is accused in court pleadings of an immigration violation that was...