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White House technology policy adviser, Susan Crawford will leave her position in January to return to the University of Michigan Law School where she is a tenured professor, according to the Obama administration. Crawford, known as a proponent of controversial net neutrality rules, has been on temporary leave from the university to serve in the White House. That sabbatical, which began two months after she received tenure at the University of Michigan, will end in January. “Susan has done an outstanding job coordinating technology policy at the National Economic Council where her expertise on issues from intellectual property to the...

On Monday (March 7), the US Department of Defense informed that an Al-Qaeda terrorist would be sent back to his native country of Saudi Arabia for ‘psychiatric treatment’ after spending 20 years in detention at Guantanamo Bay facility. In a press release, the Defense Department stated that the 46-yea-old Mohammad Mani Ahmad al-Qahtani did not represent a ‘significant threat’ to the country anymore. This was determined in an assessment conducted by the Periodic Review Board (PRB) on June 9 last year.

The Biden administration on Monday repatriated to Saudi Arabia for mental health care a prisoner who had been tortured so badly by U.S. interrogators that he was ruled ineligible for trial as the suspected would-be 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks. The prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, in his 40s, is the second to be transferred from the wartime prison under the administration. *** His long-serving lawyer, Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the transfer was long overdue. “For 14 years I’ve sat across from Mohammed as he talks to nonexistent people in the room and makes eye...

A Guantanamo Bay detainee who was accused of trying to join the 9/11 hijackers has been sent back to Saudi Arabia for ‘treatment for mental illness,’ the Biden Administration said Monday. Mohammad Mani Ahmad al-Qahtani was sent from the famed prison to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he will receive treatment at a psychiatric facility. “After two decades without trial in U.S. custody, Mohammed will now receive the psychiatric care he has long needed in Saudi Arabia, with the support of his family,” law professor at the City University of New York Ramzi Kassem, who represented al-Qahtani, said. “Keeping...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- A UNM student from Saudi Arabia is charged with unlawfully carrying a firearm. According to a criminal complaint, filed in federal court, Hassan Alqahtani, 28, was arrested after the FBI received a tip that Alqahtani had a "list of people who he wants to kill before he leaves the U.S." The complaint says the list includes professors from UNM. The FBI searched Alqahtani's residence and reportedly found a .380 firearm and ammunition. Alqahtani's girlfriend claimed the firearms was hers, according to the complaint. However, the FBI believes she was possibly conspiring with Alqahtani to conceal his possession of...

A board reviewing the status of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has decided against releasing a Saudi who U.S. authorities believe narrowly avoided becoming one of the hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Lawyers for prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani asked the Periodic Review Board last month to send the prisoner to a rehabilitation center in Saudi Arabia for treatment of severe mental illness. The board, made up of representatives of six government agencies, turned down the request in a statement released Wednesday. …

Attorneys call videos ‘sickening’ Lawyers for the man known as the "20th hijacker" of 9/11 are suing the U.S. government to release "sickening" videotapes they say show Guantanamo Bay interrogators torturing their client. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Monday by the Center for Constitutional Rights, said Mohammed Al-Qahtani was a victim “of torture and other profoundly cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment." "The American public should now be permitted to see what occurred for itself," the lawsuit said. Between 2002 and 2003, Al-Qahtani suffered through marathon interrogation sessions and was subjected to severe temperatures, sleep deprivation and other...

JEDDAH: Alleged Al-Qaeda operative Khaled Hadal Al-Qahtani, who figured high on a list of 47 most-wanted terrorists, has surrendered to Saudi security authorities, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki announced on Wednesday “Al-Qahtani contacted security agencies expressing his desire to return to the Kingdom and surrender himself to authorities,” Al-Turki told the Saudi Press Agency. “Consequently, we made arrangements for his return and reunite him with his family.” Al-Qahtani would be dealt with according to the procedures followed in similar cases, Turki said, adding that his initiative to surrender would be taken into consideration while looking into his case....

SNIPPET: "Some comments • I have to assume that al-Balawi was thoroughly debriefed by al-Qaida before being sent on this mission, and I'm surprised no one has sought to correlate his "infiltration" of al-Qaida with Abu Yahya al-Libi's book released over the summer: "Guidance on the Ruling of the Muslim Spy" • See also: Al Qaida: Western Spies Multiply "Like Locusts"."

A man whom the U.S. described as a key figure in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula accidentally blew himself up, U.S. military officials told Fox News. The officials say Nayif Al-Qahtani was "messing with a bomb" when it went off. U.S. officials had been watching him, but Fox News' sources insist the U.S. had nothing to do with his death. Al-Qahtani was "a vibrant guy linked to ongoing operations planning, and his death will have an impact," one official told Fox News. An Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula newsletter was the first to announce his death a week...

A Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo Bay says the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Washington Post reported. "We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," Susan J. Crawford told the Post. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution. Crawford is the first senior Bush administration official who investigates Guantanamo dealings to publicly say a detainee was tortured.

Globalterroralert.com (4/14/05): Sources in the Arabian Peninsula are now claiming that one of the four Al-Qaida suicide bombers who attacked a U.S. base in the western Iraqi town of Al-Qaim on April 11 was Saudi national Hadi bin Mubarak al-Qahtani. According to a statement marking his death, Hadi had grown "eager to martyr himself" after witnessing the example of the "19 heroes" and their "holy attack that demolished the foolish infidel Americans and caused many young men to awaken from their deep sleep." Click to view English translation c/o Globalterroralert.com

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

Osama bin Laden's closest al-Qaeda lieutenant has been plotting a terrorist attack on the World Cup, Iraqi police said. According to investigators, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's number two, was conspiring with an al-Qaeda operative who was arrested in Baghdad two weeks ago. The operative, named as Abdullah Azzam Saleh Misfar al-Qahtani and said to be a former Saudi army colonel who had travelled to Iraq and become security chief for al-Qaeda's local branch, has been accused of organising suicide bombings in two cities south of Baghdad. Abdullah Azam al-Qahtani Major General Qassim Atta, head of security in Baghdad, said he...

Susan Crawford, the retired judge in charge of determining which Guantanamo detainees should be tried by a U.S. military commision, has refused to refer the case of Mohammed al-Qahtani to prosecutors because of that assessment, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. "We tortured (Mohammed al-) Qahtani," Crawford told the Post. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution. Military prosecutors have accused al-Qahtani of helping to plan the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, and believe he may have sought to participate, possibly as the "20th hijacker." The United States had...

US agents at Guantanamo Bay tortured a Saudi man suspected of involvement in the 11 September attacks, the official overseeing trials at the camp has said. Susan Crawford told the Washington Post newspaper that Mohammad al-Qahtani had been left in a "life-threatening condition" after being interrogated. She said Mr Qahtani had been subjected to sustained periods of cold, isolation and sleep deprivation. Mr Qahtani remains at Guantanamo, but all charges against him were dropped. He had been facing trial on counts of conspiracy, terrorism, and murder in violation of the laws of war.

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A senior al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan who escaped last year from Bagram prison has been captured, U.S. military sources said Monday. Abu Nasir al-Qahtani was among six people arrested last Monday during a raid by coalition and Afghan forces in Khost province, the sources said. A coalition military press release issued at the time of al-Qahtani's arrest described him only as a "known al Qaeda terrorist" and said he was taken into custody along with Saudi and Pakistani nationals. Al-Qahtani was one of four al Qaeda detainees who escaped from the high-security detention facility at...

Al-Qahtani reportedly was upset he faced murder and war crimes charges. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The alleged “20th hijacker” in the Sept. 11 attacks tried to kill himself at Guantanamo last month, his lawyer disclosed Tuesday, saying the Saudi prisoner was distraught over a possible death sentence for charges later dropped by the Pentagon. Mohammed al-Qahtani cut himself at least three times and had to be hospitalized at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba, attorney Gitanjali Gutierrez said. Al-Qahtani made the suicide attempt after learning military prosecutors filed capital charges against him and five other Guantanamo prisoners for their...

Charges dropped against alleged 20th hijacker: Pentagon WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Pentagon has dropped charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, the alleged "20th hijacker" in the September 11 attacks on the United States, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday. Susan Crawford, the convening authority for war crimes trials by special military commissions, gave no explanation in dropping the charges against al-Qahtani "without prejudice," said Commander Jeffrey Gordon. "They have been dismissed without prejudice, which means they can be reinstituted at any time," he said of the charges.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Pentagon has dropped charges against a Saudi at Guantanamo who was alleged to have been the so-called "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11 attacks, his U.S. military defense lawyer said Monday. Mohammed al-Qahtani was one of six men charged by the military in February with murder and war crimes for their alleged roles in the 2001 attacks. Authorities say al-Qahtani missed out on taking part in the attacks because he was denied entry to the U.S. by an immigration agent. But in reviewing the case, the convening authority for military commissions, Susan Crawford,...