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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. …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader was involved in a plot to assassinate or overthrow Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, a consulting firm with ties to Mugabe's government claimed Wednesday. An official at Dicksen & Madson said he secretly taped a meeting with Morgan Tsvangirai, president of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, where they discussed removing Mugabe from power. Tsvangirai was apparently unaware of the firm's connection to the government. The grainy footage was broadcast on Australian television Wednesday night. Tsvangirai told The Associated Press the tape was "contrived." He refused to comment further, but opposition spokesman ...

Chairman Henry A. Waxman announced a hearing on whether White House officials followed appropriate procedures for safeguarding the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. At the hearing, the Committee will receive testimony from Ms. Wilson and other experts regarding the disclosure and internal White House security procedures for protecting her identity from disclosure and responding to the leak after it occurred. The hearing is scheduled for Friday, March 16. In addition, the Committee today sent a letter to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald commending him for his investigation and requesting a meeting to discuss testimony by Mr. Fitzgerald before the...

Recent reports outlining what Time magazine has called the "untold story" of a cancelled al Qaeda plot against the New York subway system have excited considerable media hype and public consternation. The account is part of Ron Suskind's new book, The One Percent Doctrine, that was excerpted in the June 26 edition of Time. According to Suskind, al Qaeda developed a "revolutionary new WMD device" that would generate cyanide gas, and these weapons -- which he refers to as "mubtakkar" devices -- were to have been planted on subways by operatives who were in place and preparing to act in...

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who preached in Tahrir Square 10 days ago, loathes Israel, justifies suicide bombings against its civilians. 1. Sheikh Dr. Yusuf Abdallah al-Qaradawi is a central figure affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. He was expelled from Egypt and found refuge in Qatar, operating from there throughout the Muslim world. 2. Many consider him the supreme religious and ideological authority for the Muslim Brotherhood, although he is not officially its leader. (In the past, he refused to accept the title of the Muslim Brotherhood’s General Guide). He is influential in Egypt and considered one of the most important Sunni...

<p>UENOS AIRES - Three months ago, the shattered glass of bank windows littered the city's streets, graffiti screamed from seemingly every corner for the overthrow of the nation's politicians, and daily looting, rioting, and marches led to bloodshed, with one outpouring of fury leaving 27 dead in front of the president's pink palace.</p>

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 - The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo. The team of humanitarian workers, which included experienced medical personnel, also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at Guantánamo were participating in planning...

<p>February 4, 2002 -- Some of the terror thugs being held at Camp X-Ray are having regrets about their actions, a Muslim Navy cleric said yesterday.</p> <p>Lt. Abuhena Saiful-Islam, who meets daily with the 158 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said that while many continue to maintain their innocence, others are having second thoughts.</p>

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- Some of the detainees at this American base are not Muslim but Christian, U.S. military officials say, describing inmates as members of a "global community" who in some cases may be sympathetic to groups other than the Taliban or al-Qaida. "I personally did not expect . . . some of the nations that are represented in Camp X-Ray," Lt. Col. Bill Costello, a spokesman for the joint task force in charge of the detention camp, said Tuesday. Since the first prisoners arrived from Afghanistan just over a month ago, the number of nationalities represented ...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - After more than five years, the Pentagon revealed why it is holding a Saudi nicknamed "the Professor" at Guantanamo Bay, saying he once lived with a Sept. 11 conspirator and received a stipend from Osama bin Laden. Shaker Aamer's lawyer denies the allegations, made after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week requested the release of the Saudi, who has been an unofficial leader among the detainees, and four other former residents of Britain. The Bush administration, which has been urging other nations to accept Guantanamo prisoners amid international pressure to close the military jail,...

Russian Mogul's Planes Took al-Qaida, Taliban Gold To Sudan9-3-2 Planes owned by Russian businessman Viktor Bout have been used to fly al-Qaida and Taliban gold to Sudan in recent weeks, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Several shipments of gold were delivered by boat from Karachi, Pakistan, to either Iran or the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper said, citing unidentified European intelligence officials. From there, the gold was flown on charted planes to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, where al-Qaida has broad business contacts, the paper said. European officials believe the gold was transported by Air Bas, an airline set up...

.S. and European investigators say an associate of an international arms dealer was providing key information in efforts to disrupt a network suspected of supplying weapons to the Taliban and al Qaeda, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. The newspaper cited investigators who said U.S. intelligence agencies working to crack the arms empire of Victor Bout had been aided by inside information from a suspected top associate who is under arrest in Belgium. According to the paper, U.S. and European officials said Bout's associate, Sanjivan Ruprah, was arrested in Belgium earlier this month. U.S. officials and Ruprah's attorney told the ...

When U.S. authorities got their hands on terrorist Mohammed Mansour Jabarah in May 2002, he agreed to inform on some of the most influential al-Qaeda leaders. So instead of being sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or a high-security CIA detention facility, Jabarah was housed with relatively lax security at Fort Dix, N.J., where he was allowed to watch television and movies, speak to his family in Canada by telephone, go for walks and even make his own meals, all under 24-hour FBI watch. That arrangement soon proved to be a major problem for the bureau. In court papers filed in...

NASSAU, Bahamas -- Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday the Bush administration will not support the release of $200 million in international aid to Haiti until President Jean-Bertrand Aristide takes steps to end the country's political crisis and make its democracy work better. A long-running stalemate between Aristide and the Haitian opposition, fueled by episodes of corruption and political violence, makes it impossible for international donors to deliver contributions to Haiti with confidence, Powell said. He rejected a call from Caribbean governments to help free the $200 million, programmed by the Inter-American Development Bank but held up along with ...

When Valerie Plame Wilson testified recently before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, just two Republicans — out of 17 on the committee — bothered to show up. Ranking Republican Rep. Tom Davis asked few questions and seemed largely uninterested in the matter. The only other Republican to appear, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, showed more interest but appeared not to have mastered the details of the case. Now, however, Westmoreland wants to know more. In a letter to committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman Friday, he submitted more questions for Mrs. Wilson and requested that Waxman ask the...

Feb 11, 2002Pentagon Spokesmen Say Soldiers Justified in Barring Reporter From Attack Scene By Matt KelleyAssociated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon said Monday that U.S. soldiers were justified in keeping a newspaper reporter away from the scene of a deadly U.S. missile strike in Afghanistan. The officials said they didn't know if soldiers had threatened to shoot Washington Post reporter Doug Struck, as the Post reported. "We don't know the circumstances of what happened on the spot," Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said at a news briefing. The newspaper reported Monday that U.S. soldiers held Struck at ...