Free Republic

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Pakistani convicted of supporting an al Qaeda plot to blow up U.S. gas stations was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Thursday in a case Washington has called a victory in its war on terror. Uzair Paracha, 26, has said he falsely confessed under the pressure of three days of interrogation by the FBI, but U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein said Paracha "knew what he was doing" in lending support to al Qaeda. Paracha remained calm after the sentence was read and waved to relatives as he left the courtroom wearing a blue...

NEW YORK - A Pakistani man can use statements from al-Qaida prisoners to defend himself against charges alleging he agreed to help terrorists sneak into the United States, but he won't be allowed to call Khalid Sheik Mohammed or two other al-Qaida operatives as witnesses, a judge ruled Monday. Uzair Paracha's lawyer said it would be the first time al-Qaida prisoners' statements would be used before a jury since the 2001 terrorist attacks. "The statements completely contradict the government's theory of the case," said the attorney, Anthony Ricco. Opening statements in Paracha's trial are expected as early as Wednesday. U.S....

A top Al Qaeda operative plotted to smuggle weapons into New York Harbor in the shipping containers of a Garment District firm, the Daily News has learned. Days before he was captured in Pakistan in March, suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed met in Karachi with the owner of a W. 35th St. clothing importing company and his son, law enforcement sources said. Al Qaeda's No. 3 man offered to invest $200,000 in International Management Group in exchange, federal authorities now believe, for access to IMG's Port Newark-bound shipping containers, sources say. Mohammed "is obsessed with attacking the United States,...

WASHINGTON, U.S.A (AFP): The White House on Thursday announced the capture of a top ally of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Asia, Riduan bin Isomuddin, also known as Hambali. The 36-year-old Islamic scholar, a chief of the radical group Jamaah Islamiyah, is wanted in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines in connection with a series of bomb attacks. "His capture is another important victory in the global war on terrorism and a significant blow to the enemy," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters from the presidential plane, Air Force One. A senior administration official called Hambali "one of...

Guantanamo Inmates Despair of Ever Leaving Sunday, March 5, 2006 9:13 PM EST The Associated Press By MIRANDA LEITSINGER GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Ahamed Abdul Aziz has been in the Guantanamo Bay prison for more than three years and, by his account, has been interrogated 50 times without being charged with any crime. He waits with anguish for freedom but fears it will never come. "We are in a grave here," he told his lawyers, echoing the despair felt by many of the roughly 490 prisoners held as suspected terrorists at the U.S. naval base in eastern...