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November 22, 2005
US: Falls Church Muslim Convicted of Assassination Plot
The Wichita Eagle reports, from AP sources, that Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a US citizen of Jordanian extraction, has been found guilty of joining al-Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush.
Abu Ali had claimed that he had been tortured while in Saudi Arabia to reveal a false confession, but the federal jury rejected this claim. 24-year-old Abu Ali, whose father is Jordanian, and was raised in Falls Church, Virginia, may receive a life sentence for the charges against him, which include a plan to personally assassinate Mr Bush and to create his own al-Qaeda cell in the US.
The jury took two and a half days of deliberations to reach the verdict.
The case has aroused controversy, particularly as it involved claims of torture, allegedly perpetrated by the Mubahith, the Saudi security force. The case came to light originally when Abu Ali, a student at a Saudi University, failed to return home at the end of the 2003 academic year, and his parents contacted Virginia lawyer Elaine Cassel.
Houston-born Abu Ali had been arrested in Medina, and originally was going to stand trial on terrorism charges in Saudi Arabia. The US government originally argued that it did not want him to be brought to the US for trial as it considered him "dangerous", and information about the case was too sensitive to be revealed in an open court.
Then the government reversed its decision and transported Abu Ali to the US to stand trial.
The Counterterrorism Blog carries an intriguing article by Evan Kohlmann, which gives details of some of the intrigues with which Abu Ali was connected with, including his links with a co-conspirator who was killed in September 2003. Kohlman has revealed that this individual is almost certainly Zubayr al-Rimi, who died in a shoot-out with police in Jizan, 600 miles south of Riyadh. In this shootout, one Saudi policeman and three militants, including al-Rimi were killed. Days before his death, the FBI had sent out an alert to state and local law enforcement concerning al-Rimi saying he was wanted "in connection with possible threats against the United States."
At a bail hearing earlier in Abu Ali's progress to court, the government admitted it had secretly raided the house of his parents in Falls Church, and found "radical" Islamic writings, states Elaine Cassel in Counterpunch. This search seems to have happened under the USA Patriot Act.
According to the JAWA Report from February this year, Abu Ali's parents have consistently attempted to deny their son's jihadi ties, despite sending him "to a Wahhabi school and (they) attended a Saalifiyah mosque."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 22, 2005 4:06 PM
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