Virginia man charged in alleged plot to assassinate Bush

AN AMERICAN who spent time in a Saudi prison as a suspected terrorist was charged yesterday with conspiring to assassinate President George Bush and conspiring to support the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, an American citizen, made an initial appearance in US District Court but did not enter a plea.

He claimed he was tortured while detained in Saudi Arabia and offered through his lawyer to show the judge his scars. The federal indictment said that in 2002 and 2003 Abu Ali and an unidentified co-conspirator discussed plans for Abu Ali to assassinate Mr. Bush.

US attorney Paul McNulty said: “After the devastating terrorist attack and murders of 11 September, the defendant turned his back on America and joined the cause of al-Qaeda. “He now stands charged with some of the most serious offences our nation can bring against supporters of terrorism.”

Abu Ali was born in Houston and moved to Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb. He graduated as top student from the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Virginia. A six-count, 16-page indictment accuses Abu Ali of conspiring to kill Bush, either by getting “close enough to the president to shoot him on the street” or by detonating a car bomb. Abu Ali “obtained a religious blessing … to assassinate Bush,” the indictment charged.

The indictment alleged that Abu Ali wanted to “become a planner of terrorist operations like Mohamed Atta and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, well-known Al Qaeda terrorists associated with the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.” Abu Ali made contacts with al-Qaida members between September 2002 and June 2003 and received training in the use of hand grenades and other weapons and explosives, as well as in document forgery, according to the indictment. It said he discussed an assassination attempt with at least two other conspirators, one of whom gave him the religious blessing.

Abu Ali, who faces up to 80 years in prison if convicted of all the charges, “turned his back on America and joined the cause of al Qaeda,” U.S. Atty. Paul McNulty said in a statement. “He now stands charged with some of the most serious offenses our nation can bring against supporters of terrorism.” According to charges brought in against Ahmed Omar Abu Ali on Tuesday, he discussed his plan with an unidentified Al Qaeda member while in Saudi Arabia.

It says that Abu Ali and his co-conspirator (unidentified) discussed two plans: Abu Ali would get close to the president and shoot him on the street or he would detonate a car bomb. He also discussed conducting terrorist operations and establishing an Al Qaeda cell in the US, the indictment reads. Before Abu Ali’s return to the US and the indictment, he was being held without charges in Saudi Arabia since June 2003.