Paintball Terrorist

23 year-old American student, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was recently returned to the United States from Saudi Arabia and charged by the Justice Department with material support of terrorism for supposedly planning to assassinate President Bush. The evidence: Mr. Abu Ali has been known to associate with "terror suspects" in northern Virginia who conducted paintball games as paramilitary training. Law enforcement officials said they had no indication that any plot to assassinate Mr. Bush moved to the stage of actual operations, but the Justice Department said it considered Mr. Abu Ali a serious threat.

While held in detention, Mr. Abu Ali claims he was tortured at the hands of the Saudis. Mr. Abu Ali, who was valedictorian of his high school, was arrested on June 11, 2003, while taking his final exams at the Islamic University of Medina. Mr. Abu Ali's defense attorney claims that the Justice Department brought the charges of an assassination plot to deflect criticism. "I suspect it's no coincidence that this man sat in detention for 20 months until a federal judge in the United States was threatening to require the American government to disclose its arrangements with the Saudi government for holding him. The lawsuit gave the government a tremendous incentive to bring some charges."

The charges against Mr. Abu Ali rely on the testimony of several unnamed co-conspirators. [more]