This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1302

Homegrown Jihadist Abu Ali convicted in Bush assassination plot -Could father who worked at Saudi embassy have gotten his son access to politicians?

Why no investigation into the role of Saudi Arabia in the case of Al Qaeda operative's father who works in the Saudi embassy ?
November 22, 2005

MIM: American born Ahmed Abu Ali went to Saudi Arabia to discover his roots and came back to America plotting to kill President Bush. The Muslim community rallied around him - and groups like CAIR and the Muslim American Society declared his innocence. Ali's father just 'happens' to be an employee at the Saudi Embassy, which prompts one to question how much diplomatic access he could have had and given to his son to target other politicians if Bush proved to hard to get close to.

The new Saudi Ambassador and former head of Saudi Security, Turki Al Faisal, who had met and advised Bin Laden at the beginning of his terrorist 'career' , described him as "shy and polite" . It should therefore come as no surprise that the father of convicted Al Qaeda operative Ahmed Abu Ali is employed in the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC. and his son's conviction in a plot to kill president Bush is not seen as a 'conflict of interests' which would warrant his dismissal.

Which begs the question as to if he kept in touch with his son who was 'studying' with Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia via diplomatic post and other means?

Before the trial Dr. Daniel Pipes reported that :

"...In the confession, Abu Ali says he "was interested in jihad and the idea of mujaheedin" because of "my hatred of the United States for support of Israel against the Palestinian people." He said he discussed numerous possible terrorist acts with two al-Qaida leaders in Saudi Arabia, Ali abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi and Sultan Jubran Sultan al-Qahtani. They encouraged him to return to America, integrate into society and establish an al-Qaida cell, he said. Abu Ali said he favored the idea of assassinating Bush rather than attacks on military targets or plane hijackings "because it would be easier to carry out because he appears in so many public places..."http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/530

MIM: Most noteworthy of all is that Ahmed Omar Abu Ali sued the US government last year to have him brought back to the US and his father, an employee of the Saudi embassy derided his bosses as "slaves of the Americans" and his niqab clad wife referred to them as "monsters", prompting Dr. Pipes to query:

Are the Saudis Diddling the Americans?

The Ahmed Omar Abu Ali case has many intricacies, but what stops me short is reading this sentence by Michael Isikoff in Newsweek:

Abu Ali's Virginia-based parents—his father works as a computer analyst for the Saudi Embassy—say their son was tortured [while kept in a Saudi jail] into confessing to lies, and sued the federal government last year [to have him brought back to the United States].

Not only that, but the parents are utterly venomous on the subject of Saudi Arabia: His father, Omar, said, "The Saudi government are slaves of the Americans."His mother, Faten, stated outside a federal courtroom that her son "was tortured on orders of the USA; they are monsters."

Excuse me, but what is going on? Since when does an employee of the Saudi embassy publicly abominate the monarchy and turn to the U.S. government for redress? Is there something more here than meets the eye? (February 27, 2005)

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/411

MIM: Dr. Pipes also chronicled Ahmed Abu Ali's voyage from America to Al Qaeda where he was radicalised at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria Virginia which was chaired by non other then the Saudi Ambassador in Washington (!)

Born in America to immigrant Jordanian parents, Mr. Abu Ali, 23, was indicted last week for plotting the assassination of President Bush. The prosecution asserts he was in touch with Al Qaeda and in 2002 discussed ideas of eliminating Mr. Bush by getting "close enough to the president to shoot him on the street," or by deploying a car bomb. Mr. Abu Ali's biography indicates how he might have ended up as an Al Qaeda operative.

He attended the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., graduating in 1999 as class valedictorian. As an outpost of Saudi values on American soil, the academy enjoys Saudi government funding, is chaired by the Saudi ambassador in Washington, and boasts a curriculum imported straight from Riyadh.

Thus, the first-grade teachers' guide at the Islamic Saudi Academy instructs that Christianity and Judaism are false religions. When one realizes that the curriculum is overseen by Saleh Al-Fawzan, who in 2003 endorsed the institution of slavery, this comes as less than a grand shock.

While still living in America, Mr. Abu Ali developed ties to the "paintball jihadists" of northern Virginia, nine of whom have served time in jail. In 2000, he went to study Islam at its source, at the Islamic University of Medina. In May 2003, a terrorist attack in Riyadh left 34 dead, nine of them Americans; a month later, the Saudis arrested Mr. Abu Ali for connections to this crime, incarcerating him until his recent transfer to America.

Conservatives focus on the hair-raising news that an Al Qaeda affiliate had plans to kill the president of the United States. Liberals hardly note this development, focusing instead on the question of whether, while in Saudi custody, Mr. Abu Ali was tortured

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Suspect in Assassination Plot Convicted

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5432699,00.html
Tuesday November 22, 2005 8:46 PM

By MATTHEW BARAKAT

Associated Press Writer

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - An Arab-American college student was convicted Tuesday of joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President Bush.

The federal jury rejected Ahmed Omar Abu Ali's claim that Saudi authorities whipped and tortured him to extract a false confession.

Abu Ali, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen born to a Jordanian father and raised in Falls Church, Va., could get life in prison on charges that included conspiracy to assassinate the president, conspiracy to hijack aircraft and providing support to al-Qaida.

The jury deliberated for 2 days. Abu Ali swallowed hard before the verdict was read but otherwise showed little emotion. He did not testify at his trial.

"Obviously the jury has spoken, but the fight is not over," defense attorney Khurrum Wahid said. "We intend to use the justice system to prove our client's innocence."

Abu Ali told authoritiees shortly after his arrest at a Medina, Saudi Arabia, university in June 2003 that he joined al-Qaida and discussed various terrorist plots, including a plan to personally assassinate Bush and to establish himself as a leader of an al-Qaida cell in the United States.

But the defense countered that he was tortured by the Saudi security force known as the Mubahith.

Wahid suggested that an al-Qaida member arrested by the Saudis falsely fingered Abu Ali to protect other cell members still at large. "You think the al-Qaida guys are going to give up a fellow al-Qaida, or did they pick some patsy from the University of Medina?" Wahid said in closing arguments.

Prosecutors said he was never mistreated and confessed voluntarily.

Prosecutors said Abu Ali went to Saudi Arabia in 2002 with the notion of becoming a terrorist and later met al-Qaida's No. 2 man in Medina.

"The true focus of his education quickly became apparent," prosecutor Stephen Campbell said. "Instead of studying Islamic law, he began attending secret terrorist training sessions."

MIM: Ahmed Abu Ali's journey from America to Al Qaeda was chronicled by Dr. Daniel Pipes, most striking of all is the fact that Ali began his radicalisation at the Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Virginia

Born in America to immigrant Jordanian parents, Mr. Abu Ali, 23, was indicted last week for plotting the assassination of President Bush. The prosecution asserts he was in touch with Al Qaeda and in 2002 discussed ideas of eliminating Mr. Bush by getting "close enough to the president to shoot him on the street," or by deploying a car bomb. Mr. Abu Ali's biography indicates how he might have ended up as an Al Qaeda operative.

He attended the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., graduating in 1999 as class valedictorian. As an outpost of Saudi values on American soil, the academy enjoys Saudi government funding, is chaired by the Saudi ambassador in Washington, and boasts a curriculum imported straight from Riyadh.

Thus, the first-grade teachers' guide at the Islamic Saudi Academy instructs that Christianity and Judaism are false religions. When one realizes that the curriculum is overseen by Saleh Al-Fawzan, who in 2003 endorsed the institution of slavery, this comes as less than a grand shock.

While still living in America, Mr. Abu Ali developed ties to the "paintball jihadists" of northern Virginia, nine of whom have served time in jail. In 2000, he went to study Islam at its source, at the Islamic University of Medina. In May 2003, a terrorist attack in Riyadh left 34 dead, nine of them Americans; a month later, the Saudis arrested Mr. Abu Ali for connections to this crime, incarcerating him until his recent transfer to America.

Conservatives focus on the hair-raising news that an Al Qaeda affiliate had plans to kill the president of the United States. Liberals hardly note this development, focusing instead on the question of whether, while in Saudi custody, Mr. Abu Ali was tortured

MIM: For more on Abu Ali see:

New generation of homegrown radical Islamists -Houston born Muslim ...
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This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1302