Manila assesses whether to seek top terror suspect (AP)

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is assessing whether to seek custody of a top Asian terrorist suspect, who hid for years in its volatile south and allegedly plotted deadly attacks with Filipino militants before he was arrested in Pakistan early this year.

Philippine officials said Thursday that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency officials have offered to send Umar Patek back to Indonesia, his homeland where he is wanted for his alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, or to the Philippines, where he is accused of involvement in a number of deadly bombings.

The 2002 Bali bombings were Southeast Asia's worst terrorist attack.

Pakistan has taken steps to relinquish custody of Patek, whose real name is Anis Alawi Jaffar, and his Filipino wife after capturing them Jan. 25 in the garrison town of Abbottabad, where Osama bin Laden was killed in a highly secretive U.S. commando attack four months later.

Pakistani officials had kept Patek's arrest secret until The Associated Press first broke news of his capture in late March.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said authorities were trying to assess if Patek's presence could strengthen terrorism-related criminal cases lodged against him in Philippine courts before deciding whether to seek his custody.

"There is also an additional security burden if he is brought here," Gazmin told The Associated Press.

A senior Philippine military official said the government would benefit from a "treasure trove of information" that could come from Patek, who fled to the southern Mindanao region a year after the 2002 Bali bombings with Dulmatin, a fellow Indonesian militant gunned down by police in Indonesia last year.

The Philippines could send investigators to interrogate Patek if Manila decided not to seek his custody, said the official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

The Philippines will receive Patek's wife, identified as Ruqayya Binte Hussain Lucino from southern Sarangani province, once she is repatriated, the official said.

It was not immediately clear if Patek's wife faces criminal cases.

The arrest of Patek, who had a $1 million U.S. bounty on his head, ended a 10-year international manhunt and was a major achievement in the global fight against al-Qaida and its offshoots. If he cooperates, the militant could give valuable intelligence insights on al-Qaida's current state and its hardy Southeast Asian affiliates.

Indonesian officials have said that Patek traveled to Abbottabad to meet bin Laden but that there have been no indications so far that they actually met.

Patek traveled to Pakistan to try to secure al-Qaida funds for his terror plans in the Philippines, where he has struck an alliance with the brutal Abu Sayyaf extremist group, the Filipino official said.

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23 senators press Pentagon chief on terror suspect (AP)

WASHINGTON – Senators pressed the Obama administration Wednesday on why a suspected Somali terrorist will be tried in a civilian court in New York and not the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, 23 lawmakers questioned whether the administration's actions in the case of Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame go against Congress' wishes that military commissions handle the trials of terrorism suspects.

The lawmakers, including Republican leaders, also asked Panetta whether the administration has a policy for handling high-profile suspects.

"The American people must be assured that terrorists are not brought into the United States for trial only to be released as a result of an acquittal, a short sentence, or some other action such as inability of the United States to deport an individual that allows the terrorist in the United States to remain here and be released into the general population," the lawmakers wrote.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter.

The military captured Warsame on April 19, and then put him aboard a Navy warship, where he was interrogated at sea by intelligence officials, senior administration officials said last week.

Warsame provided what officials said was important intelligence about al-Qaida in Yemen and its relationship with al-Shabab militants in Somalia. The two groups have been known to have ties, but the extent of that relationship has remained unclear.

The FBI later stepped in and began the interrogation from scratch, in a way that could be used in court. After the FBI read Warsame his Miranda rights, which include the right to remain silent and speak with an attorney, he kept talking for days. He was indicted on federal charges in New York last week.

The senators cited recent congressional testimony from Vice Adm. William McRaven, who said decisions are made case by case on where to hold suspected terrorists captured by the U.S. military outside of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The lawmakers noted that former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, also have told Congress that there is no single policy.

"We believe this is an intolerable situation," the senators wrote.

They asked 11 questions, including whether Guantanamo was an option, whether detainees held at sea had been transferred to another country and whether the administration has a consistent policy.

Among those signing the letter were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and top members of the Senate Armed Services Committee: Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Joe Lieberman, independent of Connecticut; and Jim Webb, D-Va.

Last week, McConnell accused the administration of undermining national security by bringing Warsame into the United States.

"The administration has purposefully imported a terrorist into the U.S. and is providing him all the rights of U.S. citizens in court," McConnell said. "This ideological rigidity being displayed by the administration is harming the national security of the United States of America."

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GOP leader criticizes handling of Somali suspect (AP)

WASHINGTON – The Senate Republican leader on Wednesday accused the Obama administration of undermining U.S. national security by bringing a Somali man facing terrorism charges to New York for trial.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Mitch McConnell assailed the administration's decision, arguing that the Somali citizen — Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame — belongs at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he could be tried by a military tribunal.

"The administration has purposefully imported a terrorist into the U.S. and is providing him all the rights of U.S. citizens in court," McConnell said. "This ideological rigidity being displayed by the administration is harming the national security of the United States of America."

Senior administration officials said Tuesday that the military captured Warsame on April 19, and then put him aboard a Navy warship, where he was interrogated at sea by intelligence officials. Under interrogation, Warsame gave up what officials called important intelligence about al-Qaida in Yemen and its relationship with al-Shabab militants in Somalia. The two groups have been known to have ties, but the extent of that relationship has remained unclear.

After the interrogation was complete, the FBI stepped in and began the interrogation from scratch, in a way that could be used in court. After the FBI read Warsame his Miranda rights — the right to remain silent and speak with an attorney — he opted to keep talking for days, helping the government build its case.

"Why? Why? Why is a man, who is a known terrorist and enemy of the United States, being afforded these protections?" McConnell, R-Ky., asked. "And now, he is in the hands of the civilian authorities and will be given all the rights accorded to a U.S. citizen in a civilian court."

A senior administration official defended the decision, saying the Defense Department and intelligence officials agreed with other members of the national security team that Warsame should be prosecuted in civilian courts. The official also said they interrogated him for two months to obtain as much information as possible and only when they finished, did they bring in the FBI, which read Warsame his Miranda rights. He waived those rights.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

In a statement, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Warsame belongs at Guantanamo, not in a civilian court, and expressed concern about the security costs for New York police.

"He is not an American citizen, nor did his criminal acts or his detention occur in the U.S. He is a Somali who traveled to Yemen for terror training. Warsame is a foreigner and an unlawful enemy combatant," King said.

President Barack Obama has said he would like to close the facility at Guantanamo, but Congress has repeatedly stopped the administration from transferring any detainees out of Guantanamo for trial in the U.S. Many in Congress want military commissions to handle the trials of terrorism cases.

McConnell's remarks drew an immediate rebuke from Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, who pointed out that under the administrations of Republican President George W. Bush and Obama more than 400 suspected terrorists have been tried in civilian courts in the United States and are serving time in U.S. prisons.

"To come here and second-guess the president because he's held a man for two months in military interrogation and now is being prosecuted in our criminal courts is totally unfair, unfair because the same standard was not applied to the Republican president who tried hundreds of would-be terrorists, accused terrorists in our criminal courts successfully," Durbin said.

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney defended the administration's decision to detain Warsame for two months to allow intelligence officials to interrogate him.

"Wherever possible, first priority is and always has been to apprehend terrorist suspects and preserve the opportunity to elicit valuable intelligence that can help protect the American people," said Carney, who added that the government acquired valuable information.

Carney said the Red Cross was told of his detention and officials had a chance to visit the site and interview the detainee.

Matthew Waxman, a former Pentagon adviser on detention issues in the George W. Bush administration, said, "Congressional Republicans are wrong to try to restrict the president's options. I think it's misguided as a matter of principle and long-term terrorism policy."

Waxman, who served the Bush administration in various posts from 2001 to 2007, said, "These cases come with their own complexities and I think any effort to try to craft a one-size-fits-all approach is dangerous."

Now a professor at Columbia University law school, Waxman said the Obama administration after weighing a number of options probably concluded that in this instance criminal prosecution may have been the best available option for ensuring "that this guy is kept off the streets for a long time."

___

AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller and Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.

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Rights of Somali suspect may pose issue: U.S. judge (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Questioning by U.S. law enforcement agents overseas of a Somali militant accused of terrorism charges may become a sticking point in his prosecution, the judge overseeing the case said.

Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame was captured in waters between Yemen and Somalia in April and interrogated aboard an American Navy ship by a special intelligence team for more than two months.

He was then turned over to the FBI for several days of questioning in late June during which time he waived his Miranda rights multiple times, U.S. officials have said.

The Miranda warning, to be read before questioning under U.S. law in civilian criminal cases, advises suspects of their constitutional rights to remain silent and entitles them to a lawyer.

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon told Warsame, who pleaded not guilty to providing material support to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Somali group Al Shabaab, the issue of Miranda rights might crop up at trial.

"And what I wanted to tell you, I know that the agents, or at least I was informed ... that the agents gave you certain warnings before they talked to you," she said in a transcript of a July 5 federal court proceeding in New York that was made available on Thursday.

"That may become an issue later in the case, I don't know," she said.

Warsame's case has revived the argument between the Obama administration and critics who oppose its plan to prosecute Warsame in civilian court, where suspects are afforded a full suite of constitutional protections.

Republicans and some Democrats want Obama to prosecute terrorism suspects in military courts and to treat them as enemy combatants as was the case for some suspects during the Bush administration.

Civil liberties advocates have said that the interrogations aboard the U.S. Navy ship could jeopardize the case against Warsame.

(Reporting by Basil Katz in New York and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington)

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Terror suspect detained in Austria (AP)

BERLIN – Austrian authorities have arrested an alleged Islamic extremist suspected of belonging to a terrorist group, German prosecutors said Saturday.

The 26-year-old, identified only as Yusuf O., was detained in Austria in late May on a German arrest warrant, the Federal Prosecutor's Office said. The arrest had not been made public earlier because extradition procedures are still under way.

The German national of Turkish descent is suspected of involvement with the German Taliban Mujahideen, a fundamentalist group that prosecutors say seeks to carry out attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan and found a "religious fundamentalist society" there. Prosecutors declined to elaborate.

German media reported the suspect underwent paramilitary training in a terror camp in Pakistan's lawless border region and appeared in several Islamist propaganda videos.

On Wednesday, Austrian authorities also arrested four other suspected extremists linked to the German Taliban Mujahideen at Vienna airport on suspicion they were heading off to train at terrorism camps in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

But a spokesman for Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office on Saturday dismissed a report alleging that one of the four suspected extremists was plotting to attack the country's parliament in Berlin with a commercial airplane.

"There are no indications of concrete preparations for an attack in Germany," the official said on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung reported that 25-year-old suspect had undergone flight training and was plotting to target Berlin's emblematic parliament building by hijacking an airplane.

The newspaper gave no source for its report. Prosecutors in Vienna were not immediately reachable for comment.

German prosecutors said there was no "criminally relevant link" between Yusuf O. and the group of four.

However, the prosecution spokesman added that the group is also under investigation in Germany, though not in connection with a concrete plot but on suspicion of "providing financial support to the violent jihad."

Germany has so far escaped a major terror attack, but several terror plots were foiled in their early stages over the past few years.

In April, German police arrested three suspected al-Qaida members in the western city of Duesseldorf allegedly working on making a shrapnel-laden bomb to attack a crowded place. Authorities believe the cell's alleged ringleader trained in a terror camp in Pakistan.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, says that about 225 people who are German citizens or have lived in Germany, have undergone paramilitary training in Afghanistan or Pakistan since the 1990s.

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Terror suspect extradited to Germany (AP)

BERLIN – An alleged German terrorist arrested last month in Vienna has been extradited to Germany, where authorities accuse him of belonging to the extremist German Taliban Mujahideen movement.

German federal prosecutors said the 26-year-old, identified only as Yusuf O., was arrested in Vienna on May 31 on a German warrant. He was taken to Germany on Monday and brought before a judge, who ordered that he remain in custody pending further investigation.

The suspect allegedly traveled to the Afghan-Pakistan border region in 2009 and joined the German Taliban Mujahideen by that September, prosecutors say.

"He is believed to have been trained in explosives and guns and have participated in the violent jihad of the German Taliban Mujahideen," they said in a statement that also alleged he "appeared in propaganda videos of the organization."

Upon his return to Europe in 2011, O. began recruiting supporters and members for the movement, including another suspect identified as 21-year-old Austrian Maqsood L., who was arrested on May 16 in Berlin.

Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia also said Monday that Yusuf O. was in contact with another Austrian suspect, 25-year-old Thomas al-J., who was arrested in Vienna last week.

Austrian officials say they are investigating al-J. for planning plotting attacks in Germany, including vague plans to target the seat of Germany's parliament, the Reichstag in Berlin.

Germany's Interior Ministry said it had knowledge of plans for any such attack.

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Another top terror suspect on trial in Indonesia (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia – One of Indonesia's top terrorism suspects went on trial Monday on charges of helping set up a terrorist training camp for a group that plotted attacks on foreigners and assassinations of the country's moderate Muslim leaders.

The trial of Abu Tholut began days after a hard-line cleric was sentenced to 15 years in prison for supporting the same jihadist camp.

Tholut, 50, is accused of procuring M16 assault rifles and other weapons for the camp, which was raided early last year in westernmost Aceh province, prosecutor Bambang Suharyadi told the West Jakarta District Court. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Arrested in December, Tholut is one of more than 120 alleged members of the "Tanzim Al Qaeda in Aceh" group to have been captured or killed since the camp was uncovered. More than 50 of those men have been sentenced to prison.

Radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, co-founder of the al-Qaida-linked Islamist movement Jemaah Islamiyah, was last week sentenced to 15 years for supporting the camp.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, was thrust onto the front lines of the battle against terrorism in 2002, when Jemaah Islamiyah militants bombed two crowded nightclubs on the resort island of Bali, killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. There have been several attacks since then, but all have been far less deadly.

Police have said the Aceh group was plotting Mumbai-style gun attacks on foreigners at luxury hotels in the capital of Jakarta and assassinations, including of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to punish the government for supporting the U.S.-led anti-terrorism fight.

Tholut, also known as Mustofa, became one of Indonesia's most wanted fugitives after master bomb-makers Noordin M. Top and Dulmatin were gunned down early last year in police raids.

He was convicted for involvement in a 2001 bomb blast at a shopping plaza in central Jakarta that wounded six, and he served five years of an eight-year sentence after getting remission for good behavior. Like dozens of other convicted Indonesian extremists, he returned to his terror network after he was released.

Nasir Abas — a former militant who has helped police track down and arrest several members of his network — said Tholut had been a combatant in Afghanistan and an "excellent instructor" who helped train Islamist militants in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao.

Judges adjourned the trial until next week, when Tholut's lawyers are due to respond to the charges.

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Indonesia police arrest 2002 Bali bombing suspect (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesian authorities said Tuesday they arrested a suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings who later ran a jihadi training camp in the Philippines, and two other men with ties to top terrorists after uncovering a new plot against police.

National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said Tuesday that the alleged Bali bomber, Heru Kuncoro, was captured June 9 in Pekalongan, a town in central Java.

Police say Kuncoro was a facilitator who purchased electronic equipment for the Bali bombing that killed 202 people, mainly foreigners, and thrust Indonesia into the front lines of the battle against terrorism.

He is among the 16 men arrested in recent days in Java, Borneo and Sulawesi on suspicion of plotting to kill police with cyanide.

Some told police they had received military-style training in a mountainous area of Poso in Sulawesi during 2010. They said they were waging jihad against police for killing top terrorist leaders such as Noordin Top — the bomb-making expert who orchestrated all of the major suicide bombings targeting Westerners in Indonesia, including the Bali nightclub blasts.

Extremists in Indonesia have increasingly targeted police in the past year or so as an ongoing security crackdown has disrupted terrorists' ability to launch large-scale attacks.

One of those arrested in the cyanide raids, Budi Untung Wisesa, died during interrogation and police said an autopsy showed he died from a heart attack. Local media quoted relatives saying they had found a wound on Wisesa's head.

Kuncoro fled to the Philippines in 2003 with Dulmatin, an alleged mastermind of the Bali bombing who was killed in an Indonesian police raid last year.

The pair teamed up with Umar Patek, another Bali bombing suspect, to run a jihadi training camp in the southern Philippines. Patek was arrested in Pakistan in January.

Two of men netted in the cyanide raids, identified only as Faisal and Juarni, were believed to be couriers for Dulmatin and Patek and helped to smuggle weapons from the Philippines to Indonesia, Alam said.

He said the two were involved in attacks that killed two policemen last month in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, and an April suicide bombing in Cirebon in West Java that wounded 30 in a mosque packed with police.

Alam said the extent of the cyanide plot became clear on Friday with the arrest of From Santanam, a militant, in the capital Jakarta.

"They had planned to poison food and mineral water provided for police officers in canteens across Java and Bali," he said.

The haul from the raids included four M-16 rifles, pistols, two bottles of cyanide and 29 videos about jihad.

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Suspect indicted in NYC synagogue plot terror case (AP)

NEW YORK – A man charged with participating in a plot to blow up synagogues is a proud American and the case against him is questionable, his lawyer said Tuesday as prosecutors announced the indictment of a second suspect accused of playing a more prominent role in the alleged scheme.

Ahmed Ferhani, a 26-year-old Algerian, and Mohamed Mamdouh, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen of Moroccan descent, were arraigned last week on initial charges including conspiracy as a crime of terrorism, a rarely-used state law. Both deny the allegations.

Ferhani was arrested buying guns, ammunition and an inert grenade in a sting on a Manhattan street last Wednesday, and Mamdouh was picked up soon afterward, the Manhattan district attorney's office said. An undercover detective had secretly recorded both men ranting about their hatred of Jews and discussing a synagogue attack, according to prosecutors.

Ferhani has been indicted, prosecutors said Tuesday, though they didn't immediately disclose what charges the grand jury found appropriate. The indictment will likely be released at a June 16 court date.

Mamdouh appeared separately as his lawyer agreed Tuesday to give prosecutors until June 2 to take the case against the Casablanca-born taxi dispatcher to a grand jury. Meanwhile, attorney Aaron Mysliwiec underscored that Mamdouh is "proud to be an American citizen" and noted news reports saying that some in the FBI, which didn't participate in the case, had questions about how much proof there was in the case.

"We look forward to raising those same questions. And we look forward to fighting these charges in the courtroom," Mysliwiec said outside court.

Police said the FBI was made aware of the investigation but decided not to get involved. The FBI, the Department of Justice and federal prosecutors in Manhattan declined to comment. But a law enforcement official briefed on the case, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press last week that the FBI had reservations about how the probe was conducted and concluded it "wasn't a legitimate terrorism case."

Ferhani and Mamdouh, who lived blocks away from each other in Queens, are being held without bail. Each could face life in prison if convicted.

Ferhani is in good spirits under the circumstances, said his lawyer, Stephen Pokart.

Ferhani, who is unemployed, moved to the U.S. in 1995 from war-torn Algeria with his parents and claimed asylum, authorities said. He had been granted permanent resident status but is facing deportation.

Mamdouh and his family came to the U.S. in 1999, officials said. His parents are now local business owners, a prior attorney said.

Angry about how he felt Muslims have been treated around the world, Ferhani made ever more ambitious terror plans during the seven-month investigation, prosecutors said. He eventually suggested disguising himself as an observant Jew so he could infiltrate a synagogue and leave a bomb inside, according to a court complaint.

After meeting the undercover officer, Ferhani brought Mamdouh into their discussions, authorities said. On May 5, the undercover detective introduced the men to another officer pretending to be an illegal gun dealer, the court complaint said.

There was no indication the alleged plot ever put New Yorkers in danger and no evidence the men were affiliated with any terrorist organization.

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Associated Press writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.

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Malaysia arrests Indonesian terror suspect (AFP)

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysia has re-arrested an Indonesian who slipped back into the country after being deported for harbouring one of Southeast Asia's most wanted terror suspects, police said Friday.

Agus Salim, from Indonesia's Sumatra island, was detained on Monday at the restaurant where he works in the southern city of Johor Baru for entering the country under a false name, a senior police official said.

Salim was arrested in 2009 under Malaysia's Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

He was suspected of helping hide Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged head of the Singapore cell of regional terror outfit Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which has links with Al-Qaeda.

Mas Selamat escaped from a Singaporean high-security prison in 2008 and got into Malaysia, where he was recaptured in 2009.

Salim was deported back to Indonesia in 2009, months after his arrest, but police found out that he re-entered Malaysia under a new name, an immigration offence, several months ago, the police official said.

"We have arrested him in 2009 because of his involvement in harbouring Mas Selamat in Johor Baru," the official told AFP. "We are sure he is (still) trying very hard to assist the JI group."

The official said Salim was working at the same restaurant where he had been employed before his 2009 arrest.

The New Straits Times reported, quoting unnamed sources, that the 34-year-old was believed to be a JI "sleeper agent" who followed instructions to supply logistics and other help to JI members in Malaysia.

Separately, another Indonesian, Abdul Haris Syuhadi, was held under the ISA last weekend at his home in central Selangor state for allegedly recruiting members for JI.

The 63-year-old textile seller is alleged to have been spreading JI ideology and actively recruiting members for the terror group since 2002, according to police.

JI is blamed for a string of attacks in the region, including the 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people were killed, many of them foreign tourists.

Malaysia regularly uses the ISA to detain mostly terror suspects but also alleged people smugglers and opposition activists despite criticism from human rights groups, which have urged the country to charge criminals in court.

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Terror suspect enters guilty plea in NC case (AP)

RALEIGH, N.C. – A North Carolina man who was accused of supporting jihad along with his father and brother pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of conspiring to aid a terrorist conspiracy abroad.

Zakariya "Zak" Boyd, 22, pleaded to a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Boyd faces up to 15 years in prison.

Boyd's father, Daniel, pleaded guilty in February. Daniel Boyd was described by prosecutors as the ringleader of a conspiracy aimed at supporting and participating in violent actions abroad on behalf of a radical jihadist political agenda. The indictment alleged the men raised money to buy assault weapons and conduct training exercises, and that they arranged overseas travel and contacts to help others carry out violent acts.

"This case shows extremists in this country are just as willing to do us harm as those overseas," FBI Special-Agent-in-Charge Chris Briese said in a statement.

The half-dozen other defendants remaining in the case, including Zakariya Boyd's brother, Dylan, are scheduled to go on trial in September.

Daniel Boyd grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and converted to Islam as a teenager. He was a drywall contractor living in an unassuming home south of Raleigh when he was indicted in July 2009 along with the other men, including his sons.

During a court hearing in 2009, federal investigators played a recording of Daniel Boyd describing his disgust with the U.S. military and the honor of violent martyrdom.

"I love jihad," he said in the recording. "I love to stand there and fight for the sake of Allah."

The FBI has said agents seized some two dozen guns and more than 27,000 rounds of ammunition from Daniel Boyd's home. Authorities have previously said the men went on training expeditions in the weeks leading up to their arrest, practicing military tactics with armor-piercing bullets on a property in rural North Carolina.

The arrests shocked family members, neighbors and some members of the Triangle-area Muslim community. Boyd's wife, Sabrina, has denied that her husband or sons were involved in any terrorist activity.

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Met officers cleared of assaulting terror suspect (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Four police officers were cleared by a jury Friday of beating up a Muslim man, who is wanted for extradition by the United States, during his arrest on suspicion of terrorism offences.

Constables Roderick James-Bowen, Mark Jones, Nigel Cowley, and John Donohue were acquitted of claims that they assaulted Babar Ahmad in south London in December 2003, and mocked his Islamic faith.

The acquittals come despite the fact that the Metropolitan Police has already paid out A?60,000 in compensation to Ahmad, now aged 37, following civil court action in 2009.

The police officers' lawyer, Colin Reynolds, said the trial heard that a listening device which was placed inside Ahmad's house by intelligence services ahead of his arrest showed up flaws in his account.

"Many hours were spent analysing what could be heard as a result of that probe before and during the trial and that evidence proved the account originally given by these officers was correct and specific details of the complaint made by Mr Ahmad were not present," Reynolds said outside court.

During the trial Ahmad admitted travelling to Bosnia three or four times to fight during the 1990s but insisted he was not an "Al-Qaeda superman".

Babar remains in jail in Britain where he has spent seven years without charge fighting extradition to the United States to face charges of running websites to raise money for terrorism.

He was released six days after his 2003 arrest on suspicion of leading a group which provided Al-Qaeda with computer and financial support. But British police detained him again in 2004 on the US warrant.

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UK police cleared of assaulting terror suspect (AP)

LONDON – Four British police officers were cleared Friday of beating, insulting and sexually assaulting a terrorism suspect wanted in the Unites States.

Constables Nigel Cowley, Roderick James-Bowen, Mark Jones and John Donohue were found not guilty of the alleged assault on Babar Ahmad in December 2003, when he was briefly detained in connection with a suspected British terrorism plot.

Ahmad, a 37-year-old computer specialist, has not faced in charges in Britain, but was arrested in 2004 on a U.S. warrant, accused of running websites used to raise money for terrorists.

Following a four-week trial, a jury at Southwark Crown Court in London dismissed his claims that police had physically harmed him and mocked his Islamic faith. However, police had previously paid him 60,000 pounds (US$98,000) in damages over his alleged treatment.

Colin Reynolds, lawyer for the police, said a bug installed in Ahmad's home before his arrest had proven that his claims of mistreatment were false.

"That evidence proved the account originally given by these officers was correct and specific details of the complaint made by Mr. Ahmad were not present," he said following the verdict.

Reynolds said that the officers were now hoping to return to their usual posts. Three of the men are currently working, but on restricted duties, the fourth is suspended over an unrelated matter.

Scotland Yard said it would carry out its own internal misconduct review before the officers can return to work.

Ahmad, in prison since 2004, has been held without charge for the longest period of any British citizen detained since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

He is awaiting the outcome of a European court hearing on his extradition to the U.S. The court is expected to rule later this year on whether he should be sent for trial.

Ahmad is accused in the U.S. of supporting al-Qaida, Taliban and Chechen militants between 1998 and 2003 by operating a website that raised funds for terrorism and provided instructions on carrying out attacks.

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David Stringer can be reached at http://bit.ly/b2tTK0

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Murder suspect says he wanted to start terror cell (AP)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The man accused of fatally shooting a soldier outside a military recruiting station in Little Rock in 2009 now says he wanted to start a terrorist cell in the U.S., but a prosecutor brushed off the claims Saturday as "just ridiculous."

In his latest letter to the court, Abdulhakim Muhammad told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright that he wanted to return to the U.S. from Yemen to start his own terror group. Muhammad was deported from Yemen in early 2009, after being in prison in the Middle Eastern country for immigration violations.

Muhammad was born in Memphis, Tenn., as Carlos Bledsoe, but changed his name after converting to Islam.

He is charged with capital murder and attempted capital murder in the June 2009 shootings that killed Army Pvt. William Long and wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula. The letter, first reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, focuses on Muhammad's argument that his case should be tried in federal court.

Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley said there was little he could say about the letter.

"I mean, his claims are just ridiculous. He's nothing but a street thug and this is just a drive-by shooting. That's our position and we're sticking to it," Jegley told The Associated Press.

Muhammad's attorney, Claiborne H. Ferguson, said his client was likely stressed ahead of his trial, which is set to begin in July.

"As we get closer to trial, I can imagine that the situation will become more and more stressful for Muhammad. Members of the defense team are prepared to move forward and try the case as necessary," he said.

The FBI did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

When Muhammad was arrested minutes after the shootings, he told police that he was acting alone and that the ambush was a "jihad" in retaliation for what he believed was a war on Islam by the U.S. Seven months later, in a letter from jail, he claimed to be linked to a Yemen-based al-Qaida affiliate.

Muhammad has told the AP in telephone interviews from jail that the shooting was revenge for American killings of Muslims and that he does not believe he is guilty.

In his latest letter, which the court received Friday, Muhammad continued to dispute the insanity defense his attorneys plan to use at his trial. He notes that state doctors have found him competent to stand trial.

"I have no mental disease or defect, neither past or present. I was well aware of my actions June 1, 2009, as well as my actions before and after that date," he wrote. "So dismiss the case and try it in federal court where I will have a better defense other than mental instability."

He also noted that the shootings occurred outside a federal building and "the Army recruiters outside that federal building were federal employees. He claims he was under federal investigation at the time of the shooting.

Wright, the judge, has refused Muhammad's request to fire his attorneys.

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Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, http://www.arkansasonline.com

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NYC terror plot suspect says he is innocent (AP)

NEW YORK – One of the two men accused of plotting to bomb a New York City synagogue proclaimed his innocence in a jailhouse interview and blamed his legal troubles on being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Terror suspect Mohamed Mamdouh told the New York Daily News in an interview published Saturday that he wasn't involved in the reputed plot by his co-defendant, Ahmed Ferhani, who he described as a drinking buddy and casual acquaintance, rather than a friend.

"I don't have problems with anyone. Not Jews, not anyone," he said Friday. The 20-year-old told the newspaper that Ferhani "was the one who was talking about all the weapons and everything else."

"I never spoke about guns and blowing things up, either," Mamdouh said. "That was him. It was all his idea. I had nothing to do with any of it."

The two New Yorkers were arrested Wednesday after Ferhani was caught in a police sting trying to buy guns, ammunition and a hand grenade. Police and prosecutors said they laid the trap after an undercover investigator who had befriended the pair recorded Ferhani talking attacking a city synagogue and maybe the Empire State Building.

In his interview at the city's Rikers Island jail complex, Mamdouh told the Daily News it all stemmed from a day when he, Ferhani and the undercover officer were hanging out, watching a British documentary about ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territories.

"I was drunk," Mamdouh said. "We had a conversation after the movie was over ... It was just a conversation. It was not serious."

He told the newspaper that Ferhani "has anger issues," and "gets mad and says things," but said he didn't believe he would ever actually kill anyone.

Through his lawyer, Ferhani has also said he was innocent of any terror plot.

The two are facing the possibility of life in prison.

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Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com

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