U.S. Citizen Confesses to Plot to Assassinate President Bush

In a courtroom Tuesday in Alexandria, Virginia, a videotaped confession was played by prosecutors who have accused Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a citizen of the United States who grew up in Virginia, with plotting to assassinate President Bush. Abu Ali, 24, says that he joined the al Qaida terrorist organization because of his hatred of America’s support for Israel. In his 13-minute confession, played in court for the first time, Abu Ali says that a top al Qaida operative in Saudi Arabia "made it clear I became one of them and that I could speak in the name of al Qaida."

Authorities in Saudi Arabia, where Abu Ali attended college, taped the confession in 2003. Attorneys for Abu Ali have asked the court to throw out the confession, saying that their client’s confession was falsely obtained after he was tortured and whipped by the Saudis. They say that U.S. authorities complied with the torture, but prosecutors deny that Abu Ali was mistreated. The defense argues that U.S. authorities denied their client’s constitutional right to an attorney and to remain silent. However, several FBI agents testified that the Saudis investigated and interrogated Abu Ali on their own without assistance from American authorities. Despite the objections of the defense, U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said that he wanted to observe Abu Ali’s demeanor for himself, so he watched the videotape during a pretrial hearing in his courtroom Tuesday.

Some parts of the tape appear to be a repeated statement that prosecutors have acknowledged was written for Abu Ali by the Saudis, and prosecutors said that he was given an opportunity to revise the statement before reading it. 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 occasionally yawns and chuckles to himself throughout the tape, and when he discusses being trained with a Kalashnikov rifle, he pantomimes a mock rifle attack. He says that he discussed numerous potential terrorist attacks to be carried out in America. The al-Qaida leaders he says he met with are Ali abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi and Sultan Jubran Sultan al-Qahtani, who encouraged him to return to the United States and integrate himself back into society so that he could establish an al Qaida terrorist cell. Abu Ali says that rather than attacks on military targets or hijackings, he preferred a plot to assassinate President Bush "because it would be easier to carry out because he appears in so many public places."

Abu Ali is charged with conspiracy to assassinate the president, contributing services to al Qaida, and conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy. He could face life in prison if he is convicted.