An Arab-American college student has been convicted of joining al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush

Associated Press:

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, Virginia, could get life in prison on charges that include conspiracy to assassinate the president and providing support to al Qaeda. Sentencing was scheduled for February.

Jurors in U.S. District Court deliberated for two days before returning their verdict.

Abu Ali swallowed hard before the verdict was read but otherwise showed little emotion. He did not testify.

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

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

But the defense countered that he was whipped and tortured into a false confession by the Saudi security force known as the Mubahith. (Full story)

Wahid suggested that an al Qaeda member arrested by the Saudis falsely fingered Abu Ali to protect other cell members still at large.

"You think the al Qaeda guys are going to give up a fellow al Qaeda, or did they pick some patsy from the University of Medina?" Wahid said in closing arguments last week.

Prosecutors say he was never mistreated and confessed voluntarily.

According to the prosecutors Abu Ali went to Saudi Arabia in 2002 with the notion of becoming a terrorist and later met al Qaeda'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."

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