Virginia: Lindh lawyers seek testimony from second U.S. Taliban

Lawyers for John Walker Lindh want to question another U.S.-born Taliban soldier at a pretrial hearing, but prosecutors said they must await a decision on how other al-Qaida and Taliban captives would testify.

A government pleading released Friday said that Esam Hamdi, born of Saudi parents in Louisiana, falls in the same category as other Taliban captives. If he agrees to testify at the July 15 proceeding, an arrangement must be worked out for him to respond from a remote location.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria has suggested that a video hookup may be used for the captured soldiers. This would be a compromise between the defense proposal for in-person questioning and the government’s suggestion of written questions and answers. The judge scheduled a May 28 hearing to decide the issue.

Washington: Flight school alerted FAA about Sept. 11 hijacker

Long before the terrorism of Sept. 11, an Arizona flight school warned federal aviation officials that Hani Hanjour lacked the flying skills and command of English required for the commercial pilot’s license he already held, officials say.

Reacting to the alert in January 2001, a Federal Aviation Administration inspector checked to ensure Hanjour’s 1999 license was legitimate and even sat next him in one of the Arizona classes.

But he didn’t tell the FBI or take action to rescind Hanjour’s license, FAA officials told The Associated Press.

Hanjour is believed to have piloted the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

London: ‘Millennium’ extradition OK’d

A British judge ruled Friday that an Algerian man could be extradited to the United States for trial on charges that he plotted to blow up Los Angeles International Airport during millennium celebrations. But legal appeals could delay Abu Doha’s day in an American court for months.

The FBI has charged that Doha also known as Amar Makhlolif and “The Doctor” was the leader of a militant group of Algerians who trained with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and planned bomb attacks in Europe and the United States around the New Year’s in 2000.