Pakistani officials say five American men arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of trying to join Islamist militant groups are likely to be deported back to the U.S., unless they are found to have committed crimes in Pakistan. Meanwhile officials at a Virginia mosque held a news conference to say they are praying for the young men's speedy return.

At the Northern Virginia Islamic center where the five young men are said to have worshipped - outreach counselor Mustafa Maryam says allegations that they were plotting a holy war against Americans in Afghanistan came as a big surprise.
"Our group discussions never talked about politics, never talked about ongoing conflicts, never talked about fighting against anyone indirectly or directly," he said.
The five American Muslims are currently under police interrogation in eastern Pakistan, captured after their families reported them missing earlier this month.
One of them left behind an 11-minute farewell video explaining why Muslims must be defended.
Mosque spokesman Essam Tellawi said he prays for a speedy resolution and thanked the men's families for notifying the authorities. "I ask all of us to pray for them. They are going through severe hardship. It is a very painful experience to see this happening to them," he said.
Analysts say the incident demonstrates that homegrown terrorism is a rapidly growing threat. Jena McNeal, a Homeland Security expert at the Heritage Foundation, said "There have been 27 plots foiled against the United States since 9/11. I think this demonstrates that while some of these people were homegrown terrorists and some of them were not, we do have a threat that needs to be taken seriously."
Islamic leaders say they are paying attention. Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, said, "We are determined not to let religious extremists exploit the vulnerability of the emotions of our children through slick seductive and destructive propaganda on the Internet."
Although none of the men have been charged, people with knowledge of the case told Associated Press that agents are looking into whether there is evidence to charge the five Americans with conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization.

Settlement ends a 13-year legal battle to resolve a dispute that dates back to the late-1800s.



The U.S. government says it has settled a long-running lawsuit against the Department of the Interior for mismanagement of trust fund accounts held by hundreds of thousands of Native Americans. The settlement ends a 13-year legal battle to resolve a dispute that dates back to the late-1800s.

The legal settlement will cost the U.S. government $3.4 billion.
The agreement ends the case brought by Native American tribes charging that the Interior Department had swindled hundreds of thousands of Indians out of royalties for leasing their lands to mining, timber and energy interests.
Announcement of the settlement came at a news conference here in Washington by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who said it was time for the government to "right a past wrong".
"It is a historic day for the United States of America. It is a historic day for the first Americans of these United States," he said.
Under the terms of the agreement, more than $1.4 billion will be distributed to more than 300,000 Native Americans to compensate them for royalty claims. Another $2 billion will be used to buy back and consolidate tribal lands lost by previous generations.
The lead plaintiff in the suit filed in 1996 is Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Indian tribe in the western state of Montana.
Cobell told the news conference that even though some plaintiffs wanted to hold out for more money from the government, it was time to bring the dispute to an end.
"Yes, we could prolong our struggle and fight longer. But we are compelled to settle now by the sobering realization that our class [the number of plaintiffs] grows smaller each year, each month, and every day as our elders die and are forever prevented from receiving their just compensation," she said.
Cobell also said there was growing pressure to reach a settlement because so many Native Americans live in poverty.
"We also face the uncomfortable, but unavoidable, fact that a large number of our individual Indian money account holders currently exist in poverty," she said. "And the settlement can begin to address that extreme situation and provide some hope and a better quality of life for their remaining years," Cobell said.
The case dates back to 1887, when the government carved up Indian reservation lands into smaller parcels and allotted them to individual Indians.
It has been the Interior Department's responsibility to manage various activities on the land, including mineral mining, oil and gas drilling, and timber harvesting, and then pay the Indians royalties for those activities. But Cobell and the other plaintiffs charged that the Interior Department had mishandled the revenues for more than a century.
President Barack Obama issued a statement hailing the agreement as an important step toward reconciliation between Indian trust beneficiaries and the federal government. The agreement still must be approved by a federal court and by Congress, which must vote to allocate the money needed to fund the settlement.

In a nationally broadcast address, Mr. Obama says additional forces will help accelerate transfer of responsibility to Afghan forces
In his highly anticipated speech on his new war strategy, President Obama said the United States did not "ask for this fight," saying that the war started in response to the al-Qaida terror attacks that killed nearly three-thousand people.
He said the terror group's base of operations was in Afghanistan, and members of the terrorist network were harbored by the Taliban, which he described as a "ruthless, repressive and radical movement."
He said the Taliban was driven from power and "pushed back on its heels" after the United States invaded the country in October 2001. But he said the Iraq war, which began in March 2003, drew the dominant share of troops, resources, diplomacy and national attention.
Mr. Obama says U.S. troops in Afghanistan will focus on targeting the insurgency, securing key population centers and increasing the training of Afghan security forces.
The president says he has asked U.S. allies to contribute additional troops and resources in the days and weeks ahead. Mr. Obama says what is at stake in the war is not only NATO's credibility, but the common security of the world.
President Obama says that while the United States will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan's security forces to ensure their long-term success, ultimately the Afghan people and their government are responsible for their country.
The additional American forces will bring the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to about 100,000.
Senior administration officials say all the forces will be in place in about six months.
The Obama administration is struggling to counter declining U.S. public support and rising casualties in the eight-year war against Taliban and al-Qaida militants.
In his address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, President Obama outlined ways the Afghan government can address corruption and poor governance.
Mr. Obama also sought to reassure Afghans worried about a long-term U.S. presence in their country, saying the United States has "no interest" in occupying the country. He says America seeks "an end to this era of war and suffering."


In a nationally broadcast address, Mr. Obama says additional forces will help accelerate transfer of responsibility to Afghan forces


He rejected political criticisms that he took too long to decide how to move forward in Afghanistan, saying his three-month review of war strategy allowed him to ask "hard questions" and explore options.
The president said after that review, he determined it is in the "vital national interest" to send an additional 30,000 troops. After 18 months, he says they can begin coming home.
The White House says Mr. Obama emphasized in a video teleconference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the U.S. and international commitment in Afghanistan is not open-ended.
In the approximately hour-long video teleconference late Monday Washington time, Mr. Obama also "underscored the need for more rapid development" of Afghan forces so the country can assume greater security responsibilities.
The White House says the president spoke by telephone Tuesday with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on the "way forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Tuesday's announcement follows months of deliberations by President Obama and his national security team.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is traveling to Brussels next week to speak with her NATO counterparts about the war strategy. Diplomats say Washington is asking its international partners for up to 10,000 more troops.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday Berlin is not ready to contribute more troops to the war. She said Germany will make a decision after an international conference on Afghanistan next month in London.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged 500 more troops, adding to the 9,500 British forces already in Afghanistan.
French Defense Minister Herve Morin says his country is not likely to contribute any more troops to the war.

Color Daily Military

Reports in Washington say President Barack Obama plans to announce his new strategy for Afghanistan next Tuesday evening, during a prime-time television address.
The reports say the president is most likely to back a plan to send between 30,000 and 35,000 additional U.S. troops to the country.
The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan earlier this year told the president that up to 40,000 troops are needed to combat Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the region.
Since then, President Obama has been meeting with advisors and considering future U.S. strategy in the region. On Tuesday, Mr. Obama said he intends to "finish the job" in Afghanistan.
Read more at Color Daily Military

The Senate will hold its first crucial vote on a sweeping health care reform bill this Saturday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the test vote Thursday, a day after he unveiled the Senate's health care bill that aims to extend health insurance to 31 million more Americans.  
Saturday's procedural vote will decide whether the bill can be brought to the Senate floor for full debate, although Reid would not comment on whether he had the 60 votes needed to do so. 
To avoid Republican maneuvers to delay a vote, all 58 Democrats and the two Independent Senators have to favor the bill.  A few moderate Democrats have signaled strong opposition to components of the bill, which includes a government-run option to compete with private insurers. 
However, the Senate bill does allow states to opt out of providing a government-run option.  
The Congressional Budget Office said the Senate bill unveiled Wednesday night would cost a total of $849 billion over the next decade.  Analysts say the plan would also reduce U.S. deficits by nearly $130 billion in the same period, a report that could boost  the bill's chances of passage. 
If the bill passes, it will have to be merged with a much larger bill passed earlier this month by the House of Representatives.  The House narrowly approved its bill on a sharply divided vote of 220 to 215.
President Barack Obama has asked Congress to deliver legislation to him for signing by the end of the year. 

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One of the five Miami men convicted of plotting to join forces with al-Qaida to attack Chicago's Sears Tower has been sentenced to six years in prison.
A U.S. District Court Judge, Joan Leonard imposed the sentence on Burson Augustin in a Miami court Wednesday. Prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence of at least 30 years, but the judge said he believed Augustin played a minor role in the conspiracy.
Augustin and the four other men were convicted in May on charges of terrorism-related conspiracy. They had allegedly plotted to attack what is now the Willis Tower in Chicago and bomb FBI offices in several other cities. Two other men were acquitted.
The men were arrested in Miami in 2006 following an FBI investigation. They were accused of seeking to form an alliance with al-Qaida during a meeting with an FBI agent posing as a terrorist operative.
The men denied being terrorists and said they were pretending to support al-Qaida in hopes of obtaining $50,000 from the agent they believed was an al-Qaida operative.
The five men were found guilty in the third attempt by prosecutors to convict them. Two earlier trials, in 2007 and 2008, ended with deadlocked juries.
The defendants were initially known as the Liberty City Seven, a name taken from the poor Miami neighborhood, Liberty City, where they met.
Prosecutors had hailed the group's arrest in 2006 as a major crackdown on home-grown terrorists. The case was criticized by civil liberties groups because prosecutors said no attack was imminent, and that the men's plans were more "aspirational" than "operational."

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