New King hearing on radicalization

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., convened the second hearing of his House Homeland Security Committee on the topic of radicalization of U.S. Muslims, focusing on prison inmates.

King said "dozens" of Muslims were radicalized behind bars, including James Cromitie, who was convicted last October of planning to attack Jewish targets in New York and shoot down U.S. military planes. King also mentioned Jose Padilla, the so-called "dirty bomber" from Chicago, who converted to Islam in a Florida jail, and Kevin James, who formed a radical group at Folsom Prison in California.

Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., called the hearings "racist and discriminatory and said blaming "one particular group on the basis of race or religion is flawed and should not be done in the House."

A key Al-Qaida operative returned to Pakistan by the CIA after he gave the U.S. information about a courier that eventually led to the location of Osama bin Laden has since rejoined Al-Qaida, U.S. officials say. The agency returned Hassan Ghul to Pakistan after the CIA closed its remaining secret prisons in Eastern Europe in 2006. The CIA had been given assurances that Ghul, a native of Pakistan, would not go free. But Ghul was let go and later rejoined Al-Qaida, angering the CIA officers who worked so hard to take him off the battlefield, according to former and current U.S. intelligence officials.

Three U.S. missile attacks killed 15 suspected militants on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border on Wednesday, Pakistani officials said, the latest in an uptick in such strikes that coincides with a chill in ties between Washington and Islamabad. Two of the attacks were in the South Waziristan tribal region and one in North Waziristan.

Afghanistan's second vice president, Mohammed Karim, and the interior minister, Bismullah Khan Mohammadi, were uninjured when Taliban insurgents fired a mortar at the opening ceremony of a vast new police training academy outside Kabul, officials said. The ceremony had ended and dignitaries were leaving when a shell landed about 300 yards away, they said.

Dozens of family members and tourists welcomed the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson as it returned to San Diego on Wednesday after a seven-month deployment that included the at-sea burial of Osama bin Laden.

As thousands of sailors and Marines lined the rails, Nicole Palazzo, 29, of Michigan said: "Those guys and girls, they're the real deal. If you don't believe me, ask Bin Laden."

The ship's 5,500 crew members had been ordered by Navy brass not to discuss the burial, lest details leak out that could further inflame tensions between the U.S. and the Muslim world. But Rear Adm. Samuel Perez said the crew's morale was sky high after the burial mission was completed. "I think everybody was pretty stoked," he said.

NEWS SERVICES