Saudi Terror All in the Family

We noted Thursday a Saudi Club Gitmo resident may be charged in a plot to blow up ships and now we find out he's the brother-in-law to one of the 9/11 hijackers.

Of course, assorted troofers, lefty bloggers and Ron Paul supporters will no doubt question the timing.

A Saudi terrorism suspect facing possible charges before a military tribunal at Guantanamo has been identified as a brother-in-law of one of the Sept. 11 hijackers.

Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi, who is accused of helping to organize an al-Qaida plot to attack a ship, is a brother-in-law of Khalid al-Mihdhar, a Saudi who was one of the hijackers who crashed a plane into the Pentagon, the military said in a statement late Friday.

Al-Darbi, 32, faces possible charges that include conspiracy and providing support to terrorism and could be sentenced to up to life in prison if convicted by the military court at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

Prosecutors have drawn up the charges and informed the detainee of the accusations against him, but military legal authorities are still reviewing the case and he has not yet been formally charged.

The military says al-Darbi was a trained al-Qaida operative who met with Osama bin Laden and helped organize a plot to attack a ship off Yemen or in the Strait of Hormuz. The military did not say whether his relationship with al-Mihdhar is connected to the accusations against him.

Al-Mihdhar and another hijacker lived in San Diego, before they boarded American Airlines Flight 77 on Sept. 11, 2001, as part of a team that crashed it into the Pentagon, killing 190 people on the ground and on the plane.