Passport rule takes effect today

Americans flying to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean made sure to bring their passports Monday because of a new rule going into effect today that requires them to show one to get back into the country.

Starting today, Canadian, Mexican and Bermudan air travelers, as well as U.S. citizens flying home from those countries or the Caribbean, must display their passports to enter the United States.

For now, the rules affect only air travelers. Land and sea travelers will not have to show passports until at least January 2008. Air travelers who cannot produce a passport will be interviewed by customs agents, who will decide whether to let them into the country.

WASHINGTON

Official confirms al-Qaida scheme

Al-Qaida’s Iraq-based faction considered trying to use student visas to get a dozen or more operatives into the United States to launch an attack, a ploy that was successful for one hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a U.S. counterterrorism official confirmed Monday.

The plot appeared to be little more than an informal list of al-Qaida-affiliated operatives and initial plans that was found during a search of a militants’ hide-out in Iraq sometime early last year, shortly before Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. airstrike, the official said.

But it was deemed serious enough to alert the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, which mobilized agents in the United States to look for possible terrorists and for signs of attempted infiltration, said the official.

WASHINGTON

Jury complete for Libby trial

A jury that includes four critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq policies was seated Monday to try former White House aide “Scooter” Libby on charges of lying about what he told reporters concerning the wife of a prominent war opponent.

The jury of nine women and three men was seated after a nearly hourlong court session that was as silent as a professional chess match.

A former aide to Bush and chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis Libby is charged with five felony counts – obstructing an investigation into the leaking of CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity in 2003 and lying to the FBI and a grand jury about three conversations with reporters about her.

Today, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton will give preliminary instructions and then both sides will give opening statements.