Embassy bomb plot charges dropped

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Charges cited by U.S. President George Bush in a State of the Union speech that six detainees plotted to blow up a U.S. embassy have been dropped, lawyers say.

The capture of six Algerians in Bosnia in 2002 was cited by Bush in his January 2002 speech, when he said, "Our soldiers, working with the Bosnian government, seized terrorists who were plotting to bomb our embassy" in Sarajevo. But those charges against the men, who are being detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been dropped, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

Other terror charges against the men have dissolved as well and the government is justifying the detentions on the far narrower grounds of alleged plans to travel to Afghanistan to fight U.S. forces, their lawyers told the newspaper.

Attorneys for the Algerians say habeas corpus rights granted the Guantanamo Bay detainees by the U.S. Supreme Court has forced the government to admit it has no real evidence of a plan to blow up the U.S. embassy in Bosnia.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment to the Post, but the government has indicated other, secret evidence has been filed against the Algerians.