Prosecutors Prepare Charges Against Final 'Enemy Combatant' in U.S.

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

Prosecutors Prepare Charges Against Final 'Enemy Combatant' in U.S.
By Carrie Johnson and Julie Tate
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 26, 2009; 2:16 PM

Federal prosecutors are preparing to charge Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri with providing material support to al-Qaeda terrorists in a groundbreaking move that would put the alleged sleeper agent under the jurisdiction of the U.S. court system, according to sources familiar with the issue.

Indicting Marri in a federal court marks a significant change from the policies of the Bush administration, which had argued that al-Marri should be tried in a military tribunal proceeding and that he could not use American courts to contest his legal status.

Marri is the last remaining "enemy combatant" in the United States and has spent 5 1/2 years in a military brig in South Carolina. The criminal charges, which sources said also could include conspiracy, will be among the most early and critical signals about the Obama administration's approach to handling alleged terrorism suspects.

In one of his first steps since taking office last month, President Obama explicitly directed government lawyers to review the status of Marri's case. He also ordered within one year the closure of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where about 245 terrorism suspects have been housed for years.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/26/AR2009022601892.html?hpid=topnews

[Solly Mack]

1. Just a reminder

"Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a Qatari national, came lawfully to the United States in September 2001with his wife and five children to pursue a master's degree at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He was arrested by the FBI at his home that December and subsequently indicted for credit card fraud and false identification. Al-Marri asserted his innocence and prepared to contest the charges. But on June 23, 2003, on the eve of a hearing to suppress illegally seized evidence and less than a month before trial, the President declared al-Marri an al Qaeda agent and designated him an "enemy combatant" in the "war on terrorism." That same day, the military took custody of al-Marri and incarcerated him in the Navy brig in South Carolina, where he has been detained without charge ever since.


During the first sixteen months of his military confinement, al-Marri was held incommunicado and subjected to a range of highly coercive interrogation measures, including being held in total isolation, exposed to painful stress positions, shackled in a freezing cell for hours at a time, and threatened with violence and death. Documents recently obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that standard operating procedures developed for Guantánamo Bay were secretly applied at the Navy brig in an effort to create a prison beyond the law within the United States. "


http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/case_almarri.html

[babylonsister]

2. Recommend! A real trial? Be still my heart! nt