Alleged Al-Qaeda agent to be charged criminally in Illinois
The Obama administration has decided to press criminal charges against accused al-Qaeda operative Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, shifting him into the civilian justice system after 5 1/2 years in a military brig, two government officials familiar with the decision said.
The move marks a break with the Bush administration, which had argued it could hold al-Marri indefinitely as an enemy combatant based on assertions that he was sent to the U.S. on a terrorism mission. Criminal charges might head off a scheduled Supreme Court showdown in the case over presidential powers.
Al-Marri is the only person now being held as an enemy combatant on U.S. soil. He was a legal U.S. resident when he was arrested in Illinois in December 2001 during the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks. The Bush administration moved him to military custody in 2003.
"If it's true, it's a very important step, but it's a step that should have been taken seven years ago," said Jonathan Hafetz, an ACLU lawyer who represents al-Marri.
Al-Marri will be charged with providing material support for terrorism and possibly with conspiracy, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. Prosecutors may announce an indictment from a grand jury as early as tomorrow, one person said. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd declined to comment.
The Washington Post and The New Yorker magazine reported the development earlier today.
The Obama administration is acting in the face of a scheduled April 27 argument at the Supreme Court and a March 23 deadline to lay out the government's position. Its options included adopting the Bush administration's arguments in favor of broad presidential power or repatriating al-Marri to his native Qatar. President Barack Obama ordered a review of al-Marri's status during his first week in office.
Hafetz said he would urge the Supreme Court to hear the case even if al-Marri is indicted and shifted to civilian custody.
"It is important that the Supreme Court continue to review this case," he said. "It must make clear once and for all that indefinite detention is illegal."
Al-Marri's Supreme Court appeal centers on the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, enacted by Congress in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Al-Marri's lawyers say a federal appeals court, in ruling against him, misconstrued that law in a way that gives the president unprecedented authority to indefinitely detain people who are legally in the country.
Former President George W. Bush's administration said in court papers it had evidence that al-Marri trained at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, was introduced to Osama bin Laden by Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and was sent to the U.S. to explore computer hacking methods to disrupt bank records and the financial system.
The Bush administration also said al-Marri's laptop contained technical information about cyanide and other poisonous chemicals.
Authorities arrested al-Marri in Peoria, Illinois, as a material witness in the Sept. 11 attacks. He was charged with credit-card fraud, identity theft and other offenses and held in civilian custody until June 2003. At that point, Bush declared him an enemy combatant and ordered him moved to military custody. Since then, al-Marri has been held without charges at a Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina.
A judge dismissed the earlier charges against al-Marri "with prejudice," meaning the government can't refile them.
Al-Marri says he was denied any contact with his lawyers or family for the first 16 months of his military confinement and to date has been allowed only two phone calls with his family. In a separate lawsuit, he says he was forced to endure painful stress positions, extreme sensory deprivation and threats of violence and death.