Al-Marri Trial May Alter Detainee Protocol

Sources Tell CBS News "Enemy Combatant" Being Charged In Criminal Court, A Distinct Break From Bush Policies

(CBS)  He's the only alleged terrorist being held without charges in the United States.

For five and a half years, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri has been locked up in isolation at a U.S. Naval brig in South Carolina, labeled by the U.S. government an "enemy combatant," CBS News justice correspondent Bob Orr reports.

Al-Marri, a suspected al Qaeda sleeper agent, is a legal resident of the United States who was arrested in Illinois three months after 9/11.

Now, sources tell CBS News that federal prosecutors are charging al-Marri in a criminal court, a move that would transfer him from military custody into the justice system, where he will have access to evidence and lawyers and the right to a jury trial.

"What you have here is the Bush administration for years claiming that al-Marri was an enemy combatant who could not be tried in our regular courts," said Andrew Cohen, a CBS News legal analyst. "Now you have the Obama administration coming in, reviewing the file and essentially coming to the exact opposite conclusion."

The government's decision to charge him with crimes comes just two months before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear al-Marri's case, challenging his indefinite detention.

His indictment could set the framework for how to deal with detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The Obama Administration has pledged to close Gitmo, meaning high-profile terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammad may end up in U.S. criminal courts.

"So this is a major break in policy and in priorities really for this administration from the last," Cohen said.

Al-Marri is the last of three enemy combatants to be held on U.S. soil since 9/11. After years of being held without charges, Yasir Hamdi was deported to Saudi Arabia. And Jose Padilla was transferred to the criminal justice system, where he was convicted and sent to prison.

Justice Department officials will not comment on the al-Marri case. But he's expected to be turned over to federal prosecutors in Illinois to answer charges of supporting terrorists.

[ioweign]

All the rest are foreign enemy combatants...and are not subject to the same rights as this man.

The press likes to fool you with their opinions, when they know darn well that they're leading you in the wrong direction.
Posted by ChgUBINOT at 4:10 PM : Feb 26, 2009

And Constitution covers them too with the Geneva Convention.

Article Six establishes the Constitution, and the laws and treaties of the United States made in accordance with it, to be the supreme law of the land, and that "the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the laws or constitutions of any state notwithstanding."

www.pwcamp.algona.org/

[darrren12000]

Cohen is far too effusive in his praise. Good grief. Anyway, this is the only one held without charges - and I suspect they have some good evidence against him (however obtained). Also, the DOJ may not want the case to go to the Supreme Court - which could rule against the government on the issue of indefinite detention of people lawfully in the US prior to their detention. That was the legal issue in the case. The sudden reversal looks suspicious. Cohen only sees rosy skies, however.

[gunnerv1]

lemonskinkus: You ain't seen America destroyed yet, wait until O-boy gets done with it!

[searingtruth]

"I writhed in anguish for years. Always knowing pain was coming, but never knowing what I should attempt to say next, or how I should appear so that my American torturers would believe me.

The problem was that I was innocent."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[hermitdave]

Looks like another wheel is loose on the Bush crime family blood red wagon. All the fun Cheney and Bush had playing commandant of DEVILS ISLAND has gone by the way side. The big question of course is how many humans that were held and tortured, then released without even a OOPS we are sorry from the former country of freedom for all, the USA, be sane enough to live normal lives. We need to remember those two guys released to England, wanted by Spain, charges by Spain dropped because they were no longer mentally fit to defend themselves.

[toolmangler-2009]

it means we reverting back to the type of mindset that allowed the likes of osama bin laden to grow and become emboldened.
with liberals in power..the best time for the terrorism industry
Posted by GODSnLIBERALS at 4:31 PM : Feb 26, 2009




The mindset that put economy in this fix is the same mindset that "Allowed" Barack Obama to be voted into office with a 'Mandate' to save our country. You can castigate him and his cabinet all you wish and nothing will change, the economy will tank and the country fold. Or you can look toward helping make the programs work. There are so many people out there with good knowledge and one or more problems (they hate Dems, Libs, Repubs,conservatives, religion, the religious and just about anybody that that they won't take time to understand whether they agree or not . All this knowledge is worthwhile, but all of this knowledge is useless if not applied to the worlds ills.

[poeticaintit]

How many women are lined up to marry him?

[GODSnLIBERALS]

A break with Bush? That means we're going back to Constitutional guarantees and due process? What a novel idea.
Posted by nancy_naive at 3:11 PM : Feb 26, 2009
+ report abuse + permalink


*******

it means we reverting back to the type of mindset that allowed the likes of osama bin laden to grow and become emboldened.

with liberals in power..the best time for the terrorism industry

[ericagain]

It was only a matter of time before these inmates would be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Those GITMO inmates who can be prosecuted will eventually end up there, also.

I disagree with you on almost every other subject, Andy, but on this one we are in full agreement: the military is not prepared to house terrrorists in the U.S., and having them at GITMO has only fueled AQ propaganda. The professionals in the BOP should handle terrorist inmates in the United States.

Eric

[cmc1227]

I'd lock him up for life and through away the key just for that Duran Duran 80's haircut. Plus he just looks guilty of something.