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Terror Trials in U.S. Are A Worry Classified Data Just One Hurdle By Jerry Markon Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 6, 2009; Page A04 When suspected al-Qaeda sleeper agent Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri was indicted on criminal charges last week, the Obama administration said it was sending a message that the U.S. courts can deal with terror suspects. But Marri says he was subjected to painful stress positions, extreme sensory deprivation and violent threats and was denied access to lawyers when he was held in a military brig in South Carolina. Those claims are likely to become part of...

WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors plan to move an alleged al-Qaida sleeper agent out of a Navy brig in South Carolina and send him to federal court in Illinois to face trial. Two people familiar with the case of Qatar native Ali al-Marri said Thursday the government plans to transfer him to the civilian court system. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because it's a pending criminal case. The transfer could avert a Supreme Court hearing in April and a subsequent ruling that would govern other cases against accused terrorists. To justify holding al-Marri, the Bush administration claimed the...

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) – The case of Ali al-Marri, accused of being an al Qaeda "sleeper" agent and held for 5-1/2 years at a U.S. military prison in South Carolina, will be an early test for President-elect Barack Obama. In his first month in office, Obama will have to tell the Supreme Court whether he will abandon his predecessor's claim that anyone the president deems a national security threat can be imprisoned indefinitely without charges in the United States. Marri is the only person still held in the United States as an "enemy combatant." His case is a test...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2006 – Detainee treatment and interrogation operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are fully compliant with the Detainee Treatment Act and Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions -- at least as best as U.S. military leaders understand Common Article 3, the general with overall responsibility for operations there said yesterday. Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said “outrages on personal dignity” -- outlawed by Common Article 3 -- is an overly ambiguous term that could lead to trouble for U.S. servicemembers trying to understand rules for interrogations. “In the military, we like ‘tasks,...

WASHINGTON, August 3, 2006 – Coalition forces captured a wanted terrorist along with two others during a raid near Bayji, Iraq, yesterday, U.S. military officials reported. The raid is one of a series of successful operations targeting a terrorist cell involved in aiding foreign terrorists throughout central Iraq. The raid occurred without incident. Coalition forces have been effectively dismantling this group, which has reportedly orchestrated attacks, kidnappings and bombings of civilians, officials said. In addition, Iraqi and coalition forces announced that a recently captured foreign terrorist would be turned over to the Iraqi government for prosecution under the Iraqi justice...

I want to tell you about Private Stephen Tschiderer, a 20-year-old Army medic of the 265th Brigade Combat team. While on patrol in Baghdad on July 2, insurgent snipers stalked the soldier by videotaping him from a nearby van. This footage would later prove Tschiderer's valor. Within seconds of walking away from his Hummer, he was shot in the chest above the heart. Tschiderer goes down — but immediately pops back up, fires back, and runs back behind the Hummer. From behind the Hummer, he signals the snipers' hiding spot to his unit. The 265th disabled the insurgents — including...

The Department of Defense today announced it intends to reconvene military commissions in the wake of a unanimous decision by a federal court of appeals that the military commissions process is a proper venue in which to try enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for violations of the laws of war. Action on all military commissions has been suspended since December 2004 in response to a November 2004 federal district court order staying further proceedings in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan. On July 15, 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed the...

Jose Padilla, an enemy combatant detained at the Charleston Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston, S.C., will be allowed access to a lawyer subject to appropriate security restrictions, the Department of Defense announced today. Arrangements for that access are being coordinated. DoD is allowing Padilla access to counsel as a matter of discretion and military authority. Such access is not required by domestic or international law and should not be treated as a precedent. A similar decision to allow Yaser Esam Hamdi access to a lawyer was announced Dec. 2, 2003. DoD has determined that such access will not compromise the...

Did anyone else see that report? A French reporter who I believe worked for MSNBC was filming Iraqi insurgents as they were going on a mission to fire rockets and a light morter on American troops. These terrorists were disguised as civilians and covered their faces with the Kayffia(sp?)when on film. They were filmed with night vision as they fired from a morter and then got back in their car and sped off. Then they mixed in with traffic and drove past American troops on the highway. These reporters tried to justify it by saying they are nuetral as journalists....

DoD Announces Detainee Allowed Access to Lawyer The Department of Defense announced today that Yaser Esam Hamdi, an enemy combatant detained at the Charleston Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston, S.C., will be allowed access to a lawyer subject to appropriate security restrictions. Arrangements for that access will be developed over the next few days. DoD is allowing Hamdi access to counsel as a matter of discretion and military policy; such access is not required by domestic or international law and should not be treated as a precedent. DoD decided to allow Hamdi access to counsel because Hamdi is a U.S....

efreedomnews         WAR ON TERRORISM - AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE Left Screeching at Ashcroft Again: Detaining Enemy CombatantsJonathan Rhodes efreedomnews.com September 4, 2002 General Ashcroft's Detention Camps: Time to Call for His Resignation "The new Steven Spielberg-Tom Cruise movie, Minority Report, shows the government, some years hence, imprisoning "pre-criminals" before they engage in, or even think of, terrorism. That may not be just fiction, folks." Nat Hentoff  September 4 - September 10, 2002 Village Voice "The Bush administration seems to believe, on no good legal authority, that if it calls citizens combatants in the war on terrorism, it can imprison...

In the new movie Minority Report, the police arrest people for crimes they are expected to commit in the future. Our own government seems to be laying the groundwork for a similar policy. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz calls Jose Padilla, a.k.a. Abdullah al Muhajir, "a very dangerous man," and perhaps he is. But by locking him up indefinitely without bringing charges, the government is setting a precedent for preventive detention of any U.S. citizen whom the president decides to put on the country's enemy list. This maneuver makes due process disappear through misdirection and circular reasoning: If you're a...