>>In 2002, Ali was charged with making false statements to the FBI and to financial institutions, identity fraud, and credit card fraud.[1] Al-Marri was alleged to be in possession of more than 1750 credit card numbers, along with the names of the account holders, none of whom were Al-Marri. He was also alleged to be in possession of falsified identification documents. Additionally, he was alleged to have used a Qwest calling card to call a number in Dubai linked to the reputed al-Qaeda financier Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
After searching al-Marri’s computer, folders were found labeled “jihad arena” and “chem,” which (according to the government) contained information on hydrogen cyanide, a poisonous gas produced in large quantities by several industrial processes in the U.S. and listed amongst chemical warfare agents that cause general poisoning,[2] along with lectures by Osama bin Laden and links to Web sites related to weaponry and satellite equipment.[3] <<
I hope they had more than that.
That could be a criminal who was fascinated with or fantasized about Jihad and made one call trying to join Al Quaida.
Now, probably he is either a terrorist or a wannabe terrorist but I don’t any reason to strip him of his right to a trial with the right to put on a defense.
Based on a Wikipedia entry?
Al-Marri shares the same list of contacts as Mohammed Atef, a US citizen who worked out of Barack Obama's family's country of Kenya, and who was involved in the 1998 US embassy bombings that occured there and in Tanzania. Some of the perps in that bombing plot, such as Wadih el Hage, were involved with IARA [another agency with offices in Chicago] and also ran and worked for a Kenyan terror charity called "Help Africa People." El Hage [and another individual, the woman Siddiqui, that was part of al Qaeda's post 911 follow-on ops as was al Marri] was also involved in the gem trade. That leads to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and the battles over the gemstone mines there, which brings to mind all the liberal hysterics about Bush taking down Charles Taylor, the best buddy of Illinois' favorite loudmouth Jessie Jackson.
There are a lot of politicians who received goodies from these terror charities so there is probably a strong desire in Washington and particularly in "Crook county" Illiois to handle the al Marri matter creatively...in such a way that not too much of what and who he was actually involved with gets exposed.