| Ali Saleh Kahlah Al Marri | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1966 or 1967 Qatar |
| Conviction(s) | plea bargain - pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization[1] |
| Penalty | 8 years |
| Status | Incarceration: Naval brig at Charleston, SC Federal Correctional Institution, Pekin US Penitentiary, Florece, High (starting March 2010) |
| Children | five[2] |
Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri (Arabic: علي صالح كحلة المري ) (b. 1966/1967) is a citizen of Qatar who was arrested on charges of being a sleeper al Qaeda agent while studying at Bradley University in the United States.[3] After denying any wrongdoing since his arrest, al-Marri pled guilty in a plea agreement to the federal charges on April 30, 2009.[4] After a transfer from Federal Correctional Institution, Pekin, he has been held at United States Penitentiary, Florence since March 2010. Previously, he had been detained in solitary confinement for six years at the Naval Consolidated Brig, Charleston. Al-Marri is the only non-citizen known to have been held as an enemy combatant in the continental United States since September 11. In July 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the government's authority to hold Al-Marri as an enemy combatant, but also ruled that he was entitled to contest his detention in federal court. In February 2009, reports emerged that Al-Marri had been indicted by the federal government.[5]
Al-Marri was released from detention by the Secretary of Defense on March 10, 2009 and was served an arrest warrant the same morning at the Charleston naval brig. He was immediately taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service.
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The Peoria Journal Star reports that al-Marri's initial capture was at a routine traffic stop in Peoria in December 2001. He was held in civilian jails in Peoria, Illinois and New York City as a material witness.
It was Ali Soufan's questioning of Mohammed al Qahtani, that led to the terrorism charges against al-Marri, whom al Qahtani had mentioned being a relative.[6]
In 2002, Ali was charged with making false statements to the FBI and to financial institutions, identity fraud, and credit card fraud.[3] 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,[7] along with lectures by Osama bin Laden and links to Web sites related to weaponry and satellite equipment.[8]
Al-Marri's initial charges were dropped when President Bush classified him as an unlawful combatant in 2003. Unlike other foreigners, al-Marri was not transported to the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp but was instead transferred to Naval Consolidated Brig, in Charleston, South Carolina.[9][10]
Al-Marri was allowed access to legal counsel in October 2004. His lawyers report that al-Marri has described being subjected to extreme cold, with insufficient bedding and clothing. He has been deprived of all reading material, except a Qur'an. Unlike the cells at Guantanamo Bay, which all have an arrow painted on the floor that points toward Mecca, his guards reportedly decline to inform him of which direction is East. In addition to his cell's window being merely translucent (rather than transparent), he also claims to have no clock, preventing him from knowing the proper times to say prayers. He has also reportedly been deprived of personal hygiene items.[11] The lack of such items have reportedly also rendered him unable to pray as a result of ritual impurity.
Al-Marri reported that he had not been interrogated for a year. His lawyer sought to obtain protection for him through the writ of habeas corpus.[12][13]
In October 2008, 91 pages of memos drafted in 2002 by officers at the Naval Consolidated Brig, Charleston became public.[14][15] The memos indicate that officers were concerned that the isolation and lack of stimuli was driving Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, Yasser Hamdi and José Padilla insane.
On November 13, 2006, the United States Department of Justice asserted in a six-page motion with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that, according to the Military Commissions Act of 2006, al-Marri should be tried in a military tribunal as an enemy combatant rather than in a civilian court.[16][17][18]
The document begins:
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure and Local Rule 27(f), respondent-appellee Commander S.L. Wright respectfully moves this Court to remand this case to the district court with instructions to dismiss it for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Respondent-appellee has conferred with counsel for petitioner-appellant, and they agree with the briefing schedule proposed below. As explained below, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), Pub. L. No. 109-366 (see Attachment 1), which took effect on October 17, 2006, removes federal court jurisdiction over pending and future habeas corpus actions and any other actions filed by or on behalf of detained aliens determined by the United States to be enemy combatants, such as petitioner-appellant al- Marri, except as provided in Section 1005(e)(2) and (e)(3) of the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA). In plain terms, the MCA removes this Court’s jurisdiction (as well as the district court’s) over al- Marri’s habeas action. Accordingly, the Court should dismiss this appeal for lack of jurisdiction and remand the case to the district court with instructions to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction.
After a long legal battle the previously classified justification for Al Marri's detention was made public.[19] On September 9, 2004, Jeffrey N. Rapp, Director of the Joint Intelligence Task Force for Combating Terrorism submitted a 16 page sworn statement containing many allegations against Al Marri, including:
On June 11, 2007, in al-Marri v. Wright, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Military Commissions Act doesn't deny al-Marri his constitutional rights to challenge his accusers.[20] The court ruled that al-Marri must be released from military detention to either be freed or to be placed in US civilian detention where the federal government would have to charge him with crimes.[21] The court held an en banc rehearing of the ruling on October 31, 2007. In its decision issued on July 15, 2008 the Court voted 5-4 that if the Government's allegations are true, al-Marri can be held in military detention indefinitely as an enemy combatant, but he has not received sufficient due process to determine if these allegations are in fact true.[22] The case is allowed to return to trial court but no particular proceedings have been specified.
On 9 November 2008, Jerry Markon, writing in the Washington Post, reported that al-Marri's lawyers had petitioned the United States Supreme Court to overturn the lower court ruling that allowed him to be treated as an enemy combatant in spite of being a legal resident of the USA.[23]
On December 5, 2008, the Supreme Court agreed to hear al-Marri's case.[24]
On January 22, 2009, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum requiring that al-Marri's status be reviewed in addition to the detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay.[25]
Al Marri pled guilty to conspiracy to support a terrorist group in 2009, and received a 15 year sentence.[10] On October 12 2011 Tony Bartelme, writing in the Charleston Post and Courier reported on documents the paper had recently received from an 8 year old Freedom of Information Act request about the use of the consolidated brig in the "war on terror". Among those documents was a 2005 exchange of memos between the prison's commander, E.P. Giambastiani to Charles Stimson Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs. In the memos Giambastiani requested that al Marri, Hamdy and Padilla be transferred to Guantanamo. According to Bartelme:
"Logbooks and other information obtained by al-Marri's Charleston attorney, Andy Savage, revealed that Defense Department and CIA agents interrogated al-Marri for months, at one point wrapping his head in duct tape and stuffing his mouth, a tactic Savage called dry-boarding."
The New York Times outlined the case of Ali al-Marri in an editorial on 24 November 2008, titled "Indefinite Detention". It criticized the George W. Bush administration's enemy combatant doctrine, and called on the Supreme Court justices to "make clear that a president cannot trample on individual rights by imprisoning people indefinitely simply by asserting that they are tied to terrorism."[26]
In another editorial of 8 December 2008, called "Tortured Justice", the Times editorial board wrote: "The extent of the damage to American liberties, and how lasting it will be, will be told in part by the outcome of two cases [Ali al-Marri's "enemy combatant" and Maher Arar's "extraordinary rendition"] that are to be heard by the federal courts." They said the Obama administration would have to decide "whether to defend the indefensible when the case comes to trial".[27]
The New Yorker, quoting inside sources, reported on February 26, 2009 that al-Marri was to be indicted by Obama's Department of Justice.[28]
On February 27, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that a federal grand jury in the Central District of Illinois had returned a two-count indictment charging Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, with providing material support to al-Qaeda and conspiring with others to provide material support to al-Qaeda. He said that the Office of the Solicitor General would move to dismiss al-Marri’s pending litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court, and that al-Marri would be transferred to Department of Justice custody for criminal prosecution as soon as the Supreme Court rules on that motion.[29] On March 6, 2009 the U.S. Supreme court dismissed the application, remanded to the Fourth Circuit, and instructed the Fourth Circuit to dismiss the appeal as moot.[30] In March 2009, al-Marri made his first appearance before a judge in Charleston, S.C. After denying al-Marri's request for bail, the South Carolina judge ordered his transportation to Illinois. Al-Marri plead not guilty before Judge Michael Mihm in a U.S. District Court of Illinois. Judge Mihm set the date of the trial for May 26 but added that, realistically, he wanted to "try this case by the end of the year." Mihm also ordered the prosecution to hand over evidence, such as a copy of al-Marri's hard drive, to the defense attorneys.[31]
Al-Marri was scheduled to make his initial court appearance on March 10, 2009 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert S. Carr in a federal court in Charleston, South Carolina.[32]
Al-Marri was transported afterward back to the Peoria federal court by the marshals and appeared before Mihm. He indicated to Mihm he understood the charges against him. In March 2009, Al Marri was returned to civilian custody in Peoria, from military custody.[33]
On April 30, 2009 he entered a plea of guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. Al-Marri admitted in his plea that he attended terrorist training camps between 1998 and 2001, where he studied weapons and operational security. He met with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and "offered his services" to aid al-Qaeda; Mohammed told him to travel to America by September 20, 2001 and wait for further instructions.[4] Al-Marri said that while enrolled at Bradley University, he researched cyanide on the Internet and continued communicating with al-Qaeda.[4]
On October 29, 2009, Al-Marri was sentenced to 8 years in prison.[2] He was moved from Federal Correctional Institution, Pekin to the US Penitentiary, Florence High security in Colorado in March 2010.[34][35] His projected release date is January 18, 2015.[35]