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Intelligence Professionals: Al-Marri Internment "Powerful Recruitment Tool" For Al-Qaeda

By blueness

On Wednesday a group of 16 intelligence professionals signed off on a brief filed with the United States Supreme Court asserting that George II's decision to snatch Ali Sareh Kahlah al-Marri from his home in Peoria, Illinois, designate him an "enemy combatant," and intern him indefinitely in a Navy brig without charges, is "far outside the traditions of this nation," "undermines" the rule of law, and has served as "a powerful recruitment tool for violent extremists."

In the more lurid language of the New York Daily News: "A group of intelligence experts argued today that holding an Al Qaeda suspect for seven years on U.S. soil without charge has been a recruiting bonanza for Osama Bin Laden's thugs."  
A recent diary examining President Obama's executive order commanding a review of al-Marri's internment, and the granting of a 30-day extension for the Obama administration to file briefs in al-Marri's case before the United States Supreme Court, may be found here. Earlier musings on the probable outcome of any high-court hearing may be found here.

Al-Marri's case can be briefly summarized as follows: he was arrested on December 12, 2001, in Peoria, Illinois, where he was living with his wife and five children, and pursuing a graduate degree in computer science.

The George II regime lied that al-Marri was part of an Al Qaeda "sleeper cell" intent on mass murder and the disruption of the US banking system. It lied that he frequented an Al Qaeda training camp and met with Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheik Mohammed. It lied that he was "al-Qaeda's senior operative in the United States" and that he "offered to be an al Qaeda martyr."

Because these claims are lies, al-Marri has never been charged with any such crimes. Instead, he was initially charged with credit-card fraud and lying to federal agents. When, in June 2003, his trial on these charges drew near, George II signed a one-page order declaring al-Marri an "enemy combatant" and directing his transfer to, and indefinite imprisonment in, a Navy brig in South Carolina. There he was held incommunicado and interrogated for more than a year. There he was tortured.

On June 11, 2007, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that George II lacked legal authority to imprison al-Marri without charges. On July 15, 2008, however, a divided en banc panel of the Fourth District US Court of Appeals, the federal circuit court most deeply corrupted by Federalist Society-style "true believers," hallucinated that congressional passage of the September 18, 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force conferred upon George II the power to confine al-Marri in one of his several Bastilles. The Court thereby disinterred The Divine Right Of Kings, discredited in Anglo-American jurisprudence for some 793 years.

Al-Marri's attorneys appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case, scheduling oral arguments for March of this year. That schedule has now been delayed, permitting the Obama administration to determine its own position, which could range from complete freedom for al-Marri, to embracing the monarchial George II theory. Discussion of the administration's various options may be found in the diary and comments here.

The 16 intelligence professionals weighing in Wednesday include:

experts from the top ranks of the CIA, FBI, NSA, National Security Council, Pentagon, Treasury and Justice Departments.

The ex-officials include Iraq WMD hunter David Kay, Bush's terror adviser Frank Cilluffo, CIA counterterror chief Paul Pillar, and CIA and FBI adviser John MacGaffin.

Failing to charge al-Marri criminally "invigorates the false - but widely accepted - narrative that the United States is engaged in a war on Islam," they argued.

The ex-officials' argument also goes to the heart of the debate over post-9/11 torture.

"Coercive interrogations don't work and fall outside the legal and moral obligations that this nation assumed in 1776," one of the signers, M.E. (Spike) Bowman, told the Daily News.

Bowman was a former top legal adviser for Naval Special Warfare, the Directorate of National Intelligence and the FBI - where he was widely credited for trying to stop detainee abuses at Gitmo reported by the bureau's agents.

A number of other briefs were filed Wednesday urging the high court to give the heave-ho to George II's Louis IV-style imprisonment of al-Marri. Those signing on to these briefs include former FBI Director William Sessions, former Attorney General Janet Reno, 14 former federal judges, and a number of former Justice Department officials.

Nearly a dozen of the briefs were filed Wednesday, the last day they could be received by the high court. One of them states al-Marri's case is "extraordinary" and requires action, as allowing such imprisonment would be "a grave threat to the civil liberties of American citizens, an omnipresent cudgel that may be wielded by the Executive Branch at its discretion against anyone suspected of posing a potential threat."

Neither can several collections of rightist law jockeys stomach al-Marri's continued internment. Also filing briefs Wednesday urging the high court to reject George II's invocation of The Divine Right Of Kings were the right/libertarian Cato Institute and the deeply conservative Rutherford Institute, the latter a clot of fervent Yahweh cultists generally interested only in ensuring that JAY-SUS be shoved down every available throat at every available opportunity. Kudos to them for getting this one right.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on January 29, 2009 (boomark / email).