jesuitsdidit
06-03-2009, 10:09 PM
US Supreme Court In Moot Action Disavows Right Of President To Detain People In United States Without Trial
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/06/america/06detain.php
U.S. Supreme Court rejects terror detainee's challenge
The Associated Press
Published: March 6, 2009
WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a challenge to the president's authority to detain people without charges, which was made by a man accused of being a sleeper agent for Al Qaeda, granting an Obama administration request to end the case before the court.
The Supreme Court also threw out, as moot, the U.S. appeals court ruling that the detainee - Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the only enemy combatant to be held on U.S. soil - was challenging. That ruling affirmed the president's power to detain people in the United States without trial.
Last week, President Barack Obama ordered Marri transferred from military to civilian custody to face U.S. charges of conspiracy and providing support to terrorists.
But Obama has not renounced the use of preventive detention, which was pursued and defended aggressively by the Bush administration after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The administration's silence on this issue was the main reason Marri's lawyers pushed the court to hear the case even after their client got what he was seeking - if not his release, a trial at which he could answer criminal charges.
The new administration also made clear, however, that it had no desire to take a position on the Bush policies in what would have been a major Supreme Court battle.
The court had scheduled arguments for April 27 and would have issued a decision by July.
Marri is under indictment in the state of Illinois. The court's order allows the government to move him from the U.S. Navy prison in South Carolina where he has been held for five and a half years to a civilian jail cell. Marri, a native of Qatar, was a legal U.S. resident who was studying at Bradley University in Illinois when he was arrested in late 2001 as part of the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks..
He was indicted on fraud charges, but that indictment was dropped in 2003 when President George W. Bush declared him an enemy combatant.
The government has said Marri met with Osama Bin Laden and volunteered for a suicide mission or whatever help Al Qaeda wanted. He arrived in the United States the day before terrorists hijacked jetliners and struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
A computer specialist, Marri was ordered to wreak havoc on the U.S. banking system and serve as a liaison for other Qaeda operatives entering this country, according to a court document filed by Jeffrey Rapp, a senior member of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Marri was helped in his mission by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, who allegedly helped the Sept. 11 hijackers with money and Western-style clothing, according to Rapp's memo. Mohammed and Hawsawi are being held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The Bush administration also avoided Supreme Court review of the detention of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen alleged to be part of a plot to set off a radiological "dirty bomb" in the United States.
Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and held in the same prison as Marri. With his case headed for the high court, Padilla was indicted and eventually convicted on criminal charges in Miami that were not related to the "dirty bomb" plot.
Padilla's lawyers argued that the justices should hear his case anyway, but the court turned them down.
Even so, three justices - Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter - said Padilla's case should have been heard because it raised "a question of profound importance to the nation."
There were no similar statements from the court Friday.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/06/america/06detain.php
U.S. Supreme Court rejects terror detainee's challenge
The Associated Press
Published: March 6, 2009
WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a challenge to the president's authority to detain people without charges, which was made by a man accused of being a sleeper agent for Al Qaeda, granting an Obama administration request to end the case before the court.
The Supreme Court also threw out, as moot, the U.S. appeals court ruling that the detainee - Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the only enemy combatant to be held on U.S. soil - was challenging. That ruling affirmed the president's power to detain people in the United States without trial.
Last week, President Barack Obama ordered Marri transferred from military to civilian custody to face U.S. charges of conspiracy and providing support to terrorists.
But Obama has not renounced the use of preventive detention, which was pursued and defended aggressively by the Bush administration after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The administration's silence on this issue was the main reason Marri's lawyers pushed the court to hear the case even after their client got what he was seeking - if not his release, a trial at which he could answer criminal charges.
The new administration also made clear, however, that it had no desire to take a position on the Bush policies in what would have been a major Supreme Court battle.
The court had scheduled arguments for April 27 and would have issued a decision by July.
Marri is under indictment in the state of Illinois. The court's order allows the government to move him from the U.S. Navy prison in South Carolina where he has been held for five and a half years to a civilian jail cell. Marri, a native of Qatar, was a legal U.S. resident who was studying at Bradley University in Illinois when he was arrested in late 2001 as part of the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks..
He was indicted on fraud charges, but that indictment was dropped in 2003 when President George W. Bush declared him an enemy combatant.
The government has said Marri met with Osama Bin Laden and volunteered for a suicide mission or whatever help Al Qaeda wanted. He arrived in the United States the day before terrorists hijacked jetliners and struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
A computer specialist, Marri was ordered to wreak havoc on the U.S. banking system and serve as a liaison for other Qaeda operatives entering this country, according to a court document filed by Jeffrey Rapp, a senior member of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Marri was helped in his mission by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, who allegedly helped the Sept. 11 hijackers with money and Western-style clothing, according to Rapp's memo. Mohammed and Hawsawi are being held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The Bush administration also avoided Supreme Court review of the detention of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen alleged to be part of a plot to set off a radiological "dirty bomb" in the United States.
Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and held in the same prison as Marri. With his case headed for the high court, Padilla was indicted and eventually convicted on criminal charges in Miami that were not related to the "dirty bomb" plot.
Padilla's lawyers argued that the justices should hear his case anyway, but the court turned them down.
Even so, three justices - Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter - said Padilla's case should have been heard because it raised "a question of profound importance to the nation."
There were no similar statements from the court Friday.