Fifth Terrorist Detainee Brought into Civilian Courts
This is getting to be a trend.
A six-count indictment was unsealed today in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York charging Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun, also known as “Spin Ghul,” with conspiracy to murder American military personnel in Afghanistan, conspiracy to bomb American diplomatic facilities in Nigeria, conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda, providing material support to al Qaeda, and related firearms and explosives counts. The indictment was returned under seal by a federal grand jury sitting in Brooklyn, New York on February 21, 2012, and relates to Harun’s alleged activities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Africa beginning in 2001.
[snip]
According to court documents, Harun, who was born in Saudi Arabia but claims citizenship in Niger, was extradited from Italy to the United States on October 4, 2012, and arraigned in a sealed proceeding in federal court in Brooklyn, New York on October 5, 2012.
With the three Somalis rendered to the US in November and arraigned in December, and Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law Abu Ghaith a few weeks ago, this makes 5 al Qaeda/Shabaab associates brought into the civilian court system in defiance of the 2012 NDAA.
All involve a period of pre-detention either here or abroad (or both), followed by processing in the civilian courts.
We’ll see how this approach works out (Ghaith’s charges, in particular, may be interesting ones to try, though he is after all OBL’s relative, so I assume he’ll be convicted regardless). But for now, it seems the Administration is just going to blow off Congress’ demands for military detention.