Al-Marri Indictment Today [UPDATED]

by Jane Mayer

[Update: According to sources familiar with the case, the Obama Justice Department indicted Marri this afternoon. The sealed indictment was handed up by a federal grand jury in Peoria, Illinois.]

The Obama Administration appears close to resolving the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the alleged Al Qaeda “sleeper agent” who is the only so-called “illegal enemy combatant” imprisoned inside the United States.

As I wrote in last week’s issue, Marri has been held for the past five years in indefinite executive detention in the U.S. Naval Consolidated brig in Charleston, South Carolina—despite having never stood trial or been convicted of any crime. But according to sources close to the case, a federal grand jury is meeting today in Peoria, Illinois, and may indict Marri on multiple terrorism charges, including providing material support for terrorism. Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Justice Department on national-security issues, declined to comment, as did Marri’s lawyers.

An indictment would signal a major shift in legal policy from the Bush years. It would also fulfill President Obama’s campaign pledge to restore traditional American legal practices by treating terror suspects as common criminals, rather than stripping them of standard legal rights and classifying them neither as criminal defendants nor prisoners of war.

Obama has been forced to grapple with the Marri case because the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a challenge contesting the legality of his prolonged and indefinite detention. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case this spring, requiring the Obama Administration to file papers stating its position by March 23rd. The federal grand jury in Peoria meets only once a month, so today is likely the last chance to indict Marri before the Supreme Court’s deadline. An indictment would transfer Marri from military detention into the criminal-justice system, perhaps rendering the Supreme Court case moot.

Human-rights groups and civil-liberties lawyers are watching the situation closely, as an indicator of whether the Obama Adminstration will support the Bush Administration’s aggressive claims to executive detention powers in the war on terror.