Lawmakers Ask Ashcroft Why Suspect Freed

[Kadie]

Lawmakers Ask Ashcroft Why Suspect Freed

1 hour, 12 minutes ago
By JOHN SOLOMON

WASHINGTON - Key lawmakers, including a Republican committee chairmen, are asking the Justice Department (news - web sites) to explain why it released a terror suspect to Syria when several prosecutors and FBI (news - web sites) agents had collected evidence for possible criminal charges against the man.


The circumstances surrounding Nabil al-Marabh's release, detailed in a recent Associated Press story, are "of deep concern and appear to be a departure from an aggressive, proactive approach to the war on terrorism," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote Tuesday in a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites).


"Al-Marabh was at one time No. 27 on the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) list of Most Wanted Terrorists," wrote Grassley, who leads the committee that controls federal spending and also is a member of the Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) that oversees the Justice Department. "He appears to have links to a number of terrorists and suspected terrorists in several U.S. cities."


The Iowa Republican demanded that Ashcroft answer 19 questions about al-Marabh's case, including why the Justice Department didn't prosecute the man they had in custody for nearly two years either in a military tribunal or through a secret court proceeding that could protect intelligence information.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040630/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terror_suspect_deported_5

[tlcandie]

1. Because he doesn't have to?

:shrug: What exactly was his remark to turning over evidence before? Spiteful piece of nothingness! Drape his arse!

[w4rma]

2. Maybe this has something to do with the connection between the Saudis

and the Bush family?

[yardwork]

3. BushCo arrests and tortures innocent children, women, and men

while releasing people with evidence against them.

This only seems strange to those who haven't figured out that BushCo is interested in profits.

Profits. Money in their pockets. Power and prestige. That's all.

[goforit]

4. Bush needs AlQaida to get more jobs done!!!!

Y'all just don't connect the dots.

It's time for Michael Moore to produce Farenheit 911..Part II

Lihop just doesn't cut it.

These clowns are still pulling the trigger and Osama still works directly for Bush!!!

[struggle4progress]

5. What's Grassley up to?

The Administration named al-Marabh as a potential source of info almost immediately after 9/11: http://www.detnews.com/2001/metro/0109/19/a02-297990.htm

He was arrested and held incommunicado for eight months or so, alleging that he was abused:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0824-01.htm

The Washington Post eventually expressed concern about the case, and the Weekly Standard took strong exception to the Post's humanitarianism:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=1405&R=9EB09F1

Now we have this new story:

Administration freed terror suspect despite evidence he planned 'martyr' attack
By John Soloman June 2, 2004

Nabil al-Marabh was No. 27 on the FBI's list of terror suspects after Sept. 11. He trained in Afghanistan's militant camps, sent money to a roommate convicted in a foiled plot to bomb a hotel and boasted to an informant about plans to blow up a fuel truck inside a New York tunnel, FBI documents allege.

The Bush administration set him free -- to Syria -- even though prosecutors had sought to bring criminal cases against him and judges openly expressed concerns about possible terrorist ties.
<snip>

One FBI report summarized a high-level debriefing of a Jordanian informant named Ahmed Y. Ashwas that was personally conducted by the U.S. attorney in Chicago, signifying its importance. The informant alleged al-Marabh told him of specific terrorist plans during their time in prison.

Even the judge who accepted al-Marabh's plea agreement on minor immigration charges in 2002 balked. "Something about this case just makes me feel uncomfortable," Judge Richard Arcara said in court. The Justice Department assured the judge that al-Marabh did not have terrorist ties.
<snip>

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/06/02/administration_freed_terror_suspect_despite_evidence_he_planned_martyr_attack/


<edit:> I want to tread carefully here. In the wake of Abu-Ghraib and the Supreme Court decisions, the right-wingers want to counter-attack against the "due-process" and "humanitarian treatment" crowd. It is possible that al-Marabh should not have been offered the plea bargain, but it is also possible that there was no real evidence against him; in either case, it is very probable that the rightwing will be screaming that "liberal traitors forced the President to release a known terrorist."