On basic rights, U.S. lost its way

The St Petersburg Times had an editorial yesterday on the al-Marri case: On basic rights, U.S. lost its way.

"What happened to Ali al-Marri is the story of America losing its way by letting fear override our national values. The student from Qatar was in the United States legally along with his wife and five children, studying for his master's degree in Peoria, Ill. In 2001, he was detained by federal agents and later charged with credit card fraud. Then, on the eve of trial, he was unilaterally designated an enemy combatant by President Bush and sent to a military brig in South Carolina, where he spent the next four years in solitary confinement in a cell described as 9 feet by 6 feet.

The government claims that al-Marri is an al-Qaida terrorist who was a sleeper agent in the United States. He is alleged to have been on a 'martyr mission' with instructions to disrupt our country's financial system through computer hacking.

This may all be true, but it has never been proven before an independent judicial body. Instead, the Bush administration says that no proof is necessary. Al-Marri may be held indefinitely and never charged, solely upon the president's say-so.

This sweeping arrogation of presidential authority is what a federal appeals court halted in a recent ruling. In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that al-Marri is a civilian with constitutional rights and has to be either criminally charged, deported, held as a material witness or set free. But he could not continue to be held in legal limbo outside the normal rules governing the treatment of suspects."