Terrorist Suspect in Gray Zone
The accused was captured overseas and now faces trial in the United States. The case against the Somali citizen suspected of terrorism raises legal questions.
Somali Amned Abdulkadir Warsame faces trial in New York on nine counts of operating as a liaison between the Somali Islamist organization al-Shabab and the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch active in the Arabian Peninsula.
Warsame faces life in prison if convicted. His case is attracting a great deal of attention in the United States because it is the first time a captured terrorist suspect will be tried in a U.S. civil court.
Warsame was apprehended at sea on April 19, 2011 as he was en route from Yemen to Somalia and is being held aboard a U.S. warship. His interrogation, during which U.S. military sources say he provided important information, took place in two phases: He was first interrogated by the military. Only after some two months did the FBI get involved in his interrogation, after first advising him of his right to remain silent until he had consulted an attorney. Only information gained during this second phase of his interrogation is admissible in civil court.
Leading congressional Republicans criticized Warsame’s transfer to the continental United States. Congress had blocked President Obama’s plan to try prisoners held at Guantanamo in U.S. civil court.
Legally speaking, the Warsame case has entered a gray zone. Warsame’s several months of detention was justified by the war being fought between the United States and al-Qaida. Now it has been changed into a normal criminal law case. The only thing certain, as Vice Admiral William McRaven put it last week at a Senate hearing, is that the government has no coherent idea what to do with prisoners suspected of terrorism.
Somali Amned Abdulkadir Warsame faces trial in New York on nine counts of operating as a liaison between the Somali Islamist organization al-Shabab and the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch active in the Arabian Peninsula.
Warsame faces life in prison if convicted. His case is attracting a great deal of attention in the United States because it is the first time a captured terrorist suspect will be tried in a U.S. civil court.
Warsame was apprehended at sea on April 19, 2011 as he was en route from Yemen to Somalia and is being held aboard a U.S. warship. His interrogation, during which U.S. military sources say he provided important information, took place in two phases: He was first interrogated by the military. Only after some two months did the FBI get involved in his interrogation, after first advising him of his right to remain silent until he had consulted an attorney. Only information gained during this second phase of his interrogation is admissible in civil court.
Leading congressional Republicans criticized Warsame’s transfer to the continental United States. Congress had blocked President Obama’s plan to try prisoners held at Guantanamo in U.S. civil court.
Legally speaking, the Warsame case has entered a gray zone. Warsame’s several months of detention was justified by the war being fought between the United States and al-Qaida. Now it has been changed into a normal criminal law case. The only thing certain, as Vice Admiral William McRaven put it last week at a Senate hearing, is that the government has no coherent idea what to do with prisoners suspected of terrorism.
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