Qatari labeled an enemy combatant

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

WASHINGTON -- President Bush designated a Qatari man in U.S. custody as an enemy combatant Monday for an alleged role in helping al-Qaida operatives settle in the United States so they could mount new terror attacks.

The designation means that Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 37, could eventually be tried by a military tribunal without most of the legal rights afforded defendants in the U.S. criminal justice system, such as representation by an attorney.

Al-Marri, who lived in Peoria, Ill., has been in U.S. custody since December 2001, held first as a material witness and later charged with lying to the FBI and credit card fraud. Pentagon officials said al-Marri was transferred from federal civilian custody in Illinois to a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.

Prosecutors say al-Marri had more than 1,000 credit cards in files on his laptop computer, which also contained oaths to protect al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, photos of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, files detailing weaponry and dangerous chemicals and lists of militant Islamic Internet sites.

Al-Marri becomes the third person publicly designated by name as an enemy combatant since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the only one who is not a U.S. citizen. In addition, there are more than 600 unidentified people captured on the battlefield as enemy combatants who are being interrogated at the U.S naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Of the other named combatants, Yaser Esam Hamdi was captured in Afghanistan and later found to have been born in Louisiana, making him a U.S. citizen. Jose Padilla is alleged to have been involved in a plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States.

Officials have said that senior al-Qaida operative Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has provided a wealth of information about the network's presence in the United States. Other detainees have said that al-Marri was at the al-Farooq training camp in Afghanistan and that he had offered to die for al-Qaida's cause.

In these other developments in the war on terror:

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Monday that he believes New York City deserves more federal anti-terrorism funds because of its position as a terror target. After a meeting with Republican Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Ridge told a news conference outside the Customs House in lower Manhattan that he would seek additional funding from the U.S. Senate for high-risk cities such as New York. Last week, the House appropriations committee passed legislation that would cut high-risk funding from $700 million to $500 million. New York's share of the money -- which amounted to about $175 million this year -- would fall to $125 million if the U.S. Senate does not restore the cash.

Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, will meet today, with President Bush at Camp David, a first for any leader from South Asia, in recognition of his efforts to combat terrorism. "It is in recognition of our close alliance post-9/11 and because we have been allies for a very long time," said Muhammad Masood Khan, the chief spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.

Kenya will charge four people with murder for a hotel suicide bombing in November that killed three Israelis and 11 Kenyans in the coastal city of Mombasa, officials said Monday.

Authorities in Malawi, working with the CIA, arrested five men suspected of helping funnel money to al-Qaida, officials in the southern African nation said Monday.

A rusting cargo ship was placed under heavy guard off the Greece coast Monday as officials struggled to unravel its last voyage: Were hundreds of tons of explosives below decks linked to terrorism or simply a business deal gone bad?

The Greek coast guard impounded the Baltic Sky, and army demolition experts secured its cargo of 750 tons of industrial-grade explosives and 8,000 detonators that documents say were bound for Sudan.