In the War Against Terror, it may be difficult to determine who the enemy is. Does the Constitution apply to a U.S. resident held on U.S. soil?
WASHINGTON (AP) — If his cell were at Guantanamo Bay, the prisoner would be just one of hundreds of suspected terrorists detained offshore, where the U.S. says the Constitution does not apply.
Ali al-Marri, seen in a file photo, is the only U.S. resident held as an enemy combatant on U.S. soil.
But Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is a U.S. resident being held in a South Carolina military brig; he is the only enemy combatant held on U.S. soil. That makes his case very different.
Al-Marri’s capture six years ago might be the Bush administration’s biggest domestic counterterrorism success story. Authorities say he was an al Qaeda sleeper agent living in middle America, researching poisonous gases and plotting a cyberattack.
To justify holding him, the government claimed a broad interpretation of the president’s wartime powers, one that goes beyond warrantless wiretapping or monitoring banking transactions. Government lawyers told federal judges that the president can send the military into any U.S. neighborhood, capture a citizen and hold him in prison without charge, indefinitely.
(Read more at http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/24/enemy.combatant.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)