Posted on Thursday, 30th April 2009 by Roland_Melnick
 According to this AP story:
PEORIA, Ill. – A man who was locked up without charges for years pleaded guilty Thursday to training in al-Qaida camps and coming to the United States on a mission for the terrorist group the day before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Ali al-Marri, 43, admitted to one count of conspiring to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. A second charge of providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization was dropped.
Al-Marri faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his July 30 sentencing, though he will be credited for 18 months spent in civilian custody. His attorneys say they’ll argue that he should get credit for the time spent in military custody, too — more than five years.
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Al-Marri was declared an enemy combatant in 2003 after he was arrested. Another story sent to me by fellow blogger, Bruce Redenz, indicates the December 2001 arrest stemmed from an FBI investigation into credit card fraud.
Once his links to Al-Qaida were realized, he was held as an enemy combatant. In my opinion, it was a smart move to hold guys like this under such a classification. The US Government has wrangled with legal issues like those surrounding al-Marri, namely that the case built against him was put together using a mixture of law enforcement, military and intelligence resources; however, trying al-Marri in a time-frame similar to non-national security related cases would require exposing techniques and information that could hamper the larger effort in the War on Terror.
While this is a win for Eric Holder’s Justice Department, this case highlights how porous and weak our immigration and border controls were…and still are. I never understood why we even bother to issue visas if we don’t keep track of them.  When a foreigner’s visa expires, a reasonable attempt should be made to contact that person to advise them of the lapse. If after a good faith effort, the foreigner’s status is not renewed or the foreigner does not leave the country, federal authorities should take steps to round the person up and ship ‘em out.
How hard would it be to enter a record into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database indicating the person has an expired visa? Such a record would alert any law enforcement agency of the person’s status in the same way an arrest warrant would. I’m open to discussion on what should happen to that person in this situation, but I think it’s ridiculous that immigration law is pigeonholed away from the rest of the law enforcement community. Lax enforcement and miles thick red-tape serve to undermine the integrity of our borders.
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One Response to “Al-Qaida Operative Pleads Guilty; Legal Questions Linger”
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May 1st, 2009 at 10:36 am
“federal authorities should take steps to round the person up and ship ‘em out”
Yes, they should, before they slaughter, burn, desinagrate the bodies of another ~3000 legal Americans and their innocent children. Before they steal jobs, create huge tax burdens, and wreck entire communities.
Today they are gathering in the streets, gather them up and ship’em out! No more hugs for illegals, a free ride to the boarder.