Posted on 06/03/2004 3:59:03 AM PDT by sakic
WASHINGTON, June 2 - Nabil al-Marabh was No. 27 on the F.B.I.'s list of terror suspects after Sept. 11. He trained in Afghanistan's militant camps, sent money to a roommate convicted in a foiled plot to bomb a hotel, and boasted to an informant about plans to blow up a fuel truck inside a New York tunnel, F.B.I. documents say.
But after Mr. Marabh served an eight-month jail sentence, he was sent in January to his native Syria, which is regarded by the United States as a sponsor of terrorism, even though prosecutors had sought to bring criminal cases against him and judges openly expressed concerns about possible terrorist ties. The quiet disposition of his case stands in stark contrast to language F.B.I. agents used to describe him.
Mr. Marabh "intended to martyr himself in an attack against the United States," an F.B.I. agent wrote in a December 2002 report obtained by The Associated Press.
One F.B.I. report summarized a high-level debriefing of a Jordanian informant named Ahmed Y. Ashwas by the United States attorney in Chicago. The informant said Mr. Marabh told him of specific terrorist plans during their time in prison.
Even the judge who accepted Mr. Marabh's plea agreement on minor immigration charges in 2002 balked. "Something about this case just makes me feel uncomfortable," Judge Richard Arcara said in court. The Justice Department assured the judge that Mr. Marabh did not have terrorist ties.
A second judge who ultimately ordered Mr. Marabh's deportation, Immigration Judge Robert D. Newberry, sided with F.B.I. agents, federal prosecutors and Customs agents who believed Mr. Marabh was tied to terrorism.
Asked to explain the decision to free Mr. Marabh, a Justice Department spokesman, Bryan Sierra, said the government had concerns about many people with suspected terror ties but could not effectively try them in court without giving away intelligence sources and methods.
"If the government cannot prosecute terrorism charges, another option is to remove the individual from the United States via deportation," he said.
They need to be removed from the land of the living--with prejudice.
He could have been flipped, or he could be a "tracer", wherever we find him, we find terrorist. Follow him to a "safe" house and it's no longer safe.
Mike
There is why they kicked him over to Syria......they try him ..they reveal sources and methods......damned if they do ....damned if they don't.
Not damned if he expires in custody.
Cripes....he expires in custody all hell breaks loose......look how the media whined over a few Iraqis with panties on the head.
I hope you are correct, sir.
I shouldn't have said that because I don't believe we should be executing in secret. It was a throwaway comment. I do question what we would have given away in an actual trial.
Gotta hope we're keeping a close eye on him and get some good info
Yeah, but some things are left better unsaid.
Why is someone like that even going to court? Isn't he an enemy?
Maybe we have already called the Israelis and asked them to consider him the knew "leader" of Hamas?
His buddies are aware of this, so it's like one of those episodes of Law and Order, where Sam McCoy tells the suspect that he's free to go. Panic sets in, as the suspect realizes that his fellow monsters will think he sold them out. Dropping the charges means that he winds up in a warehouse in New Jersey (Damascus in our script) tied to chair with a blow torch applied to his toes.
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