Iraqi special forces intelligence agents check men's IDs in the search for Islamic State fighters in Mosul, Iraq on Nov. 27. Credit:Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
Washington Post: Case of suspected American ISIS fighter captured in Syria vexes U.S.
Justice Department officials don’t believe they have enough evidence to charge an American citizen and suspected member of the Islamic State who was captured in Syria last month, but the United States will face immediate legal challenges if he is not released and is detained without trial.
The issue threatens to reignite court battles fought during the George W. Bush administration when the Supreme Court ruled that U.S. citizens cannot be held indefinitely as members of al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups under war legislation Congress passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The court ruled that they are entitled to counsel and the right to challenge the evidence against them before a neutral arbitrator.
Nearly seven weeks ago, on Sept. 12, the man apparently surrendered to a rebel group in Syria, which handed him over to U.S. forces, according to officials familiar with his case. Since then, his name, age and other personal details, including a second country of citizenship, have been withheld, even from U.S. lawyers seeking to represent him. He is being held in a Defense Department “short-term facility” in Iraq, according to the Pentagon.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: If you have no evidence .... why keep him? The problem is that many of these surviving ISIS fighters have committed terrible war crimes .... and those who could provide evidence against these men have (unfortunately) been killed by them. This is not going to be resolved over night .... but I suspect that the pressure to release him is only going to grow with time.
