Ed Morrissey:
Reuters answers the mystery of why the US took Abu Anas al-Libi to New York so quickly after his ambush and capture in Libya. The chief suspect in the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya had been taken aboard a Navy vessel, one of the “floating Gitmos” that have replaced the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and CIA “black sites” for interrogating captured terrorists. His abrupt arrival in New York might have indicated that interrogators had extracted enough valuable data to allow them to turn the AQ terrorist over to the Department of Justice. Instead, it seems that al-Libi pulled a high-stakes bluff that worked:
An elite U.S. interrogation team abandoned its questioning of an al-Qaeda militant who was snatched in Libya after he stopped eating and drinking regularly on board a U.S. Navy ship where he was being held, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said.
As his health deteriorated, U.S. authorities decided to fly the suspect known as Abu Anas al-Liby to New York last weekend, where he was taken to a hospital for treatment. …
Upon arrival in the United States, al-Liby became subject to the rules of the civilian American court system. That means he can no longer be interrogated without being advised of his constitutional right to avoid incriminating himself, the official said.
Last week, U.S. officials said one of the principal reasons U.S. Delta Force commandos staged a risky raid to capture al-Liby at his Tripoli residence was so the United States could gather intelligence from the former senior operative of the core al Qaeda organization founded by Osama bin Laden.
This is why keeping the actual Gitmo would come in handy. The terrorist didn’t get extradited through diplomatic or law-enforcement channels, but was captured in a military/intelligence operation. That follows on the 2001 AUMF in which Congress authorized the White House to attack al-Qaeda and its allies as a war rather than an investigation and prosecution. In that paradigm, al-Libi can and should be handled as an illegal combatant in the military commissions that Congress has repeatedly authorized and which the Obama administration is now operating.
The White House tried to have it both ways, and ended up with a bit of egg on their face.
Sheesh!
In Living Color had a perfect skit that relates perfectly even though it was lampooning Al Sharpton’s supposed ”hunger strikes.”
In it Al Sharpton had a large overcoat filled with hams and sausages, candy bars and corn on the cobs.
Whenever he could manage to distract his fellow protestors he noshed.
It was hilarious.
Not a reason to buckle under any more than nowadays.
Gee, how humane. I’d have given him his first HALO jump lesson for free. “Oops, he said he wanted to step out for a smoke so we let him. Sorry”
What they should have done is put a pig in the next cell, and every time he refused to eat, just give his meal to the swine.