Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame

Dear Friends,

The Obama Justice Department has decided to prosecute Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, a Somali, in a civilian court in New York.  At first blush that sounds good since the alternative apparently was a military tribunal.  What is scary about this case is the events and timing leading up to the unsealing of the indictment.   Based on an article in The New York Times (here), the facts of the case are as follows:

• Mr. Warsame is charged with nine counts of providing support to the Shabab in Somalia and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
• Mr. Warsame is not charged in connection with any particular attack or plot.
• "The indictment says that Mr. Warsame has fought on behalf of the Shabab since 2007. Starting in 2009, it says, he began to work with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, providing money, training and equipment. It also alleged that he went to Yemen in 2010 and received explosives and other military-type training, and helped broker a weapons deal between the groups."
• Mr. Warsame was arrested in somewhere in the gulf region on April 19th and taken to US Naval vessel.
• Mr. Warsame was interrogated for two months before he was given his Miranda rights.
• The International Red Cross was notified of his capture and after two months of confinement on the US Naval vessel, the International Red Cross was permitted to visit Mr. Warsame.
• After being given his Miranda rights, Mr. Warsame's confinement and interrogation were continued on the US Naval vessel.
• Mr. Warsame was flown to New York on July 4th.  My guess is the irony of that timing is lost on many in the Obama administration.

You may think that you have some rights, but the Obama administration believes that it can call you a supporter of terrorism, confine you on a US Navy vessel for two months, fail to read you your Miranda rights for two months, fail to notify the International Red Cross until they timing suits them, then read you your rights while continuing to confine and interrogate you at sea in a US Naval vessel, and then bring you to the United States and expect to prosecute you based on the information that they gained while interrogating you at sea.

Can you imagine our outrage if Mr. Warsame were an American citizen and some other country did what our country did?  President Obama has already decided that he, as the head of the executive branch has the authority to order the execution of people including American citizens who he believes are terrorist without due process of law.  See my earlier post here.  Based on that authority, he could certainly do to an American citizen what he did to Mr. Warsame.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal