First They Came for Ali al-Marri

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

The Bush administration has declared Ali al-Marri an “enemy combatant” and is claiming the right to jail him forever without pressing charges. On Thursday al-Marri’s attorneys appeared in a federal court to fight his five-year detention. The case marks one of the first challenges of the Military Commission Act and its suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus. Constitutional scholars warn that if the government prevails it would expose more than twenty million noncitizens residing in the United States to the risk of indefinite detention on the basis of unfounded rumors, mistaken identity and lies.

We turn now to the case of Ali al-Marri. Over five years ago he was arrested at his home in Peoria Illinois where he lived with his wife and five children. He was initially he was arrested on criminal charges on suspicion of being part of a sleeper Al Qaeda cell. But in June of 2003, President Bush declared him to be an enemy combatant. The criminal charges were dropped and he was handed over to the military. He has been held in solitary confinement ever since in Navy brig in South Carolina and he is the only person still being held as an enemy combatant on U.S. soil.

Courtesy of Democracy Now!