'Enemy combatant' will be early test for Obama

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

RPT-FEATURE-'Enemy combatant' will be early test for Obama
08 Jan 2009 13:03:47 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, S.C., Jan 8 (Reuters) - The case
of Ali al-Marri, accused of being an al Qaeda
"sleeper" agent and held for 5-1/2 years at a
U.S. military prison in South Carolina, will be
an early test for President-elect Barack Obama.

In his first month in office, Obama will have to
tell the Supreme Court whether he will abandon
his predecessor's claim that anyone the president
deems a national security threat can be imprisoned
indefinitely without charges in the United States.

Marri is the only person still held in the United
States as an "enemy combatant." His case is a
test of the limits of presidential power and could
also affect any plan to bring some of the 250
prisoners being held at a U.S. military base in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to U.S. shores.

The Supreme Court set a Feb. 20 deadline for the
new administration to file legal briefs in the case,
forcing the hand of Obama, who takes office on
Jan. 20.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N06423682.htm

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. If Obama walks his talk

he won't file briefs and will go back to respecting the Constitution.