Ahmed Abu Ali

Ali is an American citizen who was nabbed in Saudi Aragia at the request of the United States. You may recall the case of Maher Arar who was similarly held in Saudi Arabia, and the very important point that torture is a known means of interrogation in that country.

We have no way of knowing what, if anything, Ali did that might be illegal under our broad and far-reaching anti-terrorist laws. That is beside the point at this time. What is the point, however, is that an American citizen can’t come home, and the U.S. government is working with a foreign country to keep him locked up without a charge, without an attorney, without a trial, and with no hope of returning home. Because the U.S. set up his "detention," he has none of the protections normally afforded to a U.S. citizen who may be imprisoned in a foreign country, such as access to help from the State Department and consular personnel.  article

Remember, as one military man said, we don't torture our suspects in the United States, we send them to other countries for that. (Or maybe not - check the previous post.)

In a communication with his family, Ali said that he was being threatened with being declared an enemy combatant and shipped to Guantanamo Bay. If this were the case, it would be yet another outrageous act by President Bush, to imprison an American citizen and deny him access to U.S. courts. Attorney Ashraf Nubani, who has been on the front line of dozens of cases against alleged "terrorists," has tried in vain to find legal help for Ali in Saudi Arabia. He says no attorney there will touch the case. Not that he would gain access to Ali, anyway. No doubt the Saudis would be as unlikely to give him access to counsel as the U.S. would. As I write that sentence, I am stunned by the fact that this is no longer a surprise to me, an attorney of 24 years, who never thought she would be routinely writing about Americans who are captured and imprisoned by their government without being charged with any crime.

There is no safe harbor for anyone whom the government wants to do in.

But then, that's pretty much always been true. It's just that any more, they don't bother to try to hide it.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.