It has happened — a failed prosecution in a U.S. federal court of a terrorist, in this case a Somali pirate, Ali Mohammed Ali, (correction: correct name Ali Mohamed Ali) who is now seeking asylum in the U.S. and may get it. Federal prosecutors dropped their case against Ali when the jury deadlocked on two charges of hostage-taking. He was not found guilty of piracy. The DOJ wanted a retrial. In this case, a U.S. attorney was found to be a bigger god than the DOJ, and denied what Ali’s attorneys said would be “double jeopardy.”
UPDATE: I have a breaking story on Ali Mohamed Ali that I will have up sometime today, Sunday, August 23, 2014.
This image provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office shows government exhibit #20, a photo of the crew of the M/V CEC Future, which had been held by pirates for more than two months, standing in a line in January 2009, just before a $1.7 million ransom was paid. At right is Ali Mohamed Ali, who served as a translator and is being tried in Washington on piracy charges. The two men on the left and one man in the center are pirates. (AP Photo/U.S. Attorney’s Office)
The MV CEC Future is Danish-owned flying the flag of the Bahamas which flies under the Monarchy of the Queen of England. Why did we bring this man to the U.S.? This article from a source that I am not familiar with says the U.S. made the arrest (so it was the U.S. to the rescue of this ship) and that arrest entitled him to a trial in a U.S. court.
The case centered on whether Ali was acting merely as a translator relaying pirates’ demands to the ship’s owners or was an advocate for the pirates….Ali was education minister in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, and had spent most of his adult life in the United States.
The siege lasted more than two months and ended when the pirates settled for $1.7 million instead of their initial demand of $7 million. Source: Nation
Ali Mohamed Ali (Ali Mohammed Ali)
Aiding and abetting terrorism is no longer a crime in the U.S. Why the possibility of asylum for this man?
Politico is reporting that with the wind-down of the Afghanistan war, the authority to detain persons “under the law of war is linked to the existence of ongoing armed conflict.” Add to that the benevolence of the Obama administration toward those who seek to harm this country.
The owners of the hostage ship, the MV CEC Future is owned by Clipper Group, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Clipper Group has a “group CEO.” One of the three, Gary Vogel is a native of New York and a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York.
In 2009, when we were facing the possibility of terrorists being acquitted in federal courts, Eric Holder said if there was such a possibility, he would not have put the terrorist in a federal court. If you think back, it enraged us then. More double-speak from the corrupt DOJ deeming themselves gods, knowing what jurors will or will not do.
After the trial, Clinton appointed Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle let Ali move from prison to a “friend’s house.” The D.C. Court of Appeals reversed his release and he is back in the custody of the Department of Corrections, according to the AP but I have seen other reports saying he is in the custody of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Ali, who was accused of piracy for acting as a translator and negotiator for a crew of pirates, was partially acquitted by a jury in November after a trial in Washington. Prosecutors initially vowed a retrial but decided last month to drop the rest of the case against him.
That’s just the kind of situation that opponents of U.S. criminal trials for Al Qaeda suspects caught abroad have long feared: The government falls short at trial — and the courts eventually order an accused terror figure freed to live legally among Americans.
“It’s a trial, not a play. You don’t know how it’s going to end,” said Cully Stimson, a former military prosecutor and defense official now at The Heritage Foundation. “Justice has all sorts of twists and turns. … It really has to be thought through at the highest level of government before we take action to bring someone here.”
One current federal terrorism prosecutor said the Ali case and the potential for his eventual release is another reason why foreign Al Qaeda suspects picked up overseas should not be brought to the United States but should instead be detained at Guantánamo or some other facility. Source: Front Page Mag
Ali is 51-years-old. He speaks fluent English and has lived in the U.S. in the past. He boarded the ship after it was taken hostage in the roll of a translator to negotiate the ransom. I haven’t found any reporting that he was forced to act on behalf of the terrorists.
Appropriate that the BBC aired a documentary. Let’s send him to the Brits, under which Monarchy the ship’s flag was flying. If the U.S. is going to be called-on to sheriff piracies for the world’s ships, consider this option for dealing with it.
Linked at BadBlue – uncensored news and more, uncensored 24/7. Find it here.
If you would like to receive Maggie’s Notebook daily posts direct to your inbox, no ads, no spam, EVER, enter your email address in the box below.
Pingback: Can We Get the Piracy Story Straight? Ali Mohamed Ali and “Judicial Consequences” | Maggie's Notebook