A Somali extremist linked to al-Qaida was held and interrogated for two months on a U.S. Navy ship — the first publicly known example of the Obama administration secretly detaining a new terror suspect outside the criminal justice system.
WASHINGTON — A Somali extremist linked to al-Qaida was held and interrogated for two months on a U.S. Navy ship — the first publicly known example of the Obama administration secretly detaining a new terror suspect outside the criminal justice system.
Senior administration officials revealed the case Tuesday after an indictment against the man, Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, was unsealed in federal court in New York.
The indictment, which does not mention Warsame’s military detention, charges that he worked to broker a weapons deal between al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the group’s affiliate in Yemen, and Al Shabab, the Somali rebel group. It alleges that he fought on Al Shabab’s behalf in Somalia in 2009, then went to Yemen in 2010 for explosives training and took part in terrorist activities there.
Seized April 19
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According to administration officials, Warsame was seized April 19 by U.S. forces in international waters while traveling between Yemen and Somalia. He had previously been identified by U.S. intelligence as an important target, the officials said. A second person taken into custody with Warsame was later released, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
Warsame was turned over to the FBI after extensive “humane” interrogation aboard ship by a unit known as a High Value Interrogation Group, made up of FBI, CIA and Defense Department personnel, the senior officials said. But a U.S. official said CIA officers did not directly question Warsame. After the controversy surrounding Bush-era interrogations of detainees, the CIA has consistently said it has kept its agents away from direct questioning.
New step
Warsame’s detention marks a significant new step for the administration in its handling of terrorism suspects. President Obama pledged during his campaign to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which was designed during the George W. Bush administration as a place to hold detainees outside the reach of U.S. law.
Although the administration has not succeeded in closing Guantánamo, it has, until now, not disclosed the existence of any new detainees.
Gen. David Petraeus, in his confirmation hearings to become CIA director, said in response to questions from Republican senators that he believed the United States should find a way to capture and detain extremists and hold them someplace other than Guantánamo.
Adm. William McRaven, who is taking over the U.S. Special Operations Command, was asked last week during his confirmation hearings what the United States does with insurgents captured outside Afghanistan.
“In many cases, we will put them on a naval vessel and we will hold them until we can either get a case to prosecute them in U.S. court,” send them to a third country or release them, McRaven said, without providing specifics. Shipboard detentions had previously been alleged by human-rights groups but never confirmed.
Officials said Warsame’s interrogation was conducted under the rules of the U.S. Army Field Manual, which strictly limits the techniques that can be used. After the high-value interrogation group had completed its questioning of Warsame and transferred him to FBI custody, he was read his Miranda rights, the officials said. Warsame waived his right to a lawyer and continued talking, the officials said.
The Bush administration had authorized several interrogation techniques prohibited under the Army Field Manual, including simulated drowning known as waterboarding, which critics charged amounted to torture.
The Bush administration also moved detainees out of the civilian justice system, initially asserting that the president had the authority to hold detainees indefinitely without trial. After the Supreme Court rejected that position, Bush authorized trying detainee cases in front of military tribunals.
In Warsame’s case, the information gleaned in the intelligence interrogation was not used against him in the criminal case, the officials said. Instead, questioning by the FBI formed the basis of the nine-count indictment, they added. And, as the indictment indicates, the administration plans to try him on charges of providing material support to a terrorist group in civilian — not military — court.
During his interrogation, Warsame provided valuable information about activities in Yemen and links between Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and Al Shabab, the Somali extremist group, the officials said. They did not link him to any plot or attack against the United States, but he said he had “clearly served as an important conduit” between Al Shabab and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, facilitating contacts and weapons transfers.