al-Qaida suspect in U.S. to face terrorism charges
WASHINGTON — After a weeklong interrogation aboard a U.S. warship, a Libyan al-Qaida suspect is now in New York awaiting trial on terrorism charges, U.S. officials said Monday.
Abu Anas al-Libi was grabbed in a military raid in Libya on Oct. 5. He’s due to stand trial in Manhattan, where he has been under indictment for more than a decade on charges he helped plan and conduct surveillance for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, confirmed that al-Libi was transferred to law enforcement custody over the weekend. Al-Libi is expected to be arraigned Tuesday, Bharara said.
President Barack Obama’s administration took criticism years ago when it decided to prosecute admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in New York, rather than at the naval prison at Guantanamo Bay. After reversing course, however, the government has successfully prosecuted several terrorism cases in civilian courts.
Intelligence officials interrogated him for a week aboard the U.S.S. San Antonio in the Mediterranean. Interrogations at sea have replaced CIA black sites as the U.S. government’s preferred method for holding suspected terrorists and questioning them without access to lawyers.
Al-Libi’s al-Qaida ties date back to the terrorist group’s early years, according to court documents. That would make him a valuable source of information about the group’s history.
