U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee released statement on Friday regarding the Obama Administration’s plan to bring Somali terrorist, Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame to the United States and prosecute him in the U.S. criminal court system.
President Barack Obama’s and his so-called national security team — including the controversial Attorney General Eric Holder — have been repeatedly blasted by Republicans and even some fellow Democrats over his decision to prosecute some terrorism suspects in criminal courts and not in military courts, where rules for evidence are looser.
Even in this case, Obama’s national security team continued to strongly recommend prosecuting Warsame in a civilian trial, a federal law enforcement official told the Law Enforcement Examiner.
After his initial questioning by the HVDIG, a team of FBI agents were given access to Warsame and, according to the Justice Department, he waived his legal rights and continued to talk for several days, said theLaw Enforcement Examiner’s anonymous source.
The 25-year old Somali terrorist arrived in New York City late on the 4th of July with the Obama administration’s understanding that Warsame will be in a civilian detention center and tried in a civilian courtroom.
“With Warsame’s arrest we have taken an active terrorist off the battlefield. He played an active role in al- Qaeda and served as a coordinator in multiple countries with multiple terrorist organizations. Exposing an enemy combatant like this to a bigger audience in our prison system can only serve to undermine our security here at home. The Obama Administration needs to accept that it makes no sense to close Guantanamo Bay, and for the sake of our national security allow new detainees to be transferred there," said Chairman Rogers.
“Warsame showcases the tangled mess of the Obama Administration’s detention policy and practice. The last few years of “lawfare” over detainees have created bureaucratic risk aversion that often forces us to work through other countries, which is rarely optimal, or in this case a U.S. Navy ship at sea, which is also a less than ideal arrangement," Roger said.
“If the Obama Administration does not believe that the system of military commissions that Congress has created—and which the President agreed to—works for newly captured terror suspects, the Administration should propose an alternative mechanism, not just default to the use of American criminal courts, which have repeatedly proven to be ineffective in the detention and prosecution of terror suspects and the protection of classified information.”