WASHINGTON — The Bush administration told a seemingly receptive Supreme Court on Tuesday that the U.S. military should be allowed to turn over two Americans to the Iraqi government for criminal proceedings.
For now, defense lawyers have successfully stopped the transfers of Shawqi Omar, who allegedly assisted a terrorist network, and Mohammad Munaf, who is accused of setting up the 2005 kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Baghdad.
Omar and Munaf, who have proclaimed their innocence, are both Sunni Muslims who say they will be tortured if they end up in Iraqi hands.
“American citizens, when they go abroad, they have to take what they get,” said Deputy Attorney General Gregory Garre.
Attorneys for the two say they are under the U.S. military’s control, while Washington says they are held by the multinational force in Iraq, of which the U.S. contingent is only a part.
In nod to tradition, AG argues before high court
WASHINGTONSpeeding through arguments before the Supreme Court, Attorney General Michael Mukasey didn’t let time hang heavy on his hands Tuesday. Only time will tell, however, if it will ultimately be on Mukasey’s side in the case of the Millennium Bomber.
The terse attorney general brought his first and likely his only case to the nation’s high court, asking justices to re instate a dropped explosives charge against convicted terrorist Ahmed Ressam. At issue was whether the would-be bomber should be sentenced to 10 years in prison for carrying explosives in his car as part of his penalty for lying to U.S. border agents in December 1999. Several skeptical justices indicated that linking two potentially unrelated offenses amounted to a legal stretch.
Mukasey’s appearance was as much ceremony as a necessary legal process: It’s a long- standing tradition for attorneys general to argue at least one case before the high court.
