Smoking Qatari Was Heading to See Al Qaeda Prisoner

He probably just wanted to share a funny story with his buddy from Al Qaeda. Nothing to see here, move along.

A Qatari diplomat was on his way to meet an imprisoned Al Qaeda agent when he touched off a bomb scare by slipping into an airline bathroom for a smoke, officials said Thursday as they announced plans to send the diplomat home.

A State Department official and another person close to the matter say Mohammed Al-Madadi was going to meet Ali Al-Marri in prison. Consular officials frequently visit foreigners held in the United States to make sure they are being treated well.

Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, is serving eight years in prison after pleading guilty last year to conspiring to support terrorism. He was arrested after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, accusing him of being a sleeper agent researching poisonous gases and plotting a cyberattack.

The visit with such a high-profile prisoner suggests that Al-Madadi would have been very aware of terrorism concerns when he sneaked into the plane's bathroom for a smoke and, according to authorities, joked about lighting his shoe on fire.

Interestingly enough, al-Marri was the subject of one of Barack Obama's first official acts as president. He's got dual citizenship in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and was a legal resident of the United States on 9/11.

Al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident and native of Qatar, was arrested in late 2001 while studying at Bradley University after federal authorities alleged he was tied to organizers of the 2001 attacks. The Bush administration declared al-Marri an "enemy combatant" in late 2001 and held him without charges for more than five years at a Navy jail in South Carolina.

The designation was dropped when he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Illinois. Al-Marri got a bachelor's degree in business management administration from Bradley in 1991, then went to work for a bank in Qatar.

The government said he met with Usama bin Laden in the summer of 2001 and was sent to the U.S. to help Al Qaeda operatives carry out post-Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Al-Marri obtained a student visa and returned to the U.S. the day before terrorists crashed two hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Enemy Combatant Sent to Illinois for Trial

He'll probably be received warmly in the Home Office of Hopenchange. Maybe he can break bread with Bill Ayers while he's there.

An accused al-Qaida sleeper agent held for 5-1/2 years at a Navy brig in South Carolina will soon be sent to Illinois for trial in civilian court, a move the government has fought for years saying terror suspects caught in the U.S. could be held indefinitely without charges.

Two people familiar with the case of Qatar native Ali al-Marri said Thursday the government plans to transfer him to the civilian court system. One of them said he would be charged with providing support to terrorists. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because it's a pending criminal case.

The transfer could avert a Supreme Court hearing in April and a subsequent ruling that would govern other cases against accused terrorists. Al-Marri's transfer is the first signal of how the Obama administration is likely to handle accused terrorists, a significant shift from the strategy of the Bush administration.

Since shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, government lawyers argued that the president has the wartime authority to send the military into any U.S. neighborhood, capture a citizen—or legal resident like al-Marri—and hold him in prison without charge, indefinitely.

Putting al-Marri into the federal court system follows a similar move made by the Bush administration with another enemy combatant, Jose Padilla. Padilla, once held at the same brig as al-Marri, was eventually convicted of terror-related charges in federal court in Florida.

The decision on al-Marri was reported separately Thursday by the Web sites of The Washington Post and The New Yorker magazine.

Al-Marri was the subject of one of President Barack Obama's first official acts, signing an executive order for "a prompt and thorough" review of al-Marri's continued detention.