U.S. Navy Ships On The High Seas Are Becoming The New Guantanamo For Captured Terrorists

The USS San Antonio where Abu Anas al-Libi is currently being held. Photo: Reuters

What Happens When An Al Qaeda Suspect Is Detained At Sea? -- Wells Bennett, New Republic

The United States’ handling of Al-Qaeda operative Abu Anas Al-Liby, seized over the weekend, broadly resembles its handling of another high-profile counterterrorism capture, in 2011: that of Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, a commander in Somalia’s al Shabaab and a broker of weapons transfers to that group from Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate. Like Al-Liby, Warsame was captured abroad, detained on a U.S. Navy ship under the laws of war, and interrogated by military and intelligence personnel. And like Warsame was, Al-Liby will—after some period of detention—presumably be moved to the criminal system. It’s a one-two combination of military detention and civilian criminal justice, which the Obama administration has pioneered.

And yet the case against Al-Liby, a suspect in a long-running Al-Qaeda prosecution, is somewhat different from Warsame’s, in that Al-Liby has been under indictment for more than a decade. This stands to bolster the United States’ position, once it shifts from detention and intelligence gathering to prosecuting Al-Liby for his role in a sprawling terrorism conspiracy that included two 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

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More News On U.S. Navy Ships Being Used To Detain Terror Suspects For Interrogation

Did Obama Swap 'Black' Detention Sites for Ships? -- AP
Go Inside the Navy Ship Officials Say Is Holding Al Qaeda Suspect -- ABC News
Official: Captured al-Qaida leader brought to amphib for interrogation -- Marine Times
US Hopes to Gain al-Qaida Intel from Libya Suspect -- Voice of America
Elite U.S. team questions seized al Qaeda leader on Navy ship -- Reuters
How the U.S. Is Interrogating a Qaeda Suspect -- New York Times
So, You Captured an al Qaeda Terrorist and Are Holding Him at Sea. Now What? -- J. Dana Stuster, Passport/Foreign Policy
Don't send alleged al Qaeda fighter to Guantanamo -- David Frakt, Special to CNN (Commentary)
Do the Geneva Conventions Apply to the Detention of al-Libi? -- John Bellinger, Lawfare