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Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri's Enemy Combatant Designation

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Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri, a Qatari student who was lawfully admitted into the U.S. to puruse a graduate degree in computer science at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, was ordered held by the U.S. military as an enemy combatant, pursuant to the Executive Order shown below signed by President George Bush.

In 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that "the military cannot seize and indefinitely detain an individual" who is lawfully in the country, concluding that:

…not only was al-Marri seized and detained within the United States, he also has substantial connections to the United States, and so plainly is protected by the Due Process Clause"

Last year al-Marri's lawyers succeeded in having the U.S. Supreme Court agree to hear their client's appeal — a case of first impression — about whether U.S. Presidents have the authority to detain a legal resident arrested in the United States without charge by issuing an Executive Order declaring him an 'enemy combatant?'

On February 26, 2009, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors were getting ready to charge al-Marri in the U.S. Courts again, reportedly for helping the al Qaeda terrorist group.

You can read the original 2003 Executive Order declaring al-Marri and enemy combatant below.