Book ties enemy combatant to L.A. plot
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is the last enemy combatant imprisoned in this country. Yet four years after his arrest, government officials still cannot agree on what threat he posed.
In a new allegation, former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft says Al-Marri was sent to the United States a day before the Sept. 11 attacks to plan strikes on West Coast targets, including the tallest building in Los Angeles.
Ashcroft's claim -- made in a new book -- is the first time any U.S. official has directly linked Al-Marri to the West Coast attacks that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden allegedly hoped would follow the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.
Citing Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was captured and interrogated, Ashcroft wrote: "I believe KSM had planned to use Al-Marri to help facilitate this next wave of attacks focused on Los Angeles."
But three federal law enforcement officials asked about the allegation said they were mystified by Ashcroft's assertions. And a court document alleging that Al-Marri -- a U.S.-educated citizen of Qatar and Saudi Arabia -- has deep ties to Al Qaeda makes no mention of any role in an assault on the West Coast.
Plot broken up
Speaking confidentially because they did not want a public fight with the former attorney general, the Washington officials said the West Coast plot was broken up by arrests overseas that did not involve Al-Marri.
They said Al-Marri was sent to the United States as an Al Qaeda "sleeper agent" and was not assigned to prepare an attack on any specific target. With his wife and five children, they said Al Qaeda leaders hoped he could reside unnoticed in Peoria, Ill., where he had once lived and attended school.
"He was never given any assignment," said one of the officials familiar with government intelligence on the West Coast plot. "KSM may have considered him as an operative, but that's about it."
He acknowledged, however, that Ashcroft's contention "might still be a possibility."
The dispute is spilling onto the public stage as the Bush administration finds itself under mounting legal and public pressure to provide some form of justice for captives arrested in the U.S. and abroad. The disagreement also shows there are deep divisions within the government over what to make of enemy combatants.
