Send al-Qaeda Chief to Gitmo: GOP Senators

Trying al-Libi in US is a wasted opportunity to interrogate him
By Ruth Brown,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 9, 2013 11:54 AM CDT
Send al-Qaeda Chief to Gitmo: GOP Senators
This image from the FBI website shows Anas al-Libi. Gunmen in a three-car convoy seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda leader connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa and wanted by the U.S. for more than a decade outside his house Saturday in...   (AP Photo/FBI)

Recently captured al-Qaeda honcho Abu Anas al-Libi belongs in Guantanamo—not a US courtroom, say Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss, Kelly Ayotte, and Lindsey Graham. Al-Libi is currently still being held on a Navy ship, but President Obama wants to put him on trial Stateside. The lawmakers say that's not the place for him. "In criminal (court) you are trying to solve a crime—in war you are trying to defeat the enemy," says Graham, per the Hill.

Obama, who is still intent on closing the Cuban prison, promises al-Libi will be brought to justice. "We know that Mr. al-Libi planned and helped execute plots that killed hundreds of people, a whole lot of Americans, and we have strong evidence of that," says Obama. But Chambliss and Ayotte think it's a wasted opportunity if we don't interrogate the al-Qaeda leader, Gitmo style. "This is the highest-value target we have captured in years," says Chambliss. "Some folks have been in (Guantanamo) for 10 years, and we are still getting information from them." (More Abu Anas al-Libi stories.)

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