AP News, March 28th, 2007
An alleged al-Qaida operative captured in Kenya and accused of participating in a string of attacks in East Africa is the newest prisoner at Guantanamo, sent to the remote base because he is thought to pose a danger to the U.S., the military said Wednesday.
Abdul Malik, whose nationality was not immediately clear, is a rare new arrival at Guantanamo. The military prison is criticized by human rights advocates and U.S. allies and foes alike for holding hundreds of foreign men for years without trial.
Navy Cmdr. Chito Peppler, a Pentagon spokesman, said Malik was a high-ranking member of al-Qaida in East Africa. He will likely face interrogation at Guantanamo, where the military says it holds "enemy combatants" to prevent them from threatening the United States.
"The U.S. government will take all necessary steps to protect the citizens of the United States and those of our allies," Peppler said. "Guantanamo remains the most secure and efficient environment to process and contain these enemy combatants."
Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said this week that Malik acknowledged involvement in the November 2002 attack on the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Kikambala, Kenya, in which 13 people died, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002.
The East Africa al-Qaida network is also blamed for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people.
A lawyer for Malik's family in Kenya, Harun Ndubi, dismissed as "utter nonsense" claims that his client had confessed, saying, "How many times has the U.S. government told lies to the international community?"
Malik's family in Kenya called his incarceration at Guantanamo unfair.
"If he was at fault they should have first charged him in a Kenyan court," said Malik's sister, Miriam, who described her brother as a humble, religious man who once taught at an Islamic school.
Malik arrived at the U.S. naval base late Friday night, officials said. He faces a hearing in coming months to determine whether he is an enemy combatant _ a classification that would make him eligible for indefinite detention.
Malik, also known as Mohamed Abdulmalik Abduljabar, was involved in a lobster business that raised money for al-Qaida in the late 1990s, according to an alleged confession by a Kenyan police officer suspected of involvement in the 2002 airliner plot.
The suspect, Omar Said Omar, said Malik also conducted reconnaissance of targets in Mombasa, Kenya and was the driver for the team that tried to shoot down the plane, according to a copy of the confession obtained by The Associated Press.
Camp spokeswoman Army Col. Lora Tucker said Malik, who was arrested a month ago in Mombasa, was not in the same category as 14 "high-value" detainees _ including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks _ who were transferred to Guantanamo from secret CIA custody in September.
Since Guantanamo opened in January 2002, the U.S. military has released or transferred more than half the prisoners taken here _ leaving about 385. Malik and the "high-value" detainees are the first known to arrive since 2004.
On Monday, Australian David Hicks became the first detainee to plead guilty to terrorism charges. Authorities said he will likely be sent home by the end of the year to serve any sentence under a prisoner-exchange agreement. Prosecutors say they plan to charge as many as 80 inmates.
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Associated Press Writers Chris Tomlinson and Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.
