U.S. to release a US citizen and alleged ISIS fighter in Syria, with $4K in cash and a cellphone
By JOSH GERSTEIN
06/07/2018 07:10 PM EDT
politico.com
The Trump administration is planning to release a suspected ISIS fighter in Syria with more than $4,000 in cash and a new cellphone, a Pentagon official said in a court filing released on Thursday.
The U.S. military has been holding the unidentified man, who is a Saudi-U.S. dual citizen, as a prisoner for about nine months.
“Upon his release, the Petitioner will be given $4,210 in cash, the same amount he had in his possession when was captured,” the Pentagon official, Mark Mitchell, said in a declarationfiled in U.S. District Court in Washington. “He will also be provided a new cellular phone (in its original sealed packaging), which he can activate and use if he desires to do so. He will be provided sufficient food and water to last for several days.”
Mitchell, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations/low-intensity conflict, did not say precisely why the prisoner’s funds were being returned or why he was being given a phone. However, the Pentagon official called the planned release “safe” and said it complied with “traditional military practice.”
A Pentagon spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The planned release follows court rulings that blocked the prisoner’s transfer to Saudi Arabia or to Iraq, where he is currently being held. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a preliminary injunction freezing that plan in April. A federal appeals court panel upheld that ruling last month.
The prisoner has rejected the release plan, Justice Department lawyers said. His attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union are expected to file legal arguments later Thursday opposing the release.
“Instead of offering a safe release, they want to dump an American citizen onto the side of the road in a war-torn country without any assurances of protection and no identification,” Jonathan Hafetz, an ACLU lawyer, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Chutkan has tentatively set a hearing on the issue for 9 a.m. Friday. Officials said in a court filing on Wednesday that they would wait at least 72 hours before going forward with their plan, deferring to an order from Chutkan requiring three days’ advance notice of the transfer.
The U.S. military gave the prisoner the option of being released in a Syrian town or outside a refugee camp, but he declined to agree, government lawyers said.
The newly disclosed filing says Secretary of Defense James Mattis decided to release the prisoner near where he was captured by Syrian Democratic Forces, who eventually turned him over to American troops. It’s unclear what the SDF will do if it encounters the alleged ISIS fighter again, but Mitchell said the U.S. planned to tell SDF officials about the release in advance and was making no request that the American be detained. The SDF has a record of complying with human rights standards, said Mitchell, the Pentagon official. |
