Former 'enemy combatant' admits helping Al-Qaeda
AFP
PEORIA - Al-Qaeda sleeper agent Ali al-Marri, who was held by the United States without trial for more than five years as an "enemy combatant," pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to provide material support to terrorism.
Marri, who was the last "enemy combatant" held on US soil, faces a maximum of 15 years in jail after reaching a deal with prosecutors to drop a second charge in exchange for the guilty plea.
He will be sentenced on July 30.
While there, he said he met Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the architect of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Marri entered the United States on September 10, 2001 with his wife and children ostensibly to study at an Illinois university.
The next day Al-Qaeda launched its attacks, and Marri was arrested two months later in Illinois on credit card fraud charges.
Unlike the detainees held at the US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Marri was a legal US resident when he was first arrested.
The Defense Intelligence Agency accused him of being a "sleeper agent" who met terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and was assigned to hack into US financial system computers.
His case was transferred to civil court on February 26 when he was formally indicted on charges of providing support to Al-Qaeda and conspiring with others to do the same.
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