US Indicts Terror Suspect Held on Ship for 2 Months

A Somali man has been indicted on terror charges in federal court in New York, and his case is drawing big attention because it touches a slew of hot-button issues. The easy part is that the US military, acting on a tip, picked up Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame on a boat in the Gulf of Aden in April, reports the Washington Post. He was then brought aboard a US Navy ship and questioned for two months about his purported ties with two key terror groups, al-Shabab (based in Somalia) and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (based in Yemen). After intelligence officials questioned him, the FBI took over, read him his Miranda rights, and questioned him anew, reports AP. One official called his information "very valuable."

The US then flew Warsame to New York to indict him on nine counts of offenses related to terrorism. The case hits at least a trifecta of controversial issues, notes the New York Times, "including whether to bring newly captured detainees to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; whether to prosecute terrorism cases in civilian court or before a military commission; and the rights of terrorism suspects during interrogation." The Post, meanwhile, notes that the US military killed at least one al-Shabab leader with a drone strike last month, though it's not clear whether the hit was a result of Warsame's information. (More Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame stories.)