A federal judge questioned Friday the U.S. military's plan to dump a U.S. citizen alleged to have joined Daesh (ISIS) back into the Syrian war zone, a plan his lawyers said equaled a death sentence.



The Justice Department announced late Wednesday that U.S. forces were preparing to release the man, a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen identified only as "John Doe," into territory controlled by allied Syrian Democratic Forces as early as Saturday, after having held him as an alleged "enemy combatant" for nine months.



The government first moved to transfer him to Saudi Arabia.



But his lawyers persuaded the court to block that, arguing that the U.S. government has no right to summarily hand a U.S. citizen over to another government with no charges or extradition proceedings.

...</s>A federal judge questioned on Friday the US military's plan to dump a US citizen alleged to have joined the Islamic State group back into the Syrian war zone, a plan his lawyers said equalled a death sentence.

The Justice Department announced late Wednesday that US forces were preparing to release the man, a dual US-Saudi citizen identified only as "John Doe," into territory controlled by allied Syrian Democratic Forces as early as Saturday, after having held him as an alleged "enemy combatant" for nine months.

The plan is to give him food and water "for several days", a new cellphone, and the $4,210 he was originally captured with, but no identification, and leave him on his own in northeastern Syria where the SDF dominate.

In a hearing in the Washington federal court, Judge Tanya Chutkan asked Justice Department lawyers why there was a "rush" to release the man into a country so dangerous that the US State Department has warned against any travel and even advised potential visitors to "draft a will" first.

"We are in uncharted territory," she said. After months of battling over the man's rights as an uncharged battlefield detainee with US citizenship, "what is the urgency in this case?" she asked.

Government lawyer James Burnham defended the plan, saying the SDF is "a trusted local partner" of the US forces and the area is "much better, much safer" than where he was taken prisoner by the SDF last September.

The American Civil Liberties Union lawyer for "John Doe," Jonathan Hafetz, disputed this, saying the US still contends the man was a fighter for Islamic State before he was detained, and so the SDF would consider him an enemy.

According to the laws of war, Hafetz argued, "you can't release an alleged enemy prisoner into a place that is unsafe."

"It's like they are releasing him into a burning building," he said, calling it a "death warrant."

The case has become a test of the Trump administration's plan for handling Americans captured abroad fighting for jihadist groups.

The government spent months fighting in court against giving him legal representation, and has never charged him or offered evidence that he was a fighter for IS.

The man was born in the United States to Saudi parents. He denies having joined Islamic State and claimed he was in the area to do reporting, according to the ACLU.

The government first moved to transfer him to Saudi Arabia.

But his lawyers persuaded the court to block that, arguing that the US government has no right to summarily hand a US citizen over to another government with no charges or extradition proceedings.

Hafetz said the government could release the man in Iraq, where he has been held, giving him a chance to request a new passport at the US consulate there.

"He doesn't want to stay in prison but he doesn't want to go out where he is in grave danger," Hafetz said.

In the end, Chutkan, stressing the untested legal questions involved, persuaded the government lawyers to agree to hold off on the release until another hearing on June 20.</s>U.S. military officials plan to release an American citizen accused of supporting the Islamic State “under safe conditions,” and with $4,210 and a new cellphone near the Syrian town where he was first captured in September, according to a new filing Thursday in the unusual case.

The intended release would be done over the objections of the man, who has been held without charges in U.S. military custody in Iraq.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been representing the man, asked a federal judge in Washington Thursday night to block the action, which it had condemned as “disgraceful” and a de facto “death warrant.”

U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan scheduled a hearing on the government plan for Friday morning.

The cash is the same amount the man was carrying when he was taken into custody, the government said.

[Case of suspected American ISIS member captured in Syria vexes U.S.]

The details of the government’s plans for the man, identified in filings as John Doe, came in an affidavit from a Defense Department official, who described the release as “traditional military practice that is employed in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility” and consistent with the military’s “obligations under the law of war.”

“The release plan sounds crazy at first blush, but you have to keep in mind that Doe voluntarily went to Syria to begin with,” said Bobby Chesney, an expert in national security law at the University of Texas School of Law.

It’s common in war detention settings, he said, to return someone to “the point of capture — at least if it’s safe to do so, and that’s one of the questions for the court.”

The expected legal battle over the man’s release is the latest twist in the case that has tested whether U.S. citizens captured on a battlefield as suspected “enemy combatants” have the right to challenge their detentions.

Nine months ago, the man was turned over to U.S. forces after he was captured at a rebel Syrian Democratic Forces checkpoint in Syria and declared his American citizenship. He grew up in Saudi Arabia and also has Saudi citizenship.

The man was questioned for U.S. intelligence purposes, but American officials said they lacked admissible evidence to charge him with a crime.

Instead, the government announced plans in April to transfer the man, against his will, to a third country that was not publicly identified.

[Appeals court says no to third-country transfer of American ISIS suspect]

Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld an earlier ruling from Chutkan that prevented the government from “forcibly — and irrevocably” transferring the man without allowing him to challenge his detention.

In a sign of the novel, significant questions raised by the case, the appeals court said in its ruling, “We know of no instance — in the history of the United States — in which the government has forcibly transferred an American citizen from one foreign country to another.”

The Pentagon said in its filing Thursday that it intends to release the man with the money and clothing he had when first detained, plus food and water to last several days and the new phone.

“DOD has taken all necessary and feasible precautions to ensure the safe release of the petitioner,” according to the affidavit from Defense Department official Mark E. Mitchell.

ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz said the government’s “meager offer to return his money and give him a cellphone does not remotely provide any protection from the violence and danger that exists throughout Syria.”

In asking for a temporary restraining order to block the release, the ACLU said in court papers that the man “does not oppose his release from U.S. custody. To the contrary, he is urgently seeking the restoration of his liberty. What he opposes is ‘release’ into an area of certain danger and possible death.”

The ACLU, noting the man’s citizenship, said in its in Thursday night filing that the government has not given him “any identification or indication of why the United States has placed him in this dangerous territory after nearly nine months of detention as an alleged ‘enemy combatant.’”

The government has said in court filings that the man was born in the United States but raised in Saudi Arabia. He attended college and studied electrical engineering in Louisiana, is married and has a 3-year-old daughter whom he tried to register as an American citizen on two trips to the United States in 2014, according to court filings.

Government filings show the man told the FBI that he worked for the Islamic State guarding a gas field and monitoring civilians.

He claimed that he was a freelance journalist who was arrested and agreed to work for ISIS to try to gain release, according to court records. The FBI said it could find no evidence of articles he wrote.

The ACLU said it is seeking the man’s release in a safe place, not a war zone, and not having him handed over as a prisoner to another government.

U.S. officials also plan to notify the allied Syrian Democratic Forces that the man will likely be traveling through checkpoints and that the United States does not seek his detention, said Mitchell, a principal deputy assistant secretary.

The filing includes assurances from the government that the group has committed to “respect human rights and the rule of law” and has acted consistently with those commitments.

In a statement Wednesday, the ACLU’s Hafetz noted that the State Department has issued “do not travel” warnings for Syria, advising U.S. citizens who ignore them to leave DNA samples and draft a will.</s>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 filed 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 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.</s>The U.S. government said Wednesday it would release in Syria an American citizen detained on suspicion of being an Islamic State member, a move the American Civil Liberties Union compared to dumping him on the road in a war zone.

The man, who holds dual U.S.-Saudi citizenship and whose name has not been released, was captured in September in Syria by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of militias fighting against Islamic State, before being handed over to the United States.

He was then held in Iraq without legal representation until the American Civil Liberties Union intervened on his behalf in U.S. federal court last October.

“The government has effectively admitted that it has no reason to continue detaining our client and that he does not pose a threat,” said ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz in a statement.

“But, 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.”

The United States previously said it had evidence that he had signed up as an Islamic State foreign fighter in 2014 and entered Syria in January 2015, according to court papers. The detainee, who has a degree in electrical engineering, is married with one child, according to court papers.

The administration had previously sought to transfer the man to an unidentified country, possibly Saudi Arabia.

In its notice filed to a Washington court Wednesday, the Justice Department said it offered the man a choice of being released “either in a town or outside an Internally Displaced Person camp,” but he would not agree to release options.

The Justice Department said it would release him in the unspecified town “no sooner than 72 hours hence.”</s>The Trump administration’s plan to release a suspected American ISIS fighter caught in Syria back to Syria is facing a legal challenge from a civil rights group that decried the move as the “death sentence.”

An unidentified man, who holds a dual Saudi-U.S. citizenship, has been held in Iraq by the U.S. military for about nine months. The U.S. government’s attempt to transfer the American into Iraq or Saudi Arabia failed in April after a U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan blocked the release. Last month, a federal appeals court panel upheld the ruling.

The Pentagon is now seeking to release the detained American near where he was captured by Syrian Democratic Forces and turned over to the U.S. military, according to a declaration filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.

“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 the documents, Politicoreported.

“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,” he added.

The official said the planned release is considered to be “safe” and that it complied with “traditional military practice.”

But the plan is facing a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which represents the unnamed man. The group opposes his release into Syria and sued Secretary of Defense James Mattis and the Department of Defense.

“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 attorney, said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The Trump administration has effectively admitted it has no reason to detain our client and he doesn’t pose a threat. But instead of offering a safe release, they want to dump an American citizen onto the side of a road in a war-torn country without protection or identification,” the group added.

The release of the man into the war-ravaged country should happen this week, but the ACLU lawsuit is expected to delay the action. The alleged ISIS fighter reportedly declined the two release options – either be in a town or near an Internally Displaced Person camp.

The unnamed man denies he went to Syria to fight for ISIS and says he wanted to document the violence there.</s>A courtroom battle over the fate of an American being held in Iraq as an enemy combatant took a new turn Friday as the Pentagon put on hold plans to return him to Syria. The latest twist came after lawyers for the man said his release into an "active battlefield" would imperil his life.

The unidentified man, who has dual Saudi citizenship, was captured in Syria in September by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militia groups fighting Islamic State and Syrian government forces.

Lawyers for the man, referred to as John Doe in court documents, say he was wrongfully detained as an enemy combatant. They say he was fleeing the war in Syria for Turkey when he was captured by SDF, who accused him of being an IS fighter and handed him over to the U.S. military. He remains at a U.S. military detention facility in Iraq.

The U.S. military recently sought to hand him over to Saudi Arabia, but an appeals court blocked the transfer. The government notified a lower court on Wednesday that it would instead release him in the vicinity of where he was captured in no sooner than 72 hours.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Doe, filed a motion late Thursday for a restraining order against his imminent release, saying the government planned to free him in an area it described as "an active battlefield" and "exceedingly dangerous."

The area is "controlled by the same forces who have already demonstrated their hostility to [him] by shooting at him, beating him and threatening him with death," ACLU lawyers wrote.

The government has disputed the claim.

U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on Friday set a court hearing for June 20 to hear the ACLU's restraining order motion. Another hearing, scheduled for the same date to determine whether the man is being held legally, has been postponed.

The U.S. military has offered Doe the choice of being released in an unnamed town in Syria or outside a Syrian camp for internally displaced persons. But he "did not identify a preference between the two locations and would not agree to the release."

The military has said it will return the clothing the man was wearing when he was captured and give him $4,210 in cash, an unactivated cellphone, and enough food and water "to last several days."

The Defense Department "has taken all necessary and feasible precautions to ensure the safe release of petitioner," the filing said.

But the ACLU lawyers have argued that releasing Doe in Syria would put him in imminent danger.

"The government has effectively admitted that it has no reason to continue detaining our client and that he does not pose a threat," ACLU lawyer Jonathan Hafetz said. "But, 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."

He called it "a disgraceful way to treat an American citizen."

Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, nearly 300 Americans have attempted to leave or have left the U.S. to fight in Syria and Iraq, according to George Washington University's Program on Extremism.</s>The United States plans to release an American citizen detained as an enemy combatant in Syria — a move the man's attorney said amounts to a "death warrant."

In a court document unsealed Thursday, the Defense Department said it will give the unidentified man $4,210 in cash, the same amount he was carrying when he was captured, along with an unactivated cellphone and food and water "to last several days."

The clothing he had on him when he was picked up by the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting ISIS, will also be returned to him, and the alliance will be notified of his release.

The Defense Department "has taken all necessary and feasible precautions to ensure the safe release of petitioner," the filing said.

An ACLU attorney filed a motion late Thursday seeking a temporary restraining order, saying the U.S. planned to "release him into an area that the government itself has repeatedly described as unsafe, and that is controlled by the same forces who have already demonstrated their hostility to Petitioner by shooting at him, beating him, and threatening him with death."

The man, whose identity has not been revealed, was picked up on a Syrian battlefield in September and accused of fighting for the Islamic State. He has been held overseas while the Trump administration wages a court battle with the American Civil Liberties Union over his fate.

Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. could not "forcibly transfer" him to a third-party country such as Saudi Arabia, where he has dual citizenship, without proving to a court that he had fought for the enemy.

Then on Wednesday, Department of Justice attorneys filed a notice with a federal judge in Washington saying that the Defense Department will release the man, referred to as John Doe in court papers, in an unnamed Syrian town in three or more days.

That move would render moot John Doe's habeas corpus petition challenging the right of the U.S. to continue holding him without charges.

ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz said releasing him in Syria — which is in the midst of a prolonged civil war — was a "death warrant."

"This is a disgraceful way to treat an American citizen," Hafetz said in a statement.

"Now, our fight for our client's right to due process has also become a fight for his right to life. We'll be asking the court to immediately intervene and ensure the safe release of our client."

In court papers, the U.S. has said the man joined ISIS in 2014 in Syria, attended a training camp, pledged allegiance to its leaders and was listed in an ISIS document as a "fighter."

He says he entered Syria as a freelance journalist and was kidnapped and forced to work for ISIS until he fled on a water truck and turned himself in to the Kurds, who handed him over to the U.S. military, according to court documents.

Without enough evidence to try the man on terrorism charges, the U.S. faced a dilemma over what to do with him. The Defense Department said it told the ACLU that it could release him in a Syrian town or outside a refugee camp but that his lawyers refused to state a preference.

U.S. officials also denied that the Syrian Defense Forces mistreated the detainee after seizing him last year.</s>WASHINGTON (CN) – The Trump administration on Wednesday told a federal court in Washington it plans to release into Syria a detained American citizen accused of fighting for the so-called Islamic State, but his lawyers say that’s a “death warrant” and they will ask the court to intervene.

In a two-page filing with U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Wednesday evening, the government said it plans to release the unidentified man in a Syrian town within 72 hours. The government says it initially offered the man the choice of being released either outside of an internally displaced persons camp in Syria or in the unspecified town, but he declined to choose.

“Ultimately, petitioner did not identify a preference between the two locations and would not agree to the release as respondent described it,” the notice states. “Accordingly, out of an abundance of caution, the department is filing this notice of its intent to release petitioner in the town specified in the declaration no sooner than 72 hours hence.”

The government’s two-page filing is accompanied by a sealed declaration. Though the declaration is not publicly available, the government’s filing shows that it details its plans for releasing the man.

The government has held the man, a dual citizen of the United States and Saudi Arabia, since September, when allied forces captured him in Syria. The government has held him in Iraq without charge as an “enemy combatant,” claiming he is a fighter for ISIS.

Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who represents the man, called the government’s proposal to release his client in Syria a “death warrant,” noting the government has warned American citizens not to travel to the country.

“The government has effectively admitted that it has no reason to continue detaining our client and that he does not pose a threat,” Hafetz said in a statement. “But, 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.”

Hafetz plans to oppose the government’s plan on behalf of his client, and Chutkan on Thursday ordered him to respond by midnight. Chutkan said in the order that if Hafetz opposes the release the parties will convene on Friday morning for a hearing.

The ACLU filed a habeas petition for the man on October 5, claiming his detention is unlawful without formal federal charges. The D.C. Circuit last month blocked the government from transferring the man to an unidentified country.</s>WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has told a federal court that it plans to release an American citizen accused of fighting with Islamic State militants and return him to Syria, but his lawyers say that’s a “death warrant” and they will ask the court to intervene.

The Trump administration submitted a notice Wednesday to a federal court in Washington saying it had determined it would release the man, who has been held without charge in a U.S. military detention facility in Iraq since he surrendered on the Syrian battlefield in September. The administration said the man, who was detained as an enemy combatant, would be released in one of two possible locations, “either in a town or outside an internally displaced person camp.” The notice said the release would happen in “no sooner than 72 hours” and that the man was asked to choose his preferred location but did not agree to the release.

The man, who is not named in court filings, has been represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which says the government’s plan is unacceptable.

“The government has effectively admitted that it has no reason to continue detaining our client and that he does not pose a threat. But, 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,” ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz said in a statement. The statement continued: “What the government is offering our client is no release — it’s a death warrant. This is a disgraceful way to treat an American citizen. Now, our fight for our client’s right to due process has also become a fight for his right to life.”

The circumstances of the man’s detention have become a test case for how the government should treat U.S. citizens picked up on the battlefield and accused of having ties to IS extremists battling America and its allies.

Court documents filed by the government say that when he surrendered to U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, he was carrying thumb drives containing thousands of files. There were 10,000 or more photos — some depicting pages of military-style manuals. There also were files on how to make specific types of improvised explosive devices and bombs.

The ACLU says the man, who once lived in Louisiana, was in Syria to chronicle the conflict and was trying to flee the violence when he gave himself up. The ACLU claims the government has not provided any evidence that he took up arms against the United States and notes that he was imprisoned by the IS group. The detainee said he had press credentials to do freelance writing about the conflict in Syria, though the FBI hasn’t found any published articles or blogs he wrote.
A U.S. federal judge blocks until June 20 the release in Syrian Democratic Forces-controlled territory of a dual-nationality Saudi-American citizen alleged to have joined ISIL. The man, who is now held for nine months in Iraq, was planned to be released by the U.S. military – with a new cell phone, some food and water and $4,210 in cash, but with no identification – as soon as tomorrow.