U.S. hands over alleged terrorist to Iraq

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Washington Times:

Several prominent Republican senators are decrying President Obama’s decision to hand over to the Iraqi government a Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist believed to be responsible for the deaths of at least five U.S. servicemen in Iraq.

After a series of negotiations between the Obama administration and Iraq officials, U.S. authorities handed Al Musa Daqduq over to the Iraqi government Friday morning.

George W. Bush signed off on a Status of Forces Agreement between Iraq and the U.S. in 2008 that called for all prisoners to be turned over to Iraqi authority by the end of 2011.

Still, Sens. John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham on Friday called the transfer of Daqduq “disgraceful,” and argued that he should have been tried by a U.S. military tribunal under the laws of war.

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Hezbollah Prisoner Held by Iraq Faces Minor Charge

 

 

BAGHDAD – A Lebanese Hezbollah commander allegedly responsible for killing four U.S. soldiers in Iraq will be prosecuted for a lesser charge of illegal entry with a forged passport, Iraqi officials said Saturday.

 

Ali Musa Daqduq was the last American prisoner in Iraq and was handed over to Iraqi authorities on Friday.

 

On Saturday, two Iraqi officials said Daqduq will be prosecuted for illegal entry with a forged passport -- the only Iraqi charge against him. The charge generally carries a sentence of just over five years in prison. But the officials say an investigative judge will consider U.S. allegations against him. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

 

 

Daqduq has been linked to a brazen raid in which four American soldiers were abducted and killed in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala in 2007.

 

U.S. officials have long feared that the Iraqis would release Daqduq once he had been transferred from American control and U.S. troops left the country. But his case was complicated by issues of international diplomacy and the American political debate over how best to prosecute suspected terrorists.

 

Under former President George W. Bush, prosecutors had planned to charge Daqduq in a U.S. criminal court. But those plans were scrapped after President Barack Obama took office and lawmakers began restricting his ability to bring terrorist suspects into the United States for trial.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/17/jailed-hezbollah-commander-turned-over-to-iraqis/?test=latestnews