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Man accused of ties to bin Laden and tortured after 9/11 has 20-year Guantanamo detention reviewed
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- A man initially accused of being a high-profile al-Qaida figure and who was tortured in CIA custody appeared Thursday at a hearing to review his detention at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has been held for 20 years without charges.
A U.S. government official said Abu Zubaydah, who wore a neatly trimmed beard and glasses, had "probably" served as one of Osama bin Laden's most trusted facilitators. The roughly 20-minute hearing offered rare visibility into the secretive military court proceedings of a suspect who had been tortured at CIA black sites during the U.S. war on terrorism and whose case still has not been resolved 25 years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Zubaydah's unidentified government-assigned representative and his private attorney, Annika Conrad, both acknowledged he had known bin Laden, the 9/11 mastermind. But they said Zubaydah was never a member of the militant group that bin Laden founded.
Conrad argued that Zubaydah poses no security threat to the United States and that it can no longer justify his detention. She said Zubaydah should be approved for transfer out of Guantanamo, which would kick off a multiyear process that includes finding a country to accept him.
Conrad said Zubaydah is prepared to accept a range of security measures, including continuous monitoring. Conrad said he has the financial and personal support of his family, has rejected any extremist views "and simply wants to live a life of peace."
She also argued that a chief military prosecutor for U.S. Military Commissions, which oversees the 15 men still held at Guantanamo Bay, has said that it is unlikely that Zubaydah will be charged. The Office of Military Commissions declined to comment.
Zubaydah's attorney said the most the government can offer is a "probable association" to bin Laden after more than two decades and noted that Zubaydah declined a direct request from bin Laden to work for al-Qaida.
Conrad also cited the torture that Zubaydah experienced, describing him as "a greatly injured man" who lost his left eye and his ability to write in English and "frequently struggles to recall words."
Zubaydah's detention is being reviewed by a U.S. government panel of senior defense, intelligence and homeland security officials. The Periodic Review Board was created under the Obama administration to evaluate prisoners and determine if they could be released without posing a threat to national security.
Man who sprayed Minnesota Rep. Omar with vinegar sentenced to 14 months in prison
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The man who sprayed vinegar at Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar during a Minneapolis town hall was sentenced Thursday to 14 months in prison after reaching a deal with prosecutors.
The sentencing of 56-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak came nearly eight months after the Jan. 27 assault. At the time, Minneapolis-St. Paul was facing an immigration crackdown that led to angry protests, arrests and the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal officers.
Kazmierczak was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, which includes no contact with Omar. U.S. marshals escorted him from the courtroom after he was sentenced.
"This wasn't a spur of the moment act," U.S. District Judge Joan N. Ericksen said before handing down the sentence, noting that Kazmierczak had secured tickets for the town hall weeks in advance.
"An attack on a public figure is not a political statement. It is misguided, selfish, and inconsistent with any concept of a free or democratic society," Ericksen said. Spraying anything at an elected official "is a terrifying thing, and you knew that when you did it."
Omar's attacker apologizes for what he did
Kazmierczak, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, shook visibly at times as he sat at the defense table. He spoke quietly and haltingly, occasionally wiping away tears as he stood before Ericksen.
He spoke about being a good neighbor, and how his troubles with insurance companies as well as prison had exacerbated his ailments. His attorney, John Fossum, argued that Kazmierczak had not been taking his mental health medications before the attack, lowering his inhibitions and contributing to what happened.
"I've spent enough time in jail thinking," Kazmierczak said, his voice barely audible. "I really apologize to her for having put her through that," he said, referring to Omar.
Military: An F-16 crashes during training in Michigan; pilot ejects safely
DETROIT (AP) -- An F-16 pilot safely ejected before the fighter jet crashed Thursday in rural Michigan, sending plumes of smoke into the sky and triggering temporary evacuations for nearby residents after police said hazardous chemicals spilled from the wreckage.
Sgt. Derek Gutierrez, a public affairs specialist with the 149th Fighter Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, said the pilot was receiving medical treatment at a local hospital. Gutierrez declined to release details about the pilot's identity or any injuries, citing military policy.
The pilot was conscious and speaking to law enforcement at the hospital, Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael D. Shea said in a press briefing.
The plane was participating in training exercises at a National Guard base in Alpena, about 190 miles (305 kilometers) north of Detroit.
Another pilot told air traffic controllers that he believes his wingman hit a bird and crashed, according to audio posted by www.liveatc.net.
"We have a possible Mayday. My wingman I believe may have taken a bird," the pilot reported. The controller offered to direct him to a nearby airport in Frankfort or Traverse City, but the pilot said his wingman had already crashed.
Gutierrez said he hadn't heard anything about a possible bird strike, and said the crash is under investigation.
"Once we get some more information and it's approved, we can release it to you," he said.
Nathan Smith was working at a construction site about a mile from the crash. He said he started recording the passing fighter jet because something about its flight path struck him as odd.
"It was strange to see a jet flying that low and slow," Smith said. "A few seconds after the video cuts, I heard a loud 'bang,' which I believe now to be the pilot ejecting, but I didn't think of that at the time."
Trump withdraws Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, as his nominee to lead ICE
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House said Thursday that it was withdrawing its nomination of Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ensuring that an agency at the forefront of President Donald Trump's domestic agenda will remain without a Senate-confirmed leader for at least a while longer.
Schroyer, who has little experience in immigration, is close to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former U.S. senator from Oklahoma.
The White House offered no comment in a brief statement.
The latest setback comes as the agency remains under withering scrutiny over its handling of enforcement operations. Critics have question how ICE has recruited and trained officers as it raced to hire thousands to carry out Trump's promise of mass deportations. Officers have shot and killed multiple people, including two American citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Sen. Rand Paul, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, had refused to hold a hearing on the nominee until DHS provided him with information he had been seeking about civilian deaths during ICE enforcement operations.
"I don't have a concern with who the nominee was. I had asked them to give me an update on the internal investigation into civilian deaths," Paul, R-Ky., told The Associated Press.
"And I'm still waiting."
When Mullin took over DHS in March, he pledged a lower-profile approach to immigration enforcement, pulling back on the aggressive, tumultuous crackdown on the streets of large cities that sparked widespread public condemnation.
Arrests have continued to accelerate, reaching nearly 51,000 in August, the highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump administration.
Paul said he intended to hold a hearing on Schroyer's nomination but it never came to that. He only heard about the nomination being withdrawn when the White House made it public Thursday.
Judge orders Kennedy Center to provide 30 days' notice before making any major physical changes
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days' notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it as President Donald Trump has threatened.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said his ruling would "avoid any confusion on that score given more recent events," including the building's sudden closure to the public on Wednesday.
Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center's executive director and chief operating officer, said he closed the iconic performing arts center temporarily due to "acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration" of the aging building. The building will be closed for at least seven days to "assess existing safety risks in those portions of the main building exhibiting severe structural deterioration," Floca said.
The temporary closure, which occurred without notice, is separate from a vote Tuesday by the Kennedy Center's board to close the center indefinitely for repairs, Floca and other officials said. The closure was based on an inspection of the roof terrace canopy and a partial ceiling collapse earlier this month, Floca said. The closure may be extended after evaluation next week, he added.
Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center's chairman last year by loyalists on the board, said Wednesday that his efforts to restore the aging building deserve recognition, "because frankly, if we don't do that, it's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down. It's in very, very bad shape, very dangerous shape."
The announcement of the closure came in response to a court case filed by a Democratic congresswoman who is a trustee and sought an emergency court hearing to prevent what she called the building's "unlawful closing."
Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, has led efforts to block Trump's name from being added to the building. Beatty had a verbal confrontation with the Republican president Tuesday during a virtual board meeting.
Beatty's lawyers said in a court filing Thursday that the board members' "rationale that they are only temporarily closing the Kennedy Center is a plain pretext to justify shutting down the Center permanently. The facts before the Court are deeply concerning."
Cooper denied a request by Beatty's legal team to hold a hearing to clarify the board's actions and intent. But he agreed to their request "to make crystal clear" that his order prohibits demolition of the building without 30 days' notice.
Bail set for ICE officer accused of lying and assault in non-fatal shooting in Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A federal immigration officer charged with shooting a Venezuelan man during the immigration crackdown that roiled Minneapolis early this year made a brief first appearance Thursday before a Minnesota judge, following months of legal and political battles over whether he would be extradited from Texas to face state charges.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro, handcuffed and dressed in an orange jumpsuit, stood quietly in a glass enclosure in a Minneapolis jail courtroom for the hearing. He faces a separate hearing Friday in federal court for charges that he lied to investigators about the January shooting.
Judge Paul Scoggin set bail at $400,000, or $200,000 if Castro agreed to a series of conditions, including that he sign a waiver saying he wouldn't fight extradition back to Minnesota if he leaves the state while out on bail.
Castro, 52, signed the waiver during the hearing but was still listed as a county jail prisoner late Thursday afternoon.
He was arrested Wednesday in downtown Minneapolis by officers with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on state charges of assault and false reporting of a crime stemming from the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
Castro's attorney, Daniel Gerdts, declined to comment after the hearing.
In both the federal and state cases against Castro, prosecutors say he shot 24-year-old Sosa-Celis in the leg while firing through the front door of a Minneapolis home. They say Castro later falsely reported that he had been attacked with a broom handle and a snow shovel before firing his gun.
Minnesota prosecutors charged him in May but were thwarted in their efforts to bring him from his home state of Texas, where he had been arrested.
In the end, Castro came to Minnesota on his own to face federal charges in an indictment announced early this month.
"Castro invented a story to justify shooting through a front door into a house with multiple people in it," Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, the prosecutor handling the state case, told reporters after Thursday's hearing. "His appearance in a Hennepin County courtroom today is a critical step in our efforts to hold him accountable for that shooting."
Friday's hearing, in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, involves the separate federal case in which he is charged with making false statements to investigators regarding the shooting. Castro's defense attorneys in that case have said he plans to plead not guilty.
It's the first Justice Department prosecution of a federal officer for actions taken during this year's massive Operation Metro Surge, which brought thousands of agents to the Twin Cities and led to sweeping protests, arrests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers.