Associated Press, June 24, 2003

WASHINGTON--President Bush designated a Peoria, Ill., man in U.S. custody as an enemy combatant Monday for an alleged role in helping al-Qaida operatives settle in the United States so they could mount new terror attacks.

The designation means that Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 37, could eventually be tried by a military tribunal without most of the rights afforded criminal defendants, such as representation by an attorney.

Al-Marri has been in U.S. custody since December 2001. He was charged with lying to the FBI and credit card fraud.

Alice Fisher, deputy assistant attorney general, said the decision to drop the charges and hand al-Marri over to the military was made not because the criminal case was weak but because it was the best way to deter attacks.

''We are confident we would have prevailed,'' she said.

Al-Marri's attorney, Mark Berman, said he believed the government decided to switch his client's status because al-Marri refused to cooperate.

''It makes you wonder how far the government is prepared to go in denying constitutional rights,'' Berman said.

Al-Marri graduated from Bradley University in Peoria in 1991. After living abroad for years, al-Marri returned to go to graduate school in computer science at Bradley--on Sept. 10, 2001.