Progress.

PEORIA —

In a move seen by some as sidestepping a major civil liberties issue, the U.S. Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a pending complaint by a former West Peoria man detained for more than five years as an "enemy combatant."

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Peoria on charges he conspired from July 2001 until his arrest on Dec. 12, 2001, to help al-Qaida. A second charge accuses him of providing material support and resources to the terrorist group.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the charges show the government's resolve to "protect the American people and prosecute alleged terrorists to the full extent of the law."

The charges were sealed until Friday morning, and afterward, the Justice Department announced its request for dismissal of the complaint. If successful, the move would block the Supreme Court from weighing in on whether the government during wartime can hold someone indefinitely without charges.

One of the more unsettling aspects of the extraordinary rendition and detention programs instituted by the Bush Administration is that getting these people out of this mess has just as much of an effect on the law as denying them the writ of habeas corpus.

The court battles over this stuff will take decades. And if it is not handled correctly, we could see both an erosion of civil liberties and an erosion of the powers of law enforcement.

While I'm glad to see that the JD has moved to start trying these people in civilian courts--which could not come too soon, the question I have now is whether or not the Supreme Court will take up the complaints of a lot of these defendents, and what kind of prescedents will be created by the court's interpretation of various law enforcement legislation.

If I had to guess, I'd say most of the justices will realize that absolutely no good can come from their handling of any of these cases, so they will refuse to hear any of them. The best thing that can be done now is to get these people in civilian courts, try them as best we can, sentence the guilty. I think it will be impossible to get convictions against a lot of these folks, if they are guilty, because we've fucked them over. So be it.