A day after the emir of Kuwait sent his royal jet to fetch a citizen from Guantanamo, the Pentagon has dropped war crimes charges against the Kuwaiti Airways executive who has long claimed he was a victim of mistaken identity.
Susan Crawford, a Pentagon appointee, who has overseen military commissions since the Bush administration, on Thursday dismissed the terror charges against Fouad Rabia, 50, "without prejudice."
That means the Pentagon war crimes prosecutor could in the future refile a case, which alleged that Rabia conspired with al Qaeda by running the supply depot at the 2001 Battle of Tora Bora during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
Rabia, a father of four and Kuwaiti military washout, claims that U.S. intelligence mistook him for another Kuwaiti who actually was Osama bin Laden's trusted aide at Tora Bora. He claims he was in Afghanistan on a Muslim charity missions when Afghan allies seized him and turned him over to U.S. forces.
A federal judge ruled in September that the Defense Department had no evidence to support their case against the business degree graduate of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University -- and ordered him freed.
Wednesday, the oil rich emirate of Kuwait evacuated Rabia from the U.S. Navy base in southeastern Cuba, flying him home in the emir's personal 12-seat jet.
In other commissions news, the Pentagon has also withdrawn charges "without prejudice" against an Afghan who had been accused of supporting terror during the invasion by joining al Qaeda and then conducting surveillance on U.S. and allied troops.
The move by the prosecutor's office averted a hearing next week at Guantánamo in the case of Mohammed Kamin, 31, and derailed at least temporarily Kamin's lawyers federal appeals court challenge in Washington, D.C., to the constitutionality of military commissions.
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