Officials would not confirm that Al Salmi had been held on a materialwitness warrant, though other suspects arrested in the investigation and subsequently flown to New York for questioning were held as material witnesses.
The plaintiff, Abdullah Al-Kidd, alleges that prosecutors never had any intention of calling him as a witness and submitted a false affidavit for the purpose of persuading a federal magistrate to issue a materialwitness warrant.
Even though the FBI did not tell Nichols they planned to arrest him as a materialwitness until past midnight, his wife testified that agents told her at least three hours earlier that her husband would not be allowed to go home again.
As Malkin points out, an illegal Jamaican immigrant by the name of Una James, who is the mother of accused sniper John Malvo and a likely materialwitness in connection with his case, is on the lamb today because of this INS practice.