The US activated a secret 1996 court to deport an Afghan mom
A court created during the Clinton era has sat completely empty for 30 years, but the DOJ just decided it’s finally game time.
Back in 1996, Congress created something called the Alien Terrorist Removal Court. It was designed as a special tribunal specifically to deport non-citizens suspected of terrorism using classified evidence. For nearly three decades, precisely zero people were ever tried in it.
That streak just ended. Federal officials decided to dust off the court for Nazira Haji Zada, an Afghan woman whose son and son-in-law were previously convicted over an ISIS-inspired plot targeting the 2024 election. But here is where it gets bizarre: Zada herself has no criminal record whatsoever.
Instead, prosecutors claim she indoctrinated her children with radical ideology. Because the underlying information is classified, she will not even be allowed to see the actual secret evidence used against her. Meanwhile, her husband spent years working directly for the US government at Bagram Air Base, and investigators admit he knew nothing about any plot.
A tribunal sitting unused for three decades was finally booted up just to run a secret trial against someone with zero criminal convictions.
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