WASHINGTON- The Pentagon admitted on Friday it has been holding an American citizen without charge, but suspected to be linked Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, since last year in Iraq.
The man, who is both American and Jordanian, spent around 20 years in the United States, according to an official who stopped short of releasing the accused's name.
He was caught in a raid late last year in Baghdad where weapons and bomb-making material were found, according to the Pentagon.
The man, who has not been allowed to have a lawyer, has been labeled as an enemy combatant and is accused of having ties to Al-Zarqawi.
Three officers concluded that he did not qualify for prisoner of war status under the Geneva Conventions and was an "enemy combatant in the war on terrorism affiliated with the terrorist network of al-Zarqawi that has links to al-Qaeda," said a US military spokesman.
Three options being considered by the US military are allowing him trial in Iraq, giving him to the US Justice Department to handle or prolonging his detention.
Human and civil rights groups decry the terms of arrest, saying it violates a US Supreme Court ruling, the highest court in the country that said the US military cannot hold an American citizen without giving him the chance to defend himself.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has had access to him, said the military.