By Keith Perine, CQ Staff

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a former enemy combatant whom the Justice Department charged with criminal offenses earlier this year, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to provide material support to Al Qaeda.

The plea comes as the Justice Department is trying to decide what to do with the detainees housed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Federal criminal prosecutions are a possibility for at least some of the detainees, to the dismay of Republican lawmakers.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the plea represented several “milestones,” including “the certainty that our criminal justice system can and will hold terrorists accountable for their actions.”

Al-Marri, who pleaded guilty in an Illinois federal courtroom, was never imprisioned at Guantanamo. The FBI arrested al-Marri, who has dual citizenship in Saudi Arabi and Qatar, on Dec. 12, 2001, in Peoria, where he was living with his family while studying for a master’s degree at a local university.

Al-Marri initially was held in New York and then Illinois as a material witness in the Sept. 11 attacks, and was charged with criminal offenses in each jurisdiction.

In June 2003, while a criminal case was pending against al-Marri, the Bush administration declared that he was an “enemy combatant” and transferred him to the naval brig in Charleston.

The Justice Department brought criminal charges against al-Marri in February. He pled guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. He faces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.