Perhaps the biggest issue in this case, as discussed in the article, is whether or not the US government was aware that Abu Ali was being tortured, and if so, whether or not evidence gained during an interrogation process that includes torture will be used in US courts. Mike Kirkland discusses that issue thoroughly in this piece on the case.

The second most important issue in this case is one that gets very little attention in this particular article, and that is Abu Ali?s education. Abu Ali was the valedictorian in 1999 of the Islamic Saudi Academy, a Saudi-funded and managed Islamic school in Alexandria, VA. The school, which hosts about 1,000 students in pre-kindergarten through high school, uses a curriculum developed in Saudi Arabia and adheres to the Kingdom?s strict interpretation of Islam in its mandatory religious classes. The school has come under scrutiny before; it does not teach its students to be tolerant of Christians, Jews, and those of other religions and because it has twice before had students or faculty charged for crimes related to terrorism.