|
American
born man found in Afghanistan WASHINGTON — Pentagon and Justice Department officials are discussing what to do with a prisoner captured in Afghanistan who they believe was born in America and is a U.S. citizen. The man, Yasser Esam Hamdi, 22, apparently was born in Louisiana, where his Saudi parents were then working and then returned with them to Saudi Arabia when he was a toddler, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said Thursday at a Pentagon briefing. “We think he will have American citizenship,” Clarke said. “It does just point to how unconventional this war is. ... We are looking at each of these detentions very, very carefully and very methodically.” If Hamdi should prove to be the second U.S. citizen captured during the Afghanistan campaign, he could be moved from the detention center at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba where suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are held. That also would prevent his trial by special military tribunal, set up under an executive order by President Bush to try terrorism suspects who are not U.S. citizens. The Justice Department found the birth certificate that appears to back up the man’s claim to have been born in Baton Rouge, La., Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wednesday. Hamdi was captured after a November prison uprising in the northern Afghanistan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Whitman said. John Walker Lindh, the Californian who had joined Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia, also was captured after that uprising in which a CIA agent was killed. Children born in the United States automatically are American citizens. Hamdi would be a U.S. citizen unless he had renounced or otherwise changed his citizenship. The detention center at the base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is not meant to hold U.S. citizens, military officials have said. The Defense Department does not believe the man’s claim would affect the military’s right to hold him as a battlefield prisoner, but military officials are discussing the issue with the Justice Department, Whitman said. Pentagon officials said those discussions have been going on for days. Hamdi is among 300 suspected members of the Taliban or the al-Qaida terror network being held at Guantanamo Bay. Most were captured in Afghanistan. Lindh is being held in Alexandria, Va., while he awaits trial. He is charged in federal court with conspiring to murder U.S. nationals, providing support and services to foreign terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, and using firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence. Three of the 10 charges carry maximum life sentences; the other seven have prison terms of up to 90 years. |
|
|
TCU Daily Skiff © 2002 |
||