September 29, 2004
More Victories in Bush's 'War on Terror'
U.S. citizen Yaser Esam Hamdi, 22, left, is shown with arms tied following his capture in Afghanistan in this Dec. 2, 2001 file photo. The Justice Department has reached agreement with Hamdi, held as an enemy combatant for more than two years, clearing the way ( i.e. stripping him of his American citizenship--ed.) for him to return to Saudi Arabia, officials said Wednesday Sept. 22, 2004. The agreement also means that despite his long incarceration, Yaser Esam Hamdi will not face any criminal charges in the United States. @
"After maintaining for three years that Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American citizen captured in Afghanistan, was so grave a threat to the United States that merely permitting him to meet with his lawyer would fatally compromise national security, the Bush Administration (having been told by Justice Antonin Scalia that "the very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive") declined to defend its case against Hamdi in open court and announced that he will be stripped of his citizenship and released in Saudi Arabia. [Boston Globe, (Intrn. Herald Tribune), Washington Post, ZNet, Findlaw]
"Bush and co. proved that an American citizen can be stripped of his constitutional protections and dispatched according to the whims of the government. No civil liberties organization or human rights group made a bit of difference. Even the pompous braying of the Supreme Court fell on deaf ears and was breezily ignored. Hamdi was simply locked away in solitary confinement and released when they were through with him..." [ZNET]
Charges were also dropped against Ahmad al Halabi, a Syrian-American airman who was accused of spying at the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. [Reuters, alt.muslim]
via: Harpers' Weekly Review [9/28/04]
Posted by Cieciel at September 29, 2004 12:11 AM