A rchive Date
[ 05-04-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://canoe.ca/CNEWSAttack0204/04_prisoner-ap.html
Guantanamo prisoner born in United States
By ROBERT BURNS -- The Associated Press
Thursday, April 4, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) -- One of the 300 prisoners from Afghanistan held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, apparently holds American citizenship and could be transferred to the United States to face federal charges, officials said Thursday
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke identified the prisoner as Yasser Esam Hamdi and said a birth certificate in Baton Rouge, La., says he was born 22 years ago to Saudi parents who worked there at the time. He moved to Saudi Arabia with them as a toddler, she said.
Many details of Hamdi's status were unclear, including whether he holds Saudi citizenship and whether he is affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist organization or the Taliban militia that provided haven for al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
Anticipating a Justice Department decision confirming his American citizenship, the military was preparing to dispatch a plane to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay where Hamdi has been held with other prisoners from the Afghan war.
One possibility was that he would be flown to Virginia to face either military or federal charges.
Hamdi would be the second U.S. citizen captured during the Afghanistan campaign. The other is John Walker Lindh, the Californian who had joined the Taliban and was captured in Mazar-e-Sharif after a prison uprising in which a CIA agent was killed.
Lindh was never held at Guantanamo Bay. After being taken aboard a U.S. Navy ship in the Arabian Sea in November, he was flown Jan. 23 to Alexandria, Va., where he awaits trial. He is charged with conspiring to murder Americans, providing support and services to foreign terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, and using firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence.
Clarke said that Hamdi, as an American citizen, would not be eligible for trial by the special military tribunal that President Bush has considered creating to try foreign terrorism suspects.
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.
Clarke said she did not know when Hamdi initially told U.S. officials that he was an American citizen.
Meanwhile, U.S. military forces in Afghanistan continued to search for remnants of al-Qaida and Taliban militia.
Air Force Brig. Gen. John Rosa told reporters at the Pentagon the search was focusing on the Gardez and Khost areas of eastern Afghanistan, where small pockets of enemy fighters have been spotted. His description of U.S. military activities in that area pointed toward preparations for new combat action.
"We are pacing when we attack and how we attack on our terms," Rosa said. "And obviously, all those signs have not come together yet. They're still in the gathering mode, before another operation takes place."
Rosa was asked whether the U.S.-led coalition forces were waiting for newly arrived British marines before launching an attack.
"I don't think I would say that," he said. "They're part of the coalition. It's not a wait for somebody to come up. That coalition is ready to go right now."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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