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Second U.S.-Born Taliban Found At Guantanamo Bay
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U.S. Marines escort Guantanamo detainee after
interrogations
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WASHINGTON, April 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Saudi detainee captured in Mazar-i-Sharif will likely be treated as a U.S. citizen after records were found that indicate he was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Pentagon said Thursday.
"We think he will have American citizenship," said Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.
Clarke identified the detainee as Yasser Esam Hamdi, 22, who is among 300 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners being held at a U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
She said he was a toddler when he returned to Saudi Arabia with his parents, but would likely be considered a U.S. national by birth.
If his nationality were confirmed, Hamdi would be the second U.S. national to be captured in Afghanistan fighting on the side of the Taliban.
Like John Walker Lindh, the California youth who faces trial on terrorism charges, Hamdi fell into the hands of the U.S. military after a prison uprising in late November at Mazar-i-Sharif in which a CIA agent was killed, along with hundreds of Taliban.
Lindh was one of about 80 others still alive a week after the uprising, hiding in the basement flooded with cold water. Lindh, however, was never sent to Guantanamo Bay, and instead spent weeks in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and aboard navy ships before being brought to Virginia to face trial.
Hamdi may also be flown to Virginia to face military or federal trials. But as a U.S. citizen he would not be tried in the new military tribunals created by U.S. President George W. Bush to try foreign terrorist suspects, accused of belonging to, or aiding, al-Qaeda.
"It's way too soon to speculate what he may or may not be charged with. One thing you can say, is that as an American citizen he would not be a candidate for a military commission," Clarke said.
"We are working with the Department of Justice on all the particulars, including his citizenship," Clarke said.
"They have a birth certificate that indicates he was born in the United States," she said. "It is our understanding that his parents were employed in Louisiana and returned to Saudi Arabia within a very few years."
According to an ABC News report, Hamdi has been claiming U.S. citizenship for months, but proof of the claim was produced only this week when authorities found the birth certificate stating Hamdi was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on November 17, 1979.
Clarke said authorities at the Justice Department "feel pretty strongly they have confirmed that" he is a U.S. citizen, but details still have to be worked out.
"We are working through right now with the Department of Justice what we will do with him," he said.
Asked why it took so long to check out Hamdi's claim, Clarke said, "It's very hard with a lot of these detainees to determine their actual identification... It's a very slow, very methodical process."
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