WASHINGTON, 6 April — When captured by US troops during an uprising in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan in late December, Yasser Esam Hamdi, produced a birth certificate from the United States, and told the troops that he was an American citizen.
After months of debate, the Pentagon has decided to remove Hamdi, 22, from the US Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba, and, until they decide what legal action to take, he will be incarcerated at the Norfolk Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia.
“Due to security concerns, we are not discussing his travel plans until everything has been completed and he has arrived to his destination,” Lt. Commander Jeff Davis, a public affairs officer at the Pentagon, told Arab News. The Department of Defense Southern Command, based in Florida, which overseas operations in the Middle East and Near East, also declined to speak to Arab News.
Another Pentagon official told AFP that Hamdi was to be flown from the detention center in Cuba to the United States yesterday. The official, who spoke anonymously, said Hamdi was expected to remain in US military custody “for some time.”
The Pentagon said yesterday that if Hamdi’s birthplace is confirmed, he would be treated as a US citizen.
The Justice Department currently is trying to decide if Hamdi ever had dual citizenship.
Hamdi’s birth certificate identifies him as being born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the southern United States. After his birth, his family returned to live in Saudi Arabia.
It is quietly being said that the Pentagon already has decided Hamdi is an American citizen, and therefore should be treated as a civilian, and not as a prisoner of war, which is why they are flying him to the US.
The Treasury Department would not comment to Arab News, saying the Department of Defense is “fielding all of these calls.”
