Yaser Esam Hamdi 1001983 205250556 2008-04-13T02:30:46Z 207.237.50.79 /* Legal significance */ {{Redirect|Hamdi|the Supreme Court case involving this person|Hamdi v. Rumsfeld}} '''Yaser Esam Hamdi''' (b. [[September 26]], [[1980]]) is a former [[United States|American]] citizen who was captured in [[Afghanistan]] in 2001. It is claimed by the U.S. government that he was fighting against U.S. and [[Afghan Northern Alliance]] forces with the [[Taliban]]. He was named by the Bush administration as an "[[illegal combatant|illegal enemy combatant]]", and detained for almost three years without receiving any charges. He was initially detained at [[Camp X-Ray]] at [[Guantánamo Bay, Cuba|Guantanamo Bay]], [[Cuba]], and was later transferred to military jails in [[Virginia]] and [[South Carolina]] after it became known that he was a U.S. [[citizen]]. Critics of his imprisonment claimed his [[civil rights]] were violated and that he was denied due process of law under the [[U.S. Constitution]], including imprisonment without formal charges and denial of legal representation. In June 2004, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] rejected the U.S. government's attempts to detain Hamdi indefinitely without trial. On [[September 23]], [[2004]], the [[United States Department of Justice|United States Justice Department]] released Hamdi to [[Saudi Arabia]] on the condition that he gave up his U.S. [[citizenship]]. ==Identity confusion== The Department of Defense exhausted all its courses of legal appeal and was forced to comply with a [[court order]] to comply with a [[Freedom of Information Act]] request, and release the identity of all the captives taken in the [[war on terror]] held in the [[Guantanamo Bay detainment camp]]s. The DoD missed the court order's deadline of [[March 3]] [[2006]], but finally released an official list of the captive's names on [[May 15]] [[2006]]. On that list Hamdi's name is spelled '''Himdy Yasser'''. His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 009. The DoD reports he was born on [[November 17]] [[1979]], in [[Baton Rouge]], [[Louisiana]]. ==Early years== According to his [http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/hamdi/hamdi92680birthc.pdf birth certificate (PDF)], Hamdi was born to [[Saudi Arabia]]n parents in [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana]], on [[September 26]], [[1980]]. As a child, he left the [[United States|U.S.]] with his parents to live in [[Saudi Arabia]]. ==Afghanistan== In late November 2001, after the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|U.S. invasion of Afghanistan]], Hamdi was captured by [[Afghan Northern Alliance]] forces in [[Konduz]], [[Afghanistan]], along with hundreds of surrendering [[Taliban]] fighters who were then sent to the Qala-e-Jangi prison complex near [[Mazari Sharif]]. Among the surrendering Taliban forces, some non-Afghan fighters, known as [[Afghan Arabs]], instigated a prison riot among the 600 prisoners by detonating grenades they had concealed in their clothing, attacking Northern Alliance guards and seizing weapons. An [[United States|American]] [[CIA]] operative interviewing prisoners, [[Mike Spann]], was killed, becoming the first U.S. combat fatality during the invasion. The prison uprising was quashed after a three-day barrage of rockets and heavy gunfire from U.S. [[AC-130 gunship]]s and [[UH-60 Black Hawk|Black Hawk]] helicopters. About 50 Northern Alliance soldiers and more than 500 Taliban prisoners were killed during the prison uprising. Two American prisoners, Hamdi and [[John Walker Lindh]], were among the survivors. Armed with the federal appeals court finding, the [[George W. Bush|Bush administration]] refused Hamdi a lawyer until December 2003 at which time [[The Pentagon]] announced that Hamdi would be allowed access to counsel because his intelligence value had been exhausted and that giving him a lawyer would not harm national security. The announcement said the decision "should not be treated as a precedent" for other cases in which the government had designated U.S. citizens as "illegal enemy combatants". ([[José Padilla (alleged terrorist)|José Padilla]] is the only other U.S. citizen known to be imprisoned by the U.S. government as an "illegal enemy combatant"). [[Frank Dunham]], Hamdi’s lawyer, was allowed to meet with Hamdi for the first time in December 2003, more than two years after Hamdi was incarcerated. Under guidelines drafted by Pentagon lawyers, military observers attended and recorded the meetings between Dunham and Hamdi, and Dunham was not allowed to discuss with Hamdi the conditions of his confinement. [Mr. Hamdi actually met his lawyers for the first time in February 2004. After that initial meeting, Hamdi was allowed to have confidential discussions with his attorneys without military observers or video or audio taping in a room at the Navy Brig in Charleston, South Carolina.] Hamdi's father petitioned a [[United States federal courts|federal court]] for Hamdi's rights to know the crime(s) he is accused of, and to receive a fair trial before imprisonment. The case was eventually decided by [[United States Supreme Court]]. In April 2004, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Hamdi's case (''[[Hamdi v. Rumsfeld]]''), embracing the basic rights of U.S. citizens to [[due process]] protections, and rejecting the administration's claim that its war-making powers overrode [[United States Constitution|constitutional]] [[liberty|liberties]]. == U.S. Supreme Court ''amici curiæ'' briefs== Twelve U.S. Supreme Court ''[[amicus curiae|amici curiæ]]'' briefs were filed in the Hamdi case, including three in support of the U.S. government and nine on behalf of Hamdi. Supporters of the U.S. government's position included the [[American Center for Law and Justice]]; Citizens for the Common Defence; filing jointly, the Washington Legal Foundation, U.S. Representatives Joe Barton, Walter Jones, and Lamar Smith, and Allied Educational Foundation [http://www.jenner.com/news/news_item.asp?id=12551224]; and, also filing jointly, the Center for American Unity, Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement, National Center on Citizenship and Immigration, and U.S. Representatives [[Dana Rohrabacher]], Smith, [[Tom Tancredo]], [[Roscoe Bartlett]], [[Mac Collins]], [[Joe Barton]], and [[Jimmy Duncan (U.S. politician)|John Duncan]]. Some supporters of the government's right to detain Hamdi indefinitely argued that he had renounced his citizenship by virtue of enlisting in a foreign army. The [[Center for American Unity]] brief argued that Hamdi was never actually a United States citizen, despite his birth in the U.S. Their brief argued that the policy of [[birthright citizenship in the United States of America|birthright citizenship]] is based on a flawed interpretation of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]]. [http://web.archive.org/web/20050306090853/http://fileus.com/dept/citizenship/hamdi/04-03-25-Amicus_brf_USSC_merits_final.html] The [[American Bar Association]]; [[American Civil Liberties Union]], [[American Jewish Committee]], Trial Lawyers For Public Justice, and Union For Reform Judaism filing jointly; the [[Cato Institute]]; Experts on the Law of War; Certain Former Prisoners of War; Global Rights; Hon. Nathaniel R. Jones, Hon. [[Abner J. Mikva]], Hon. William A. Norris, Hon. H. Lee Sarokin, Hon. Herbert J. Stern, Hon. Harold R. Tyler, Jr., Scott Greathead, Robert M. Pennoyer, and Barbara Paul Robinson filing jointly; International Humanitarian Organizations and Associations Of International Journalists filing jointly; and a group of international law professors filing jointly submitted ''amici curiæ'' briefs to the court on behalf of Hamdi. [http://www.jenner.com/news/news_item.asp?id=12551224]. Opponents of the U.S. government's detention without trial of U.S. citizens argued that the practice violated numerous constitutional safeguards and protections, as well as international conventions to which the U.S. is a signatory. == U.S. Supreme Court decision == On [[June 28]], [[2004]], the Supreme Court issued a decision repudiating the U.S. government's unilateral assertion of executive authority to suspend constitutional protections of individual liberty. "An interrogation by one's captor, however effective an intelligence-gathering tool, hardly constitutes a constitutionally adequate fact-finding before a neutral decision-maker," wrote Justice [[Sandra Day O'Connor]]. The U.S. Supreme Court opinion reasserted the [[rule of law]] in American society: "It is during our most challenging and uncertain moments that our nation's commitment to due process is most severely tested; and it is in those times that we must preserve our commitment at home to the principles for which we fight abroad." Justice O'Connor added, "We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." The Supreme Court decision in Hamdi did not say that the government cannot detain enemy combatants: it can detain enemy combatants for the length of hostilities. However, they must give some sort of due process for determining their status as an enemy combatant. Although Congress has recognized the existence of the Pentagon's administrative procedure, the CSRT, the Supreme Court has not recognized it as providing due process. == Legal significance == The Hamdi decision reaffirmed the importance of separation of powers among the branches of the government, and, in particular, the role of the judiciary in reviewing actions of the executive branch infringing the rights of citizens even in emergencies. During the [[American Civil War]], the Supreme Court prohibited military detention of noncombatant Americans without appeal or writ of [[habeas corpus]], as long as the courts were functioning. A 1971 law condemned the [[Japanese American internment|detention of Japanese-Americans]] without [[legal recourse]] during World War II and prohibited the imprisonment of American citizens except pursuant to an act of Congress. The [[George W. Bush|Bush administration]] claimed that U.S. law does not apply to "illegal enemy combatants" and, furthermore, the Bush administration asserted the right to decide which U.S. citizens are "enemy combatants," ineligible for protection of their rights as enshrined in the [[United States Constitution]]. Some legal scholars hailed the Supreme Court decision as the most important [[civil rights]] opinion in a half-century and a dramatic reversal of the sweeping authority asserted by the [[White House]] after the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]]. == Release == On [[October 9]], [[2004]], Hamdi was released and deported to Saudi Arabia after agreeing to renounce his U.S. citizenship and promising to comply with strict travel restrictions preventing him from travel to the [[United States]], [[Israel]], the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip]], [[Syria]], [[Iraq]], [[Afghanistan]], and [[Pakistan]]. Hamdi was also required to notify Saudi Arabian officials if he ever plans to leave the kingdom and he had to promise not to sue the U.S. government over his captivity. Though Hamdi renounced his U.S. citizenship, it is unclear under these circumstances if the renunciation was "voluntary" as required by the Supreme Court's decisions in ''[[Afroyim v. Rusk]]'' and ''[[Vance v. Terrazas]]'', especially since the U.S. presently holds that formal renunciations are only valid if made before a U.S. consular or diplomatic officer outside the U.S. If Hamdi ever tries to reclaim his U.S. citizenship, his renunciation may thus be subject to challenge before a U.S. court. == See also == *[[United States Constitution]] *[[John Walker Lindh]] *[[José Padilla (alleged terrorist)|José Padilla]] *[[September 11, 2001 attacks]] *[[Supreme Court of the United States]] *[[Camp X-Ray]] == External links == *[http://www.kuwaitifreedom.org/index.php Kuwaiti Family Committee] is a site with details about the Kuwaiti detainees. *[http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/terrorism/index.html Findlaw "war on terror" section] *[http://writ.news.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=/mariner/20040705.html The Supreme Court, the Detainees, and the "War on Terrorism"] (Findlaw) *[http://www.jenner.com/news/news_item.asp?id=12551224 Hamdi v. Rumsfeld: U.S. Supreme Court Brief Resource Center, U.S. Supreme Court ''Amici Curiæ'' Briefs] (Jenner and Block Law Firm) *[http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-6696.ZS.html US Supreme Court decision, Hamdi et al. v. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, et al. (HTML)] (Cornell Law School) *[http://www.jenner.com/files/tbl_s69NewsDocumentOrder/FileUpload500/379/03-6696_decision_hamdi.pdf US Supreme Court decision, Hamdi et al. v. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, et al.(PDF)] (Jenner and Block law firm) * [http://www.law.duke.edu/publiclaw/supremecourtonline/certgrants/2003/hamvrum.html Hamdi v. Rumsfeld] (Duke Law School) *[http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_776.html Requirements for renunciation of U.S. citizenship] (U.S. Department of State) {{Persondata |NAME=Hamdi, Yaser Esam |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= |SHORT DESCRIPTION=Taliban fighter |DATE OF BIRTH=[[September 26]], [[1980]] |PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Baton Rouge, Louisiana]] |DATE OF DEATH=living |PLACE OF DEATH= }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamdi, Yaser Esam}} [[Category:1980 births]] [[Category:American extrajudicial prisoners of the United States]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People from Baton Rouge, Louisiana]]