Yaser Esam Hamdi, with Jose Padilla one of two citizens held as "enemy combatants" and - until the Supreme Court ruling this spring - refused legal counsel or rights of habeas corpus by the Bush Administration - has now been released and will be deported to Saudi Arabia. Hamdi was captured in Afghanistan, where he is alleged to have been fighting for the Taliban.
Explaining the decision to release Hamdi, Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said, "As we have repeatedly stated, the United States has no interest in detaining enemy combatants beyond the point that they pose a threat to the U.S. and our allies."
One could not ask for a balder statement of this Administration's claims. Namely: If we judge you to be a threat, we will hold you (and, perhaps, "vigorously interrogate" you). When we no longer deem you to be a threat, you will be released. Nowhere in that statement - or in any statement by any member of this Administration - is there any acknowledgement that there might be greater principles, or a higher law, at stake. (One is left to hope that if or when they attempt more serious transgressions, they will be proven wrong on this point. So far they have not been.)
Even the release of Hamdi, a US citizen who has not been indicted of any crime by any court, is thus the occasion for further chilling revelations. For example: Hamdi will be forced to "renounce" his US citizenship, and will be forbidden from returning to the US in the future, or traveling to any of Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Pakistan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
On what grounds is he denied these privileges? Raw power. If he had not agreed to these conditions, he would not have been released. It's that simple.
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