(Part of UPI's Special Package on Sept. 11)
WASHINGTON, D.C. (UPI) -- After declaring a "War on Terror" in late September of last year, the Bush administration knew it faced a raft of previously unthinkable problems: how to dismantle al Qaida; protect domestic security to avoid a repeat of the terror attacks; and build an international coalition of support to accomplish these goals.
And while these major goals obviously posed -- and continue to pose -- challenges, none of them have the same psychological effect on the population and traditions of the United States as the situation posed in early December, after U.S. soldiers and their Afghan allies discovered a scrawny 20-year old from an upper-middle class household in Marin County, Calif. among the enemy prisoners.
There is not a lot of common law or precedent for dealing with an American citizen caught fighting in an undeclared war for an enemy without a country of its own. And the confusion became worse -- at least in the eyes of civil libertarians -- with the discovery of another potential American citizen, Yaser Esam Hamdi, held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for fighting with the Taliban.
Hamdi, like the alleged al Qaida plotter Jose Padilla, arrested in Chicago in May, was immediately declared an enemy combatant and detained at a Navy base in Virginia. Neither man has been charged, no indictments have been released by federal prosecutors, and neither man has been allowed access to legal counsel. By contrast, Lindh was granted access to counsel, subsequently indicted and then pleaded guilty to two terrorism-related charges that will likely earn him a 20-year sentence from Federal Judge T.S. Ellis in October.
Moreover, two non-U.S. citizens, Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard Reid -- the alleged "20th hijacker" and "shoe bomber" -- are both facing charges in federal court, benefiting from the full array of constitutional protections granted defendants.
Lindh had traveled to Pakistan to study at a religious school and last summer moved to Afghanistan where trained at an al Qaida camp. He then joined a unit of foreign fighters fighting the Northern Alliance and moved to the frontlines just prior to the U.S.-led invasion. He claims to have had no information about the hijackings and no evidence that he was involved was ever presented by prosecutors.
But the situation facing Padilla -- who was said by officials to be scouting locations for a radioactive bomb to be set off somewhere in the United States -- and Hamdi is a virtually unprecedented scenario of American citizens being held with little judicial oversight, no pending charges or probable cause and no access to attorneys.
While lawyers for both men have made -- and in some cases won -- arguments before judges that this detention is unconstitutional, the government has counter-argued that they are unlawful combatants and deserve neither the protection of the U.S. judicial system nor the status of a prisoner of war. Each victory by the men's attorneys has been appealed and it seems certain that the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually have to decide the legality of such detentions.
Each faces different circumstances -- but with the same result. Padilla, a native-born American citizen, has a criminal record as a petty criminal and had been a low-level street gang member in his hometown Chicago, according to news reports. After a conversion to Islam, Padilla allegedly came in contact with al Qaida and officials claim that he had traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan during the U.S. invasion. Upon his return to the United States, he was arrested based on information gleaned from interviews with Taliban and al Qaida prisoners.
Hamdi, 22, claims to be a U.S. citizen and apparently produced a birth certificate from Baton Rouge, La. He was captured in Afghanistan by Northern Alliance forces and was held in Cuba until investigators found his birth certificate. He was flown into Dulles International airport once his potential citizenship was established.
Pentagon officials confirmed that Hamdi -- raised in Saudi Arabia -- holds a U.S. birth certificate, which should qualify him for U.S. citizenship. As an American citizen, Hamdi would not be liable for trial on terrorism charges by a military tribunal and should not be held in Cuba with the other detainees.
But his current status could change if Hamdi has been issued a Saudi Arabian passport -- meaning he might have renounced his U.S. citizenship because Saudi law prohibits its citizens from holding dual nationality, according to Saudi officials.
"If he is an American citizen, he is not a Saudi," said a spokesman at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. "But I cannot confirm that he has been issued a passport by the kingdom."
The Saudi official said there are more than 100 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay that say they are Saudi citizens, but the embassy has not been given any information about them and cannot confirm which are actually citizens.
Hundreds more from other nations are held in Cuba, and more than 100 foreigners -- mostly resident or illegal aliens -- are being held in federal detention centers under material witness warrants, because authorities say they have specific information about Sept. 11 or al Qaida.
(This analysis is part of UPI's Special Package on the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.)
