“Enemy Combatants” Have Right To Hearing
Yaser Hamdi was born in Louisiana, but spent most of his life in Saudi Arabia. He visited Afganistan to do relief work about two months before the September 11th attack on the U.S. by al Qaeda. Two months later, he arrested there by U.S. troops, who designated him as an “enemy combatant” for allegedly taking up arms on behalf of the Talaban, an Islamic political/military group which was running Afganistan until our own military intervened during a half-hearted attempt to capture Osama Bin Ladin in Afganistan.
Hamdi was transported to our Naval Base at Quantanamo Bay, Cuba. When it was discovered he is a U.S. citizen, he was removed to a prison at Norfolk Naval Station, where the government continued to hold him incommunicado, without holding any hearings, and without charging him with anything.
Hamdi’s father filed a petition with the U.S. District Court to require the government to give his son a hearing, claiming that his constitutional rights were being violated. The case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court held 8-1 that Hamdi must be given a “meaningful opportunity” before a neutral judge or hearing officer to contest the factual basis for his detention. As a citizen, he is entitled to “due process”, as guaranteed by our Constitution, they said.
A few days later, the Justice Department announced that Hamdi would not be charged with any crimes, and would be released from custody and returned to Saudi Arabia. As a condition of being granted his freedom, however, he was required to relinquish his U.S. citizenship and agree not to sue the U.S. for violations of this constitutional rights.
Unanswered at this point is the fate of another U.S. citizen, Jose Padilla, who was arrested at a Chicago airport under suspicion that he planned to detonate a terrorist bomb, and who has also been held as an “enemy combatant”. Padilla’s case is likely to be affected by the ruling in the Hamdi case. (Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, 2004)