U.S. Ordered to Explain Talib’s Detention

A federal judge said Friday that the government must give him more than the “sparse facts” it has provided so far to explain why it is holding an American-born man captured in Afghanistan late last year.

“This case appears to be the first in American jurisprudence where an American citizen has been held incommunicado and subjected to an indefinite detention in the continental United States without charges, without any finding by a military tribunal, and without access to a lawyer,” wrote U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar.

The judge rejected the government’s bid to avoid submitting more evidence on Yaser Esam Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana and moved to Saudi Arabia with his Saudi parents.

Hamdi, 21, has been held in the Norfolk Naval Station brig since April 5. The government says Hamdi is an enemy combatant and can be held indefinitely without charges or a lawyer.

Among the evidence Doumar said he wanted, solely for his review, were statements made by Hamdi and the troops who captured him, and the screening criteria used to determine Hamdi’s status.

The government has refused to comply with previous requests, citing national security concerns.

Justice Department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock said Hamdi traveled to Afghanistan for the purpose of fighting with the Taliban and was carrying an AK-47 rifle when he was captured with an enemy Taliban unit.

“The Supreme Court has unanimously held that it is lawful to detain enemy combatants in a time of war, even those who claim U.S. citizenship,” Comstock said. “It is important to remember that the purpose of military detention is to prevent the enemy combatant from continuing to aid those who would seek to injure our people, as well as to gather intelligence to thwart further terrorist assaults.”

Michael Mobbs, special advisor to the undersecretary of Defense for policy, wrote in an affidavit that Hamdi told U.S. military interrogators he went to Afghanistan last summer to train with and fight for the Taliban.

Doumar wasn’t convinced, saying that he would be acting as “little more than a rubber stamp” by accepting Mobbs’ statement as sufficient justification.

Public defender Frank Dunham Jr., who has been trying to meet with Hamdi, has argued that Hamdi is being denied his constitutional right to due process and should be freed.