Trip for ‘Enemy Combatant’ Is Rescheduled After Storm

A U.S. military flight to take accused “enemy combatant” Yaser Esam Hamdi from the United States to Saudi Arabia was rescheduled for today after Hurricane Jeanne and other problems prevented his departure Sunday, his attorney said.

“At the present time, we have no idea as to when on Tuesday this will occur,” federal public defender Frank W. Dunham Jr. said in a statement Monday.

He said Hamdi was scheduled to depart Sunday from a U.S. Navy base in Charleston, S.C., on a military flight that would have taken him to Saudi Arabia, but it had to be rescheduled.

Dunham’s statement came after court documents were made available showing the United States had agreed to release Hamdi no later than Thursday and that it won’t ask Saudi Arabia to detain him.

The documents contained the agreement calling for Hamdi’s return to Saudi Arabia.

The American-born, Saudi-raised Hamdi has been in military custody since he was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 and accused of fighting for the Taliban militia that harbored Osama bin Laden.

The agreement also said Hamdi agreed not to travel to the U.S. for 10 years, cannot travel outside Saudi Arabia for five years and has to tell the U.S. Embassy of plans to travel outside Saudi Arabia for 15 years.