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Hamdi Moved to U.S. Naval Station in Virginia

Aired April 05, 2002 - 14:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The man known as the second Taliban American is back in the United States. Yasser Esam Hamdi is being moved from Camp X-Ray in Cuba to a U.S. Navy station in Virginia. CNN's Jeanne Meserve joins us now with a live report from Norfolk as we wait for this plane to land -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, it has just landed. If I listen carefully I can still hear the engines over on the tarmac. Just a moment ago, the C-130 that transported Yasser Hamdi, first from Guantanamo Bay up to Dulles airport, and then from Dulles, outside of Washington, here to Norfolk Naval Station, flew right over our heads, carrying Yasser Hamdi.

He is the 22-year-old who was picked up in Afghanistan after that bloody uprising at Mazar-e Sharif. He had been held at Camp X-Ray down at Guantanamo Bay until officials found a birth certificate which substantiated his claims that he had been born to Saudi Arabian parents in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And so the decision made that he would be moved here.

This is a sprawling base here, 3,400 acres. The brig holds about 145 individuals, men and women. Hamdi will now be joined there. Unclear how long he's going to be held there, Carol, because there are several outstanding issues. Although they have found that birth certificate, justice officials are still looking at it very carefully, and examining other matters.

They want to know if perhaps he held due citizenship with Saudi Arabia. They want to know if, at any time, he might have renounced his U.S. citizenship, or if perhaps they're in a position to revoke his U.S. citizenship if, as alleged, he fought alongside the Taliban, against the United States.

I am told that until the matter of his citizenship is resolved, the Justice Department will not be making any decisions, and won't even be investigating too thoroughly what charges they might be able to bring against this individual. And so he'll be held here for an indefinite period of time.

In the words of one senior Navy official, we are just a hotel here. Carol, back to you.

LIN: Jeanne, but if they actually revoke his citizenship, does that mean that he loses the rights of an American citizen and he goes back to Guantanamo Bay, and he ends up in the pool of detainees who can be held indefinitely?

MESERVE: Carol, that certainly appears to be one of the possibilities that U.S. officials are looking at right now.

LIN: All right. Jeanne Meserve, live at Norfolk, as the plane carrying Yasser Hamdi has just landed there.

Let's check in with Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Barbara, what do Pentagon officials know about this young man? He's only 22 years old. Do they really think that he's got information that may give them an idea if another pending terrorist attack might take place, or any information about Osama bin Laden?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, what we are being led to believe on that point is that the initial interrogations of Mr. Hamdi at Guantanamo Bay are beginning to indicate he may not have that kind of information. He's quite young. It appears now that, perhaps, officials say, he simply was a food soldier in this movement.

The question now really facing the Justice Department is whether or not there's anything they can really charge him with. Did he ever threaten Americans? Did he ever bear arms again Americans in Afghanistan? Did he move through the training camps of Osama bin Laden? Are there any activities that they really could charge him with?

And this has, in the last couple of days, the Bush administration has now walked down a road -- the Pentagon and the Justice Department -- that it really appears no one is really sure where this road is taking them, or how to get off of this road. The military is continuing to hold him.

Military officials say if he's an American, we don't want to have custody of him. We don't detain Americans. That's not our business in the U.S. military. The Justice Department says they're not ready to take custody of him. They're not positive of the absolute validity of his citizenship, irrespective of his birth certificate.

And they're not sure there's anything they want to charge him with. So this now appears to be really a very naughty question, that neither government entity has a really quick way out of just yet.

LIN: Have they described to you how cooperative he's being?

STARR: Not entirely. But we assume, from the initial readout, that he is a foot soldier, rather than a major decision maker or a major player. He certainly has offered some information.

What we did learn, earlier today at the Pentagon briefing from General Tommy Franks, is that Mr. Hamdi does speak English. So clearly there has been some ability to communicate. General Franks told us that many of the detainees, of course, have claimed a variety of citizenships since they were taken into detention. The government has continued to try and work their way through that.

And it does take them a while to figure out where these various people do hold -- what countries they do hold valid citizenship in. So it's taken them a while with Hamdi. But still, they really don't know where this is all taking them. They haven't come to any final decisions about what they can do about his status.

LIN: Mm-hmm. All right. What a mess. Thank you very much. Barbara Starr from the Pentagon.

STARR: You're welcome.

LIN: All right. Well, Hamdi's plane just landed at Norfolk, Virginia. We'll see what happens next there.

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