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American Morning
Our Big Question: Is There a Second Taliban-American?
Aired April 04, 2002 - 07:20 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Our big question at this hour: Is there a second Taliban-American? John Walker Lindh may not have been the only American citizen fighting alongside the Taliban during the deadly Mazar-e Sharif prison uprising last fall.
Pentagon sources are now confirming a prisoner being held at Guantanamo claims he was born in Louisiana. CNN's Barbara Starr joins us now with more from the Pentagon -- good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well it does appear now that there is a second so-called American-Taliban being held by the United States at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This man has told officials that he is an American, and the Justice Department now says there is a genuine birth certificate.
The man's name is Yasser Esam Hamdi. He was captured in that prison uprising in Mazar-e Sharif late last year. Now he was born, according to his birth certificate, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Saudi parents. But his parents took him and returned to Saudi Arabia when he was a toddler. So no one knows whether he even speaks English or whether he ever returned to the United States.
So an awful lot now remains to be sorted out. The Pentagon says he is continuing to be held as a battlefield detainee, as the rest of the detainees are at Guantanamo Bay. But if the Justice Department does make a formal ruling that he is an American, that could raise a lot of very interesting questions.
An attorney on his behalf could then file a writ of habeas corpus in a U.S. court demanding that he either be charged or released. None of the detainees, of course, have had any formal charges against them. And if he is a U.S. citizen, it appears that he would not then face one of those military tribunals, because those are reserved solely for non-U.S. citizens -- Paula.
ZAHN: All right. Barbara, there's also a name that we're hearing now this morning and we haven't heard talked about a whole lot, Mullah Omar, who was considered sort of the religious leader of the Taliban. What ever happened to him?
STARR: Well you sure you haven't heard a lot about Mullah Omar lately. Sources say that they believe he still is, of course, in Afghanistan. Somewhere in southern Afghanistan and perhaps north of Kandahar is an area that they've been looking at.
But since the Mullah fled Kandahar when it fell late last year, he has been under the protection of local warlords that are still very sympathetic to the Taliban. The U.S. is keeping their eye on this whole situation, but they don't find a very easy opening at the moment to go after him.
He's under the protection of an awful lot of local people, and the U.S. would like to find him and go get him in a situation where he's there a little less vulnerable, where he's not so surrounded by so many people sympathetic to him. So they're keeping their eye on him quite closely.
ZAHN: And I think they're probably sending us a message that could take some time.
STARR: Exactly. No one is in a big hurry at the moment it appears.
ZAHN: All right. Barbara Starr, thanks.
STARR: You're welcome.
ZAHN: Appreciate that update.
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