Legal Commentary

Guantanamo Detainee Hamdan Returning to Yemen

By Jeralyn

The long ordeal of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, one time driver for Osama bin Laden, is almost over. The Washington Post reports within 48 hours he will be returned to his home country of Yemen to finish the last month of his sentence imposed by the military commission jury.

The U.S. military has decided to transfer Osama bin Laden's former driver from custody at Guantanamo Bay to his home in Yemen, ending the seven-year saga of a man the Bush administration considered a dangerous terrorist but whom a military jury found to be a low-level aide.

The Pentagon is trying to spare itself another loss in the Supreme Court. Had it refused to release Hamdan after his sentence was up, he surely would have litigated the question of whether the U.S. has the right to indefinitely detain those it deems enemy combatants after they've served their sentences.

"Legally, we absolutely have a right to hold enemy combatants, but politically is he the guy we want to fight all the way to the Supreme Court about?" said a defense official familiar with the release negotiations. "I think we came to the conclusion that, no, he wasn't. This is a win for everyone."

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 25, 2008 (boomark / email).