US Tries to Deny Another Citizen's Right to Lawyer Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [Are you scared yet? What does it take to get an impeachment proceeding going, guys of Congress? Hell, impeachment is too good for them -- it is a trial. They should simply be evicted for illegal squatting and detained in some hole in some mountain without lawyers. We need an Office of Homeland Scrutiny, and that will take care of all our homeland security.] The Washington Post - June 14, 2002 http://www.washingtonpost.com U.S. Seeks Stay of Order Giving Detainee Access to Lawyer By Carol Morello Prosecutors asked a federal appeals court yesterday to stay a lower court order that would allow a lawyer to visit a detainee captured in Afghanistan and now being held in a Norfolk naval brig. In a case that underscores the legal limbo of U.S. citizens classified and held by the government as "enemy combatants," a federal public defender will have the right to see Yaser Esam Hamdi unless the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issues a stay by 5 p.m. today. Hamdi, 21, was born a U.S. citizen, although his parents are Saudi. The family was living in Louisiana when he was born and returned to Saudi Arabia when he was 3. Saudi Arabia does not recognize dual citizenship, but Hamdi's father says his son never renounced his U.S. citizenship. The next time Hamdi was on U.S. soil, he came via Afghanistan and Cuba. He was captured with Taliban fighters and detained with other prisoners at Guantanamo Bay until the government located his Louisiana birth certificate and transferred him to Norfolk. U.S. citizens are excluded from the military courts planned for other detainees. But the government considers Hamdi an enemy combatant, meaning he can be held indefinitely without charges or an attorney. Last month, the U.S. District Court in Norfolk ordered the military to give Federal Public Defender Frank W. Dunham Jr. access to Hamdi. Prosecutors appealed to the 4th Circuit, arguing that a lawyer would hamper the military's interrogation. Dunham says he cannot mount a defense if he is not allowed to communicate with Hamdi. The appeals court ruling is pending. Since the appeal was argued, Hamdi's father, Esam Fouad Hamdi, has added his name to the public defender's suit, which seeks a court order giving Hamdi access to an attorney. Another suit has been filed by a man named Christian A. Peregrim, who is neither a lawyer nor an acquaintance of Hamdi's but who has "concern for the unlawful nature of his incarceration," court papers say. On Tuesday, the District Court accepted Hamdi's father as a party to the suit and set today's deadline. In papers filed with the court, Esam Fouad Hamdi said neither he nor his son has money to hire an attorney. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence R. Leonard disputed that, citing a Saudi news account that described the elder Hamdi as having "a prestigious job in a private company." (c) 2002 The Washington Post Company ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytact-06.15.02-20:19:53-27704