NYT - "U.S. to Free 'Enemy Combatant,' Bowing to Supreme Court Ruling"

Remember Yasser Hamdi? He's the American citizen who was captured in Afghanistan and held incommunicado by the American military for more than two years, because the Bush administration deemed him a highly dangerous "enemy combatant."

The Supreme Court ruled in June that Hamdi and other enemy combatants must be given access to the legal system, so that they can challenge their status. Rather than allow Yasser Hamdi his day in court, however, it appears the Bush administration prefers to simply let him go! That's right - this man who was supposedly so dangerous to us that he couldn't see a lawyer or anyone else for years is now being allowed to leave the country a free man, because the Bushies know he's no danger at all... except in a courtroom, where he has the power to inflict the worst kind of political damage on them.

Writes the Times:

The agreement was driven by a Supreme Court decision in June. In the ruling, a major setback for the Bush administration, the court found that Mr. Hamdi and enemy combatants like him had to be given the chance to challenge their detention. The court declared that 'a state of war is not a blank check for the president.' The administration decided that rather than give Mr. Hamdi a hearing, it would simply negotiate his release.

Mr. Hamdi will probably be flown back to Saudi Arabia on an American military aircraft by early next week, said a government official who asked not to be identified.

You can bet Mr. Hamdi is not long for this world. Ten bucks says he's dead at the hands of special forces snipers before the year's out - or as soon as he opens his mouth to talk to the media about his experiences as an "enemy combatant." No way is Yasser Hamdi going to have the opportunity to try his case on Al Jazeera before a world of angry Muslims.

If the Bush administration can't lock Yasser Hamdi away for life without a trial, it will do the next best thing: release him into the dangerous world where "accidents" happen, where small, powerless people die all the time, and wait for Yasser Hamdi to "disappear."