Third enemy combatant moved to Charleston brig

HANAHAN, S.C. -- A U.S.-born man captured in Afghanistan has joined two other enemy combatants at the Navy brig at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station.

Yasser Esam Hamdi was transferred to the brig near Hanahan from Norfolk, Va., on July 30, Maj. Michael Shavers said.

"There was no announcement because it was considered a simple move," Shavers said. "There was no intent to be surreptitious."

Hamdi, 22, was with Taliban forces when he was captured by U.S. forces in late 2001. He was carrying a rifle and acknowledged loyalty to the Taliban, according to papers filed by the government.

Hamdi was born in Louisiana of Saudi Arabian parents and was raised in Saudi Arabia. The designation "enemy combatant" strips a person of the right to counsel and allows the government to detain him indefinitely.

He joins Jose Padilla and Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri at the Charleston brig. Padilla is a former Chicago gang member who allegedly had plotted to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb," while Al-Marri has been accused of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent.

A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., refused last month to rehear Hamdi's claims that he is being unconstitutionally held by the military.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected the claims in January, ruling that the government has wide latitude to detain people caught fighting against the United States on foreign soil during wartime.