DOSSIER: Yaser Esam Hamdi

"Hamdi probably couldn't even shoot straight, but he knew a lot and that
alarmed the Saudis," a U.S. intelligence source said. "The Saudis got word
to Hamdi to sit tight and everything would be taken care of."

* Affiliation: Al Qaida

* Age: 24

* Whereabouts: U.S. detention

Yaser Esam Hamdi knew so much about Al Qaida's financial links that he was
the focus of a nearly three-year effort by Saudi Arabia to win his release.

The Saudi effort has succeeded, and Hamdi was being flown this week to Saudi
Arabia where he is likely never to be heard from again. U.S. intelligence
sources said Hamdi knows too much to remain a free man anywhere.

On Sept. 22, the Justice Department reported that the U.S. government, Hamdi
and his lawyer signed a release agreement that would require Hamdi to
renounce his U.S. citizenship. Under the terms of the agreement, Hamdi would
be sent to his native Saudi Arabia.

Hamdi is required to inform the kingdom of any plans to travel outside the
country. He would also be barred from traveling to the United States,
Afghanistan, Israel, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and the Palestinian Authority.

"How could they release and send to Saudi Arabia someone they said was so
dangerous that he had to be held for years in a military stockade and could
not be allowed to consult with a lawyer?" asked Sen. Patrick Leahy, the
senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Hamdi isn't the only beneficiary of Saudi lobbying. Quietly, the U.S.
military has been releasing scores of Saudis captured in Afghanistan from
the U.S. Navy's Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Indeed, at least a
fourth of the detainees at Guantanamo were found to have been Saudi
nationals, followed by citizens of Yemen and Pakistan.

U.S. citizen Yaser Esam Hamdi, 22, left, is shown with arms tied following
his capture in Afghanistan in this Dec. 2, 2001, file photo.

_____

"The magnitude of the Saudi presence in Camp Delta raises troubling
questions about Saudis in Afghanistan and whether U.S. forces succeeded in
capturing more than a fraction of those who might have been there," the
Washington-based Jamestown Foundation said in a study.

Still, Hamdi's case is different and more complicated. He was a naturalized
U.S. citizen and son of an oil executive who worked in the United States.

Hamdi's family has been close to the Saudi ruling family, and Riyad deemed
his release a priority.

U.S. intelligence sources said Hamdi had acquired important information on
Al Qaida. A military intelligence assessment said Hamdi was a liaison
between the Saudi princes and Al Qaida. He knew exactly which prince was
giving money to Al Qaida and how much.

"Hamdi probably couldn't even shoot straight, but he knew a lot and that
alarmed the Saudis," a U.S. intelligence source said. "The Saudis got word
to Hamdi to sit tight and everything would be taken care of."

The Saudi tactic succeeded. Hamdi did not cooperate with the CIA or with
U.S. military intelligence. Despite countless offers, he refused a deal in
which he would give the U.S. intelligence community information on Al Qaida
in exchange for entry into a witness protection program.

The Jamestown Foundation said Hamdi wasn't the only one to resist
interrogation. Despite years in captivity, Al Qaida and Taliban operatives
managed to withhold even basic information from U.S. military intelligence.

"A number of detainees have remained steadfastly uncooperative; according to
a government source speaking on condition of anonymity, one prisoner for
over two years, when asked about his name, has repeatedly replied 'Mickey
Mouse,'" the study, authored by John Daly, said.

Some of the detainees are major Al Qaida operatives. They include Taliban
Chief of Staff Gen. Fazel Mazloom, Taliban Deputy Defense Minister Mohammad
Fazel, Haji Naim Kuchai Mulla, Pashtun leader of the Ahmadzai tribe, Taliban
ambassador to Pakistan Abdus Salam Zaeef, former Afghan governor Nurullah
Nuri and Herat governor Khairullah Khairkhwa.

Up until this past May the administration had asserted that Hamdi was so
valuable a prisoner that he could not see an attorney, let alone contact his
family.

Meanwhile, faced with Hamdi's refusal to cooperate, the Justice Department
could not prosecute him or convince him to testify against other Al Qaida
agents.

On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that U.S. citizens being held in
the United States as enemy combatants have the right to legal counsel and
could challenge efforts to hold them indefinitely. The ruling appeared to
end the dispute between the State Department, which wanted to release Hamdi
and other Saudis, and the Defense Department.

Sixty Guantanamo detainees have initiated court actions for their release.

On Sept. 21, the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. ordered the
government to explain the continued detention of suspected Al Qaida
combatants in Afghanistan and demanded to be informed on plans to transfer
prisoners for detention in third countries.

Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said Hamdi, who agreed to renounce
his American citizenship, was deemed as no longer posing a threat to the
United States. Corallo said Hamdi was also no longer of value to U.S.
intelligence. "As we have repeatedly stated, the United States has no
interest in detaining enemy combatants beyond the point that they pose a
threat to the U.S. and our allies," Corallo said.

Hamdi was one of two U.S. citizens held as enemy combatants since 9/11
strikes. The other American national is Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang
member accused of plotting to detonate a radiological bomb in the United
States.

So far, more than 200 detainees have been released from Guantanamo. The
Pentagon said they were transferred to Britain, France, Morocco, Pakistan,
Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Sweden.

The Pentagon said 539 detainees remain imprisoned. They include Gulf Arab
dignitaries such as Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, a cousin of Bahrain's
King Hamad.

But the war against Al Qaida is far from over, and the United States
continues to process new detainees at Guantanamo. Pakistan was also expected
to transfer to the United States Al Qaida operatives captured in south
Waziristan in August.

Hamdi's release has fueled Saudi efforts to win the release of all of the
kingdom's nationals at Guantanamo. Officials said Riyad wants the other
Saudis to be released under the terms drafted for Hamdi.

Under the agreement, Hamdi also pledged to report suspected terrorist
activity to Saudi authorities. U.S. officials said they have no hope that
this would take place.

Instead, U.S. intelligence sources expect Hamdi to disappear in Saudi
Arabia. They say he knows too much and could be dangerous to Saudi
interests.

"We expect him to have an accident soon," a U.S. intelligence source said.