Second link is to the Opinion of the Court in ADHAM AMIN HASSOUN, Petitioner, v. JEFFREY SEARLS, in his official capacity as Acting Assistant Field Office Director and Administrator of the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, Respondent. This was a habeas proceeding.
United States District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford of the Western District of New York, sitting at Rochester, presided over this case.
Bottom line is that the Federal Government cannot simply declare Mr. Hassoun “dangerous” and hold him for life without any judicial oversight. That turd so-called “Patriot” Act notwithstanding.
Hassoun will be released, under significant conditions, pending his deportation to a country willing to accept him.
Sorry, the United States doesn’t do forever imprisonment, except to those who have been duly sentenced to such term. This was the right decision.
Due process applies to everybody, including scumbags.
U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford ruled that Adham Amin Hassoun, who was being detained indefinitely under a Patriot Act regulation, must be released with strict conditions. She ordered his release by noon Thursday
The case represented a clash between the executive and judicial branch, with the highest ranking officials in the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security claiming Hassoun is dangerous and likely to engage in terrorist activities if released.
Hassoun is officially a “stateless” person. He was born to Palestinian parents in Lebanon. He cannot go to Palestine as Israel rejects the right of return. Lebanon does not recognize him as a citizen by birth.
United States law forbids deporting a stateless person. So we are stuck with him unless/until we can found a Middle East country that will agree to grant him entry and residence.
We release hundreds of dangerous people from local jails and State and Federal prisons everyday of the year. When there sentences are up, they walk free.
Murderers, including vicious gang murderers.
Rapists.
Child molesters.
Many of these folks are more dangerous than Hassoun by many degrees.
Child molesters we know are extremely likely to re-offend, yet we release them under strict requirements.
We don’t know if Hassoun will re-offend. And he is being released under very strict requirements.
I think with the strict control and surveillance that Hassoun will be under, he will not be a threat until the day comes that we can find a country willing to take him.
The problem is that unlike most wars this one is going to be open ended and these are illegal enemy combatants vs legitimate POW’s.
In most cases there isn’t enough evidence to convict them in a US court and we can’t hold them forever or simply execute them so at some point they have to be released.
Unless there’s enough evidence for a conviction for treason they can’t be stripped of their citizenship (US terrorists) and deported either.
If we deport terrorists no matter where born odds are they will just go back to the fight.
It’s a ■■■■■■deal with no good answer.
As I indicated earlier, Hassoun is a stateless person. Under both enacted United States domestic law and Treaties to which the United States has signed and ratified, stateless persons cannot be deported, unless another country is willing to accept them and take responsibility for them.
Unless and until another nation offers to accept Hassoun and grant him residence, the United States is stuck with him. Hassoun has completed his lawful prison term and must be released.
It is doubtless that Hassoun will be tracked and surveiled and in any event, the United States could not show that he currently presents any major danger.
Not the ideal situation by any means, but the consequence that Hassoun’s stateless status presents us with.
Sure. But we could both probably start listing a bunch of people who were at one time or another labeled and/or convicted of being a “terrorist” and then ended up somewhere between reformed or global heroes, or still a terrorist.
I asked just to make a light point about it not being as clear cut as your statement implied.
Obviously that’s not the hang-up in the case of the OP, this terrorist was convicted and served his time, now we just don’t know where to put him.
The Trump administration has indicated that an undisclosed third country agreed to take Hassoun and he has already been deported from the United States to that country.