Citizen Abroad or Enemy Combatant?: The Case of Yaser Hamdi

Abstract

Although it quickly became clear that al Qaeda and the Taliban were the enemy in the War on Terror, it was less clear just who their members were and where they were located. Osama Bin Laden became a household name but much less was known about his origins, his whereabouts, or his shadowy terrorist organization. It is the very nature of this organization and the types of tactics al Qaeda fighters have employed to date that makes the War on Terror significantly different in many ways from conventional military conflicts of the past. The differences inherent in this new type of conflict also had significant implications for the detention policies advocated by the Bush administration as it pursued the War on Terror.