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Second American Taliban held at Guantanamo

Hamdi, an American citizen accused of fighting alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda, is being held in Guantanamo Bay with 300 other detainees.

SUMMARY:

A captured Taliban fighter in U.S. custody in Cuba appears to be an American citizen, born in Louisiana to Saudi parents, a defense official said Wednesday.

Yasser Esam Hamdi is the second American citizen accused of fighting alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Like John Walker Lindh, a California native now in a federal jail in Virginia, Hamdi was captured in November after a prison uprising in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif.

A birth certificate verified by U.S. authorities showed Hamdi was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Saudi parents, a Pentagon official told CNN. His family moved back to Saudi Arabia when he was a toddler.

Hamdi is being held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, along with about 300 other Taliban and al Qaeda detainees. The Pentagon source said Hamdi's status as a U.S. citizen will not affect the government's ability to try him as a "battlefield detainee" -- rather than trying him in civilian courts, like Walker Lindh. (Full story)

UPDATE:

Summary Update Key questions Who's who  CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

Captured al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah is talking, providing limited information to interrogators, according to a highly placed U.S. government source. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called Zubaydah -- described as being in charge of al Qaeda operations and responsible for recruiting new members -- "a man who knows about additional terrorist acts." (Full story)

U.S. officials said that recent raids in Pakistan, one of which resulted in Zubaydah's capture last week, may have helped interrupt a planned terrorist attack. That belief is based on information netted during the raids, but a specific target for attack has not been identified, the source said.

Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, whom U.S. prosecutors call one of the highest-ranking former associates of Osama bin Laden in U.S. custody, has pleaded guilty to attempted murder charges. Salim, who prosecutors say co-founded al Qaeda and formerly ran its businesses, admitted to stabbing a corrections officer 17 months ago. As part of an agreement, the government dropped eight other charges against Salim, who was being held in connection with the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. (Full story)

The media can attend the court hearing of a Lebanese man being held in Michigan on immigration charges, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. The Justice Department had argued that a directive issued by Chief Immigration Judge Michael Creppy after September 11 allowed immigration proceedings to be closed in certain circumstances so they would not impair U.S. authorities' ability to wage the war against terrorism. But a district court judge ruled the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press should be allowed to cover the proceedings. (Full story)

The Coast Guard shut down the Hawaiian port of Honolulu for about three hours Wednesday after two bomb-sniffing dogs alerted officials to a pallet of suspicious packages. Authorities reopened the port at 11:30 a.m. (4:30 p.m. EST) after no explosives were found, Coast Guard Petty Officer Lauren Smith said. (Full story)

The Justice Department's inspector general is investigating the treatment of the more than 1,200 Muslims arrested in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks, the office said Wednesday. The probe follows months of allegations by civil-rights advocates accusing authorities of racial profiling and said those detained since last fall are being deprived their legal rights. (Full story)

KEY QUESTIONS:

WHO'S WHO:

Osama bin Laden: Saudi Arabian-born leader of the al Qaeda terrorist network who is accused of masterminding the September 11 strikes on the United States

John Walker Lindh: American accused of fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan

Abu Zubaydah: Palestinian suspected of being the operational commander of al Qaeda

Hamid Karzai: Afghan interim leader

Pervez Musharraf: Pakistani president

Yasser Esam Hamdi: Taliban detainee born in Louisiana and mostly raised in Saudi Arabia, now being held at U.S. naval base in Cuba

John Ashcroft: U.S. attorney general