> Tim May[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] wrote:
>
[...]
> Second, losing citizenship is not easy. Check Google on "loss of
> citizenship" to find precedents, laws, etc. Basically, even serving in
> a foreign army does not cause loss of citizenship. (Which is symmetric
> with how we want other countries to behave when we draft their citizens
> into our armies--yes, when the draft was in place we expected all males
> reaching age 18 to register with our draft boards and expose themselves
> to serving in our military. Many foreigners served in our military.)
>
> Basically, citizenship is not revokable. Not even traitors have their
> citizenships revoked. It can be given up, but not lightly and not
> without the initiative of the party giving up the citizenship.
>
> In any case, this guy's citizenship has not been given up by him.
>
[...]
While I agree with most of Tim's post, it's not as hard to
lose your US citizenship as he makes out.
I grew up as a US expatriate in various European countries,
including the age period when compulsory military service
was a very real personal issue. What could an could not
affect your US citizenship was a topic of interest, research,
and discussion in the expat community (this was in the 60's
and 70's).
Basicly, getting drafted and serving in a foreign army (of an
ally) was not a problem. Voluntarily entering a foreign military
service most definitely was. Taking a civil service job was risky;
and riskier the higher you went - being a department head at a
foreign state run university was riskier than being an associate
professor.
Note that I talk about risk rather then certainty. If what you
did didn't piss off the USG, you were cool. If it did, they'd
decide according to what fit the USG's interest. The US
fliers who served with the RAF in the Eagle Squadron
prior to Pearl Harbor didn't lose their citizenship.
Of course, you could appeal, but your options were pretty
limited.
Mr. Hamdi seems to have US citizenship almost by accident -
he was apparently born in the US while his Saudi father was
receiving military training here, and returned to Saudi
soon after. He joined the anti-US forces in Afghanistan,
apparently voluntarily, and bore arms against the US.
By all the rules I lived by as an expatriate, he could be
stripped of his citizenship in a heartbeat.
---------------
But what I object most strongly is the neologism 'enemy
combatant'. Most of these people are in fact POWs,
and should have all the protections of such. Mr Padilla,
the other US citizen tagged in this way, is a much
more worrying case. He was born in the US, always
lived here, and was arrested in the US. Bush and his
gang have stuck the 'enemy combatant' label on him,
and he is now denied most of his Constitutional rights.
If it can happen to him, then the government can
'dissapear' anyone it wants.
Peter Trei
