Asymmetrical Information

Kris Lofgren has a post

Kris Lofgren has a post on enemy combatant Yasser Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana, though he lives in Saudi Arabia, and thus holds American citizenship. He is currently being held with enemy combatants at Guantanamo, and thus being deprived of what Lofgren argues are his constitutional rights as a US citizen.

Well, yes and no. In fact, there is one sure-fire way to lose your citizenship: enlist in the army of a nation at war with the US. While I'm not familiar with the details of the case, there is at least a plausible argument that Hamdi has forfeited his citizenship by signing up with Al-Qaeda. Of course, that begs the question of why Hamdi did, and Walker-Lindh didn't -- if the distinction is ethnic, rather than the specifics of the case, it's extremelly troubling.