Federal prosecutors indicated yesterday that enemy combatant Yaser Esam Hamdi may soon be released. The U.S.-born citizen has been held since 2001. He has never been charged with a crime and has been held largely incommunicado without access to an attorney because President Bush deemed him to be an enemy combatant.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that as a U.S. citizen, Hamdi can not be held indefinitely without access to the U.S. legal system. Yesterday Hamdi’s attorneys and federal prosecutors made the surprise announcement that they were negotiating terms for his release. Part of the deal may call on Hamdi to renounce his citizenship, move to Saudi Arabia, and promise not to sue the U.S. government.