hamdi kept michael alive on assignment in iraq, too. idea, to tell the back story of our special bodyguard's emotional last day of work in our baghdad bureau. a farewell that would lead to the beginning of hamdi's journey to atlanta, georgia, for a new life. >> hey, joe. how are you? >> good. >> good? i will miss you. i will miss you all. go on. where is hamid? come on, i'm going to see you on the web cam. i've been working here and see you guys more than my family. i've been working here sometimes 18 hours, sometimes 16 hours. i slept here maybe sometimes a week, a whole week, just to keep this mission, you know, this office moving and working. they need us to do the job. it's very hard to leave someone you live with for what, four or five years. >> say something. please. >> it was emotional back there. >> good to see you. >> i would imagine from my time living there, that one of the things that these guys are going to find different is things aren't exploding every day. is that something you noticed, you don't hear the booms? >> no, j

hamdi is here. see you, my friend. >> good to see you as well. >> this is a lot easier than working in iraq. >> absolutely. >> there might be a lot of pressure to do this. >> there is a lot of pressure to find a job and to organize my family and to the kids have to see the place and get used to it this is a big move. >> let's talk about that for a minute. first of all, why did you decide to come work for cnn? obviously, the war happened and you had to make some choices. why cnn? >> well, i always liked the news and media thing. this is my skill. security things. i have a big background on security. one of my friends he asked me why don't you give them help. you sit with them and accept the job. i have been working with them since that time. >> that was the remarkable time. you knew stories, you knew iraq. you knew the right people. we were in extremely dangerous areas. you knew. you came back and said we can do that story. i wanted to do the story on the school for the blind and you said, no kyra th

been achieved and, thus, continued detention is not continued justified under the supreme court's hamdi decision in the laws of war. before i turn to the gentheman from california, let them mention that today's witnesses are the honorable jeh charles johnson who's the general counsel for the department of defee and the honorable david kri success is assistant attorney general of department of justice and i turn to mr. mckean. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i thank you for holding this hearing on this important topic. the administration's detainee policy and it's plan for refoing the military let them begin by welcoming our witnesses, theh o honorableh$] johnson, general counsel with the department of defense and the honorable david kris assistant attorney general department of justice. gentlemen, good morning. thank you for being here.+o on october 22nd, 2009, the president stood before the american people and announced that he would uphold his political promise to close gitmo within a year. and suspend all militar commissions pending a review by the administration. i do not want to make

matter of legal authority, if you have the authority under the laws of war to detain someone a the hamdi decision said that in 2004, that is true irrespective of what happens on the prosecution side. >> so, therefe, the prosecution becomes a moot point? >> no, i'm not saying that at all. you raised the issue of what happens there's an acquittal. >> right. >> in my judgment, as a matter of legal authority, there are -- you could get there -- there might be policy judgments one would make but as a matter of legal authority, if a review panel has determined this person is a security threat and, you know, they've lost in their habeas and we've gone through our periodic review and we've made the assessment, a person who is a security threat should not be released and a person who is not convicted for a lengthy sentence, as a matter of legal authority, i think it's our view we would have the ability to dein tt person. whether, in fact, that happens would depend on the circumstances and the facts of the particular case but as a matter of legal authority, i think we have law of war authority pur