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Salim Hamdan

Salim Hamdan

al-Qaeda

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20060701

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Bin Laden Son-in-Law Terror Trial Opens in New York

2014-03-04

[An Nahar] The terror trial of the late Osama bin Laden ... who doesn't live anywhere anymore... 's son-in-law and former al-Qaeda front man opened in New York on Monday amid razor-tight security at the Manhattan courthouse. Suleiman Abu Ghaith is accused of conspiracy to kill Americans and supporting bully boyz in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks that killed 3,000 people. The 48-year-old suspect from Kuwait faces life behind bars if convicted and is one of the most senior alleged al-Qaeda members to face a U.S. trial. Abu Ghaith wore an oversized beige blazer and open-necked white shirt as he sat next to his defense lawyers and listened to a simultaneous translation. Judge Lewis Kaplan began selection for an anonymous jury shortly after 10 am (1500 GMT), eliminating a handful from 44 prospective members on grounds of hardship owing to their personal or work commitments. Abu Ghaith is best known for appearing with bin Laden and the current leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... , in al-Qaeda propaganda videos in September 2001. Married to bin Laden's daughter Fatima, U.S. prosecutors say Abu Ghaith worked for al-Qaeda until 2002, when he fled Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion for Iran. The prosecution claims he was complicit in the December 2001 shoe bombing plot to bring down an airliner flying from Gay Paree to Miami. But the defense says the U.S. has no evidence that Abu Ghaith was involved or even aware of such plots. The defendant pleads not guilty to all three counts. Highlights of the trial are likely to be two witnesses testifying by video link from Britannia and Yemen. On March 10, Saajid Badat, a 33-year-old convicted co-conspirator of Reid's -- subsequently released in Britannia and dubbed by the media a terror "supergrass," British slang for informant -- has been called by the prosecution. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan also authorized the testimony by video link of bin Laden's former driver Salim Hamdan, from Yemen. Hamdan was convicted in the United States of providing material support for terrorists, but his sentence was overturned on appeal. The trial in the U.S. federal court in lower Manhattan is expected to three to four weeks. Kaplan ruled that the trial can begin without the defense receiving 14 pages of testimony from 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been detained at Guantanamo Bay since 2006. The lawyer for Mohammed, the most high-profile detainee held over the 2001 attacks, refused to send the document because U.S. intelligence wanted to vet the answers, according to the defense. It is one of a series of terror cases transferred to New York as U.S. President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... has promised to close down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

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Gitmo Jury Recommends 14 Years For Al Qaeda Cook

2010-08-12

A Guantanamo jury recommended a 14-year sentence Wednesday for an al Qaeda cook, though its decision may be overruled by a plea bargain that will limit the time he spends in prison. Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi of Sudan pleaded guilty last month to supporting terrorism, making him only the fourth Guantanamo detainee to be convicted since the prison, which has held nearly 800 men, was opened in 2002. The jury of 10 U.S. military officers was not told about the sentence limit in the plea agreement. If it is less than 14 years, the jury's sentence will only be applied if al-Qosi does something to break the deal, said Navy Capt. David Iglesias, a spokesman for military prosecutors. Military officials say al-Qosi's actual sentence will not be revealed publicly until it is reviewed by a Pentagon official known as the tribunals' convening authority, a process that could take several weeks. It is not yet clear where he might be held. Judge Nancy Paul, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, said Wednesday that officials would have 60 days after sentencing to determine that. She told jurors they could sentence al-Qosi to between 12 and 15 years in prison — a range that is reportedly well above the terms of the plea bargain. She said the detainee would not receive credit for the eight years and seven months he already has spent in confinement. Iglesias said the recommended sentencing range was determined in discussions between attorneys for al-Qosi and the convening authority, retired Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald, a former Navy judge advocate general with broad powers over the system for prosecuting terror suspects. As part of the plea agreement, the 50-year-old detainee signed a statement declaring that he followed Osama bin Laden after the al Qaeda leader's expulsion from Sudan in 1996 and continued working for him in Afghanistan. Al-Qosi said he learned after they occurred that al Qaeda was behind the U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998 and the 9/11 attack on the U.S., but he was not involved in their planning. He was arrested in Pakistan after fleeing the al Qaeda hideout at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, during the U.S.-led invasion. He was among the first prisoners taken to Guantanamo. The only witness for the prosecution at Wednesday's sentencing hearing, al Qaeda expert Robert McFadden, testified that only the most loyal followers of bin Laden would be allowed close enough to become a cook or driver. "Trust is the major factor," said McFadden, an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In a closing prosecution statement to jurors, Marine Capt. Seamus Quinn said it is the support of people like al-Qosi that make al Qaeda possible. "It would be an insult to Mr. al-Qosi and to our intelligence to think he was nothing more than running bin Laden's kitchen," said Quinn, who urged the panel to impose a 15-year sentence. Defense attorneys presented videotapes of interviews with al-Qosi's relatives. The man's father, Ahmed al-Qosi, said his son socialized with Christians as a youth at an Italian school and said that "our spirits would be much happier" if he is returned to Sudan. A defense lawyer, Army Maj. Todd Pierce, said that upon repatriation al-Qosi would enter a rehabilitation program run by Sudan's intelligence service that assigns extremists to moderate mosques and employs informants to track their behavior. He said the program is 85 percent effective and none of the nine men sent back to Sudan from Guantanamo have engaged in hostilities against the United States. Al-Qosi's lawyers said he was little more than a menial worker to al Qaeda's senior leadership. "Do you think they pulled off these horrible attacks by blabbing about it to their cooks?" defense attorney Paul Reichler said. Al-Qosi avoided a possible life sentence at trial by pleading guilty July 7 to one count each of providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy. The Arabic-language news channel al Arabiya, citing two unidentified sources, reported recently that the secret agreement calls for al-Qosi to serve an additional two years at most and return to Sudan afterward. Prosecutors have pledged to let al-Qosi serve any sentence in a communal-living section of the Guantanamo prison reserved for the most cooperative detainees. That condition sparked an internal dispute because military policy calls for convicts to be held apart from other inmates. For now there is only one convict at Guantanamo, al Qaeda media chief Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, who was sentenced in 2008 to life in prison. Paul, the judge, said she was troubled that authorities had not developed written guidelines for the handling of convicted detainees even though another trial is under way for Omar Khadr, a young Canadian accused of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan in 2002. Opening arguments are expected in that case Thursday. The military trials established by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attack also yielded convictions of bin Laden driver Salim Hamdan and Australian David Hicks. Both have already served their sentences and returned home. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 struck down one version of the military trials, known as commissions, before Congress and the Bush administration came up with new trial rules. Obama revised them further to extend more legal protections to detainees, but human rights groups say the system is still unfair and prosecutions should be held in U.S. civilian courts instead.

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Terror Networks

Yemen releases bin Laden's former driver

2009-01-10

Gonna repent, Salim? Yeah... That's good. Go and sin no more. SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — The lawyer for Osama bin Laden's former driver says his client has been released from a Yemeni prison after serving out his sentence. Lawyer Khaled Al-Anas says Salim Hamdan was released Friday. A Yemeni Interior Ministry official has confirmed the release but says it happened Saturday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. A U.S. military tribunal convicted Hamdan in August of aiding al-Qaida and sentenced him to 5 1/2 years in prison. He had already served five years and a month at Guantanamo Bay prison at the time. The U.S. transferred Hamdan to his home country Yemen at the end of 2008 to serve out the rest of his sentence Yeah, a whole 2 months of it. But his old buddies at Guantanamo don't appear to be too happy... Washington lawyer David Remes, who represents 17 Yemenis, said some of his clients launched the latest hunger strike after Yemeni Salim Hamdan went home in November, a month shy of completion of his 66-month prison sentence."They’ve actually gone ballistic at the fact that Hamdan, who was convicted of supporting terrorism, was released and they, who have been charged with nothing, continue to languish there," said Remes, who met with clients before Christmas. Long-held detainees, most held without charge since early 2002, were "elated" that Hamdan was leaving the prison camps, Remes said. But, "that doesn’t mitigate the perverseness of the situation. If an ordinary detainee knew that all you had to be (was) Osama’s servant to get out, a lot of them would have fabricated confessions that they were Osama’s servant." Hey, I got mine, guys.

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Al Qaeda media chief stands mute at Guantanamo

2008-10-28

The U.S. war crimes trial of Osama bin Laden's accused media director began Monday with silence from the defense side of the Guantanamo Bay courtroom after the judge ruled the Yemeni defendant had the right to stand mute and offer no defense. Defendant Ali Hamza al Bahlul came to the courtroom on the Guantanamo Bay naval base voluntarily but is boycotting participation because he does not recognize the tribunal's legitimacy. "I will be joining Mr. al Bahlul's boycott of the proceedings, standing mute at the table," said his U.S. military-appointed lawyer, Air Force Maj. David Frakt. The judge, Air Force Col. David Gregory, said the rules allow Frakt to honor his client's wishes by doing nothing, since the prosecution has the entire burden of proving the charges. His further questions to the defense were met with silence. Bahlul is accused of preparing al Qaeda recruiting materials, including a video glorifying the 2000 attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors on the warship USS Cole, preparing the videotaped will of September 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta, and operating communications gear for bin Laden. He is also accused of acting as one of the al Qaeda leader's bodyguards. Bahlul, a man so loquacious that other prisoners have begged not to be held in cells adjacent to his, had made lengthy statements in previous hearings. He acknowledged that "I am from al Qaeda" and expressed loyalty to bin Laden. The judge ruled those statements cannot be used as evidence against him because they were made in the limited context of explaining his intent to boycott. Bahlul, who is about 38, refused to wear the earphones that would allow him to hear an Arabic interpretation of the hearing. He is charged with conspiring with al Qaeda, soliciting to commit murder and providing material support for terrorism. He faces life in prison if convicted. His trial is only the second in the special tribunals created by the Bush administration to try non-U.S. captives on terrorism charges without the protections normally granted to civilians and soldiers. Bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, was convicted at the first one in August of providing material support for terrorism.

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Al Qaeda propagandist to go on trial at Guantanamo

2008-10-27

Al Qaeda propagandist Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul will go on trial in front of a US military tribunal at the Guantanamo prison on Monday, with the Pentagon saying it expects he will appear despite his vows earlier this year to boycott the proceedings. Only the second person to face trial in Guantanamo since the facility opened in 2002 for hundreds of war-on-terror detainees, Bahlul, 39, will face terrorism and murder charges under the special military tribunal system set up for Guantanamo detainees. In the first test of the "war crimes" tribunals -- the first time they have been used since World War II -- military jurors in August found Osama bin Laden's former driver Salim Hamdan guilty of providing material support to terrorism but rejected stronger terrorist conspiracy charges the government lodged. The US is charging Bahlul, one of the first US war-on-terror detainees to be sent to Guantanamo in early 2002, with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit terrorism, murder, terrorism, providing material support for terrorism. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison. Bahlul is also accused of preparing the video of the last "martyr wills" of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 19-man team which hijacked four passenger jets to crash them into US buildings on September 11, 2001. The US says he answered directly to al-Qaeda's leadership and maintained for them important equipment; it also says he carried a suicide belt and grenades with him to be used to protect the leaders. Currently about 20 of the 255 detainees now in Guantanamo are facing trial by military commission.

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Gitmo prosecutors seek resentencing for detainee

2008-09-26

Military prosecutors have asked the judge who presided over the war crimes trial for Osama bin Laden's driver to order a new sentencing hearing, arguing the detainee should not have received credit for time served, officials said Thursday. The motion filed Wednesday argues that Salim Hamdan, who is eligible for release by January, cannot receive trial credit for his time detained at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base as an "enemy combatant." "We're not looking to jack up the sentence, just to have it on a legally correct basis," said Army Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo tribunals. A panel of six American military officers sentenced Hamdan to 5 1/2 years in prison last month, making him eligible for release by January. The judge informed the jurors that time already served would count toward the sentence before they began deliberations. Hamdan, the only convicted detainee at Guantanamo, was found guilty of supporting terrorism but acquitted of the more serious charge of conspiracy at the first American war crimes trial since World War II. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 30 years to life in prison. Hamdan, 40, could be held indefinitely regardless of the sentence. The Pentagon reserves the right to hold him and other "enemy combatants" who are considered dangerous to the United States _ even those who are acquitted or complete sentences in the tribunal system. The motion calls for the judge to order the same jurors back to Guantanamo for a new hearing, said Air Force Maj. Gail Crawford, a spokeswoman for the tribunal system.

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Gitmo detainee boycotts trial

2008-08-16

A Guantanamo Bay detainee says that he wants nothing to do with his trial, calling it a legal farce and telling his lawyer not to defend him. Ali al-Bahlul, a Yemeni who was allegedly Osama bin Laden's personal secretary, left the courtroom midway through his pretrial hearing and said he plans to return only on the days he is convicted and sentenced. "You can continue your legal play," al-Bahlul said before returning to his maximum-security cell at this US Navy base in southeast Cuba. His lawyer, Air Force Maj. David Frakt, later told reporters that al-Bahlul "thinks the circus has gone on long enough." Well alrighty then ... Al-Bahlul, 39, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on charges of conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder and supporting terrorism. Military prosecutors say he created a propaganda video glorifying al-Qaida's October 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 American sailors. Critics say a one-sided trial would damage the image of justice being served in the United States' first war-crimes tribunals since the World War II era. And there are always critics. And they're always critical of everything we do. None of the critics are critical of Ali, near as I can tell. The first Guantanamo trial ended last week with the conviction of Salim Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden who was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. Last week, Gareth Pierce, a prominent human rights lawyer said that Hamdan's verdict has no legal justification because the verdict comes from a tribunal that were simply soldiers in a military trial without any legal credibility. Gareth Pierce is just the sort of Brit solicitor you'd expect a journalist to go to for a quote. She's real big on defending terrorist thugs, and has surprisingly little compassion for their victims ...

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Gitmo judge blamed for light sentence against terrorist

2008-08-10

A former member of the Guantanamo tribunal prosecution team says a judge's error may have been the contributing factor to a split verdict in the war crimes trial of the former driver of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden Salim Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in southern Afghanistan in November 2001 and taken to Gitmo in May 2002. The military accused him of transporting missiles for Al Qaeda and helping Bin Laden escape U.S. retribution following the 9-11 attacks by driving him around Afghanistan. Last week, a Pentagon picked jury of six miliary officers deliberated for about eight hours over three days before convicting Hamdan of supporting terrorism. But the panel cleared him of conspiracy charges. Kyndra Rotunda was part of the prosecution team in some of the early military tribunals at GITMO. She says the panel might have found the terrorist guilty on the conspiracy charge, had it not been for the judge instructing the jury incorrectly relating to the surface to air missiles. According to Rotunda, "What the judge instructed the jury was that they could only find him guilty of a war crime if he intended to aim these weapons at innocent civilians, and that it wouldn't be a crime if he attempted to use them against U.S. forces. But that's not what international law says and not what the Geneva Conventions tell us. If he intended to aim them at U.S. forces because he was an illegal combatant, he wasn't wearing uniform or following the laws of war, he could still be guilty of a war crime." Rotunda says because the prosecution did not object to the incorrect instructions until the jury had already begun deliberations, the judge elected not to send in new instructions, and the error benefitted the defendant. She says failure to get a conviction on the conspiracy charges appears to be a contributing factor to why Prosecutors are now asking for a sentence of no less than 30 years, instead of life imprisonment.

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Bin Laden's driver sentenced to less than six years

2008-08-08

A jury of US military officers sentenced Osama bin Laden's driver to just 5 1/2 years in prison on Thursday for supporting terrorism, concluding the first US war crimes tribunal since World War II. The sentence delivered by the same six jurors who convicted Yemeni captive Salim Hamdan in the tribunal at Guantanamo prison camp fell far short of the 30 years sought by military prosecutors. But the Pentagon said Hamdan would continue to be held at the end of his sentence as an "enemy combatant." The judge gave Hamdan credit for 61 months of the time he has been held at Guantanamo, so he could finish his sentence in five months -- shortly before the next U.S. president takes office. "After that, I don't know what happens," the judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, told Hamdan. "I hope the day comes when you return to your wife and your daughters and your country. "Inshallah," the judge added. Hamdan was the first Guantanamo detainee to be tried by the controversial tribunal system set up by the Bush administration to try non-U.S. captives on terrorism charges outside the regular US courts. The Pentagon said the sentence did not mean Hamdan would soon walk free. "He'll still be retained as an enemy combatant. But as an enemy combatant, he then becomes at that time eligible for the annual review board process to determine whether he's eligible for release or transfer," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters. Hamdan raised both hands high in the air and waved them in a display of elation or victory or both as the guards led him out of the courtroom at the remote U.S. naval base in Cuba. He was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 after the US invasion that followed the Sept. 11 attacks and sent to Guantanamo in May 2002. The judge gave him credit for time served since July 1, 2003, the day he was declared eligible for trial. His status changed on that day from battlefield detainee to pretrial detention, the judge said. The Guantanamo tribunal on Wednesday convicted him of providing material support for terrorism by working as a driver and occasional armed bodyguard and weapons courier for bin Laden in Afghanistan from 1996 to November 2001. But it cleared him of charges of joining al Qaeda's murderous conspiracies. Hamdan apologized in his sentencing hearing for any pain his services to al Qaeda caused its US victims. "I don't know what could be given or presented to these innocent people who were killed in the US," Hamdan told the jury of six military officers. "I personally present my apologies to them if anything what I did have caused them pain," he said through an Arabic-English interpreter. Prosecutor John Murphy had asked for a sentence of at least 30 years, long enough "it forecloses any possibility that he reestablishes his ties with terrorists." Defense lawyer Charles Swift said Hamdan deserved a sentence of less than four years because his cooperation with US intelligence services more than outweighed his culpability as a member of bin Laden's motor pool.

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Bin Laden's Former Driver Sentenced to 5 1/2 Years in Prison - 5 months left to serve

2008-08-07

A military jury has reached a verdict on the sentence for Usama bin Laden's driver at the first Guantanamo Bay war crimes trial. 66 months in jail with credit for time already served - five months left to serve but liable to be detained as a POW Salim Hamdan faces up to life in prison, and prosecutors are seeking a sentence of at least 30 years. The verdict is to be announced by the same panel of six U.S. military officers that convicted Hamdan of supporting terrorism. He was acquitted of charges that he conspired in terrorist attacks. Hamdan pleaded for leniency earlier Thursday, saying he regretted the loss of "innocent lives" in bin Laden's attacks.

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Bin Laden driver to seek leniency from Gitmo jury

2008-08-07

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Osama bin Laden's former driver is expected to ask the Pentagon jury that convicted him of a war crime to spare him from life in prison Thursday, his defense lawyers said. I notice he doesn't protest his innocence... Salim Hamdan wiped tears from his face on Wednesday as the panel of six military officers delivered a split verdict at the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War II, declaring him guilty of aiding terrorism but acquitting him of conspiracy. Awww, c'mon Brave Jihadi. Turn that frown upside down... The tribunals' chief prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, said the failure to convict Hamdan of both charges will factor into the sentence his team recommends Thursday inside the hilltop courthouse on this U.S. Navy base. Hamdan is eligible for a maximum life sentence. "We of course have to prepare our sentence recommendation consistent with what the jury found," Morris said. The verdict will be appealed automatically to a special military appeals court in Washington. Hamdan can then appeal to U.S. civilian courts as well. I'm sure Ruth Bader Ginsberg is putting out his milk and cookies right now. Can't wait to read Justice Kennedy's opinion ... Deputy White House spokesman Tony Fratto applauded what he called "a fair trial" and said prosecutors will now proceed with other war crimes trials at the isolated U.S. military base in southeast Cuba. Prosecutors intend to try about 80 Guantanamo detainees for war crimes, including 19 already charged. But defense lawyers said Hamdan's rights were denied by an unfair process, hastily patched together after Supreme Court rulings that previous tribunal systems violated U.S. and international law. "History and world opinion will judge whether the government proved the system to be fair," Hamdan's lawyers said in a statement. Counselor, in two weeks nobody will remember the guy's name... Hamdan, a Yemeni, did not testify before the jury during his trial, but defense attorney Harry Schneider said the prisoner planned to ask for leniency at the sentencing hearing in either live testimony or a written statement to the jurors. Hamdan has been held at Guantanamo since May 2002. The military has not said where he would serve a sentence, but the commander of the detention center, Navy Rear Adm. David Thomas, said last week that convicted prisoners will be held apart from the general detainee population. And now...the inimitable AP spin. Under the military commission, Hamdan did not have all the rights normally accorded either by U.S. civilian or military courts. That's because he's not a U.S. citizen, not a member of the U.S. military, and doesn't have any rights under the Geneva Protocols. The judge allowed secret testimony and hearsay evidence. Hamdan was not judged by a jury of his peers and he received no Miranda warning about his rights. Sounds like they think he was driving without insurance. When was the last time anyone read a captured person his 'rights' on a military battlefield? And when was the last time anyone on a battlefield as unclear on the concept of surrender? You stick your mitts in the air and hope like hell the guys on the other side don't shoot you for sport. Hamdan's attorneys said interrogations at the center of the government's case were tainted by coercive tactics, including sleep deprivation and solitary confinement. However, his head is still attached to his body... We frequently confine people to solitary in American county jails. And you try sleeping in a county jail. Are we depriving everyone in a county jail their rights? They didn't put panties on his head, did they? I don't think I could live with that... All that is in contrast to the courts-martial used to prosecute American troops in Iraq and Vietnam, which accorded defendants more rights. Because they were Americans, dummy ... The five-man, one-woman jury convicted Hamdan on five counts of supporting terrorism, accepting the prosecution argument that Hamdan aided terrorism by becoming a member of al-Qaida in Afghanistan That's kinda aiding terrorism by definition, even if you're a cook. Or a driver. and serving as bin Laden's armed bodyguard and driver while knowing that the al-Qaida leader was plotting attacks against the U.S. But he was found not guilty on three other counts alleging he knew that his work would be used for terrorism and that he provided surface-to-air missiles to al-Qaida. Pay no attention to those missiles in the back seat. He also was cleared of two charges of conspiracy alleging he was part of the al-Qaida effort to attack the United States -- the most serious charges, according to deputy chief defense counsel Michael Berrigan. Berrigan noted the conspiracy charges were the only ones Hamdan originally faced when his case prompted the Supreme Court to halt the tribunals. Prosecutors added the new charges after the Bush administration rewrote the rules. "The problem is the law was specifically written after the fact to target Mr. Hamdan," said Charles Swift, one of Hamdan's civilian lawyers. Christ, this guy's got more lawyers then OJ had... The military judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, gave Hamdan five years of credit toward his sentence for the time he has served at Guantanamo Bay since the Pentagon decided to charge him.

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Guilty: Bin Laden's Driver

2008-08-06

A jury of six military officers at Guantanamo Bay has reached a split verdict in the war crimes trial of a former driver for Usama bin Laden, clearing him of some counts but convicting him on others that could send him to prison for life. Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, faces up to a life sentence after the 10-day trial, which provided the first demonstration of a special tribunal system for prosecuting alleged terrorists. Four of the six officers on the jury must agree on a conviction, according to the system's rules. Defense lawyers feared a guilty verdict was inevitable. That the jury found him not guilty on a couple counts won't matter to them at all ... The rules of the tribunal system at the U.S. Navy base appeared designed to achieve convictions, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, Salim Hamdan's Pentagon-appointed attorney. "I don't know if the panel can render fair what has already happened," Mizer told reporters as the jury deliberated. Isn't Cmdr. Mizer required to be respectful of the process and people? Hamdan's attorneys said the judge allowed evidence that would not have been admitted by any civilian or military U.S. court, and that interrogations at the center of the government's case were tainted by coercive tactics, including sleep deprivation and solitary confinement. Supporters of the tribunals said the Bush administration's system provided extraordinary due process rights for defendants. "This military judge is to be commended for providing a fair and internationally legally sufficient trial for the accused and the government -- regardless of the ultimate verdict," said Charles "Cully" Stimson, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs. Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in southern Afghanistan in November 2001 and taken to Guantanamo in May 2002. The military accused him of transporting missiles for al-Qaida and helping bin Laden escape U.S. retribution following the Sept. 11 attacks by driving him around Afghanistan. Defense attorneys said he was merely a low-level bin Laden employee.

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