Bin Laden's Driver Pleads Not Guilty

First War Crimes Trial At Guantanamo Bay Begins; Driver Faces Life In Prison

(CBS/ AP)  The first Guantanamo war crimes trial began Monday with a not guilty plea from a former driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.

Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, entered the plea through his lawyer at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

He is the first prisoner to face a U.S. war crimes trial since World War II.

Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, called a jury pool of American military officers into the courtroom and began reading them instructions. A minimum of five of the 13 officers must be selected for the trial.

Hamdan, a Yemeni, wore a khaki prison jumpsuit to the courtroom. The flowing white robe and headdress he wore at pretrial hearings was not cleaned in time for his trial, said Charles Swift, one of his civilian attorneys.

For months his lawyers fought to delay the trial, arguing that military rules don't allow for a fair defense, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports.

"These cases are too important to do incorrectly at the beginning," said Swift. "The importance is to get it right the first time."

Lawyers argue that enemy combatants like Hamdan, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others may not have complete access to witnesses or classified information that may help their defense. And questionable evidence, produced by harsh interrogations, may be used against them.

The legal advisor to the Military Commissions rejects the concerns, Orr reports.

"I would say that the rights we're providing to these accused in these cases are unprecedented in the history of warfare," said Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartman.

The trial is expected to take three to four weeks, with testimony from nearly two dozen Pentagon witnesses.

Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan in November 2001, allegedly with two surface-to-air missiles in the car. But his lawyers say he was merely a low-level driver and mechanic without any role in the al Qaeda conspiracy against the United States.

Hamdan was taken to Guantanamo in May 2002 and selected as one of the first inmates to face prosecution. His case has created repeated legal obstacles for the Pentagon including a Supreme Court ruling that struck down an earlier version of the tribunal system.

Allred began the proceedings Monday by indicating that he would not allow the government to use some of the evidence interrogators obtained from Hamdan during his detention in Afghanistan. Defense lawyers have argued those statements were tainted by "coercive" techniques and the fact that interrogators did not advise him of a right against self-incrimination.

Defense attorneys, who say Hamdan was merely a low-level bin Laden employee, have refused to say whether they are in negotiations over a possible guilty plea.

Julia Hall, senior counsel for Human Rights Watch's counterterrorism program, said Hamdan would not be a likely candidate for a plea deal because his case appears simple in comparison with others pending before the first U.S. war-crime tribunals since World War II.

"He has alleged direct associations with Osama bin Laden, he was not held in secret detention, and a federal court judge has ruled the commission can go forward," she said. "It seems obvious why he is a person that the government would want to test drive the military commissions on."

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey wants Congress to help figure out how to give Guantanamo Bay terror detainees their day in U.S. civilian courts.

A Supreme Court ruling last month "stopped well short" of detailing how foreign suspects will be allowed to challenge their detention, Mukasey said in draft excerpts of a speech he was to deliver Monday morning.

"In other words, the Supreme Court left many significant questions open," Mukasey said in the excerpts that were obtained by The Associated Press.

He called it "well within the historic role and competence of Congress and the executive branch to attempt to resolve them." Mukasey was speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think-tank.

At issue is the June 12 ruling that struck down a provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that denied Guantanamo detainees the right to file petitions of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus is a centuries-old legal principle, enshrined in the Constitution, that allows courts to determine whether a prisoner is being held illegally.

Mukasey wants lawmakers - and not federal district judges - to set the rules. It's unclear at best whether Congress could act by then, and any new laws setting such standards likely would be snarled in appeals for years.

Among the issues to be sorted out is how civilian judges might be allowed to review evidence against the prisoners. The Justice Department has fought for years to limit judicial review of evidence in these cases.

Mukasey noted that the Supreme Court acknowledged the hearings "could raise serious national security issues."

"The court recognized, and with good reason, that certain accommodations must be made to reduce the burden habeas corpus proceedings will place on the military and to protect sources and methods of intelligence gathering," Mukasey said.

Twenty Guantanamo detainees are facing charges, including five alleged plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks who were transferred here from secret CIA prisons in 2006. Prosecutors intend to charge as many as 80 inmates at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

[feelfree4u]

Re: "Bin Laden''s Driver Pleads Not Guilty"

My guess is that he plead not guilty, because he''s not.

We have already seen that most, if not all, Bush regime torture and prison victims have committed no crime.

[feelfree4u]

michaelt302,

Have you abandoned all hope of ever being able to hold your own in a discussion?

I don''t blame you.

It is clearly not your strong suit.

It''s fun to watch your frantic and hateful screeching spew forth in an open forum.

You look to be in your final throes.

Tough luck, Champ.

[feeelfree4u]

Read and learn:
www.jihadwatch.org
www.thereligionofpeace.com
www.terrorismawareness.org
www.frontpagemag.com

[feeelfree4u]

Good rules for Jihadists and Islamist apologists:
How about combating jihadism with this simple five-point plan:
1. Exhort Muslims in the West to focus their indignation on Muslims committing violent acts in the name of Islam, not on non-Muslims reporting on those acts.
2. Call upon Muslims in the West to renounce definitively not just "terrorism," but any manifestation of Islamic supremacism, including any intention to replace the U.S. Constitution (or the constitutions of any non-Muslim state) with Sharia even by peaceful means.
3. Teach Muslims the imperative of coexisting peacefully as equals with non-Muslims on an indefinite basis.
4. Call upon Muslims to begin comprehensive international programs in mosques all over the world to teach against the ideas of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism.
5. Call upon them to work actively with Western law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists within Western Muslim communities.

[feeelfree4u]

We cannot see what we do not understand. Our education system is bankrupt at all levels. Our universities do not prepare our young minds to see anything bad about Islam. Here in Nashville at Vanderbilt University you can get a degree in Islamic Studies and never read the life of Mohammed%u2014and never read the entire Koran. You study Sufi poetry, Islamic art and Islamic history viewed as a glorious triumph. No kafirs suffer in this program and there is no history of Jew, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist suffering under Islamic rule for the past 1,400 years. A graduate from this program then goes out into the world professionally trained to be an apologist for Islam, a dhimmi. And this program is standard at all schools, not just Vanderbilt.

All of our textbooks teach a CAIR approved history and doctrine of Islam. All of the young minds are trained to never see any wrong in Islam and to blame all the faults of Islam on us.

[feeelfree4u]

The media only has a concern for white oppression and white evil. If the source of evil is non-white and non-Christian, they don%u2019t care. Our Leftist media is forcing us to fight this ideological struggle with both hands tied behind our backs. To them, saying anything negative about other countries or cultures is not telling the truth, it is racism. To them, portraying America%u2019s values and accomplishments in a positive light is propaganda %u2013 and God forbid they indulge in anything so base as pro-American propaganda.

Another aspect of Leftist thought is that there is no absolute morality. Everything is relative, every kind of behavior and belief should be tolerated, and therefore the American system isn%u2019t better than any other. How can we engage in a battle of ideologies when you see all ways of life %u2013 even those that preach an end to tolerance and an end to intellectual freedom %u2013 as acceptable? And as we can see in the Obama campaign, you can talk about change as long as you serve the same menu of old ideas with a new smile.

[feelfree4u]

Look at the photograph of this Bush regime torture victim.

If Bush claims that he is guilty of something, then we can be certain that he was never any threat to anyone.

Bush and Cheney remain free while their countless victims continue to suffer.

This will not be remembered as a time to be proud of for the U.S.

Those responsible must be held to account.

[feeelfree4u]

The Left and Islam share many of the same values. Both deny that individuals have a personal ethic. A central authority should control all things. Both insult and denigrate their opponents and see themselves as victors in the movement of history. Both hate the native cultures and individual efforts.

The mindset of the Leftist is one of deliberate ignorance. I was a Leftist, a bleeding heart liberal until a few years ago. I came from a Marxist family in India. The Left, by its silence on the issue of radical Islam, has betrayed its own professed ideals, if it has any.

The fight against Political Islam should have been led by the liberal intellectuals in our universities, but instead they deliberately and systematically support a seventh century totalitarian ideology that negates all forms of rational thinking, intellectual pursuit, and pluralism - the very ideals which are supposed to be central to the philosophy of the Left.

The Liberals have become the lackeys of Islamic imperialism in their words and deeds. They fail to mention the 1,400 years of Jihadists'' terror in this world. How can we cry for the genocide in Darfur and ignore the cause?

[feeelfree4u]

Much of what we see today is proof of the legal inequalities that are built into Sharia law. Sharia is a set of laws designed to apply not just to Mulsims, but to non-Muslims as well. Everyone, believer and kafir alike, is supposed to live a life based upon Mohammed. However, kafirs %u2013 those who do not believe %u2013 are given distinctly different treatment than believers.

In America, we believe that all human beings are created equal, and that all human beings possess certain natural rights; our entire Constitution is just a logical extension of that one idea. To us, Muslims are humans just like everyone else, and therefore they should have the same legal rights as everyone else. Sharia law, on the other hand, is not based on logic or a belief in natural equality. It is based on religious customs, and part of its design is to elevate believers over non-believers.

Yet, we never bring up this inequality and lack of freedom under Muslim rule. We never point out Islam%u2019s long history of destroying or oppressing other cultures. We never remember the suffering of non-Muslims in Muslim nations. We never teach that Turkey was once Christian, or that Islamic jihad has reduced Hindustani culture to half of what it once was. Muslim groups often like to point to Christians as aggressors, citing the Crusades of the Dark Ages, but the West remains silent about people being oppressed in the Middle East today, right now.

[feeelfree4u]

CAIR is a direct manifestation of Mohammed%u2019s Sunna and jihad. CAIR is actually just one part of Islam%u2019s strategy to annihilate the Western culture. It is far more dangerous than any Mohammed Atta or any other jihadists.

Lies and deceit are CAIR%u2019s stock-in-trade. They claim to be akin to a %u201CMuslim NAACP,%u201D but everyone from the Department of Homeland Security, to FBI counterterrorism chiefs, to moderate American Muslims recognizes the extreme rhetoric that CAIR endorses. At least five of CAIR%u2019s board members and employees have been linked to terrorism-related activities. They are fifth columnists, preying upon our values of tolerance and multiculturalism.

But CAIR is just one of an untold number of Islamic organizations in our government and university centers. People forget that Mohammed%u2019s last words were to keep giving the money to kafir ambassadors and that is what Islam is doing in Washington, DC. Capitol Hill is awash in Saudi money and our dhimmi political types cannot get enough of it.

[feelfree4u]

Mr. Totten,

We''re still waiting.

Aren''t you worried about having to actually back up your hate-filled screeds, if there is a draft?

[feeelfree4u]

Wiping out Jihad is a massive task and takes much greater resolve than going to the moon or winning WW2, for example.
Here''s what we need to do:
1-Our military is too small for this job. Reinstate the draft. Make it a goal to triple the size of our Marines and Army and double the size of our Air Force within 5 years. Expensive? Yes. But we%u2019re talking about national survival here.
2-Ensure leaders of ALL Muslim countries know that the next major terrorist attack against the USA, UK, Australia, or any EU country will result in the nuclear incineration of a %u201Cmajor Islamic holy city%u201D within 24 hours. Ensure they realize we are referring to Mecca, and more.
3-Deport ALL Muslim foreigners from the US immediately. No exceptions. Also, all Muslim US citizens are given the choice to either (1) renounce Islam publicly and convert to any non-Islam religion or (2) be placed in detention camps until they renounce Islam.
4-In the USA, all mosques and Islamic schools are shut down and razed.
5-No visas are issued to Muslims to travel to the USA. No visas are issued to citizens of ANY country which are predominantly Islamic.
6-Using our military, seal the borders between Iraq and it%u2019s neighbors.
7-Flood the tribal areas of Pakistan with US military. Any villages even suspected of harboring Al Qaeda or Taliban is destroyed within 24 hours by American bombers.
Those of you who think this is excessive: this is the future, assuming things stay on the current track.

[feelfree4u]

Obviously I don''t share the paranoia, confusion, and blind hatred and fear of non-whites that my impersonator "FeeeelFree4U" (@ www.michaeltooten.com) is apparently possessed by.

Still, its flattering to have an impersonator.

[feeelfree4u]

We are told again and again by ''experts'' and ''talking heads'' that Islam
is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just
want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true,
it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us
feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics
rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the
fanatics are ruling Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50
shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who
murder Christians. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and ***. The hard fact is that the ''peaceful majority'', the ''silent majority'', is cowed and extraneous. History lessons are often very simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don''t speak up, because like Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun if we try and ignore or tolerate terrorist groups like Hamas because they are sworn to kill Jews and nonbelievers, and no peace conference will ever change that.

[feelfree4u]

It appears that you are trying to be anyone but yourself.

I guess that nobody could really blame you for that.

[feelfree4u]

Michael Totten,

Re: "1. Re-institute the draft. Now. Just do it."

You are of fighting age, seem to hate all non-whites and non-Zionists, yet you have so far failed to volunteer to join the fight.

Aren''t you worried about having to actually back up your hate-filled screeds, if there is a draft?

[feeelfree4u]

I''m not too sure who this cretin "FeelFree4U" is who is here trying to abuse and soil my good name. I guess it matters not, since trying to ascertain the motives of brain-dead dunderheads is a waste of good time. In any case, the pernicious, evil, pro-Jihadist, pro-terrorist nonsense he is spreading is clear for any person with an IQ over 25 to see.
As we all should know by now, the US did not attack Afghanistan per se. Rather, it went after Al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, which were allowed and supported and sanctioned by the Taliban. Taliban and Al Qaeda are in effect the same enemy and people. When you hear the word %u201CTaliban%u201D, it is equivalent to saying %u201CAl Qaeda forces that are in Afghanistan%u201D. Both factions are Jihadist, anti-Western, and believe in killing non-Muslims simply because of the difference in religion. After 9-11, the US administration gave the Taliban repeated deadlines to turn over ALL Al Qaeda in their country. They refused every single time. This is part of the historical record. The US attack on the Taliban in October 2001 was supported by over 90% of the American people. Congress was virtually unanimous in it%u2019s approval. Even today, this war is referred to as the %u201Cright war%u201D. History revisionists should be exposed for who they are.
www.jihadwatch.org

[feeelfree4u]

Sorry, but some of you people still, 15 years after Jihadists bombed the WTC, and 7 years after they destroyed it(and killed 3000 innocents) just don''t get it. For all practical purposes, Al Qaeda and Taliban and Hezbollah and Hamas and Fatah and Iranians and a hundred other Islamic-based groups are all the SAME enemy, the same team. They all have the same goals, the same objectives, and the same means---violence--to achieve them. How many dead people, how many bombs, how many suicide bombers and attacks will it really take for you to all get it through your thick skulls? We are fighting a massive movement here. 1.3 BILLION people are Muslims, a solid 10% of them are in violent conflict with the West, while the other 90% cower in terror and are afraid to speak or act. Want a precedent? Its called Germany in the 1930''s, as the Nazis came to power. Please, for the love of God, stop trying to over-complicate this issue by trying to %u201Cunderstand%u201D them or segment them group by group. It%u2019s a waste of time and emotion. These people are all radical Muslims, they are in every country on Earth, and they all have one thing in common: they want to kill YOU and your family. And unless you act, unless you speak up, unless you fight, they WILL.

[feelfree4u]

It looks like my feeble impersonator below, Mr. Totten, has stopped back by for a tantrum.

VvV

[feeelfree4u]

How to beat these Islamic Jihadists, and do it within a year:
1. Re-institute the draft. Now. Just do it. Gotta do it some day, might as well get %u2018er done now.
2. Force the US Army and Marines to grow by 33% within 6 months.
3. Add another 50,000 US troops to the Afghan-Pak border. Equip for full ground war. Send our most experience guys while we train the new draftees at home.
4. Add 300 more attack helicopters to the Afg-Pak border
5. The US should go into Pakistan (the tribal areas) anytime it needs to kill AQ and Taliban. On the ground or by air.
6. Destroy every last safe house, compound, and vehicle in this area
7. Use massive bombing strikes(like we did in 2001) and level any suspected AQ or Taliban village. Leave nothing but dust. Lay waste to the land.

We need to realize AQ and Taliban are like rats. If you even leave 2 behind, they will just make more. Time to go in, clean house, and be rid of the vermin.