GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba, July 21, 2008
Bin Laden's Driver Pleads Not Guilty
First War Crimes Trial At Guantanamo Bay Begins; Driver Faces Life In Prison
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Salim Hamdan is charged with conspiracy and aiding terrorism. He could get up to life in prison if convicted. (AP PHOTO)
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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.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 87 Comments........
Then what is Bin Laden''s hair stylist, gardener, and personal psychic going to be charged with?!
Posted by neoconRcrazy at 10:03 AM : Jul 21, 2008
..........
Bush will finally get to the bottom of all this "War on Terror" once we capture and try Bin Laden''s personal chef!
---Typical Liberal Moron
What is it with you Christian rednecks? You can tolerate anyone that disagrees with you? You hate America so much you want to re-create Nazi Germany right here. Don''t disagree with the "man" elected to temporarily hold an office or we will say you hate America. The libs disagree with what an individual is doing- you want to change how the government works so no one can speak. YOU HATE AMERICA !!! Take your cross and go back to Europe where you brought it from.
He didn''t want to catch Bin Laden, this boogey man serves the Bush white house well! Hey we got his driver though, great job!
"Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan in November 2001, allegedly with two surface-to-air missiles in the car."
What was he going to do, throw the alleged missiles across the Pacific?
What don''''t you bleeding heart Liberals get about this!!??"
The fact that Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan in November 2001, but you insist he could do damage to all Americans.
"I personally know someone who has guarded these scumbags for YEARS!" Posted by pzabbie
So what?
Posted by OldWisdom
Anti NRA, are we?
Well thats not just standard stuff you keep in the car if your are just a low-level driver and mechanic without any role in the al Qaeda conspiracy against the United States.
GUILTY.
Well thats not just standard stuff you keep in the car if your are just a low-level driver and mechanic without any role in the al Qaeda conspiracy against the United States.
Posted by XmanBorg at 11:31 AM : Jul 21, 2008
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Did it NOT occur to you that this guy JUST drives the car?! He probably doesn''t load it, and they don''t tell me what''s in it, because if he knew he might be to afraid to drive it! Think about it!!
...and they don''''t tell me what''''s in it,...
should be adjusted to read,
...and they don''''t him what''''s in it,...
Note- use your commonsense when reading posts.
Posted by zgomer at 12:11 PM : Jul 21, 2008
The right to a judge and jury...due process and a fair trial is not a "special break" Sir Galahad. What is this, the inquisition? This is not a witch hunt. The man deserves to plead his case...if he makes a good one, he deserves his freedom. If he is proven guilty...hang ''em. BUT...he deserves his day in court...everyone does. Next you neo-con fascist pigs are going to call for simply tossing possible terrorists into a lake to see if they float. This is AMERICA...we are a better people. We are a just people. If it was up to you, we would be no better than our enemy...only more powerful.
You people disgust me and nnothing about your right wing ravings is pat of the AMERICAN IDEAL!
Mission Accomplished nutjobs.
LOL, surface to air missiles for everybody !
Now there''s a wide stance for ya. Um, would now be a good time to get bin Laden? Is boosh done kissing their hands and feet? Ya, going after bin laden could possibly maybe someday be a potential idea.
You people disgust me and nnothing about your right wing ravings is pat of the AMERICAN IDEAL!
Posted by ThinkHarder
We wouldn''t be more powerful for long. We would end up so corrupt and full of hate, and the few of the sickest most power hungry greedmongers would bloat and actual believe they are always correct, and everyone else is lower...there would be total break down of our society - OH YEAH, KINDA LIKE THE PLACE WHERE THIS FILTHY ANIMAL COMES FROM!!!!
"Oh, I think he''''s waiting for Obama to sign is pardon and bless him."
Ya, that boosh has sure shown bin laden who''s boss. Hey, have you seen the pics of boosh kissing the bin ladens. It''s an easy google.
OF A MAN WHO DOESN''T OWN A CAR !!!???
HANG ''EM!
What me worry?
Salim looks as happy as an Iraqi morticion
watching the latest IED footage on his
''60 TV set.
---Typical Liberal Moron
Posted by jackie0428 at 10:40 AM : Jul 21, 2008
In this country, boosh has them on "Executive Privilege"...
We should be so lucky.
I wish they WERE rotting. Instead, our crazy and PC military gives them 3 meals a day, exercise time, prayer rugs, and Korans.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, every single prisoner taken by AQ is tortured with blow torches, nail guns, knives, and amputations. And only after months of torture, do they receive the merciful bullet in the head. A stay at Gitmo is like a visit to Club Med by comparison.
www.jihadwatch.org
Well, the Hermit aside, I hardly see where this guy''s crimes amoutn to what would be considered War Crimes, but under the neocons anyone who wants gas to go back to less than $2/gal is probably considered a war criminal, and I admit it''s pre-2005 thinking.
Sorry Dave, U r so dumb.
But let''s keep talking about a driver accused of war crimes for driving, this is an interesting concept. Did he drive millions to their deaths or something? Seems like the perfect first case if you''re serious about presecuting war crimminals.
Of course, Bush let the millionaire Bin Laden relatives leave the US without even questioning by the FBI before they flew all the Saudis out of the US when the rest of us were not allowed to fly.
We should be so lucky.
I wish they WERE rotting. Instead, our crazy and PC military gives them 3 meals a day, exercise time, prayer rugs, and Korans.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, every single prisoner taken by AQ is tortured with blow torches, nail guns, knives, and amputations. And only after months of torture, do they receive the merciful bullet in the head. A stay at Gitmo is like a visit to Club Med by comparison.
www.jihadwatch.org
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Posted by jackie0428 at 02:00 PM : Jul 21, 2008
+ report abuse
Gosh, that makes sense.....Let''s see, by your logic we should duplicate the most Horrendous and Inhumane Treatments ever devised throughout History because "They" did it......Break out the Rack, Guillotine, and Dismemberment apparatus, Boys, Ole'' Jackie wants to Re-Write U.S. and International Law and Treaties............Amazing......
Paul Joseph Watson
Comment: Despite studying September 11 for two years solid, one fact I only just discovered is that George W. Bush''s father was meeting with Osama bin Laden''s brother, Shafig bin Laden, in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Washington, on the morning of 9/11. They were on Carlyle Group business just a few miles from where hijackers supposedly acting on behalf of Osama bin Laden would fly a plane into the Pentagon.
Recall that the chief financier of the so-called hijackers, Pakistan''s Chief Spy General Mahmoud Ahmad, was meeting with Bush administration officials the week before 9/11. He also met with Bob Graham and Porter Goss on the morning of the attacks, who would later go on to head the first 9/11 investigative committee.
Using Shrub''s Idea of "Justice", Poppy should have been sitting in Gitmo with Goss and Graham for the last 5 years, subject to periodic "Enhanced Interrogation" sessions with the others.
The entire "War on Terra" was a Planned Op of the Neocons and Mossad. They''ve done it before, and they''ll do it again......
And the Dimbulbs say, "Bomb, Bomb, Iran"........
Paul Joseph Watson
That''s absolutely correct. And, if you also remember correctly, it was next that all flights were grounded and the bin Laden family rounded up to be flown out of the country. One another note: Neil Bush was given money by the Saudis to start up his software business. When Barbara Bush made her charitable "donation" to the hurricane Katrina relief, the donation was contingent upon purchase of this same software from her son''s business. This, I remember well from AAR and NPR. These facts should be remembered and taken into account, when Bush''s impeachment and war crime trial begins. It all ties in pretty tight and is well-documented.
Interesting veteran. Did you also know who the head of security was at the World Trade Center, and Building 7 TILL THE DAY BEFORE 9-11?
None other than Boosh''s brother...Marvin !
Interesting indeed. How about that nutjobs?
1. Cheney''s mother-in-law Joyce? She was the co-pilot on the plane that hit the Pentagon! I swear!
2. Karl Rove? Well, HIS barber had just left WTC2 only FIVE MINUTES before the 1st plane hit!! Wow!
3. Paul Wolfowitz? Yep, you guessed it: his brother Ivan was actually strapped to the missile that hit that field in Pennsylvania! For real!!!
4. Jenna Bush? Well hello??? The day before 9-11 she had just dated Felix Unger, who, incredibly, was on a news chopper covering the WTC towers as they fell. Whoa!!!
5. Most amazing of all, Barbara Bush! Yep, Bush''s mom!! She had actually just baked a plate of snickerdoodles and had them shipped via DHL to Zawahiri only 4 DAYS before 9-11!!! Wow!!!
Hey everyone, you TOO can play make-believe! It''s so much more fun than the truth, so lets go!!!
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