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Hamdan Convicted Of Terrorism Support

From his despondent allies at the Associated Press:

Military jury convicts bin Laden’s driver

By MIKE MELIA, Associated Press Writer

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A jury of six military officers at Guantanamo Bay reached a split verdict Wednesday in the war crimes trial of a former driver for Osama bin Laden, clearing him of some charges but convicting him of others that could send him to prison for life.

The Pentagon-selected jury deliberated for about eight hours over three days before convicting Salim Hamdan of supporting terrorism. He was cleared of the conspiracy charge.

Hamdan, who faces a maximum life sentence, held his head in his hands and wept at the defense table after a Navy captain presiding over the jury read the sentence in a hilltop courtroom on this U.S. Navy base…

Defense lawyers had feared a guilty verdict was inevitable, saying the tribunal system’s rules seemed 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.

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…

Now, thanks to Mr. Hamdan and the Supreme Court, we will have the endless appeals.

As usual, the Associated Press is already writing the brief.

But at least the AP didn’t call this a “war crimes trial,” like Reuters did.

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 10:57 am. You can leave a response.

4 Responses to “Hamdan Convicted Of Terrorism Support”

  1. Reality Bytes
    August 6th, 2008 at 3:44 pm

    I see an opportunity for an EZ Pass lane at Club Gitmo.

  2. BillK
    August 7th, 2008 at 9:28 am

    The AP’s headline for the story this morning is of course “Verdict is mixed in first Guantanamo trial” in their best effort to belittle the outcome.

    How shocking.

    Meanwhile you’ll love this take on things from the UK’s “Independent”:

    Outrage as US military convicts Bin Laden’s driver of war crimes

    By David Usborne

    A jury of six military officers yesterday delivered a split verdict in the trial at Guantanamo Bay of a former driver of Osama bin Laden, convicting him of providing material support for terrorism but finding him innocent of potentially more serious allegations.

    The conviction, which brought to a conclusion the first war crimes trial involving the United States since the Second World War, drew instant protests from critics of the military system of trials put in place in Guantanamo, but was a qualified success for the administration of President George Bush.

    The defendant, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, reportedly wept as the judge read the verdicts in a courthouse on a hilltop in the Guantanamo complex. Under the rules of the military commission, determined by the Pentagon, no members of the public were allowed to witness the proceedings.

    Other differences between trials on the mainland and the commission system have fuelled the controversy over whether inmates at Guantanamo are being deprived of justice. In these trials, legal documents are mostly not released, hearsay evidence is permitted and confessions may even be elicited under physical coercion.

    Hamdan, who is from Yemen, was taken into custody at a road block in Afghanistan in November 2001 and moved to Guantanamo as an enemy combatant soon afterwards. Military prosecutors said he helped Bin Laden evade capture and detection by driving him around after al-Qa’ida attacks on the US, including the bombing of US embassies in Africa and the 11 September 2001 suicide attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.

    The prosecutors failed to convince the jury that Hamdan’s service to the al-Qa’ida leader amounted to participating in conspiracies against the US. However, his conviction on the lesser charge could still entail life imprisonment. The judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for later yesterday.

    Among the groups protesting against the verdict last night was the British-based legal charity Reprieve. “These trials are not just about a few men and what they may have done – they are about the message the United States is sending to the world. And that message right now is flat wrong: convictions by any means necessary,” said Reprieve’s senior counsel Zachary Katznelson. “The US needs to show it stands for openness and fairness – the very values we are fighting for. Instead, we get verdicts rammed down the gullet of justice.”

    The conviction also drew scorn from Ben Wizner, of the American Civil Liberties Union, who was allowed at the trial. “We were told that Guantanamo was necessary because these were the world’s most dangerous terrorists,” he said. “Salim Hamdan is not one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists.” …

    http://www.independent.co.uk/n.....87127.html

    Yep, he was only privy to the plans to kill 2,751. Surely that’s a nit.

    Yet the ACLU is busy filing suit against students who want to (gasp!) pray in school or cities that might display (scandal!) Christmas decorations while they claim Bush is turning the US into the USSR.

    Uh, yeah.

  3. low profile
    August 7th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    How does this differ from the Nuremberg Trials of 1946? Where were our faithful media watchdogs when Hess and Goering were being ‘railroaded’ for builind that evil Nazi empire? Every point made in these news articles has been made about Nuremburg.

  4. Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
    August 8th, 2008 at 3:14 am

    low profile,

    The difference is that during Nuremberg any journalist that even attempted to pull the BS that the media does openly today would have been tried for sedition. Boy, I yearn for the good old days.


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