GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – Osama bin Laden’s chauffeur was formally charged Tuesday at the first U.S. military tribunal to convene since World War II, and the defendant’s lawyer quickly challenged the process as unfair and questioned the panel’s impartiality.
Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni, declined to enter a plea until motions filed by his military-appointed lawyer attacking the legality of the proceeding are decided, probably in November.
His lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, challenged the capacity of four panel members and an alternate to serve impartially. The challenges now go to the appointing authority, John Altenburg Jr., a retired Army general, to decide whether any of the commission members should be removed.
One tribunal member knew a firefighter killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Another was in charge of moving detainees to Guantanamo. An alternate on the panel admitted in his interview questionnaire that he had referred to the Guantanamo prisoners at one point as “terrorists.”
“Clearly, the impartiality of these panel members is a concern to us,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, who was one of several rights activists observing the hearing.
Hamdan smiled occasionally as he listened to an Arabic interpreter through headphones, even after hearing charges that could bring life in prison: conspiracy to commit war crimes, including attacking civilians, murder and terrorism. He isn’t charged with any specific violent act.
Hamdan has said he earned a pittance for his family as bin Laden’s driver before the Sept. 11 attacks, but he has denied involvement in terrorism. U.S. officials say he served as the al-Qaida leader’s bodyguard and delivered weapons to his operatives.
Tribunal member Marine Col. Jack Sparks Jr. said under questioning that he was a commanding officer of a Marine reserve unit and that one of his men was a firefighter killed in the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
Another member, Marine Col. R. Thomas Bright, said he was in charge of the logistics of moving detainees to Guantanamo and was involved in putting their names in order.
“I assembled the list,” said Bright, chief of staff at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va. He said, however, he had no knowledge of Hamdan.
An alternate, Army Lt. Col. Curt Cooper, said on his interview questionnaire that at some point he had referred to the Guantanamo prisoners as “terrorists,” but had no presumption of guilt about Hamdan or any other detainees now.
“It was a very general statement at a very general time,” he said, adding that since then he has studied Islam and al-Qaida to “understand both sides.”
Another panel member, Air Force Col. Christopher Bogdan, was involved in arming warplanes during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Air Force Lt. Col. Timothy Toomey said he was an intelligence officer in Afghanistan, and acknowledged he might have seen intelligence information on Hamdan.
The only member of the commission with formal legal training is the presiding officer, Army Col. Peter Brownback, a former military judge who came out of retirement when he volunteered.
Swift asked panel members if they would be willing to consider the legality of President Bush’s order setting up the commissions, which will allow secret evidence and no appeals. They all said yes.
In a handout issued before the hearing, Swift said he planned to ask that the charges be dismissed.
He said it was wrong for the commission to proceed without a separate ruling on Hamdan’s status as an “enemy combatant,” a classification that gives fewer legal protections than afforded prisoners of war. That classification was used to justify trying Hamdan and others before military commissions rather than courts martial or U.S. civilian courts.
Hamdan and three other men being arraigned this week face charges that could bring life in prison, but other detainees could face the death penalty.
It could be months before the actual trials begin.
Associated Press
A U.S. Army soldier guards detainees as they walk in a courtyard Tuesday at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.
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