tagged w/ Salim Ahmed Hamdan
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Osama bin Laden's driver has been released from Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. has transfered him to Yemen where he will serve the rest of his sentence. He was first thought to be a terrorist mastermind. Now not so much.Osama bin Laden's driver has been released from Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. has... more
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Osama bin Laden's former driver and bodyguard will be moved from the prison at Guantanamo Bay to serve the rest of his sentence in Yemen. Salim Ahmed Hamdan was convicted by a military commission in August of a war crime -- providing material support to al Qaeda -- but was cleared of more serious terrorism conspiracy charges.
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It was quintessential Guantánamo, where things are rarely what they seem. The Pentagon’s spokesmen, for example, repeat like a mantra that the detention camp delivers “safe and humane” care. But military investigators have documented a history that includes treatment of one detainee who was isolated, deprived of sleep and forced to perform dog tricks.
Another military mantra is that the tribunal is open and transparent. But no one can go to this remote naval station to attend the sessions without military orders. At the tribunal itself, where many seats are empty, journalists are accompanied at all times by military escorts, who stand guard even outside the latrine.
So it was in keeping with the contradictions of Guantánamo that the Hamdan trial in many ways looked like an American trial and in many ways did not.
There were secret filings. There were closed sessions. There were unexplained mysteries. After a session was cut short because a participant was said to be ill, a military spokeswoman said it was not Mr. Hamdan. The next day, a different spokeswoman disclosed that it had indeed been Mr. Hamdan, who had, she said, been seen at a hospital for flulike symptoms.It was quintessential Guantánamo, where things are rarely what they seem. The... more
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Hamdan Receives Credit for Time Served, Could Be Released in 5 Months
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Aug. 7 -- A former driver for Osama bin Laden was sentenced today to 5 ½ years in prison for his material support for terrorism, a relatively light sentence that means the first detainee at Guantanamo Bay to face a full military commission trial could be released from custody in just five months.
The six military officers who found Salim Ahmed Hamdan guilty of terror charges yesterday came back with the sentence this afternoon, knowing that the judge in the case was going to give Hamdan credit for the five years and one month of his pre-trial incarceration at Guantanamo.
Hamdan, whose case at one point reached the Supreme Court and forced the U.S. government to retool its trial system for alleged terrorists held at Guantanamo, received the first verdict under a full military commission and arguably both won and lost. He was convicted of supporting al-Qaeda by driving and guarding bin Laden and ferrying weapons for the terror group, but he was acquitted of charges alleging terror conspiracy and escaped a potential life sentence.
It is unclear what will happen to Hamdan after he finishes serving his remaining time, because military prosecutors and military commissions officials have argued they have the ability to hold enemy combatants indefinitely, until the end of hostilities in the so-called war on terror. While the Bush administration could order him held, officials could also transfer him to the custody of his home country, Yemen, or release him outright.
At the sentencing hearing, Hamdan had pleaded for a light sentence and apologized to U.S. victims of terrorist attacks. "It was a sorry or sad thing to see innocent people killed," Hamdan was quoted as saying.
"I personally present my apologies to them if anything what I did have caused them pain."
He admitted that he kept working for the al-Qaeda leader even after he learned that bin Laden had planned terrorist attacks.
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Much more at link.
Interesting conclusion, to say the least, and a surprisingly fair verdict, all things considered.Hamdan Receives Credit for Time Served, Could Be Released in 5 Months
GUANTANAMO... more
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GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — - A panel of six military officers convicted a former driver for Osama bin Laden of a war crime Tuesday, completing the first military commission trial here and the first conducted by the United States since the end of World War II.
The military commission conviction of the former driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who was part of a select group of drivers and bodyguards for Mr. bin Laden until 2001, was a long-sought, if some what qualified, victory for the Bush administration, which has been working to begin military commission trials at the isolated naval base here for nearly seven years.
The commission acquitted Mr. Hamdan of a conspiracy charge, arguably the more serious of two charges he faced, but convicted him of a separate charge of providing material support for terrorism.
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — - A panel of six military officers convicted a... more
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