Military Prosecutors Set To Open Major 9/11 Case

[Gold9472]

Sleep deprivation raised in bin Laden driver case

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...41480520080714

By Jim Loney
7/14/2008

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - A newly-released document suggests Osama bin Laden's former driver may have been subjected to 50 days of sleep deprivation at the Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba, the prisoner's defense lawyers said on Monday.

Lawyers for Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni in his late 30s, previously alleged Hamdan was beaten and abused. But they said sleep deprivation for 50 days, if proved, would be among the worst abuse he suffered at the hands of his American captors.

They also said the records indicated Hamdan and other prisoners at the remote detention camp in southeastern Cuba were visited by someone called "Alfred Hitchcock," apparently after the British master of psychological thriller films who died in 1980.

Hamdan is charged with conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists. Prosecutors argue he was a willing participant in al Qaeda while his lawyers say he was a member of a motor pool and drove bin Laden because he needed the $200 monthly salary.

Hamdan, wearing a traditional headdress and a white gown under a Western-style blazer, attended the first day of a week of hearings on legal motions before the war court.

His trial, scheduled to start in a week, would be the first at the tribunals. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Hamdan's lawyers said they discovered the document among 600 pages of "confinement" evidence handed over to the defense team on Saturday, 9 days before trial. It said Hamdan was put into "Operation Sandman" between June 11 and July 30, 2003.

Operation Sandman has been described in press reports as a program devised by behavioral scientists where an inmate's sleep is systematically interrupted.

"My view personally is that sleep deprivation of that nature extending for 50 days would constitute torture," said Joseph McMillan, one of Hamdan's civilian lawyers.

Documents released last week indicated that Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr was deprived of uninterrupted sleep at Guantanamo before an interview by a Canadian investigator.

Last month a defense lawyer urged a Guantanamo judge to help restore America's reputation by dropping attempted murder charges against Afghan prisoner Mohammed Jawad because he was subjected to 14 consecutive days of sleep deprivation.

Hamdan's lawyers have asked the war court to throw out his out-of-court statements due to coercion.

Their motions allege Hamdan was beaten in Afghanistan and subjected to "more sophisticated" abuse at Guantanamo including sexual humiliation, isolation, intimidation and deception.

WHO WAS ALFRED HITCHCOCK?
Defense lawyers said they were curious about the meaning of entries in the documents that "Alfred Hitchcock" had visited Hamdan and other prisoners.

"Who Alfred Hitchcock is I have no idea," said Navy Lt. Cmdr Brian Mizer, a defense lawyer. "It's obviously a code name for something."

Mike Berrigan, deputy chief defense counsel for the tribunals, called the last-minute submission of the documents "outrageous" and said it was another example of the unfairness of the tribunals.

"It's no way to do business and it puts a lie, to the world, that these are full and fair proceedings," he said.

Military officials had no immediate comment. The defense said it would seek sanctions as a result of the last-minute handover of papers due last December.

Earlier in the hearings, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, the military judge, said accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and some of his co-defendants may have relevant evidence to offer as defense witnesses for Hamdan.

The defense intends to call eight prisoners, including Mohammed and three other alleged September 11 plotters, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa al Hawsawi. They say Mohammed and bin Attash have evidence to exonerate Hamdan.

[Gold9472]

Khadr interrogation footage puts spotlight on CSIS

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl.../National/home

COLIN FREEZE
From Monday's Globe and Mail

July 13, 2008 at 9:10 PM EDT

When a Canadian spymaster was asked three years ago whether his agency had kept any tapes of its talks with teenage prisoner Omar Khadr in Guantanamo Bay, his reply was that nothing could be said.

The alleged existence of any such tapes was classified.

“To answer that question would disclose national security privileged information,” said Jack Hooper, a CSIS deputy director compelled to testify by lawyers acting for Mr. Khadr, the Canadian citizen being detained in the U.S. prison camp in Cuba.

“Mr. Khadr has provided us with a great deal of specific information concerning Canadian-based operatives associated with al-Qaeda, some of whom are still at large,” Mr. Hooper said. But he said it was illegal to even speak to whether records of the conversations were retained. “Disclosure of that information would reveal service operational methodologies and tactics.”

It was illegal – in 2005. But this week, CSIS, which has always operated in the shadows, will find itself in an uncomfortable spotlight. After a series of stunning legal decisions, footage of the CSIS interrogation of Mr. Khadr is about to be revealed.

Four DVDs – originally marked “Secret/No Foreign” by U.S. agencies that created them – show the Canadian Security Intelligence Service at work, something that has never happened before. This is being done over the objections of CSIS, which is far better known for destroying its own tapes than showing them, and U.S. agencies who will likely be irritated that Canadians courts have ordered up the DVDs that will provide a rare glimpse inside the secret prison camp operating on leased land in Cuba.

A CSIS agent, who travelled to Guantanamo Bay in February, 2003, will be shown grilling Mr. Khadr about six months after his capture, for seven hours over three days. His face obscured to preserve his secret identity, the agent will be seen asking Mr. Khadr questions about the al-Qaeda figures he met while he was raised in Afghanistan by his fundamentalist parents, before being captured as a 15-year-old alleged “enemy combatant.”

The CSIS operative will also be seen asking the teenager hard questions about his relationship with Islam. More than once, Mr. Khadr will be shown breaking down, crying, denying he knows anything about al-Qaeda.

The CSIS footage promises to be wrenching and remarkable, given the service was created a quarter-century ago to protect Canada while – and this is the cardinal rule – keeping its sources and methods secret.

Lately, clandestine activities provided for in 1984's CSIS Act have been running into a competing and concurrent law. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms bestows some of the world's highest civil-liberties protections to Canadian citizens, meaning that just as CSIS is getting more ambitious about chasing alleged terrorists at home and abroad, it is finding it is getting a lot harder to keep national security secrets.

“This has got to be the decade that the spies came in from the cold,” Jim Judd, CSIS's director said in a speech in April. “Whether voluntarily, or kicking and screaming.”

He spoke of a world where the “judicialization” of intelligence practices and aggressive reporting threatens the very idea of state secrecy.

Since Omar Khadr was detained in Guantanamo Bay on allegations he killed an American soldier, the now-21-year-old has been visited several times by agents from CSIS and Foreign Affairs Canada, after they negotiated access to Guantanamo Bay through the Pentagon.

Then, in 2005, a Federal Court judge examined Mr. Khadr's case and banned CSIS from future visits, ruling the “conditions at Guantanamo Bay do not meet Charter standards.” In May of this year, the Supreme Court of Canada went further: Canadian agencies were ordered to hand over the secret fruits of their past interviews to Mr. Khadr's defence team.

Exactly what would be produced for public consumption and what would be kept secret was ambiguous until the Federal Court of Canada settled matters last month. After hearing motions from The Globe and Mail and CTV and other media organizations, Mr. Justice Richard Mosley said certain documents and the DVDs could be released to the Khadr legal team, who were free to circulate materials as they saw fit.

The documents made headlines after being e-mailed to media organizations last week. This week, Mr. Khadr's defence plans to circulate the videos, with the hope of shaming Canadian officials into lobbying for his repatriation.

Federal government lawyers had argued that the disclosures of U.S. information could cause rifts with American intelligence. Judge Mosley did not dispute this. “It may cause some harm to Canada-U.S. relations,” he ruled, but added he expects the damage will be “minimal.”

“In any event,” he said, “I am satisfied that the public interest in disclosure of this information outweighs the public interest in non-disclosure.”

[simuvac]

He spoke of a world where the “judicialization” of intelligence practices and aggressive reporting threatens the very idea of state secrecy.

Like that's a bad thing.

[Gold9472]

The Alfred Hitchcock tidbit is interesting.

[Gold9472]

Decision on first Guantanamo trial expected Friday

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Decisio..._07152008.html

7/16/2008

The Bush administration and defense lawyers are awaiting a federal judge's decision due Friday to see whether the first war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay will go ahead next week or be postponed once again.

Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former chauffeur and bodyguard held for more than six years, is scheduled to face charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism beginning Monday in the nation's first war crimes tribunal since the end of World War II.

Lawyers for Hamdan, a 37-year-old Yemenite, have called for suspension of the trial following the US Supreme Court's June decision allowing the roughly 260 inmates at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their detention in civilian courts.

The US Justice Department by contrast is pushing for the trial by military tribunal to go proceed next week, court documents released Tuesday showed.

President George W. Bush and his administration have faced heated criticism since 2002 for detaining prisoners for years without ever giving them the right to defend themselves in court.

A federal judge in Washington, James Robertson, will have the final word on Friday, after a hearing with the two sides Thursday.

His decision is complicated by some 200 procedures of Habeas Corpus -- the right to contest one's detention -- filed by detainees in Guantanamo, Hamdan included, and being examined by federal court judges.

It also comes as the youngest detainee at Guantanamo, Canadian teenager Omar Khadr, was shown sobbing and begging for help as he was interrogated at the prison by Canadian agents in 2003 in a video released Tuesday.

Khadr, accused of killing a US soldier in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 15 years old, faces trial by military tribunal in October.

Hamdan is challenging the validity of the military tribunal set up by Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

That system was struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2006, only to see Congress pass legislation to legalize it four months later.

But in a serious blow to the Bush administration's hopes to try all the "war on terror" suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, a Supreme Court decision last month allowed the inmates to challenge their detention in civilian courts.

That decision has "complicated the situation in Guantanamo," Bush told a press conference Tuesday.

"My view all along has been either send them back home, or give them a chance to have a day in court," the president said. "I still believe that makes sense."

In court documents released Tuesday regarding Hamdan's case, the Justice Department argued that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 "unquestionably confers jurisdiction on the military court to try (the) petitioner."

"The public has a strong interest in seeing such individuals brought to justice as soon as possible."

The department also stated that Hamdan's attempt to challenge the validity of the military tribunal would afford him rights that were "utterly unprecedented" in military tribunals.

Hamdan's lawyers said his petition "challenges the jurisdiction and constitutionality of the (military) commission itself."

"Without an opportunity to resolve these challenges before trial, Hamdan will be irreparably harmed," they said.

[Gold9472]

US judge to consider blocking 1st Guantanamo trial

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080717/...den_s_driver_2

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 17, 4:35 AM ET

WASHINGTON - A federal judge is considering whether to block the first Guantanamo Bay war crimes trial from beginning next week. If he does, it could throw another kink into the Bush administration's legal strategy in the war on terrorism.

Salim Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, is scheduled to go on trial Monday as the first defendant in a special military commission system set up to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba. Other detainees, including alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are awaiting trials of their own.

But a Supreme Court ruling last month jeopardized those plans. The court ruled that detainees must be allowed to challenge their detention in civilian courts, a right that the Bush administration said for years did not exist.

Hamdan quickly asked a federal judge to delay his military commission trial, saying he must be allowed to challenge the legality of the system before he can be prosecuted. Otherwise, he says, he could be convicted in a process that is later revealed to be unconstitutional.

Furthermore, he says only enemy combatants can stand trial before a military commission. And since the Supreme Court says he has the right to challenge that label, Hamdan argues he cannot be prosecuted until that challenge plays out.

A military judge at Guantanamo Bay has already refused to delay the trial and the Justice Department is urging U.S. District Judge James Robertson not to get involved. Robertson scheduled a hearing Thursday in Washington to consider the matter.

Prosecuting suspected terrorists is a key part of the war on terrorism, the Justice Department said, and a necessary step toward closing the Guantanamo Bay prison.

"Putting the military commission proceedings on hold now would be contrary to these interests and hamper the government's war efforts, not to mention constitute a significant intrusion into areas within the province of the executive branch," government attorneys said.

Robertson may rule from the bench Thursday.

[Gold9472]

Judge refuses to delay detainee trial

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/17/gitmo.trial/

7/17/2008

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal judge refused Thursday to delay the approaching military commission trial of a Yemeni man who served as Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguard and driver.

Defense attorney Joe McMillan argues for the injunction before federal judge James Robertson.

Salim Hamdan will stand trial Monday at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled at a hearing in Washington.

Attorneys for Hamdan claimed that the military commission procedures violate Hamdan's constitutional rights and that no rules had been established for such trials.

However, Robertson said it was not the right time for defense attorneys to raise such arguments, which can be done on appeal after the trial is completed. And he said it was not the court's role to continue delaying the proceedings.

Hamdan is charged with providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy. Prosecutors contend that he was a member of al Qaeda from 1996 through 2001 and conspired with the group regarding terrorist attacks.

The government maintains that Hamdan has admitted being a member of al Qaeda and a driver for bin Laden.

His attorneys were attempting to cite a Supreme Court ruling last month that Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their detention in American courts, which would be to their advantage in delaying his trial. Robertson refused to grant their motion.

Neal Katyal, a Georgetown University law professor who represented Hamdan at the hearings, said he does not know whether he will appeal Robertson's ruling.

"We knew this was difficult going in," said Joe McMillan, another Hamdan attorney.

Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said in a statement that the department was pleased with Robertson's decision.

"The government looks forward to presenting its case against Mr. Hamdan for the commission," the statement said. "We note that, under the procedures established by Congress in the Military Commissions Act, Mr. Hamdan will receive greater procedural protections than those ever before provided to defendants in military commission trials."

Katyal argued before Robertson, "we don't know what rule book even applies to these trials." He said authorities should "get it right the first time, with basic rules set in place."

Justice Department attorney John O'Quinn argued that it was time for Hamdan's trial to go forward, saying Congress had passed the Military Commissions Act in 2006 -- in a case involving Hamdan -- setting forth guidelines for commission trials.

He won an important victory at the U.S. Supreme Court that year, when the justices struck down a version of the military commissions. The case led to the Military Commissions Act, which imposed greater legal barriers for prisoners held at Guantanamo. In their ruling last month, the sharply divided justices threw out a portion of that law.

Katyal noted that Hamdan has been held for years at Guantanamo. But Robertson pointed out that if he granted the attorneys' motion to delay the trial, it would set off another protracted legal battle.

Robertson said in making his ruling that it applies only to Hamdan's case, not those of other Guantanamo detainees.

Under the Military Commissions Act, those facing military commission trials have a limited right to appeal any conviction, reducing the jurisdiction of federal courts. The suspects must also prove to a three-person panel of military officers that they are not a terrorism risk. But defendants would have access to evidence normally given to a jury, and CIA agents were given more guidance in how far they can go in interrogating prisoners.

In addition to the Hamdan case, in 2004 the justices affirmed the right of prisoners to challenge their detention in federal court. Congress and the Bush administration have sought to restrict such access.

The White House has said it is considering whether to close the Guantanamo prison, suggesting that some of the high-level al Qaeda detainees could be transferred to the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, and a military brig in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Both presumptive presidential nominees, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, have said they would close Guantanamo Bay.

Americans are split on the issue, according to a 2007 poll by CNN and Opinion Research Corp., with 46 percent supporting its continued operation and 45 percent opposed.

Most of the dozens of pending detainee cases have been handled in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. In February 2007, that court upheld the Military Commissions Act's provision stripping courts of jurisdiction to hear challenges from Guantanamo prisoners, but a three-judge panel of the same D.C. Circuit later expressed concern about why the U.S. military continues to limit attorney access to the Guantanamo men.

About 270 detainees are being held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, according to the Pentagon. They include 14 suspected top al Qaeda figures, among them Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, suspected mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks, who was transferred to the facility for trial in 2006.

[Gold9472]

Alleged 9/11 mastermind may testify in Hamdan's trial

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/44714.html

By Carol Rosenberg | Miami Herald

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — A war court judge on Friday ordered the government to allow Salim Hamdan's attorneys to meet with the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks before the start Monday of Hamdan's trial on charge he supplied material support to a terrorist organization as Osama bin laden's driver.

Navy Capt. Keith Allred, the judge in the military commission, said that Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer should be allowed to interview Khalid Sheik Mohammed and six other so-called high-value detainees implicated in plotting the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. At issue for Hamdan is whether Mohammed and other alleged members of the senior al Qaida inner circle would offer testimony that would back his claim that he never was anything more than a hired go-for for the al Qaida leader.

Prosecutors had consistently balked at granting Hamdan's lawyers access, but said Friday that arrangements would be made. Allred said this week that Mohammed and others should be allowed to testify. But by Friday afternoon it was not clear whether Mohammed would actually testify and if so whether reporters and other court observers would be allowed to watch.

Allred ordered that Mizer be allowed access to the men over the weekend.

The Pentagon has been assembling 22 witnesses for the trial. The government has predicted it would take 10 to 14 days to present its evidence, followed by a week or more of defense testimony.

'The CIA, which had kept Mohammed and the other alleged 9/11 conspirators in secret detention until turning them over to the military, has insisted that their former captives can talk only to people at Guantanamo with special classified security clearances. But Mizer already holds the needed clearances.

[Gold9472]

Guantanamo Bay: Bin Laden's driver begins trial today

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/...7-5cc4635af7db

Citizen News Services
Published: Monday, July 21, 2008

Osama bin Laden's driver will face a controversial form of American justice today in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial, 61/2 years after the United States opened its prison camp in Cuba to jail fighters in the "war on terror." Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni, faces life in prison if convicted of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism in a court created by President George W. Bush in response to 9/11.

[Gold9472]

Former Bin Laden Driver Pleads Not Guilty
Salim Hamdan is the First Person to Face a U.S. War Crimes Trial Since WWII

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=5414313

7/21/2008

The first war crimes trial at Guantanamo has begun with a not guilty plea from a former driver for Osama bin Laden.

Salim Hamdan entered the plea Monday through his lawyer under tight security 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.

Hamdan is charged with conspiracy and aiding terrorism. He could get up to life in prison if convicted.

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