GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba- Prosecutors in the trial of Osama bin Laden’s driver unveiled a graphic video on Monday of the Sept. 11 attacks and other Al Qaeda operations that is likely to play a repeated role in pending war crimes cases.The video is entitled ‘The Al Qaeda Plan,’ an echo of ‘The Nazi Plan’ made by Oscar-winning director George Stevens as evidence in the Nuremberg war crimes trials of German leaders after World War II.
| Nice touch. Perhaps they'll release the film to the public? I think the entire country could do with a viewing or three ... |
The six-member panel that will decide HamdanÂ’s fate also saw footage of charred bodies stripped of flesh in the bombings of two US embassies in Africa and the body of a US soldier dragged through the streets in Somalia in 2003. Control tower conversations with one of the doomed Sept. 11 planes were also included.
‘The Al Qaeda Plan’ was made for $25,000 by terrorism consultant Evan Kohlmann for the Office of Military Commissions, which is conducting the trials of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo. Its 90 minutes of video clips depict the history of Al Qaeda from its formation in 1988 through the Sept. 11 attacks.
The commissionÂ’s lead prosecutor, Col. Lawrence Morris, said the tape would be used in other trials but no decision had been made whether to use it in the trial of accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Hamdan’s attorneys objected that the footage would prejudice the jury. ‘They’re trying to terrorize the members,’ defense attorney Charles Swift told the court.
| The jury consists of military officers. I doubt they'll be 'terrified'. |
Commission Judge Keith Allred approved the video, after first saying it would serve more to prejudice the case than to prove a point. ‘The planes crashing into the towers and the people screaming doesn’t prove anything,’ he said.
A pivotal point of contention is the significance of HamdanÂ’s role in Al Qaeda. The Yemeni native was caught in November 2001 with two surface-to-air missiles in his car. Defense attorneys say he was a lowly driver, but the prosecution has sought to portray him as a trusted bodyguard who helped bin Laden evade capture and stay alive.
The two sides have also skirmished over an expertÂ’s testimony on the laws of war. With Hamdan being tried as a war criminal under a 2006 US law, the prosecution is seeking to show the United States was in a continuing armed conflict with Al Qaeda well before the Sept. 11 attacks. HamdanÂ’s attorneys have sought to demonstrate that the battle with Al Qaeda did not reach the state of armed conflict until the Sept. 11 attacks, which could make it harder for the prosecution to prove HamdanÂ’s actions count as a war crime.
| Other than the USS Cole, the embassy bombings and the Khyber barracks, who'd ever think al-Qaeda was at war with us? Oh yeah, they said they were ... |