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| Bin Laden driver to seek leniency from Gitmo jury |
| 2008-08-07 |
| GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Osama bin Laden's former driver is expected to ask the Pentagon jury that convicted him of a war crime to spare him from life in prison Thursday, his defense lawyers said. I notice he doesn't protest his innocence... Salim Hamdan wiped tears from his face on Wednesday as the panel of six military officers delivered a split verdict at the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War II, declaring him guilty of aiding terrorism but acquitting him of conspiracy. Awww, c'mon Brave Jihadi. Turn that frown upside down... The tribunals' chief prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, said the failure to convict Hamdan of both charges will factor into the sentence his team recommends Thursday inside the hilltop courthouse on this U.S. Navy base. Hamdan is eligible for a maximum life sentence. "We of course have to prepare our sentence recommendation consistent with what the jury found," Morris said. The verdict will be appealed automatically to a special military appeals court in Washington. Hamdan can then appeal to U.S. civilian courts as well. I'm sure Ruth Bader Ginsberg is putting out his milk and cookies right now. Can't wait to read Justice Kennedy's opinion ... Deputy White House spokesman Tony Fratto applauded what he called "a fair trial" and said prosecutors will now proceed with other war crimes trials at the isolated U.S. military base in southeast Cuba. Prosecutors intend to try about 80 Guantanamo detainees for war crimes, including 19 already charged. But defense lawyers said Hamdan's rights were denied by an unfair process, hastily patched together after Supreme Court rulings that previous tribunal systems violated U.S. and international law. "History and world opinion will judge whether the government proved the system to be fair," Hamdan's lawyers said in a statement. Counselor, in two weeks nobody will remember the guy's name... Hamdan, a Yemeni, did not testify before the jury during his trial, but defense attorney Harry Schneider said the prisoner planned to ask for leniency at the sentencing hearing in either live testimony or a written statement to the jurors. Hamdan has been held at Guantanamo since May 2002. The military has not said where he would serve a sentence, but the commander of the detention center, Navy Rear Adm. David Thomas, said last week that convicted prisoners will be held apart from the general detainee population. And now...the inimitable AP spin. Under the military commission, Hamdan did not have all the rights normally accorded either by U.S. civilian or military courts. That's because he's not a U.S. citizen, not a member of the U.S. military, and doesn't have any rights under the Geneva Protocols. The judge allowed secret testimony and hearsay evidence. Hamdan was not judged by a jury of his peers and he received no Miranda warning about his rights. Sounds like they think he was driving without insurance. When was the last time anyone read a captured person his 'rights' on a military battlefield? And when was the last time anyone on a battlefield as unclear on the concept of surrender? You stick your mitts in the air and hope like hell the guys on the other side don't shoot you for sport. Hamdan's attorneys said interrogations at the center of the government's case were tainted by coercive tactics, including sleep deprivation and solitary confinement. However, his head is still attached to his body... We frequently confine people to solitary in American county jails. And you try sleeping in a county jail. Are we depriving everyone in a county jail their rights? They didn't put panties on his head, did they? I don't think I could live with that... All that is in contrast to the courts-martial used to prosecute American troops in Iraq and Vietnam, which accorded defendants more rights. Because they were Americans, dummy ... The five-man, one-woman jury convicted Hamdan on five counts of supporting terrorism, accepting the prosecution argument that Hamdan aided terrorism by becoming a member of al-Qaida in Afghanistan That's kinda aiding terrorism by definition, even if you're a cook. Or a driver. and serving as bin Laden's armed bodyguard and driver while knowing that the al-Qaida leader was plotting attacks against the U.S. But he was found not guilty on three other counts alleging he knew that his work would be used for terrorism and that he provided surface-to-air missiles to al-Qaida. Pay no attention to those missiles in the back seat. He also was cleared of two charges of conspiracy alleging he was part of the al-Qaida effort to attack the United States -- the most serious charges, according to deputy chief defense counsel Michael Berrigan. Berrigan noted the conspiracy charges were the only ones Hamdan originally faced when his case prompted the Supreme Court to halt the tribunals. Prosecutors added the new charges after the Bush administration rewrote the rules. "The problem is the law was specifically written after the fact to target Mr. Hamdan," said Charles Swift, one of Hamdan's civilian lawyers. Christ, this guy's got more lawyers then OJ had... The military judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, gave Hamdan five years of credit toward his sentence for the time he has served at Guantanamo Bay since the Pentagon decided to charge him. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #5 Hamdan was not judged by a jury of his peers and he received no Miranda warning about his rights. "Damn, I got jury duty!" - Osama |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-08-07 22:06 |
| #4 6 months means that the big O can't release him and grandstand to great international applause. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-08-07 17:18 |
| #3 Gitmo jury gives bin Laden driver 5 1/2 years GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A military jury has sentenced Osama bin Laden's former driver to 5 1/2 years in prison for aiding terrorism, making him eligible for release in just six months. Salim Hamdan was acquitted of conspiracy in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-08-07 16:08 |
| #2 On accounta Yemen's such a big place nobody knew the prominent bin Laden clan that made their money in the Saudi kingdom. Or the son who was so vocal in his Yemeni dislike of the desert princes ... |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-08-07 15:43 |
| #1 GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Salim Hamdan pleaded with a military jury to spare him from a life in prison, apologizing Thursday for the "innocent people" who died in the Sept. 11 attacks and saying he worked as Osama bin Laden's driver only because he needed a job. Military prosecutors asked for a sentence of no less than 30 years, asking the Pentagon-appointed jury to make an example of him. The five men and one woman began their deliberations Thursday afternoon in the yellow courthouse overlooking an abandoned airport runway. "It's true there are work opportunities in Yemen, but not at the level I needed after I got married and not to the level of ambitions that I had in my future," he said, reading in Arabic from a prepared statement. Hamdan expressed regret over the "innocent people" who died, according to a Pentagon transcript. His apology couldn't be heard by reporters because the sound was turned off during part of the proceedings to protect classified information. "I personally present my apologies to them if anything that I did has caused them pain," Hamdan said. He also said he didn't know bin Laden was a terrorist when he took the job, saying it came as "a big shock" when he learned the al-Qaida leader was responsible for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Shocked! Shocked, I tells ya!! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-08-07 15:24 |