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| Al Qaeda propagandist to go on trial at Guantanamo |
| 2008-10-27 |
| Al Qaeda propagandist Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul will go on trial in front of a US military tribunal at the Guantanamo prison on Monday, with the Pentagon saying it expects he will appear despite his vows earlier this year to boycott the proceedings. Only the second person to face trial in Guantanamo since the facility opened in 2002 for hundreds of war-on-terror detainees, Bahlul, 39, will face terrorism and murder charges under the special military tribunal system set up for Guantanamo detainees. In the first test of the "war crimes" tribunals -- the first time they have been used since World War II -- military jurors in August found Osama bin Laden's former driver Salim Hamdan guilty of providing material support to terrorism but rejected stronger terrorist conspiracy charges the government lodged. The US is charging Bahlul, one of the first US war-on-terror detainees to be sent to Guantanamo in early 2002, with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit terrorism, murder, terrorism, providing material support for terrorism. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison. Bahlul is also accused of preparing the video of the last "martyr wills" of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 19-man team which hijacked four passenger jets to crash them into US buildings on September 11, 2001. The US says he answered directly to al-Qaeda's leadership and maintained for them important equipment; it also says he carried a suicide belt and grenades with him to be used to protect the leaders. Currently about 20 of the 255 detainees now in Guantanamo are facing trial by military commission. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 why don't they face the death penalty?? |
| Posted by: chris 2008-10-27 13:04 |
| #1 Not bringing him to VA? The land lines between dick turban's office and the un are smokin'! |
| Posted by: Last Breath Farm Resident 2008-10-27 03:58 |