Bin Laden aide defies US military court on Guantanamo anniversary (AFP)

[Up2Late]

(I wonder how Fox "news" and the Washington Times will distort this story?)

Bin Laden aide defies US military court on Guantanamo anniversary

12/01/2006 00h06

GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AFP) - A former aide to Osama bin Laden on Wednesday made a defiant appearance before a US military court as the Guantanamo "war on terror" camp marked the fourth anniversary of its operation. Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul, a 37-year-old Yemeni, told the war crimes tribunal he would boycott the hearings because he was not allowed to defend himself and did not recognize its authority.

Bahlul, an Al-Qaeda propaganda specialist, appeared in court four years to the day after Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners started arriving at the controversial US detention camp in Cuba. The Yemeni, who is accused of conspiracy to commit terrorism, was one of the first to be moved to the camp which has been the subject of regular allegations of abuse.

Bahlul has refused to be represented by any American lawyer and even to speak to his appointed US military defender, Major Thomas Fleener, who said he is sympathetic to the Yemeni's demand to defend himself. Bahlul acknowledged at a previous hearing in 2004 that he was a bin Laden follower.

At the latest hearing, Bahlul declared in Arabic that he was boycotting the proceedings and set out his opposition to the US military court, stating that the United States an enemy of Muslims. He referred to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda chief in Iraq, and demanded that all Guantanamo detainees be designated prisoners of war, rather than "enemy combatants" which gives them fewer legal rights.

(more at link below)
<http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/060112000629.zuutzso2.html>

[Up2Late]

1. kick n/t

:kick:

[Charlie Brown]

2. This guy sounds like a scumbag

but he is correct. Our military has no legitimacy to try him with "war crimes." Extradite him and let Yemen decide what to do about it.