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Prosecutors play interrogation video in Gitmo trial

In this image reviewed by the US military, a razor-wire fence surrounds the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba on Wednesday. PHOTO: EPA

US military prosecutors on Wednesday played an interrogation video that shows a driver for Osama bin Laden denying any connection to al-Qaeda but also fretting that he is “finished.”

Salim Hamdan, kneeling before a masked US soldier, insisted that he worked for an Islamic charity in the video that US Special Forces soldiers recorded in Afghanistan shortly after his capture in November 2001.

“It is all finished for me, why should I lie?” Hamdan said, who appeared much heavier in the recording that ended with soldiers placing a bag over his head.

The videotape was entered as evidence against Hamdan in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial. The Yemeni prisoner has acknowledged working for bin Laden, but only as a low-level member of his motor pool. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted of conspiracy and supporting terrorism.

As the video began on Wednesday, Hamdan asked to leave the specially built courtroom on this US Navy base and was led out by guards, saying: “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

He returned about an hour later and apologized to the judge.

A former FBI agent also testified on Wednesday that Hamdan was so close to bin Laden that he attended a meeting of top al-Qaeda aides the day of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Hamdan heard bin Laden praise the attacks and the hijackers at the meeting in Afghanistan, former agent Ali Soufan said as prosecutors sought to build their case in the first US military war crimes trial since World War II.

Bin Laden even gave Hamdan marriage advice and held a feast for him after his marriage, Soufan said, recounting interrogations of the prisoner at Guantanamo to counter defense claims that the defendant was a lowly driver with no significant link to terrorism.

“It shows a close relationship and the affinity that Mr. bin Laden has for him,” Soufan said, addressing the Pentagon-selected jury of US military officers while referring to the wedding celebration.

Hamdan’s car was stopped at a roadblock in southern Afghanistan, where troops searched the vehicle and allegedly found two surface-to-air missiles and a Taliban permit to carry weapons. He was captured after attempting to flee. In the interrogation video, he said he ran because he was startled by shooting in the area.

“Goodness, a person gets scared,” he said in Arabic. “I feared for my life.”

Hamdan’s interrogator, identified only as “Sergeant Major A,” testified this week that he cut his two sessions with the prisoner short because he was not providing any information helpful for US forces.

Soufan, who was a top FBI terrorism expert until he left the agency in 2005, said Hamdan helped move bin Laden and one of his sons, Uthman, to a safer location days before Sept. 11, 2001.

After the attacks, Hamdan continued to help bin Laden despite hearing him boast about the number of people killed, he said.

“He heard bin Laden saying that he didn’t expect the operation to be that successful,” Soufan said. “He only thought 1,000 or 1,500 people would perish, so he was happy about the results.”


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