Bin Laden driver convicted at Guantanamo of aiding terror

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba – A military jury Wednesday convicted Osama bin Laden’s driver of providing material support to terrorism but acquitted him of the more serious charge of conspiracy.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan quietly collapsed in tears at the defense table where he had sat through three weeks of government testimony about his involvement with Al Qaeda, mostly gleaned from at least 40 interrogations by U.S. federal agents.

The Navy captain presiding over the six-person jury slowly read out the verdict on each of 10 separate counts, announcing first that the 38-year-old Yemeni with a fourth-grade education was not guilty on both counts of conspiracy.

It wasn’t clear whether Hamdan, dressed in a charcoal-gray jacket and traditional Yemeni head scarf, wept in disappointment or relief. Through nearly seven years of legal wrangling, including a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the initial war-crimes case against him, Hamdan has been apprised by his lawyers of the Bush administration’s stated intent to keep all branded “enemy combatants” detained indefinitely, regardless of any acquittals at the tribunal here.

Defense lawyers noted that conspiracy was the only charge levied against Hamdan by the government in his initial 2004 indictment for war crimes – a case thrown out by the Supreme Court ruling that the tribunal was unconstitutional because it had been set up by President Bush without consultation with Congress.

The guilty verdicts on five of the eight counts of providing material support to terrorism appeared to heed the military judge’s instructions on Monday that in the war theater of Afghanistan, a combatant attack on invading U.S. forces would not constitute a war crime, though possibly an illegal action prosecutable by domestic civilian courts. Prosecutors had argued that two SA-7 missiles founds in Hamdan’s possession when he was arrested could only have been intended for use against U.S. warplanes – the only air power involved in the Afghan conflict.

The jurors deliberated for less than eight hours over three days before announcing they had reached a verdict. It was unclear whether their decisions were unanimous: military commissions, as the trials are called, require only a two-thirds majority for conviction.

To reach a guilty verdict on either of the two charges, the jurors had to find Hamdan guilty on at least one of the “specifications,” or counts.

Hamdan was arrested with the two surface-to-air missiles in a Toyota hatchback he said he borrowed to take his family to safety in Pakistan from the Al Qaeda stronghold in Kandahar. The jurors found him not guilty on all three of the material support counts related to his possession of those missiles.

Conviction on all of the allegations could have led to a life sentence. The jurors, all senior officers, will convene later today to begin determination of a sentence for the first person convicted in the war-crimes tribunal.

The jurors are expected to hear from several prosecution witnesses who will argue that Hamdan should get a lengthy sentence for his aid to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, mostly provided in the form of driving and occasional bodyguard duties.

Defense witnesses will include a psychologist who has diagnosed the defendant as suffering mental disorders from nearly seven years of imprisonment here, much of it in solitary confinement, and in Afghanistan, where he was captured at a roadblock on Nov. 24, 2001.

Hamdan is also expected to testify on his own behalf, but tribunal authorities said that portion of the penalty phase will be closed to the public out of concern that he might disclose classified information.

Two defense witnesses were required to testify in secret last week because of “protective orders” issued by the court that forbid any mention of certain federal agencies, including the CIA. Their testimony apparently spelled out for the jury - but not the public - an “opportunity” Hamdan offered U.S. Special Forces during his captivity in Afghanistan that defense lawyers say was “squandered” by the United States. Speculation centered on presumed knowledge of Bin Laden’s whereabouts or the secret bunker to which he fled shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks to escape U.S. retribution.

The military judge, Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred, is also considering crediting Hamdan with time served here against any sentence imposed by the jurors.

Pentagon officials have said, however, that Hamdan and any other tribunal defendants, whether guilty or acquitted, will remain incarcerated as “enemy combatants” for the duration of the proclaimed global war on terror.

carol.williams@latimes.com