Guantanamo prisoner rejects US war tribunal

By Jane Sutton

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A Yemeni
accused of being a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden went before a
U.S. military tribunal on Wednesday and said he would boycott
his war crimes trial because he did not recognize the
tribunal’s authority.

Yemeni Ali Hamza al Bahlul, who has acknowledged that he is
“from al Qaeda,” is one of only nine Guantanamo prisoners
charged with crimes.

A separate tribunal also began on Wednesday for Canadian
Omar Khadr, who is accused of killing a U.S. Army medic in
Afghanistan when he was still 15.

Most of the 500 or so detainees at Guantanamo have been
held without charges for years. The hearings began on the
fourth anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo as a prison for
terrorism suspects.

Bahlul is accused of conspiring to commit war crimes by
acting as a bin Laden bodyguard and making recruiting videos
for al Qaeda. He was escorted by two officers into a courtroom
at the remote U.S. military base in Cuba for pretrial arguments
and said he did not recognize the tribunal’s authority.

“There’s going to be a tribunal of God on the day of
judgment,” Bahlul told the court. “Do what you have to do and
rule however you have to rule … God will rule based on
justice.” His comments were made in Arabic.

Bahlul ended his participation in the proceedings with one
word in English “Boycott,” and the presiding officer, Army Col.
Peter Brownback, set his trial tentatively for May 15.

The tribunal for Canadian prisoner Khadr, accused of
killing the medic with a grenade during a firefight at a
suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan, was less colorful.

Looking burly and grown up, and sporting a crew cut and
full beard, the now 19-year-old quietly answered “Yes sir,”
when the presiding officer, Marine Col. Robert Chester, asked
him if he understood his rights.

Dressed in a blue and red T-shirt and white tennis shoes,
Khadr fidgeted and stroked his beard during the hearing and
asked that a Canadian lawyer be added to his defense team.

Through his military lawyer, Capt. John Merriam, he also
asked that a more experienced military attorney be appointed to
represent him. The hearing was the first time that Merriam has
represented anybody in a courtroom.

The tribunal called a recess while it considered the issue
of representation.

The Pentagon is proceeding with the two cases even though
courts have halted the trials of other Guantanamo prisoners
pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether President George
W. Bush had authority to establish the tribunals after the
September 11 attacks. The high court will hear arguments in the
case in March.

NO SHACKLES

Bahlul, with a short beard and mustache and wearing khaki
pants and a dark blue shirt, was not shackled or handcuffed.

He read a list of nine reasons why he refused to be
represented by a military lawyer or to participate further,
including the treatment of Palestinians by U.S. ally Israel —
“your allies, the Jews,” he said — and because his native
Yemen had been accused in the bombing of the USS Cole.

Bahlul also said Guantanamo prisoners had been tortured and
that the Britons there were not subject to military tribunals.
He objected to the potential use of secret evidence and to the
U.S. characterization of prisoners as illegal belligerents.

“We are prisoners of war and legal combatants based on our
religion and our religious law,” he said. “We do not care about
anything that you call us.”

Brownback rejected Bahlul’s request to represent himself
and Bahlul refused to meet with Army Reserve Maj. Tom Fleener,
the lawyer appointed by the military to defend him.

Smiling and thanking Brownback, he held up a sheet of paper
scrawled with the word ‘Boycott’ in English and Arabic. He
removed translation earphones, and refused to enter a plea or
to stand when the charges were read.

Bahlul and Khadr could face life in prison if convicted.

The United States has faced criticism at home and abroad
over Guantanamo since the first group arrived from Afghanistan,
shackled and wearing black-out goggles and surgical masks, on
January 11, 2002.

Fleener has called the tribunals a sham and said it is an
ethical violation for him to represent a prisoner who has
rejected his services. Brownback ordered him to defend Bahlul
anyway.

Human rights groups have criticized rules allowing the use
of evidence that may have been obtained through torture.

Chief prosecutor Col. Moe Davis said the tribunals were
designed to provide a fair trial while addressing an enemy
whose actions had not been anticipated under existing law.