Guantanamo jury decides fate of Bin Laden's videomaker

A jury of US military officers at Guantanamo’s second war-crimes trial reached a verdict that could put Osama bin Laden’s alleged “media secretary” and videomaker in prison for life.

But the decision will not be announced until Monday because Ali Hamza al-Bahlul was already back in his cell when the verdict was reached, said the judge, Air Force Col Ronald Gregory. The judge had told al-Bahlul no announcement would be made in his absence.

The nine panellists, approved by the Pentagon to serve as jurors, deliberated at the Cuba naval base for about four hours. Al-Bahlul offered no defence after calling the proceedings a “legal farce”.

The prosecution said al-Bahlul’s violent propaganda videos helped inspire the September 11 2001 attacks. The Yemeni prisoner also helped prepare at least two September 11 hijackers for their mission and instructed many other terrorists through videos he created as a propagandist for al Qaida in Afghanistan, Army Major Daniel Cowhig said.

“The accused shouted through the medium of video, the internet, and DVDs, ’Love death, hate life’,” Maj Cowhig said in closing statements yesterday.

Al-Bahlul refused to present a defence in the week-long trial because the judge ruled he could not represent himself. His Pentagon-appointed lawyer did not speak in deference to his client’s wishes, declining even to answer questions from the judge.

Al-Bahlul, who was brought to Guantanamo in 2002, is the second prisoner to go through a war crimes trial under the special military commissions system.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted of conspiracy, supporting terrorism and solicitation to commit murder.

The military claims al-Bahlul committed war crimes by serving as chief propagandist for al Qaida and as an aide to bin Laden. Videos made by the defendant were allegedly shown to terrorist recruits at training camps in Afghanistan.

Maj Cowhig said he also arranged for lead September 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta to swear a loyalty oath to bin Laden and prepared filmed martyrdom wills for Atta and fellow hijacker Ziad Jarrah in preparation for the attacks against the US.

“(These videos) contain the thoughts, the beliefs, the ideals of the accused,” the prosecutor said.

Among the 14 people who testified for the defence, three upstate New York men convicted of aiding terrorism said their al Qaida training included viewing a propaganda video allegedly created by al-Bahlul.

The witnesses said the two-hour video featuring depictions of al Qaida’s deadly 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, spliced with images of terrorist training camps and Muslims being brutalised, was intended to inspire suicide attacks.

The military says al-Bahlul repeatedly admitted to interrogators that he was al Qaida’s media chief and made propaganda videos for bin Laden, but did not consider his actions criminal.

But the US military already determined him to be an unlawful enemy combatant, and says any work he did for al Qaida was by definition a war crime because al Qaida is a terrorist organisation.

Just before the jury announced it had reached a verdict, al-Bahlul’s Pentagon-appointed lawyer said the government’s case was surprisingly sloppy considering the time it had to prepare against al-Bahlul.

“I believe this is the last military trial that will take place. I think that this trial has further exposed this process and has turned the tide against continuing with military commissions,” Air Force Major David Frakt told reporters

Army Col Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo tribunals, said if al-Bahlul was convicted of war crimes, sentencing would probably follow immediately on Monday.

Jamil Dakwar, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who has been observing the trial, said the prosecution failed to prove al-Bahlul had any real connection to the September 11 attacks.

“It is an injustice to the victims of 9/11 for the government to build its case solely by videos and images of the attacks,” he said. “Americans deserve better than this.”