Guantanamo Jury Sentences Bin Laden Aide to Life Term

[maddezmom]

Source: WaPo

Guantanamo Jury Sentences Bin Laden Aide to Life Term


By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 4, 2008; Page A10

An al-Qaeda propagandist who promised endless war against the United States was sentenced to life in prison yesterday, after his conviction at Guantanamo Bay on 35 counts of solicitation to commit murder, providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy.

Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, a 39-year-old Yemeni, was the second person to be convicted by a military jury. The sentence was a boost for the Bush administration after Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver, received a light sentence in August in the first war-crimes jury trial held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

"When will it be safe for this man to leave confinement?" said Army Maj. Daniel Cowhig, the lead prosecutor, speaking to nine jurors. "Never!"

The jury deliberated for four hours yesterday before convicting Bahlul and took less than an hour to hand up a life sentence.

The court was told that Bahlul, described by prosecutors as al-Qaeda's media chief, directed gory recruitment videos celebrating terrorist attacks and taped the final statements of two of the hijackers who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Bahlul sat with bin Laden that day to follow radio coverage of the attacks, prosecutors said.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/03/AR2008110302913.html

[PDJane]

1. This is just plain wrong.

[metapunditedgy]

2. some news on bushco losses at hearings here (different cases):

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/gitmo/index.asp

Guantánamo Bay, November 3, 2008: You may have missed it in the frenzied press coverage of the final days of the presidential election, but last week the current administration’s military commission system at Guantánamo Bay continued its slide toward collapse.

On Tuesday, a judge at Guantánamo barred from court a confession given by Mohammed Jawad....

On Wednesday, the military judge who heard the case of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver, refused the government’s plea to “reconsider, reassemble, reinstruct and re-announce a sentence,” further cementing the jury’s sentence of Mr. Hamdan to serve an additional five months beyond the time he has already served. This light sentence was a slap in the face to the government, which has maintained that those detained at Guantánamo comprise the “worst of the worst”.

Finally, last week Ali Hamza al Bahlul, a man accused of acting as al Qaeda’s media secretary and propagandist, went on trial -- only the second trial to be conducted at Guantánamo. Even if al Bahlul is convicted and sentenced to serve a significant amount of time, his boycott of the proceedings means that we have yet to encounter an example of a robust use of the adversarial system leading to conviction and a stiff sentence – an end result greatly desired by the government to justify the existence of the commissions.