Salim Hamdan, former bin Laden driver and bodyguard
Salim Hamdan, former bin Laden driver and bodyguard
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who is to go on trial Monday after more than six years at the US "war on terror" camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a Yemeni orphan who was driver and bodyguard to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.Born in Hadramout, Yemen, around 1970, Hamdan was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 after five years of allegedly close service to the man behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The indictment against Hamdan alleges that he met bin Laden in the Afghan city of Kandahar in 1996 and "ultimately became a bodyguard and personal driver" for the Al-Qaeda leader.
"On diverse occasions between 1996 and November of 2001, Hamdan drove or accompanied Osama bin Laden to various Al-Qaeda-sponsored training camps, press conferences or lectures," the indictment said.
It alleges that Hamdan received training in the use of rifles, handguns and machine guns in an Al-Qaeda camp and also "delivered weapons, ammunition or other supplies to Al-Qaeda members and associates."
According to author Jonathan Mahler, whose book about the Hamdan case is scheduled for release in August, Hamdan, an orphan, was recruited for jihad, or holy war, in 1996, when he was earning a modest living as a taxi driver in the Yemeni city of Sanaa.
Although not particularly religious, Hamdan, then believed to be 26, decided to travel with 35 other Muslims to Tajikistan, where Islamist militants were battling the Russian-backed government, Mahler wrote in the New York Times.
The would-be militants reached Afghanistan but were turned back at the border with Tajikistan after a six-month journey through the mountains.
Hamdan and the others turned for help to bin Laden, who had recently taken up residence in Afghanistan after being expelled from Sudan.
In late November 2001, two months after the September 11 attacks and more than a month after the US launched a military operation against the Taliban, Hamdan was captured by Afghan warlords, according to Mahler.
He was turned over to US forces for a 5,000-dollar bounty and spent the next six months in US prison camps in Bagram and Kandahar, according to Mahler.
Hamdan was flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in May 2002, where he was confined to a small cell while awaiting trial.
He was charged with conspiracy in July 2003, but his lawyers contested the validity of the special military tribunal before which he was to appear in 2004.
The US Supreme Court ruled in June 2006 that the government had overstepped its powers in creating the military tribunals, but they were re-established by an act of Congress some months later.
Hamdan has been described by US journalists who attended his hearings at Guantanamo as haggard, with difficulty walking due to back pains.
Hamdan has told preliminary hearings that he was kept in isolation and endured a humiliating interrogation by a female. The defense also has said he was awakened every hour for 50 days in 2003.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who is to go on trial Monday after more than six years at the US "war on terror" camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a Yemeni orphan who was driver and bodyguard to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.Born in Hadramout, Yemen, around 1970, Hamdan was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 after five years of allegedly close service to the man behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.The indictment against Hamdan alleges that he met bin Laden in the Afghan city of Kandahar in 1996 and "ultimately became a bodyguard and personal driver" for the Al-Qaeda leader.
"On diverse occasions between 1996 and November of 2001, Hamdan drove or accompanied Osama bin Laden to various Al-Qaeda-sponsored training camps, press conferences or lectures," the indictment said.
It alleges that Hamdan received training in the use of rifles, handguns and machine guns in an Al-Qaeda camp and also "delivered weapons, ammunition or other supplies to Al-Qaeda members and associates."
According to author Jonathan Mahler, whose book about the Hamdan case is scheduled for release in August, Hamdan, an orphan, was recruited for jihad, or holy war, in 1996, when he was earning a modest living as a taxi driver in the Yemeni city of Sanaa.
Although not particularly religious, Hamdan, then believed to be 26, decided to travel with 35 other Muslims to Tajikistan, where Islamist militants were battling the Russian-backed government, Mahler wrote in the New York Times.
The would-be militants reached Afghanistan but were turned back at the border with Tajikistan after a six-month journey through the mountains.
Hamdan and the others turned for help to bin Laden, who had recently taken up residence in Afghanistan after being expelled from Sudan.
In late November 2001, two months after the September 11 attacks and more than a month after the US launched a military operation against the Taliban, Hamdan was captured by Afghan warlords, according to Mahler.
He was turned over to US forces for a 5,000-dollar bounty and spent the next six months in US prison camps in Bagram and Kandahar, according to Mahler.
Hamdan was flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in May 2002, where he was confined to a small cell while awaiting trial.
He was charged with conspiracy in July 2003, but his lawyers contested the validity of the special military tribunal before which he was to appear in 2004.
The US Supreme Court ruled in June 2006 that the government had overstepped its powers in creating the military tribunals, but they were re-established by an act of Congress some months later.
Hamdan has been described by US journalists who attended his hearings at Guantanamo as haggard, with difficulty walking due to back pains.
Hamdan has told preliminary hearings that he was kept in isolation and endured a humiliating interrogation by a female. The defense also has said he was awakened every hour for 50 days in 2003.
posted by sarfunnisha @ 10:18 AM
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