Driving bin Laden

Washington Post:

In the days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Salim Ahmed Hamdan drove Osama bin Laden around Afghanistan, staying with him at secret guesthouses and the "Star of Jihad" training camp in anticipation of a retaliatory U.S. attack, an FBI agent testified Wednesday.

Special Agent George M. Crouch Jr. told a military judge that Hamdan described the frantic getaway to him during interrogations at the U.S. military prison here in 2002. He quoted Hamdan as saying he knew of bin Laden's involvement in the strikes on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and that he helped the al-Qaeda leader escape after the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.

"Mr. Hamdan explained that he understood an operation was about to take place, and that this would be the first time that bin Laden was going up against the Americans," Crouch said of the hectic days before al-Qaeda operatives bombed the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Pointing to a map he helped draw based on Hamdan's alleged account, Crouch added: "They decided they needed to evacuate the [al-Qaeda] compound."

The testimony at a pretrial hearing provided a glimpse of the evidence prosecutors plan to introduce at Hamdan's trial, scheduled to begin Monday, which would be the first U.S. military commission since the end of World War II.

Defense lawyers acknowledge that Hamdan was a driver for bin Laden but say he had no involvement in terrorism. They are trying to persuade a judge to throw out Hamdan's statements, saying they were obtained through coercion.

A prosecutor on Wednesday vehemently denied Hamdan's allegations that he was abused by interrogators at the U.S. military prison, growing so animated that the military judge told him to "turn down the volume and the rancor."

Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Stone, who is prosecuting Hamdan on terrorism conspiracy charges, said Hamdan is a difficult inmate who poses disciplinary problems, but has been allowed to exercise regularly and communicate with other prisoners. Hamdan's jailers, Stone said, "are not horrible people."

Wearing a crisp white Navy uniform, Stone gripped the lectern and said the defense has "shown absolutely nothing, not one thing, that shows he has ever been treated differently than any other inmate."

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Hamdan's defense sounds a little like the guy driving the getaway car who claimed he thought his buddies were just going into the 7-11 to cash a check so he wasn't surprised they came out with a fist full of cash. It is possible he could be that dumb but it is a remote possibility. As for his allegations of abuse, that is standard al Qaeda policy to make such bogus allegations. Liberals are willing to lap up their propaganda and repeat it, but it should not be an issue in the case.