Hamden was captured with missiles and a card from Mullah Omar
A former driver for Osama bin Laden had two shoulder-fired missiles in his car when he was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001, along with a piece of paper signed by the leader of the Taliban, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier testified Tuesday.The Capitol is a much more likely target than the White House. It is much easier to find and hit. The defense argument demonstrates the problem with preemption when it comes to lawfare. He could have made the same argument about the 9-11 terrorist if they had been arrested before boarding the planes.
The soldier, identified only as Sgt. Maj. A, told jurors in the military trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan that the paper signed by Mohammad Omar allowed al-Qaeda members to move freely in Afghanistan and to carry weapons.
...Brandishing a sample green SA7 missile, the same type of weapon allegedly found in Hamdan's light-colored Toyota, prosecutor Omar Ashmawy asked the witness: "What part of this kills people?"
"The tube with the rocket," answered the soldier. He said pink Arabic "code cards" that mentioned the words "nuclear" and "biological" also were found in Hamdan's vehicle.
Hamdan is charged with ferrying weapons for al-Qaeda as part of a terrorism conspiracy.
The testimony before a jury of six military officers followed opening statements in the case. Prosecutors told jurors that Hamdan was an al-Qaeda member who supported terrorist acts and was aware of an impending strike just before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"You will not see evidence from the government that the accused ever fired a shot," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Stone. "But what you will see is testimony regarding the accused's role in al-Qaeda, how he came to be a member of al-Qaeda and how he helped, facilitated and provided material support for that organization."
Stone also indicated that Hamdan may have known the target of the fourth hijacked airplane on Sept. 11, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field. The plane, he said, "would have hit the dome. . . . Virtually no one knew that intended target, but the accused knew."
Prosecutors later elaborated that Stone was referring to something Hamdan said he heard bin Laden say after Sept. 11. They would not say if "the dome" meant the U.S. Capitol. The commission that investigated the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon concluded that the intended target of United Flight 93 was the Capitol or the White House.
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