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US NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba: Osama bin Laden's driver was part of a small circle of loyal staff and knew his boss was involved in terrorist attacks, a US military tribunal here learned from an FBI witness and interrogation videos.
In Salim Hamdan's war crimes trial, the Federal Bureau of Investigation witness on Wednesday described details of the driver's relationship with the Al-Qaeda mastermind based on his interrogations of Hamdan in 2002 and 2003.
In their first meeting, Hamdan told Osama he came from the same region in Yemen as his father, helping to win the trust of the Al-Qaeda leader, said Ali Soufan, an FBI expert on the terror network.
Hamdan was part of a small clique of loyal employees under Osama who admired the Saudi extremist and who enjoyed his absolute confidence, Soufan told the tribunal.
In 1999, Hamdan married the sister of another employee on the advice of Osama, Soufan said.
"He was chosen by Osama" to serve as his driver, and was sometimes the main chauffeur and other times not, he said.
Hamdan, who is about 40 years old, is the first "enemy combatant" in Guantanamo to face a full-scale trial before the controversial tribunals created by President George W. Bush to try terror suspects.
He faces charges of "conspiracy" and "material support for terrorism," and could receive life imprisonment if convicted by a jury of military officers.
Hamdan walked out of the court room on Wednesday to protest the prosecution showing videos of his interrogations, but returned after about an hour and apologised to the judge.
The first video, made two days after his capture in Afghanistan in November 2001, shows Hamdan with a thick beard, kneeling on the floor under armed guard with his hands cuffed, and struggling to answer an avalanche of questions about items found in the car he was driving, including two surface-to-air missiles.
In a second undated video, Hamdan appears afraid after telling his interrogator that "the car belonged to a friend" and identifying its owner.
He remains silent for a while, yawns and dozes off with a spotlight shining on his face. Then questions are thrown at him: "Where is the Al-Qaeda office in Kandahar? ... Where is (Taliban leader) Mohammed Omar right now?"
Hamdan answers, "I don't understand your question" and "What is the meaning of your question?"
During questioning by military prosecutor John Murphy, Soufan said Hamdan heard a conversation between Osama and one of his deputies about the 1998 attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
"He saw and heard Al-Qaeda individuals watching a video in the guest house in Kandahar (in Afghanistan) and describing tactical mistakes" made in the embassy attacks, Soufan said.
As Hamdan "understood they were involved in Al-Qaeda and US embassy attacks," the prosecutor asked if he decided to leave Osama.
"No sir," Soufan replied.
After he heard about the attack on the USS Cole naval destroyer in 2000 in the Yemeni port of Aden, Hamdan allegedly told Osama he did not think Al-Qaeda was behind the attack. But his comment drew a smile from Osama, according to Soufan.
Amid a flurry of activity at different locations in Afghanistan before the attacks of September 11, 2001, "Osama told Hamdan that an operation was on its way and that they had to move," Soufan said.
Osama moved to Kabul, then Jalalabad, keeping his planned movements secret even from his inner circle, he said.
During one trip, Hamdan heard a conversation in the backseat in which "Osama was happy with the result" of the attacks that "killed more people than he expected."
He also heard another conversation about the "fourth plane," a reference to a United Airlines plane hijacked on September 11 that crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers revolted against the attackers.
"If they did not shoot the fourth plane, it could have hit the dome," Soufan said, in an apparent reference to the US Capitol – the possible intended target of the hijacked aircraft.
There is no evidence that the United plane was shot down, with flight recorders and cell phone calls describing an assault by the passengers against the hijackers.
Hamdan's defence lawyers have portrayed Hamdan as an insignificant figure without any role in Al-Qaeda operations.
Hamdan, looking tired and at times dejected during Wednesday's proceedings, entered a plea of not guilty on Monday.
The trial, the first US war crimes proceeding since World War II, is expected to last at least two weeks.
- AFP/so
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