Plea deal unlikely before Gitmo trial

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A last-minute plea deal could halt the first war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay on Monday, but military lawyers and observers say that appears extremely unlikely at this late stage.

A military judge will consider some final pretrial motions Monday under tight security, then jury selection will begin in the trial of Salim Hamdan, a former driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. Military prosecutors hope to use the trial to showcase a tribunal system that has seen repeated legal setbacks.

"We're looking at it in two veins, primarily as bringing Mr. Hamdan to justice but also we're well aware that in doing that at the individual level it provides the first opportunity to test and validate this process," said Army Col. Lawrence Morris, the tribunals' chief prosecutor.

The Pentagon already has brought witnesses to the U.S. Navy base in Cuba and assembled a jury pool of American military officers, preparations that had not been made before a plea deal that ended the case against Australian David Hicks in March 2007.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080721/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_bin_laden_s_driver

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Bin Laden driver still an enigma
The trial of Osama bin Laden's former driver, set to start Monday, could shed light on his relationship with the terrorist leader.


~snip~

• Who gets to decide?

The Pentagon is withholding the identities of the 13-member jury pool brought to Guantánamo this weekend for Monday's jury selection process. All are American military officers and college educated. One came from overseas, the rest from U.S. bases.

They range in rank from the equivalent of an Army major to a Navy captain but are drawn from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

• What happened to Hamdan for a month after his capture in southern Afghanistan?

Hamdan was captured in late November 2001 in Taktapol, Afghanistan, after dropping off some women and children at the Pakistan border to escape the advancing U.S. invasion.

But defense lawyers have made much of a gap -- nearly all of December 2001 -- in his U.S. military and Special Forces capture records, in a bid to exclude his interrogations from trial.

• How much did he help U.S. forces?

FBI agents testifying at earlier hearings described Hamdan as a snitch. Before he was sent here in May 2002, he allegedly led U.S. forces in Afghanistan on a tour of former al Qaeda strongholds, and to the burial spot of a top al Qaeda fighter.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080721/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_bin_laden_s_driver;_ylt=ApNsZYQGAO3iu.twdrMN.TKs0NUE

[ixion]

1. war crimes trial?

Doesn't there have to be, like, a war?

It's an unconstitutional military tribunal...it has nothing to do with any 'war'.

The war crimes were committed by BushCo, IMO.

[Solly Mack]

2. "bringing Mr. Hamdan to justice.. provides the first opportunity to test and validate this process."

No comment

[maddezmom]

3. Some evidence excluded as war trial opens

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- A military judge without explanation on Monday excluded from the trial of Osama bin Laden's driver any FBI or other interrogations of him at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, then began seating a military jury in the first U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War II.

Navy Capt. Keith Allred, the judge, agreed with Salim Hamdan's defense teams and denied the prosecutors the right to include a series of interrogations carried out at the base in early 2002. He was still weighing other requests from the defense to exclude certain evidence from trial.

Explanations were expected in written rulings sometime this week.

more:http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/breaking-news/story/612362.html