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Last Updated: Nov 2nd, 2009 - 17:32:57 |
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - An accused al Qaeda media director waged "jihad by word and pen" and made a video aimed at overcoming trainees' resistance to carrying out suicide attacks, a prosecutor in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal said on Tuesday.
The prosecutor, Army Maj. Dan Cowhig, outlined the case against Yemeni captive Ali Hamza al Bahlul at his trial at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba. His opening statement suggested the nine U.S. military officers on the jury will have to decide whether creating propaganda is a war crime.
Cowhig read from Bahlul's journal, which was seized in Afghanistan, and from letters he said Bahlul wrote from Guantanamo to al Qaeda leaders, lamenting that he could not join the September 11 hijackers he hailed as heroes.
"Only jihad by word and pen is left," he quoted Bahlul as writing.
"I am an officer of al Qaeda," he quoted him as writing elsewhere. "Blood, blood, destruction, destruction."
Bahlul is charged with conspiring with al Qaeda to commit murderous attacks, soliciting to commit murder and providing material support for terrorism. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors allege he was bin Laden's media secretary and accused him of preparing al Qaeda recruiting materials, including a video glorifying the 2000 attack in Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors on the warship USS Cole.
Cowhig said the video was shown at weapons training camps in Afghanistan to recruit new al Qaeda operatives and overcome their reluctance to commit suicide attacks and attacks on fellow Muslims.
"The primary role of the accused was to grow the organization," he said.
Bahlul also is accused of scripting the videotaped wills of his former roommates, September 11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Ziad al Jarrah. He set up a satellite link so bin Laden could hear news reports of those attacks on his laptop computer, but couldn't get the audio portion to work, Cowhig said.
Bahlul's military lawyer, Air Force Maj. David Frakt, told reporters that Bahlul had nothing to do with the attack on the Cole. The video was spliced together from television network images, and is part of a longer video Bahlul made about the state of the Islamic world.
Frakt is honoring Bahlul's request to present no defense and has been silent in the courtroom. Bahlul was refused permission to act as his own attorney and is refusing to participate in the trial because he does not feel the tribunal is legitimate.
He sat at the defense table in his tan prison jumpsuit, seeming rapt as the prosecutor read from his writings.
His is only the second full trial in the Guantanamo court, which has been widely criticized because it allows hearsay evidence and evidence obtained through coercion, including methods many consider torture.
About 255 suspected members of al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated groups are now being kept at Guantanamo. A total of over 750 foreigners suspected of terrorism have been held without trial at the base in the seven years since President George W. Bush began a war against terrorism.
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