Military tribunal splits first Guantanamo Bay verdict

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - A military jury on Wednesday found a former driver for Osama bin Laden guilty of supporting terrorism but not of more serious charges of conspiring in Al-Qaida's terrorist attacks on the United States, handing the Bush administration a partial victory in the first U.S. war crimes trial in a half-century.

The verdict, reached after about eight hours of deliberations by a jury of five men and one woman over three days, only intensified the debate over whether Salim Hamdan's conviction was preordained in an unfair system of military trials.

The Bush administration seized on the acquittal on the conspiracy charges to defend the tribunal system against accusations that it was politicized and drawn up to ensure convictions.

"We're pleased that Salim Hamdan received a fair trial," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.

But defense lawyers said their client's rights were denied by an unfair process that was hastily patched together after the Supreme Court ruled that previous tribunal systems violated U.S. and international law.

"The problem is the law was specifically written after the fact to target Mr. Hamdan," said Charles Swift, one of Hamdan's civilian lawyers.

His lawyers also noted that under the military commission, Hamdan did not have many of the rights normally accorded by either U.S. civilian or military courts. The judge allowed secret testimony and hearsay evidence. Hamdan was not judged by a jury of his peers, and he received no warning about a right against self-incrimination.

Hamdan's attorneys also said interrogations at the center of the government's case were tainted by coercive tactics, including sleep deprivation and solitary confinement.

Despite the partial acquittal, Hamdan still faces up to life in prison. Jurors will reconvene today to determine his sentence.

With the conclusion of the trial -- the first by military commission since the end of World War II -- prosecutors can move ahead with military trials for about 80 other Guantanamo Bay detainees, including several accused of planning the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Sorting out the charges

The military jury found Hamdan guilty on five counts of supporting terrorism, accepting the prosecution argument that Hamdan aided terrorism by becoming a member of Al-Qaida in Afghanistan and serving as Bin Laden's armed bodyguard and driver while knowing that the Al-Qaida leader was plotting attacks against the United States.

But he was found not guilty on three other counts alleging he knew that his work would be used for terrorism and that he provided surface-to-air missiles to Al-Qaida.

He also was cleared of two charges of conspiracy alleging that he was part of the Al-Qaida effort to attack the United States -- the most serious charges, according to deputy chief defense counsel Michael Berrigan.

Hamdan, a Yemeni father of two, bowed his head and wiped his eyes as the verdict was read.

The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, called it "an emotional moment for Mr. Hamdan," who was later led back to his cell at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo, his home for the past six years.

Defendant a small player

Ben Wizner, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who attended the trial as one of several human rights observers, ridiculed the administration for inaugurating the military system on "a marginal figure."

Even the prosecution's own evidence portrayed Hamdan as someone who ferried weapons for Al-Qaida and knew details of terrorist attacks, but only after they occurred and often based on conversations he overheard. One FBI agent testified that Hamdan emerged from training at an Al-Qaida camp and said he had no interest in fighting.

"We were told that Guantanamo was necessary because these were the world's most dangerous terrorists," said Wizner, who criticized the Pentagon for revealing little about U.S. interrogation techniques. "Salim Hamdan is not one of the world's most dangerous terrorists."

Col. Lawrence Morris, the commission's chief prosecutor, countered that the trial was "extraordinarily fair, open and just" and that Hamdan is "a career Al-Qaida warrior, pledged to ensuring the personal security of Osama bin Laden."

Legal experts said the conspiracy acquittal could bode well for Hamdan at sentencing, but he is not expected to be released because the military has separately designated him an enemy combatant. Allred also announced that over prosecutors' objections, he will give Hamdan credit for five of his years at Guantanamo Bay.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.