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Hamdan Seen as ‘Not Fit’ for Terror
Jerry Markon
Washington Post
Saturday, Aug 2, 2008
Osama bin Laden’s former driver was a “primitive” chauffeur and mechanic who “was not fit to plan or execute” terrorist attacks, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks told jurors in writing Friday at the driver’s military trial.
Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 architect, wrote that Salim Ahmed Hamdan was a low-level support staffer who never joined al-Qaeda and did not share bin Laden’s ideology. Hamdan is on trial in the first U.S. military commission since World War II. His lawyers rested their case Friday, and closing arguments are scheduled for Monday.
“He did not play any role. He was not a soldier, he was a driver,” Mohammed said in answers to written questions from Hamdan’s lawyers that were relayed to the six military jurors. “His nature was more primitive (Bedouin) person and far from civilization. He was not fit to plan or execute.”
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The testimony provided another tantalizing glimpse inside the mind of Mohammed, who has been charged in the most devastating terrorist attack in U.S. history and has been a figure of intrigue since his arrest in 2003. He sketched out a vision of al-Qaeda as a group whose members also have “wives and children and schools” and said that anyone who thinks a mere driver would be involved in attacks “is a fool.”
Attorneys for Hamdan, who is charged with ferrying weapons for al-Qaeda as part of a terrorism conspiracy, had wanted Mohammed to testify live in court at the U.S. detention facility here. They had told jurors there was “a significant chance” they would hear from the perpetrators of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
But Mohammed, after answering written questions, refused to meet with Hamdan’s lawyers and declined to appear in court. His written remarks back up the defense’s argument that Hamdan was a mere chauffeur uninvolved in terrorism. But it is uncertain if a military jury will take the word of an accused al-Qaeda leader.
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