Bin Laden driver case, a trial like no other

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The war crimes trial here of Osama bin Laden's driver may have manyof the trappings of civilian and military justice but it's clearlya case unlike any other.
Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni around 40 years old, faces possible life inprison for providing material support for terrorism as the firstdefendant to be tried by the military commissions set up byPresident George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks byAl-Qaeda on New York and Washington.
The judge is a captain in the US navy, the six jurors are all USmilitary officers and while Hamdan has civilian lawyers, the trialis taking place at an isolated US naval base which doubles as aprison camp for hundreds of detainees in the US "war on terror."
Only a small group of authorized observers, journalists and jurorsare allowed into the small courtroom where Hamdan faces the firstUS war crimes trial since World War II.
He sits alongside his attorneys like any other defendant,unrestrained by cuffs or shackles, headphones over his white turbanproviding him with Arabic translation.
In front of the bench, prosecutors, some in uniform, lay out thecase against Hamdan, who has spent some six years in US custody,and his lawyers make the arguments for his acquittal.
Evidence such as documents, photos and video are shown on atelevision screen.
To the left of the witness box sits the judge, Navy Captain KeithAllred, in a robe on a slightly raised platform. A military guardstands discreetly behind him.
Nearby is a map of Afghanistan and a surface-to-air missileprosecutors say was found in the trunk (boot) of a car Hamdan wasallegedly driving when he was captured in Afghanistan.
To gain access to the courtroom, visitors go through a completesecurity check, with a scanner and body search. Reporters can bringin a pencil and notebook, nothing else.
The proceedings are being videotaped, however, and rebroadcast justa few steps away in a press room set up in a sprawling abandonedhangar. About 30 journalists are following the trial from there.
Apparently for the camera's sake, wooden paneling has been affixedto the wall behind the judge giving the illusion that the trial istaking place in a courtroom featuring the same elegant decor.
The floor is covered in red carpeting.
Colonel Steve David, who heads Hamdan's defense team, said thetrial may resemble a civilian case on the surface.
"It looks like a (civilian) trial, but there are numerous issues,"he said.
"We have a court system which is the most respected in the world,"he said, but "we have invented the military commission system totry these detainees."
Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, defended the tribunals, whichhave come under criticism from international human rights groupsand have been the target of numerous lawsuits in US courts.
"We have consistently maintained that the military commissions'process will provide full and fair hearings for the detainees," hetold AFP. "This country is at war. This is an appropriate (way) totry war crimes."

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