GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — A Yemeni prisoner confessed to being a member of Al Qaeda during a preliminary hearing before a military commission Thursday, but was cut off in mid-sentence by the presiding official and was not allowed to complete his statement.
In a show-stopping moment in the third day of military hearings for suspected terrorists, Ali Hamza Ahamad Sulayman al Bahlul said in Arabic: "People of the entire globe, know that I testify that the American government put me under no pressure. I am from Al Qaeda and the relationship between me and Sept 11th ... "
Bahlul was halted by retired Army Col. Peter Brownback III, who told his four fellow commission members serving as judges to disregard the statement. Brownback said the trial had not reached the stage at which the detainee could offer a plea and said it was unclear whether Bahlul would be represented by an attorney and therefore should not issue a plea. It was not clear what purpose Bahlul had in making the announcement.
At a briefing in Washington, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Hemingway, the chief Pentagon legal advisor on the commissions, said that if it was later determined that Bahlul's statement had prejudiced the panel, Brownback could convene another commission. The detainee faces a possible life sentence on a charge of conspiracy to commit war crimes.
He is the third detainee to face a preliminary hearing before the military commission, which began considering charges against some of the 585 detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay this week. The commission hears charges against a fourth detainee today.
Bahlul, 36, has said he does not want representation by an attorney appointed by the U.S. military and would prefer to represent himself. Brownback first said that rules would not allow detainees to represent themselves, but later said he would pass the question on to retired Army Maj. Gen. John D. Altenburg Jr., head of the Pentagon Office of Military Commissions.
But the hearing also was beset by translation problems, which left it unclear what Bahlul was trying to say.
The official commission translation had Bahlul prefacing his confession by saying: "The decision is the evidence.... I testify that the American government is under no pressure ... "
Outside court, a translator for another defendant and an Arab journalist both asserted that Bahlul actually said, "Confession is the highest form of evidence.... People of the entire globe know that I testify that the American government put me under no pressure ... "
