GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — Lawyers for Yemeni terror suspect Salim Ahmed Hamdan won the go-ahead from a military judge Wednesday to argue that the former driver for Osama bin Laden is a prisoner of war, not an unlawful enemy combatant, and therefore outside the reach of the war crimes tribunal.
The defense team was denied, though, the opportunity to call as witnesses three so-called "high-value detainees," including alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred deferred a ruling on whether Hamdan, 37, is entitled to challenge the military tribunal's jurisdiction over his case on grounds that Geneva Convention definitions of those entitled to POW status include civilians in support roles. The defense maintains that Hamdan was a civilian employee of Al Qaeda who was never privy to the organization's inner circle.
If Allred were to be persuaded that Hamdan was never a fighter, the defendant could become the first Guantanamo prisoner to earn POW protections and be removed from the military commissions' process.
Such a determination would also cast further doubt on the Pentagon's claimed right to jail him at Guantanamo indefinitely, as none of the prison facilities on this U.S. naval base in southern Cuba adhere to Geneva Convention conditions for detaining POWs.
In denying the motion to call the three high-value detainees as witnesses, the judge said the lead defense attorney, retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, hadn't given the court or detention authorities sufficient time to deal with the daunting security measures needed to bring them into court.
The three suspected Al Qaeda kingpins were among 14 brought to Guantanamo from secret CIA prisons abroad in September 2006. In addition to Mohammed, they are accused Hamburg terror cell logistician Ramzi Binalshibh and Al Qaeda's alleged No. 3 figure, Abu Faraj Libbi.
Their whereabouts among the 305 prisoners here remains top secret and the sole hearing each has been accorded was closed to all but the military detention officials -- none of them lawyers -- who conducted the hearings earlier this year.
Swift had also sought an order from Allred for the appearance of three witnesses from Yemen, including Hamdan's wife and brother-in-law, which the judge denied on similar grounds -- that too little time was left to organize the travel.
