Guantanamo jurors shown graphic film on Al Qaeda

Hamdan's defense lawyer, Charles Swift, objected to the video being shown, contending it was "extraordinarily prejudicial."

He accused the prosecution of "trying to terrorize the members" of the jury.

The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, conceded that the film stirred emotions.

"It is prejudicial, which is why we show it," Morris said, saying the issue was one of balance. "I think people think prejudicial is somehow wrong."

Kohlmann, who was rejected as an expert witness in the Jose Padilla terrorism trial, was paid $20,000 to produce the film.

A Georgetown University graduate who has a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Kohlmann told the court he founded his own terrorism consulting company as well as a nonprofit counter-terrorism research group called NEFA, for Nine-Eleven Finding Answers.

His work with U.S. agencies has primarily involved testifying at terrorism trials. He was paid $25,000 for his appearance Monday, on top of the cost of making the film.

Geoffrey Corn, a law professor and former judge advocate general, was called as an expert witness for the defense earlier in the day.

Speaking via video from Madrid, where he was on vacation, Corn told the court that the U.S. wasn't technically at war with Al Qaeda when Hamdan was working as one of Bin Laden's seven drivers in the months before Sept. 11.

It was only after the terrorist strikes on U.S. soil that Congress and the Bush administration took steps to allow U.S. troops to use deadly force against identified Al Qaeda members, rather than only when their lives were at risk.

Corn explained the elaborate rules of engagement that he said demonstrated whether an armed conflict existed between two forces.

The 20-year Army veteran is a former Pentagon point man on international law and national security issues involving the laws of war.

Corn testified that U.S. troops were authorized to use force without being in personal danger only after Sept. 11. Most of Hamdan's assistance to Bin Laden took place before that, excluding it from the tribunal's jurisdiction.

Corn, a law professor at South Texas College of Law, was not paid for his appearance because tribunal Convening Authority Susan J. Crawford "determined that he was not relevant," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, Hamdan's military attorney.

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carol.williams@latimes.com