Guantanamo man's video moved al Qaeda to tears

[Niels Bohr 72]

Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:16pm EDT By Jane Sutton

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Al Qaeda recruits in Afghanistan wept and shouted praise as they watched a propaganda video made by a Guantanamo defendant, a training camp dropout told the U.S. war crimes court on Thursday.

Three imprisoned men from Lackawanna, New York, were brought to the courtroom at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to testify in the trial of accused al Qaeda media director Ali Hamza al Bahlul.

The witnesses are part of the "Lackawanna Six," a group of young American men of Yemeni descent who pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism by attending al Qaeda's al Farouk training camp in Afghanistan in early 2001.

The curriculum included multiple viewings of a two-hour video that FBI agents said Bahlul has proudly admitted making.

The video is a melange of bloody images of Muslims under attack in Bosnia, Chechnya, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

It is spliced with speeches by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden portraying America as the No. 1 enemy of Islam and praising the suicide bombers who attacked U.S. embassies in Africa and the warship USS Cole in Yemen.

Lackawanna witness Yassein Taher said he saw the video at al Farouk with the entire camp population of 60 to 70 men.

"There were shouts of Allahu Akbar, God is Great, and there was some crying," Taher testified.

The shouts of praise came as the men viewed footage of the damaged USS Cole and the tears came as they saw images of Muslim women being beaten with batons, he said.

Prosecutors charged that Bahlul's media services were war crimes -- conspiracy to attack civilians, soliciting to commit murder and providing material support for terrorism.

Bahlul, a Yemeni, faces life in prison if convicted.

Two other Lackawanna witnesses, Yahya Goba and Sahim Alwan, said they were shown Bahlul's video at guesthouses in Pakistan and Afghanistan during the trip and were horrified.

"I realized myself that I was in way over my head," Alwan said. "I wanted to get out of there."

The witnesses said they were sent to Afghanistan by a fellow worshiper at a Lackawanna mosque. They said he told them they were lax in their religion and could cleanse their sins and clear a straight path to heaven by training for "jihad."

UNAWARE OF PLOT?

Al Qaeda frequently uses the term "jihad" to mean a holy war against the West but for most Muslims, it signifies a spiritual struggle. The New York-born witnesses said they were stunned to realize they were being encouraged to become suicide bombers and that America was a target.

"I was surprised, shocked and I was afraid," said Taher, adding that the al Farouk camp had a martyrdom sign-up sheet.

Taher and Alwan feigned family emergencies and fled the camp. Goba completed the training but refused to pledge loyalty to bin Laden.

The three are cooperating with the U.S. government as part of their plea agreements and have asked to be assigned new identities under the witness protection program when they finish their seven-to-10 year prison terms.

Prosecutors showed Bahlul's video to the jury of nine U.S. military officers on Wednesday, followed Thursday by a video the prosecution commissioned to summarize al Qaeda's history and operations.

It included lengthy clips from Bahlul's production, plus images of a hijacked jetliner crashing into the World Trade Center and the burning towers collapsing on September 11, 2001. Bahlul appeared to smile briefly as he watched it.

His trial was expected to go to the jury on Friday. It is only the second full test of the widely criticized Guantanamo tribunals created by the Bush administration to try non-U.S. captives on terrorism charges outside the regular civilian and military courts.

The judge in the first trial issued an order on Thursday refusing to reconsider his August decision to give bin Laden's driver, Yemeni captive Salim Hamdan, credit for 61 months of the time he has been held at Guantanamo. That means Hamdan's 66-month sentence for providing material support for terrorism will end in December.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Bill Trott)