WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL At hearing, Yemeni captive declares allegiance to Al-Qaida

The accused also dismissed his Pentagon lawyers.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- In the most chaotic day so far of the war crimes tribunal here, a Yemeni captive rejected his Pentagon defense team Thursday and dramatically declared loyalty to Al-Qaida before he was cut off just as he seemed about to explain his links to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"I am from Al-Qaida," said Ali Hamza al Bahlul, 36, a self-styled poet from Yemen who refused to stand in respect for the colonels hearing his case.
Then, speaking in Arabic, he began to talk about "the relationship between me and Sept. 11" before a stunned Col. Peter Brownback III, the presiding officer, interrupted him in midsentence.
"Stop," Brownback ordered. Then, addressing the other members of the tribunal, Brownback warned that Bahlul's statement shouldn't be used against him. "You all understand that Mr. Bahlul is not under oath," Brownback said. "None of this is evidence in any way."
Prosecutor Navy Cmdr. Scott Lang disagreed, and said he'd file a motion to have Bahlul's statement used as evidence.
Unexpected actions
Bahlul is accused of being a propagandist for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and his court appearance was to have been a routine preliminary hearing in which the charges would be read and defense and prosecuting attorneys would spar over procedures.
Instead, Bahlul captivated the courtroom by spurning the two Pentagon lawyers who sat alongside him -- Navy Lt. Cmdr. Philip Sundel and Army Maj. Mark Bridges -- then pledging loyalty to Al-Qaida.
"I don't want an attorney representing me," he said. "I'll attend the sessions if it's mandatory. If I don't have to attend the hearing I'd rather not attend."
At first, Brownback rejected Bahlul's request. Later, he agreed to refer the question to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's representative, retired Maj. Gen. John Altenburg, an attorney who supervises the process in Washington.
The prosecution alleges Bahlul served as a bin Laden bodyguard, even wearing a bomb belt to protect him, and that he made a videotape glorifying the October 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 sailors.
His appearance brought problems the tribunal faces with Arabic translations into the open.
On Tuesday, when bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, 34, of Yemen became the first Guantanamo detainee formally charged with conspiracy, Brownback replaced a Lebanese-sounding interpreter with one from the Persian Gulf because Hamdan couldn't understand the interpreter's colloquial Arabic.
On Thursday, Arabic speakers in the courtroom noted profound problems with the simultaneous translation provided to the panel by the overworked, pre-screened contract interpreters who help U.S. soldiers talk to the detainees.
In one key instance, two court-approved interpreters mistakenly translated the Arabic word for "decision" as "confession." In another, Bahlul spoke of "Islamic and secular law" and the court interpreter translated the phrase to be "civil and local law."