GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — Amid hearings beset by technical difficulties and other setbacks, one detainee surprised the military commission at Guantanamo yesterday by evoking the name of Osama bin Laden and praising the terrorist leader for exposing the “hypocrisy” of the U.S. legal system.
“The whole world had a headache from your hypocrisy that you are the land of justice,” Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi said during an appearance before a U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where about 275 terror suspects are being held.
“I think [bin Laden] has succeeded again enormously in exposing your hypocrisy … that you are the land of justice and law,” Mr. al Qosi said.
The commission’s judge, Air Force Lt. Col. Nancy Paul, stopped the detainee from reading the rest of his statement, saying she wanted to prevent Mr. al Qosi from incriminating himself.
The detainee was arraigned yesterday on charges of providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring with terrorists such as bin Laden.
If convicted, Mr. al Qosi faces life in prison.
Clad in a white Muslim skullcap and black-rimmed reading glasses, Mr. al Qosi rubbed his brow while asking the judge repeatedly to let him finish reading remarks he said he prepared since his last appearance before the commission four years ago.
The Sudanese-born detainee is said to have been a cook, payroll clerk and driver for al Qaeda and a personal driver for bin Laden.
Mr. al Qosi was captured by Pakistani forces in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in December 2001.
Mr. al Qosi, 47, was among the first detainees to appear before the commission when it convened for the first time in 2004.
Ahead of his arraignment yesterday, however, he maintained that he was not involved in any terror plots, including al Qaeda’s Sept. 11 attacks.
Despite his remarks praising bin Laden, Mr. al Qosi did not admit to involvement in any al Qaeda terror-related attacks.
Several times during the 70-minute hearing Col. Paul asked Mr. al Qosi whether he wanted to be represented by his court-appointed counselor, Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, or a civilian lawyer.
“I do not recognize this court or recognize the justice of this court,” Mr. al Qosi said.
Military commission proceedings here have been plagued by technical difficulties and other setbacks since their inception in 2004.
On Wednesday, a commission judge was prompted to halt the day’s proceedings because the court’s simultaneous translation from Arabic to English of responses by suspect Ahmed Haza al Darbi could not be heard clearly.
The U.S. military says Mr. al Darbi is a brother-in-law of Khalid Almihdhar, a hijacker on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.
Mr. al Darbi, who was arrested in Azerbaijan in 2002 and transferred to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, said he was tortured.
“I believe there is no international court or local court in the United States that treats detainees or accused people the same way we are treated here,” Mr. al Darbi said.
So far, two of the three detainees scheduled for hearings this week have denounced the military court system as illegal.
Hearings scheduled for Mr. al Qosi, Mr. al Darbi and fellow Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr — who was accused of the 2002 killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan at the age of 15 — are considered by some to be dry-runs for future proceedings.
Of the estimated 275 detainees here, the United States plans to try about 80.
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