– Knight Ridder Newspapers

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba – U.S. prosecutors formally charged a Sudanese man with conspiracy on Friday for allegedly handling Osama bin Laden’s payroll, and the government’s chief war crimes prosecutor said the next batch of al-Qaida terror suspects to face military trial would include alleged terrorists known to ordinary Americans.

“The American people will recognize the names of these people,” said Army Col. Robert L. Swann, revealing for the first time plans to charge nine more captives of the war on terror in “the next few months.”

At least one announcement would come in a matter of weeks, he said.

Swann would not elaborate. But among the best-known terror suspects in U.S. custody are al-Qaida operations leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and alleged money supplier Ramzi bin al Shibh, who have been reported held for interrogation at secret locations.

U.S. officials have never confirmed that any high-profile terror suspects are being held at Camp Delta here, the sprawling interrogation center that today has about 600 prisoners, mostly thought to be foot soldiers in bin Laden’s al-Qaida movement.

Swann’s comments capped a week-long opening of the first U.S. war crimes trials since World War II with hearings for the only four people who have been so far charged under the Military Commission system.

President Bush authorized the prison camp and war crimes commission to interrogate and try suspects captured mostly in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He has so far given the Pentagon permission to bring 15 captives to trial.

In court Friday, Sudanese terror suspect Ibrahim al Qosi, 44, appeared in a traditional Muslim skullcap and stroked a three-inch-long salt-and-pepper beard as five U.S. colonels read charge sheets alleging that he had been in league with bin Laden for about 15 years.

For the hearing, the man accused of being an al-Qaida payroll clerk traded his orange prisoner jumpsuit for an oversized polo shirt, chino pants and slip-on blue sneakers. They were provided at government expense: $30.

The U.S. charges allege that Qosi fought alongside Muslims in Chechnya, served as cook, driver and at times, bodyguard for bin Laden and distributed funds funneled to al-Qaida for explosives and weapons.

He is represented by Air Force Lt. Col. Sharon Shaffer, the first woman to defend a Camp Delta captive. Qosi said he wanted to keep Shaffer as his lawyer but said she needed help preparing his case.

Three military officers, led by Marine Lt. Col. Kurt Brubaker, are prosecuting the Qosi case, while Shaffer is working solo and was off the case for several weeks because of a conflicting Air Force assignment.

As a result, the panel postponed both Qosi’s formal arraignment and attorneys’ preliminary arguments.

Still, Qosi was given a Dec. 7 trial date, meaning he would be the first captive tried by the commission.

Earlier, the panel set a Jan. 10 trial date for Australian David Hicks. No trial dates were set for two men from Yemen – Salim Hamdan, 34, and Ali Hamza Bahlul, 36.

Several members of the Pentagon defense team have protested this week that the defense team has been out-staffed and out-resourced by the Pentagon in everything from lawyers to paralegals to equipment and researchers.

Army Col. Peter Brownback III, who is presiding over the five-member Military Commission, said Shaffer would get a second defense lawyer and a paralegal soon.

Separately, Swann also said that changes in the guidelines governing the commissions were likely possible and that Bahlul might be allowed to act as his own attorney.

On Thursday, Bahlul refused to accept two Pentagon appointed lawyers who were assigned to his case: Army Maj. Mark Bridges and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Philip Sundel, a 1990 University of Miami law school graduate. Bahlul is described in charge sheets as a sometime bin Laden bodyguard who made al-Qaida videos.

—

(c) 2004, The Miami Herald.

Visit The Miami Herald Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.herald.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

—–

PHOTO (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): GUANTANAMO-TRIBUNAL

AP-NY-08-27-04 2025EDT

Copy the Story Link