Salim Ahmed Hamdan:Bin Laden’s Chauffeur

Here is the profile of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Bin Laden’s chauffeur, who was found guilty of “supporting terrorism”. This 40-year-old Yemeni man now faces life in prison at the end of his case, which was defended before a special military court, the first one held since WWII.

On Wednesday, “enemy combatant” Salim Ahmed Hamdan who had been a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay for over six years, was found guilty of “providing material support to a terrorist organization” before a military tribunal. He is a Yemeni orphan who served as Bin Laden’s bodyguard and personal driver.

Hamdan, who was borned in Hadramut, Yemen around 1970, is said to have met with Al-Qaeda’s leader in 1996 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. According to Hamdan’s indictment, he “became Bin Laden’s personal driver and bodyguard.” According to author Jonathan Mahler, whose book on Hamdan’s story was published in early August, Hamdan was leading a modest life as a taxi driver in southern Yemen when he was recruited in 1996 to take part in the “Holy War” at the age of 26.

According to the writer, the young man, who wasn’t particularly religious, then decided to head for Tajikistan with 35 other Muslims. There, Islamist activists were fighting against a government supported by Russia. After a six-month journey through the mountains, the soon-to-be activists were driven back to the Afghan border. They then appealed to Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi Al Qaeda leader based in Afghanistan, for help.

Hamdan worked for Bin Laden for several years, first in Farm Hada, a village close to Jalalabad in Eastern Afghanistan, and then in Kandahar in the south, according to Mahler. Hamdan’s indictment says, “On several ocassions, between 1996 and November 2001, Hamdan was seen driving Bin Laden to many Al Qaeda training camps, press conferences and meetings.” According to this document, the Yemeni man allegedly received instruction in rifle, handgun and machine gun shooting in an Al Qaeda camp, and provided Al Qaeda members and partners with weapons, ammunitions and other military equipment.

“Conspiracy”

Two months after the deadly attacks of 9/11, at the end of November, Hamdan was made prisoner by Afghan warlords. He was then handed over to the U.S. troops, as explained by Mahler, and held prisoner for six months at the U.S. camps based in Bagram and Kandahar.

In May 2002, Hamdan was sent to the U.S. base located in Guantanamo, Cuba and in July 2003, he was convicted of “conspiracy.” But he challenged the U.S. military tribunal in which he was the first to appear in 2004. In the severe setback for Bush in 2006, the Supreme Court accused the president of having exceeded his powers by creating such tribunals. However, Congress reestablished those military courts after a few months. Hamdan contested them again, but this time he failed.

During a preliminary hearing, Hamdan said that as a prisoner for more than six years, he suffered a lot because he’d spent most of the time in total isolation. He also mentioned a humiliating interrogation by a woman.

American journalists who attended the hearings in Guantanamo described a distraught man, who was having a hard time walking because of back pains.

Documents revealed by the Defense Secretary also testified that Salim Hamdan was woken up every hour for fifty days in 2003.