By Jane Sutton
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The U.S.military has lost a year's worth of records describing theGuantanamo interrogation and confinement of Osama bin Laden'sdriver, a prosecutor said at the Yemeni captive's war courthearing on Thursday.
Lawyers for the driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, asked for therecords to support their argument that prolonged isolation andharassment at the Guantanamo prison have mentally impaired himand compromised his ability to aid in his defence on war crimescharges.
"All known records have been produced with the exception ofthe 2002 Gitmo records," one of the prosecutors, Navy Lt. Cmdr.Timothy Stone, told the court. "They can't find it."
He said the military was still looking for the records keptat the remote U.S. naval base in southeast Cuba, which hereferred to by its nickname.
President George W. Bush authorized the Guantanamo court toprosecute suspected al Qaeda members on grounds that theexisting military and civilian courts were not adequate toprosecute terrorism charges against war captives who are notpart of any national army.
Hamdan, who is in his late 30s, was the prisoner whoselawsuit prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down theinitial Guantanamo war crimes system. The charges against himwere twice dismissed and then refiled and the military hopes tobegin his trial in May.
Hamdan was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 andfaces life in prison if convicted on charges of conspiracy andproviding material support for terrorism. He has said he neverjoined al Qaeda but worked as bin Laden's driver in Afghanistanbecause he needed the $200 (103 pound) monthly salary.
TRUSTED MEMBER OF AL QAEDA?
Prosecutors say he was a trusted member of al Qaeda whohelped bin Laden elude U.S. forces in Afghanistan and that hehad two anti-aircraft rockets in his car when he was capturedat a checkpoint near Kandahar.
At a pretrial hearing on Thursday, Hamdan's lawyers askedthe judge to drop the charges on grounds that their client'sacts were not recognized as war crimes when committed.
Legal authority to try non-U.S. captives in the Guantanamotribunals rests on a 2006 law that made conspiracy andproviding material support for terrorism war crimes, butHamdan's lawyers said it could not be retroactively applied.
A U.S. Justice Department lawyer argued that although nointernational law or treaty specifically listed conspiracy as awar crime, the Nuremberg war court set a precedent byprosecuting German SS members after World War Two. They wereaccused of membership in what had been declared a criminalorganization, essentially the equivalent of conspiring with alQaeda, said the attorney, Jordan Goldstein.
He also cited as precedent an 1865 legal opinion from theU.S. Civil War era that authorized summary execution for"banditti, jayhawkers" and others who join marauding bands.
Hamdan's civilian lawyer, Joseph McMillan, said the law hassince evolved and marauders may no longer be "hunted down likewolves" and summarily executed.
"There has been a lot that has occurred in theinternational arena since the American Civil War," McMillansaid.
The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, asked, "This is whatthe president's saying, international law needs to evolve to(counter) terrorism?"
(Editing by Tom Brown and Vicki Allen)
