This evening, Iraqi forces will reach the doors of the shrine and control it and appeal to the Mehdi Army to throw down their weapons. He is accused of being al-Qa’ida’s accountant, paymaster and supply chief in the 1990s. Hicks is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, aiding the enemy and attempted murder for allegedly helping al-Qa’ida fight coalition forces in Afghanistan. He is said to have been bin Laden’s driver between February 1996 and 24 November, 2001.THE FIRST FOUR SUSPECTSDAVID HICKSFrom Adelaide in Australia, 29. “It’s brand new, it’s broken and it’s flawed,” said Neal Sonnett, an observer for the American Bar Association.The Associated Press said that Mr Hamdan, also known as Saqr al-Jaddawi, joined the Yemeni branch of the Egyptian militant group Islamic Jihad before al-Qa’ida was formed. “One month is like a year here, and I have considered pleading guilty in order to get out of here.”Human rights groups have condemned the tribunals, in which the defendants have few legal rights and cannot see evidence that the hearing considers to be classified. “I have not been permitted to see the sun or hear other people outside .. or talk with other people I am alone except for a guard,” he said.

He said that the defendant had no knowledge of al-Qa’ida activities and had never taken up arms against the US.He said it was wrong for the commission to go ahead when no review had been held to decide whether Mr Hamdan had been properly classified as an “enemy combatant”. During the hearing Mr Swift asked the other members of the panel to leave while he questioned the presiding officer, Col Peter Brownback, about his qualifications and motivations. Asked why he had volunteered, Mr Brownback said that he had retired in 1999 and had 10 years’ experience as a military judge.”I thought I was good at it, and knowing the stresses and constraints brought on our military … and recognising retired people could serve, I volunteered,” he said. Asked whether he thought the proceedings were lawful, Mr Brownback chose not to answer.The US has portrayed Mr Hamdan not only as Bin Laden’s driver but as his bodyguard, and said that he delivered weapons to al-Qa’ida operatives. Mr Hamdan was formally charged with conspiracy as an al-Qa’ida member to commit war crimes, including attacking civilians and civilian targets, murder, destroying property and terrorism.Mr Swift has argued that Mr Hamdan was a pilgrim who took a job at Bin Laden’s farm on his way to Tajikistan in 1996 or 1997. Many of them, rounded up in the aftermath of the US war in Afghanistan, have been held since the beginning of 2002.Mr Hamdan was the first of four prisoners due to be charged this week when they appear before a panel of five military officers A further 11 have been selected, including two Britons.

“This process goes against everything that we fought for in the history of the United States,” Mr Smith said.The hearing at the prison camp at the US naval base on the southern tip of Cuba was the beginning of the latest stage in the tortuous process of dealing with about 600 prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. Sgt Gary Pittman is accused of kicking the prisoner, crushing his windpipe and suffocating him. His defence says the Iraqi, Nagem Sadoon Hatab, died of natural causes.. In the first hearing of its kind for 60 years, a driver for Osama bin Laden was formally charged at a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay yesterday with conspiring to commit terrorism. Staff Sgt Ivan Frederick’s guilty plea opens the possibility that he will co-operate with prosecutors and that senior officers may be incriminated.The intelligence unit at the prison was commanded by Colonel Thomas Pappas. The senior commander of US forces in Iraq when the abuse took place in late 2003 was Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez.”We believe Lt-Gen Sanchez should have taken stronger action in November when he realised the extent of the…