Driving bin Laden just a job
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Al Qaeda terror kingpin Osama bin Laden remains at large.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The military lawyer for one of the men held as suspected terrorists at the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, says his client was a driver for terror kingpin Osama bin Laden.
"He freely admits he was a paid employee; took money that any taxi driver would do every day," Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift said.
Swift said his client, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, was based at a camp in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and took bin Laden around the region from 1996 through 2001.
The United States invaded Afghanistan after the terror attacks of September 11.
Swift denied that his client, who is from Yemen, played any role in terrorist activities at the camp or elsewhere in the region, and said his role was limited to that of a chauffeur, not a bodyguard.
According to the lawyer, who has been appointed to defend Hamdan against possible charges under a system of military tribunals, his client says he was told about a job offer while in Kandahar.
The job was working as a driver on a farm where bin Laden was based. The farm, in addition to agricultural activity, was also a training center for bin Laden followers, Swift acknowledged.
Swift said Hamdan "wasn't a member of al Qaeda, not a terrorist, and denies any membership in the Taliban."
And while Hamdan had occasion to talk with bin Laden during the drives, Swift would not disclose whether Hamdan had learned about any terrorist activity, saw any bin Laden lieutenants, or went to locations where other plots may have been in the works.
Bin Laden remains at large.
For now, Swift said, his effort to defend Hamdan is at a standstill because the government has not filed charges in the more than two years he's been held. Meanwhile, Swift said, Hamdan is held in pre-trial segregation that Hamdan considers solitary confinement.
Hamdan is one of six people among the hundreds held at Guantanamo that President Bush, in an executive order, declared there is "reason to believe" there is a basis for prosecution.
