Thursday, September 3, 2009

Pentagon Lawyers: First Amendment Protects Al Qaida Propaganda

Ali Hamza al-Bahlul (far left) on trial in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Photograph: AP/Janet Hamlin

From McClatchy News:

Pentagon defense lawyers this week appealed the war crimes conviction of Osama bin Laden's media secretary at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on free speech grounds.

They argued that filmmaker Ali Hamza al Bahlul of Yemen was denied several constitutional protections at his military commission trial, which found him guilty of three war crimes on Nov. 3.

"Mr. al Bahlul is not a sympathetic defendant. He embraces an ideology that glorifies violence, justifies terrorism and opposes constitutional democracy,'' said the 50-page appeal, filed Tuesday with the U.S. Court for Military Commission Review.

Read more ....

My Comment: The appeal is not going to work .... but they will try.

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