Bin Laden Aid Sentenced to Life in Prison at Guantanamo Bay Posted: November 18, 2008

A Guantanamo Bay detainee has been sentenced to life in prison by a United States Military Tribunal for conspiracy to commit murder and other terrorism charges.

Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul, 39, was sentenced to life in prison on November 3, 2008, after being found guilty on 35 counts of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorism and solicitation to murder. Al Bahlul, who was captured by the Afghani Northern Alliance in December 2001, was a close aid and bodyguard to Osama bin Laden.

Bahlul, from Yemen, also admits that he created several propaganda videos for Al Qaeda, including a two-hour film celebrating the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors. Three members of the Lackawanna Six, a group of American men that attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 2001, testified in trial that they had watched this video and others while training at the camp.

Bahlul lived with two of the September 11 hijackers in Afghanistan, including Mohammed Atta, according to court documents, and videotaped their final statements.

During the trial, Bahlul said that he volunteered to be one of the September 11 hijackers. He also said that he would kill Americans at the first opportunity upon his release from prison. "I will never deny any actions I did alongside bin Laden fighting you and your allies, the Jews…We will continue our jihad and nothing will stop us."

Al Bahlul, who admitted in court to being a member of Al Qaeda after his conviction, attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and received weapons training in the use of Russian heavy assault weapons.

Days before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Bahlul allegedly fled from Afghanistan with bin Laden to a secret location, where he was tasked with establishing a video feed to watch the terrorist attacks in the U.S.

During his detention at Guantanamo Bay, Bahlul organized a large-scale boycott amongst the other detainees, declaring that the war court was illegitimate and that he only accepts Islamic law. Bahlul refused legal defense and ordered his lawyer to remain silent during his trial.