He is a blank canvas, his slight body barely present in a room full of military officers wearing medals and lawyers in gray suits arguing over his fate. Noor Uthman Muhammed, Guantanamo inmate No. 707, plead guilty on Tuesday to two charges of providing material support for and conspiring to commit terrorism. For the past three days he's been back in Courtroom Two here at Camp Justice, Guantanamo Bay, sitting at the far end of a wood laminate table — guards in desert camo with ear pieces on one end, his translator and legal team on the other — awaiting his sentence. He is still.
While the others in the courtroom talk among themselves or trade questions with the judge or simply sigh or banter or look worn out, Noor looks away or looks down. He says nothing if not asked, says only Yes when asked. And so during the sentencing phase of this commission — the third to end with a plea deal under President Obama's revamped rules — it is up to the lawyers and military officers to paint whatever picture they can over his pure white robes.
"Terrorists are not born, they are made," Lieutenant Commander Arthur Gaston of the prosecution tells the commission members, nine military officers who make up the jury. As an instructor and leader at the Khalden training camp in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2000, Noor — the government argues —has made hundreds of them.
Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker" who was pulled over on an immigration violation before he could ram a plane into the White House? He attended Khalden when Noor worked there.
So did Mohammed al-'Owhali, who took part in the 1998 US embassy bombing in Kenya, which killed more than 200 people.
So did Ahmed Ressam, who was caught trying to bomb LAX over the millennium New Year.
These men, argue the prosecution, all began their terror instruction at Khalden while that slight man in the courtroom, Noor, worked as an instructor. By working at the camp, Noor helped make them terrorists.
And Noor's help didn't stop when the camp closed in 2000, continues the prosecution. Instead, he moved to a safe house in Pakistan run by Abu Zubaydah, a top al Qaeda leader. In the house the men swore a war against America, they planned new terror plots, discussed tactics.
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/guantanamo-sentence-5257920?src=rss
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