Driver: I never knew bin Laden was a terrorist
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (CNN) — The former driver for Osama bin Laden told a military court Thursday that he never suspected bin Laden was a terrorist until after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Osama bin Laden’s ex-driver, Salim Hamdan, in an undated photo, could go to prison for 30 years or more.
Prosecutors weren’t buying Salim Hamdan’s story and recommended he be sent to prison for 30 years to life.
Hamdan, speaking through a translator, gave the unsworn testimony during his sentencing hearing, one day after six officers convicted him of providing material support to al Qaeda but cleared him of terrorism conspiracy charges.
Hamdan has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay since 2002. The judge has given him credit for five years of prison time.
Hamdan tried to make the case to jurors that he was only a lowly driver, and described his relationship with bin Laden as "normal."
Watch how Hamdan described bin Laden »
He said he treated bin Laden as an employee would treat a boss and, in turn, bin Laden treated him in a way that took into account his position.
"I respected him, and he respected me," Hamdan said. "I regarded him, and he regarded me."
He was taken into custody in southern Afghanistan in November 2001. Though the car he was driving contained missiles, he has said all along that the car was borrowed and the missiles weren’t his. He repeated his assertions Thursday.
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He made some of his comments in a closed session, which the government said was necessary in case classified information was raised.
Hamdan testified that he had wanted to settle in his native country, Yemen, but after the 2000 attack by an explosives-laden motorboat on the USS Cole in Yemen’s Gulf of Aden, which killed 17 American sailors, he and his wife left the country on a pilgrimage.
Hamdan said Yemeni media were blaming the attack on the Israeli Mossad, and he didn’t know until later that al Qaeda was behind it.
He also said he was "shocked" to hear that al Qaeda carried out the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
"It was impossi
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