Guantanamo trial views 9/11 video as 'evidence'

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: Prosecutors in the trial of Osama Bin Laden's driver unveiled a graphic video on Monday of the September 11 attacks and other Al Qaida operations that is likely to play a repeated role in pending war crimes cases.

The video is entitled The Al Qaida Plan, an echo of The Nazi Plan made by Oscar-winning director George Stevens as evidence in the Nuremberg war crimes trials of German leaders after World War II.

"Oh my God" was heard repeatedly as crowds watched the twin towers of the World Trade Centre collapse on September 11, 2001, in a vivid highlight of the movie shown over defence objections at the terrorism conspiracy trial of Salim Hamdan.

The six-member panel that will decide Hamdan's fate also saw footage of charred bodies stripped of flesh in the bombings of two US embassies in Africa and the body of a US soldier dragged through the streets in Somalia in 2003.

Control tower conversations with one of the doomed September 11 planes were also included.

Defence argument

The Al Qaida Plan was made for $25,000 (Dh91,881) by terrorism consultant Evan Kohlmann for the Office of Military Commissions, which is conducting the trials of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo. Its 90 minutes of video clips depict the history of Al Qaida from its formation in 1988 through the September 11 attacks.

Hamdan's attorneys objected that the footage would prejudice the jury. "They're trying to terrorise the members," defence attorney Charles Swift told the court.