Bin Laden driver lawyers can interview witnesses

By Jim Loney

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - On the eve of the first Guantanamo war crimes trial, defense lawyers on Friday won long-sought permission to question potential witnesses including the alleged September 11 mastermind after a military judge threatened to delay the trial.

The chief prosecutor of the war crimes tribunals said a lawyer for Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, would get access to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other "high-value" detainees at the high-security prison camp in Cuba.

"We've come to the point where the government needs to move," Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, said after prosecutors warned that security concerns might hamper efforts to arrange for a lawyer to question Mohammed before the start of trial on Monday.

"I'll continue (postpone) the trial. You can send your witnesses home," Allred warned sternly. "It'll cost you an awful lot of money."

"We'll solve it. We will be in trial," the chief prosecutor, Col. Lawrence Morris, said. "We will comply with the judge's direction."

Hamdan's lawyers said they had been asking to question the prisoners for seven months and criticized the delay that prosecutors have blamed on national security concerns.

The apparent resolution to a long-running standoff came less than three days before Hamdan is scheduled to become the first prisoner tried in the war crimes court set up by the Bush administration for terrorism suspects after the September 11 attacks.

Hamdan, a Yemeni in his late 30s, is charged with conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists. He faces life in prison if convicted.  Continued...