• February 13, 2012
  • BIN LADEN’S DRIVER CONVICTED: Salim Hamdan was found guilty of providing material support for terrorism, but was acquitted of conspiring with al-Qaeda. [CBC News]

{ 39 comments }

Larry Fine August 6, 2008 at 10:43 am

Barry will pardon him.

Advocatus_Diaboli August 6, 2008 at 10:45 am

Hey America: Franz Kafka called and he wants his oeuvre back.

soytrucknutz August 6, 2008 at 10:46 am

I guess, ‘if the turban doesn’t fit, you must acquit’ didn’t work.

mookworthjwilson August 6, 2008 at 10:47 am

First Osama’s driver…next Obama’s driver

kudzu August 6, 2008 at 10:48 am

He’s going to the slammer and he’s going to be someone’s bitch in less than twelve hours. I pity his ass, really.

Darehead August 6, 2008 at 10:51 am

6 years for 1 conviction, 80 more planned. Let’s see, 80 times 6 = just 480 more years!! And they don’t say what they will do with the rest of the guys.

Glad Harold and Kumar made it out of there anyway.

Larry Fine August 6, 2008 at 10:53 am

If he says he’s sorry, we should let him out of prison.

freakishlystrong August 6, 2008 at 10:58 am

A fair and balanced “trial”…and then we have Shrub, railing at China over detainees and Human Rights, what a fuckin’ pair that dick must swing from…

WadISay August 6, 2008 at 10:59 am

By this standard, the cabbies who take Republican senators from National Airport to the Hill are guilty of conspiracy to commit pagefucking.

4tehlulz August 6, 2008 at 11:01 am

Wait, he’s supposedly bin Laden’s driver and he was acquitted of helping al Qaeda.

Who was he helping? The IRA?

NoWireHangers August 6, 2008 at 11:01 am

Guilt or Innocent, everyone gets sodomized in Gitmo!

SayItWithWookies August 6, 2008 at 11:03 am

Well that was it folks — our first and showiest trial, with the most overwhelming amount of evidence. We convicted a guy for driving the car for bin Laden. After we convict bin Laden’s florist and some poor bastard who held the door for him going into a restaurant, we got nothing. USA! USA! USA!

tsunami August 6, 2008 at 11:04 am

convicted? i don’t believe it.

what were the odds?

well…he got a fair trial…at least, that’s how the arab world will
view it, don’t you think?

JamesMichaelCurley August 6, 2008 at 11:04 am

Did they fing the commie guilty of serving cake on Red China?

AngryBlakGuy August 6, 2008 at 11:05 am

…isn’t this just another FAIL in the long line of epic-fails of the Bush administration? He couldn’t convict this guy on ALL charges in his own kangaroo court and then on top of that that it took 3 days for them to comeback with a verdict. Then again they were the ones that raised expectations by calling him “Bin Laden’s Driver” and essentially convicting him the court of public opinion. Secondly the fact that he was convicted of only supplying “Material Support” and not “Conspiring with Al Queda” is disturbing because if he he was only a glorified taxi driver should we be spending our resources and effort prosecuting him? Ever since the news of his arrest came out this wreaked of desperation on the Bush administrations part.

ForTheTurnstiles August 6, 2008 at 11:12 am

[re=52956]AngryBlakGuy[/re]: Yeah, that about sums it up.

V572625694 August 6, 2008 at 11:13 am

[re=52952]SayItWithWookies[/re]: Yep, they picked their best open-and-shut case ’cause they knew it would get the most attention. Next: Osama’s pedicurist. What makes it even more ironic, in a Kafka-esque sort of way, is that even if he’d been acquitted, they were stillgoing to keep him at Gitmo for the rest of his life. Because if he wasn’t angry at the US when we picked him up, he sure is now!

Nice work, Bush & Co. Making enemies for America since 2001.

Not_So_Much August 6, 2008 at 11:14 am

This is it? This is our big win in The Global War on Terror?

Proud tuh be an Murken…..

AngryBlakGuy August 6, 2008 at 11:20 am

…just in case anyone was wondering what is covered by “Material Support”:

“currency or monetary instruments of financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safe houses, false documentation or identification, communications, equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel transportation, and other physical assets, except medicine or religious materials.

So when do we begin the prosecution of the CIA?

MoodProcessor August 6, 2008 at 11:20 am

Ya know, they could kill two birds with one stone if they arrested UBL’s dialysis tech.

The Incomparable Tiny Valdez August 6, 2008 at 11:24 am

Bastards. Barry’s got his work cut out for him.

4tehlulz August 6, 2008 at 11:25 am

[re=52956]AngryBlakGuy[/re]: This. You have to wonder if the administration thought it would be clever to acquit on the al Qaeda charge to make it look fair.

Not quite.

Gopherit v2.0 August 6, 2008 at 11:32 am

Just wait til they get to the guy who used to make Bin Laden’s lattes. They’re gonna fuck that guy up.

Deserve Neither August 6, 2008 at 11:38 am

I read recently that Hitler’s driver was acquitted at the Nuremburg trials. But of course bin Laden was responsible for far more heinous crimes than Hitler.

Darehead August 6, 2008 at 11:44 am

Now you can play Guantanamo (waterboarding too) at Coney Island!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/arts/design/06wate.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Hello Sunshine August 6, 2008 at 11:45 am

Maybe Osama’s a really bad driver and the CIA are hoping he’ll now get stuck while backing out of a space at the Kabul branch of WalMart, kind of like the “golf cart doing a U-turn in a narrow tunnel” scene in Austin Powers, thus making him easier to pick off from the sky.

lumpenprole August 6, 2008 at 12:17 pm

Funny thing this morning on NPR – it’s a good thing they found him of something, cuz it’s not like they had any plans to let him go.

shortsshortsshorts August 6, 2008 at 12:25 pm

I hope you are all convicted, you terrorists.

WhatTheHeck August 6, 2008 at 12:29 pm

But I want to know, was the taxi a Mercedes, a Toyota?
This is important. Aspiring terrorists will now be driving the same make and model.

TGY August 6, 2008 at 12:31 pm

Let that be a lesson to us all: be careful who you drive around.

Johnny Zhivago August 6, 2008 at 12:42 pm

Osama’s dry cleaner, barber and veterenarian are the next to face justice. Too bad no one seems too worried about Osama himself.

AnnieGetYourFun August 6, 2008 at 12:44 pm

[re=52952]SayItWithWookies[/re]: The mental image of bin Laden ordering flowers is too awesome to contemplate all at once.

[re=53019]lumpenprole[/re]: Did you hear Steve Inskeep get all high-pitched about that? That was weird.

lumpenprole August 6, 2008 at 1:13 pm

[re=53051]AnnieGetYourFun[/re]:
You could almost hear him thinking “Wait a sec. Can I say `show trial’ without being banished to Pacifica?”

WIDTAP August 6, 2008 at 1:22 pm

[re=52967]AngryBlakGuy[/re]: Your missing the point. Do you really think that this administration want anyone to hold any leadership responsible for anything, even Al Queda leadership?

Doglessliberal August 6, 2008 at 1:23 pm

OK, so he was found guilty of providing material support for terrorism, but was acquitted of conspiring with al-Qaeda. So he did it on his own? He was a volunteer aid-provider?
He gave them support they did not want? He forced them to let him drive? By this measure, every cabbie and hirecar driver everywhere better start making sure no customer they have ever served has done anything illegal.

Doglessliberal August 6, 2008 at 1:29 pm

I am getting all exercised about this, and probably should actually read the underlying story, but basically, driving someone bad makes you bad? Respondeat inferior? A Mafioso’s maid is guilty? Everyone employed by a criminal is a criminal? Everyone in the Bush admin is therefore guilty of a lot.

Oh well. I guess I must want the terrorists to win, and i must hate Anerica. If you don’t hear from me again, it is because I have been hauled off to Guantanamo when these postings were traced to me.

AnnieGetYourFun August 6, 2008 at 2:01 pm

[re=53091]lumpenprole[/re]: LOLZ. He’s got nothing on Amy Goodman and he knows it.

[re=53107]Doglessliberal[/re]: More than anything, they want to prove that simply BELIEVING in the cause makes you guilty, really. It’s not just that he drove Osama around, it’s that he really, really wanted Osama to succeed, and we don’t like that kind of can-do attitude.

Doglessliberal August 6, 2008 at 2:15 pm

[re=53165]AnnieGetYourFun[/re]: He was an uppity Muslim!

DangerousLiberal August 6, 2008 at 9:19 pm

The fix was in. It’s either “guilty! Life in prison/gitmo” or “Innocent! Congrats. Now go back to your cell here in sunny Gitmo.”

In any case, they were gonna convict this guy of shoplifting if that’s what it took to make the “system work.”

They say that a civilian DA can indict a ham sandwich. The military has it easier: they can automatically convict one. Which is even more ironic, ‘cos ham ain’t halal.

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