Indonesian detainee denies Al Qaeda tie
Pentagon releases court transcripts
WASHINGTON -- An Indonesian linked by US authorities to a terrorist group blamed for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings told a military hearing he had no association with Al Qaeda.
Riduan Isamuddin, who told the tribunal that he preferred to be called Hambali, also said he had no knowledge of other terrorist plots he is accused of orchestrating as the alleged operations chief of Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional terrorist group considered responsible for the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
He appeared before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal, an administrative hearing, at Guantanamo Bay on April 4 as one of 14 "high value" detainees transferred to the US naval base in Cuba in September after being held at secret CIA prisons abroad. The public and reporters are not permitted access to the hearings; a US government transcript of the unclassified portion of Isamuddin's hearing was released by the Pentagon yesterday.
The Pentagon also released the transcript of a closed hearing for Ali al-Azia Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, whom US authorities accuse of helping arrange financing for at least one of the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Ali said he is a businessman who has family ties to alleged terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed but is not part of Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
In statements at his administrative hearing, Ali, whom the Defense Department calls Ammar alBaluchi, also asserted that during his nearly four years in US custody he gave officials "vital information" to help foil terrorist plots.
He is another of the 14 "high value" suspects at Guantanamo.
Ali said Mohammed, who is his uncle, introduced him to Sept. 11 hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi and others accused by the United States of being Al Qaeda operatives. He said, however, that Mohammed never mentioned that he was involved with Al Qaeda or plotting attacks against the United States.
Ali's hearing was held March 30. The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether the detainee is properly classified as an "enemy combatant" eligible for a military trial for war crimes.
During his hearing, a tribunal member asked Ali whether he helped hijacker Shehhi obtain a visa to enter the United States .
"I don't recall," Ali replied, according to the transcript. "Maybe I can because I have contacts. So that's normal, but I don't recall."
In a written statement presented at the hearing in support of Ali, Mohammed said he never recruited his nephew for Al Qaeda.
At his Guantanamo tribunal, Mohammed said he was responsible for dozens of successful and foiled attacks over the past 15 years.
Mohammed submitted a second brief statement contending that the United States has arrested thousands of innocent people as "enemy combatants," and he asserted that much of the classified evidence against alleged terrorists is from "confessions that were obtained under torture by the CIA."
Another accused Al Qaeda operative, Ramzi Binalshibh, who also is in custody at Guantanamo Bay, submitted a statement saying Ali had no prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 plot.
According to the office of the Director of National Intelligence, Ali is a member of an extended family of Islamic extremists, including his uncle Mohammed and cousin Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and accused of plotting to blow up US airliners. 