Detainee Pleads Guilty to Supporting Terrorist Organizations
Noor Uthman Muhammed

Detainee Pleads Guilty to Supporting Terrorist Organizations

American Forces Press Service
Cheryl Pellerin

Accused terrorist training camp instructor
Noor Uthman Muhammed pleaded guilty
Tuesday to charges of supporting and conspiring
with international terrorist organizations against
the United States.

Noor, as he has asked to be called in court,
will be sentenced at a hearing this week before
members of a military commission.

“The prosecution is very pleased with the
entry of the guilty plea by Noor this morning,”
Navy Capt. John Murphy, chief prosecutor
for the Office of Military Commissions, told
reporters after the trial. “We believe it is another
step in the justice that we are achieving in the
commission cases.”

The commission now has resolved six cases
to date, including Noor’s, all of which have
resulted in convictions after trial or pleas of
guilty, Murphy said.

Noor’s traditional white Muslim garb was
covered with a dark blue jacket. Covering his
head was a small white cap. He wore headphones
through which an interpreter conveyed the
words of the trial judge, Navy Capt. Moira Modzelewski.

Noor pleaded guilty to the first charge against
him, which included the following:

 Acting as a weapons instructor at the Khaldan terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and between 1996 and 2000 instructing terrorist trainees on topics that included small arms and artillery;

 Serving on the Khaldan camp’s leadership council, called a shura, and acting as the camp’s deputy emir, or commander;

 As deputy emir, overseeing the camp’s daily operations, including training and acquiring food and supplies.

The second charge held that, between
August 1996 and March 2002, Noor conspired
with al-Qaida and others to commit “one or
more substantive offenses triable by military
commission.” Noor pleaded guilty to this
charge, but he denied some of the elements in it,
including attacking civilians, murder in violation
of the law of war and destruction of property in
violation of the law of war.

The guilty plea is the “strongest form of
evidence known to the law,” Modzelewski told
Noor, and she said she would use the plea to
determine his guilt and the commission would
use it to decide on his sentence.

When answering in the affirmative, Noor
softly answered, “Na’am,” the Arabic word for
yes. He answered most of the judge’s questions
this way, resting in his chair and laboring to his
feet slowly when asked to rise.

Noor’s is the last case the military commissions
office is free to prosecute, Murphy said. U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder designated three
other suspected terrorists to be prosecuted in
military commissions rather than in civilian
criminal courts, he said: Abd al Rahim al Nashiri,
the alleged mastermind behind the October
2000 bombing of the USS Cole; Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al Darbi, brother-inlaw
of Khalid al Mihdhar, whose hijacked Flight 77 hit the Pentagon on 9/11; and suspected al-Qaida member Obaidullah.

The three have not been charged yet, and
Murphy said the military commissions office is
awaiting authorization to proceed or not from
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

In all military commissions, a panel of
military officers, called “members,” determines
the sentence when there is a finding of guilt,
Defense Department spokeswoman Army Lt.
Col. Tanya Bradsher said Tuesday.

At a hearing Wednesday, the defense and
prosecution presented evidence and arguments
before the members who will determine a
sentence.