Terror detainee claims torture
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10997685%255E1702,00.html
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A YEMENI prisoner accused of being Osama bin Laden's errand boy appeared before a review hearing today, rejecting statements made by an interrogator and saying he had been mistreated by American troops in Guantanamo and Afghanistan.
The bearded and shackled prisoner with bloodshot eyes has been held at the outpost for nearly three years and is accused of training at an al-Qaeda terrorist camp in Afghanistan in 1995. He was also accused of running errands for bin Laden and fighting for the terror network.
The man, who journalists are prohibited from naming, said he was studying until 1996 in Yemen, married in 2000 and moved to Pakistan and Afghanistan to teach the Koran. He denied being a member of al-Qaeda or having connections with Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime. He also said he never fought against US or coalition forces, and never received any weapons training.
"I stayed in Afghanistan for about a year," the 25-year-old said through an Arabic translator and before a three-member panel charged with deciding whether some 550 prisoners are being properly held as enemy combatants, a classification with fewer legal protections than prisoners of war.
"I don't understand how a person in a year can become such an important person, a guard or someone who runs errands. You know more about the Taliban than me."
Bin Laden the 'forgotten man' of Afghan election campaign
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=10/7/2004&Cat=4&Num=004
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KABUL (AFP) -- Osama bin Laden, who unwittingly set Afghanistan on the path to this week's presidential elections, is the forgotten man of the campaign.
Candidates never mention the name of the Al-Qaeda leader whose September 11 attacks on the United States led to the invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
Bin Laden is thought to lurk somewhere along Afghanistan's wild border with Pakistan, and remains the major bogeyman in the West's war on terrorism.
But for ordinary Afghans, he is not an issue in presidential elections on October 9.
"He's a forgotten man," said an Afghan journalist who has followed the campaign closely. "We have had 25 years of war, and every day there has been a new face, a new excuse for war. Ordinary people know very little about him."
In contrast, the wealthy scion of a Saudi family is the face of global terror to Westerners and has played a role in the U.S. presidential race.
Democratic candidate John Kerry has cited the U.S. failure to capture or kill him in the Afghan mountains as a prime example of President George W. Bush's incompetence.
The U.S.-led invasion toppled the hardline Islamic Taliban regime which sheltered Bin Laden, but missed its main target. Bush now avoids mentioning the terrorist mastermind, whom he once vowed to bring in "dead or alive."
The U.S. still has more than 18,000 troops in Afghanistan, but Bin Laden's trail appears to have gone cold.