Osama bin Laden's media secretary goes on trial at Guantánamo on charges he turned video footage of the crippled destroyer USS Cole into a recruiting video for al Qaeda.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Osama bin Laden's media secretary goes on trial this week at the war court, accused of transforming news footage of the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole into a recruiting video for al Qaeda.

Ali Hamza al Bahlul, about 40, of Yemen becomes the second Guantánamo detainee to face trial as an alleged terrorist at the first U.S.-run war crimes tribunal since World War II.

In years of pretrial hearings, he has never disputed the charges against him. But he rejects the authority of the U.S. military court.

''I will never deny any actions I did alongside bin Laden fighting you and your allies, the Jews,'' Bahlul said in an hourlong monologue at his May arraignment. "We will continue our jihad and nothing will stop us.''

Bahlul allegedly produced an Internet-based video that glorified the attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 American sailors. The video splices news footage with bin Laden's calls to holy war, or jihad -- and mixes in a splash of special effects.

Bahlul also allegedly worked as bin Laden's sometimes bodyguard and helped two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers make videotaped ``martyr's wills.''

Bahlul is accused of three crimes: Conspiring with al Qaeda, solicitation to murder and providing material support to terror. The Pentagon plans to call up to 31 witnesses, including al Qaeda recruits, FBI agents and Cole bombing victims.

A jury of U.S. military officers, whose names are shielded from the public by court order, will hear the government's case. The trial could last the week.
Conviction of the crimes carries at most life in prison.

Bahlul has so far forbidden his Pentagon defense attorney, Air Force Reserve Maj. David Frakt, from calling witnesses, cross-examining government witnesses or otherwise making an argument on his behalf.

Frakt, a law professor at the Western State University College of Law, said he has obtained an opinion from the New Jersey Bar that permits him to follow his client's wishes.

The trial judge, Air Force Col. Ronald Gregory, described the strategy as ''standing mute,'' and said the burden will be on the Pentagon prosecutor to prove any guilt.

''Will it be difficult for me to sit there doing nothing? Yeah,'' said Frakt, who has been vigorously filing motions and calling witnesses in pretrial hearings of another commissions case.

Two men in a boat laden with explosives came up alongside the 8,000-ton USS Cole in October 2000 as it refueled in the port of Aden, Yemen, and blew up the vessel. The attack crippled the $1 billion destroyer so severely it had to be hauled home aboard a Norwegian salvage ship.

But, said Frakt, Bahlul ``wasn't involved in the attack on the Cole. He was not an operational combatant. He had no role in planning terrorist activities. He did not engage in terrorist activities.''

Added Frakt: ``If we're supposed to be trying those people who are responsible for 9/11 and other terrorist attacks, I don't think he was one of those people.''

A father of four with a flair for the dramatic, Bahlul has been one of the most colorful war court defendants. He has fired at least six free-of-charge defense attorneys, both military and civilian, and fashioned a hand-scrawled Arabic sign declaring muquata'a -- boycott -- and waved it at successive hearings.

Bahlul said he had nothing to do with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but has for years openly admitted his membership in al Qaeda and devotion to bin Laden -- statements the judge ruled Monday morning would be excluded from the trial.

Among those expected to testify are up to three members of the Lackawanna Six, now serving eight- to 10-year sentences in federal penitentiaries.

The American-born men of Yemeni ancestry pleaded guilty in federal court in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2003 to providing material support to terror by attending al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan before the 9/11 attacks. Part of the plea deals included their cooperation in federal investigations.

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