by Tim Witcher
GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba, Aug 27 (AFP) - A lawyer for an accused Al-Qaeda accountant from Sudan made a plea Friday for extra help defending him against warcrimes before a US military tribunal.
Military authorities announced meanwhile that another nine Al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees would soon be charged and that some major names would soon follow.
The military-appointed lawyer for Ibrahim Ahmaed Mahmoud al-Qosi was the second this week to urge faster action by military authorities to provide help to defend detainees at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba.
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Sharon Shaffer said she had already had one official request for an assistant counsel denied since was named to defend Qosi in February. She has also had requests for access to witnesses and evidence denied.
On top of seeking evidence from the US military, Shaffer also went to Sudan with just a translator to seek information. Normally such work would be done by a researcher.
Qosi is charged with conspiracy to attack civilians, carry out murder and commit terrorism.
According to military prosecutors, Qosi joined Al-Qaeda in 1989 and arranged for the transfer of funds for Osama bin Laden's group and was an accountant for a Sudanese front company. His next hearing was set for October 4.
Shaffer had been told she would be moved from defending Qosi to become an Air Force judge and so stopped preparing the case in July. It was only two days before Friday's hearing that she was told she would be stay to help the Sudanese.
She told the tribunal the "conflict" over her future was now over. "My own issues over the lack of resources to adequately prepare this case are not," she complained.
Presiding judge Colonel Peter Brownback emphasised that the planned trial date of December 7 had to be conditional on Shaffer getting support.
Lieutenant Commander Charlie Swift, who is defending bin Laden's personal driver, Salim Ahmad Hamdan, also complained about lack of a deputy defence counsel and a researcher when Hamdan, a Yemeni, was formally charged on Tuesday.
Colonel Will Gunn, chief defence counsel at the military commissions, said he wanted two defence lawyers and a legal assistant for each defendant.
Four Guantanamo detainees, also including Australian David Hicks, have this week been before military commissions that have been strongly criticised by defence lawyers and human rights activists.
Eleven are close to being charged and after the hearing chief prosecutor Colonel Bob Swann said another nine cases would be declared ready for charges "in the next couple of weeks".
He indicated some major names would soon be recommended for warcrimes prosecution.
Swann did not give details but observers speculated that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington could be among them.
"In the next group after that there will be names that you recognise," Swann told reporters. "The American people will recognise the names of these people."
Mohammed was believed to be al-Qaeda's third in command before his capture in Pakistan in March last year. He was handed over to US authorities who have since detained him at an undisclosed location.
A Defence Department spokesman said meanwhile that only a small proportion of the 585 detainees at Guantanamo would appear before the tribunals.
"It is very unlikely that the majority would go to the military commissions," said spokesman Colonel David McWilliams.
All of the detainees are going through review tribunals to decide if they were properly named "enemy combatants". Administrative tribunals will soon start to decide if the detainees are still a "threat" to the United States.