Historic first terror trial opens at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba

According to his lawyers, he was merely a driver for Osama bin Laden. They say he was an employee rather than a leader, member, or supporter of Al Qaeda.

It will be up to a panel of at least five US military officers to decide the case. Judge Allred will rule on procedural and legal issues and officiate over the introduction of testimony and evidence, but the verdict will come from the commission members.

Legal analysts familiar with the military justice system praise it for its fundamental fairness. But the special military commission that hears Mr. Hamdan's case will not be operating under the same procedures and legal protections available to American military personnel when they stand trial.

Allred can admit hearsay evidence if he believes it is accurate and reveals something important about Hamdan's activities. In contrast, hearsay is routinely excluded from American trials.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 forbids the use of any evidence obtained through torture. But it permits the judge to admit hearsay evidence obtained from individuals subjected to coercive interrogation techniques – including, potentially, waterboarding, if the judge decides waterboarding is not torture.

Administration officials have defended this provision as necessary to protect sensitive intelligence sources and methods used in the war on terror.

In pretrial motions, Allred has ruled both for the government and against the government in important motions. In June 2007, he dismissed all charges against Hamdan, ruling that the military had failed to prove that Hamdan was an "unlawful" enemy combatant.

But in a new hearing, Allred decided that Hamdan was an unlawful enemy combatant and thus subject to trial by military commission.

In May, Allred ruled that the Pentagon was exerting improper command influence over the Hamdan trial. In an unusual move, he ordered the legal advisor to the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions to cease any involvement in the case.

The ruling came after a public dispute between the official and the former chief military prosecutor at Guantánamo, Morris Davis, who said the legal advisor was interfering in the work of the prosecutors, instructing them to take aggressive and controversial actions in preparing cases. In addition, Allred has ordered the government to permit defense lawyers access to high-value detainees, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khaled Shaikh Mohammed. Prosecutors have vigorously objected to the possibility that Mr. Mohammed might play a role in Hamdan's trial.

But defense lawyers counter that Mohammed and others held at Guantánamo should be permitted to testify about Hamdan's role in Al Qaeda – and whether he was merely a driver/employee or a dedicated jihadist.

The Hamdan case is being closely watched by legal observers.

In a report critical of the commission process, Amnesty International quotes an in-court statement made by Hamdan in April in which he complains that even though his lawyers have won many of their court battles, he was still facing trial.

"There is no such thing as justice here," he told Allred. "America tells the world about freedom and justice," he said, "Give me a just court ... give me my human rights."

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