In Session in Cuba: bin Laden's driver on trial

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba–The U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is the oldest U.S. base overseas and the only one in a communist country, with a climate that makes it suitable for banana rats and iguanas. But it will now be forever linked to something much more infamous - the first war crimes trial since World War II, involving Osama bin Laden's driver Salim Hamdan.

In Session arrived by cargo plane and then ferried across a turqoise bay to what is now known as "Camp Justice." The military has set up a press center in a giagantic cavernous hangar just below the courtroom, located atop a hill populated with several armed soldiers. The press is able to enter the courtroom in shifts or view it in the media office on a continuous closed-circuit feed. We are the only ones able to watch Hamdan and I was 15 feet away from the defendant inside the courtroom for what could be the most dramatic moment of the trial.

As prosecutors played an interrogation tape of Hamdan shortly after his arrest in Afghanistan, he rose from behind the defense table and was immediately surrounded by some four court guards. Hamdan was intent on leaving and told the judge that in his absence, the defense could not speak for him. He was eventually ushered out of the courtroom. The tape, which shows Hamdan kneeling on the ground, sometimes with a bag over his head and his hands tied, played on in Hamdan's absence.

Some time later, a defense attorney notified the judge that Hamdan wanted to come back to the court. He reentered the courtroom and sat quietly until the tape was finished and the gavel went down. The commission of jurors left the court and Hamdan addressed the judge once again. This time he told the judge that he wanted the commission back because he wanted to apologize for his outburst.

The judge said he will now give Hamdan an opportunity to personally address the commission when court resumes. The judge has said, ""the eyes of the world are on Guantanamo Bay," we hope he's right. While the media room is abuzz with foreign tongues linked to Al Jazeera, Saudi Press Agency, Agence France-Presse and BBC Arabic TV, only In Session and CNN have been present from the American media.

Watch Senior Editor Fred Graham's reports on this historic case on In Session.

–Bob Regan, In Session senior executive producer