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Driver denies oath to bin Laden

"I never pledged allegiance," he said, disputing testimony by an interrogator.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A former driver for Osama bin Laden denied yesterday that he had sworn a loyalty oath to the al-Qaeda leader, contradicting potentially damaging testimony by a Defense Department interrogator.

Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, testified at his war-crimes trial that the nine-hour interrogation at Guantanamo in May 2003 focused almost entirely on whether he swore an Islamic oath, or

bayat

, to his boss, but that he had refused to discuss the topic.

"I never talked to them about this issue," Hamdan told the judge through an Arabic interpreter. "I never pledged allegiance."

Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, is evaluating whether the interrogation was tainted by coercion and therefore inadmissible as evidence at the first U.S. war-crimes trial since World War II. He said he would rule this morning.

If the judge allows the jury to hear the testimony of Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent Robert McFadden, it would contradict the defense contention that Hamdan was merely a low-level bin Laden employee with no allegiance to al-Qaeda.

McFadden said he would testify that Hamdan acknowledged taking "an oath of allegiance to bin Laden and the cause, the cause being expelling Jews and Christians from the Arabian peninsula."

Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan in November 2001 with two surface-to-air missiles in the car. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted of conspiracy and supporting terrorism.

Allred, who has dismissed other statements Hamdan made under "coercive" conditions, said he would hold the 2003 interrogation to a high standard to penalize the government for delivering hundreds of pages of prison records after court-imposed deadlines. "You're on the hot seat," Allred told prosecutors.

Hamdan has been held at this U.S. Navy base since May 2002.

Defense attorneys initially asked the judge to throw out all the Guantanamo interrogations, arguing that Hamdan made the incriminating statements under the effects of abuse including sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, and sexual humiliation.

McFadden testified that Hamdan was at ease during their interrogation, showed no signs of impairment, and never complained of abuse. But Hamdan described being "very tired" during the session.

McFadden is the only one of roughly a dozen interrogators to testify at trial that Hamdan had sworn the loyalty oath.

Prosecutor John Murphy urged the judge to accept McFadden's word over testimony from Hamdan. "I think we're dealing with a very manipulative accused," he said.