Osama driver guilty.

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A military court yesterday convicted Osama bin Laden's driver of supporting terrorism but acquitted him on the more serious charge of

conspiring with Al Qaeda in the first US war crimes trial since World War Two.The trial of Yemeni captive Salim Hamdan at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba was the first full test of the controversial tribunal authorised by the Bush administration to try foreign captives on terrorism charges outside the regular US court system.The White House welcomed the conviction while human rights and civil liberties groups condemned it.A sentence hearing was scheduled for late last night. Hamdan faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.The jurors deliberated a little over eight hours before reaching their verdict.Hamdan stood tensely in the courtroom beside his lawyers as the verdict was announced, listening through headphones to the English-Arabic interpreter. He raised his hands and wept into them as the guilty verdict was read.In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "The Military Commission system is a fair and appropriate legal process for prosecuting detainees alleged to have committed crimes against the United States or our interests. We look forward to other cases moving to trial," he said.The American Civil Liberties Union said it viewed the tribunal process as deeply flawed."Any verdict resulting from such a flawed system is a betrayal of American values. The rules for the Guantanamo military commissions are so flawed that justice could never be served. From start to finish, this has been a monumental debacle of American justice," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero .The jury of military officers heard two weeks of testimony, including that of ten federal agents who interrogated Hamdan without warning him that his confessions would be used against him in a criminal trial.

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