SANAA, 26 August 2004 — One is called a poet, a propagandist and Osama Bin Laden’s protector. The other drove the Al-Qaeda chief around during the years he was plotting his worst terrorist attacks — Sept. 11, the US Embassy bombings in East Africa, the USS Cole strike.

Both Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman Al-Bahlul and Salim Ahmed Hamdan are from Yemen.

Al-Bahlul, the seemingly flashier of the two, was Bin Laden’s bodyguard in 2001 and “wore an explosives-laden belt” while protecting his boss, the US military alleges.

Al-Bahlul apparently was a man of many talents and allegedly worked in the Al-Qaeda media operation before becoming a gunman. Bin Laden “personally tasked” Al-Bahlul to create a videotape glorifying the Al-Qaeda bomb attack against the USS Cole in a Yemeni port in 2000, killing 17 American sailors, according to US military prosecutors.

“He is cultured and peace-loving. He speaks English and enjoys reading and writing poetry,” Al-Bahlul’s father, Hamza Ahmed, told the Associated Press.

The Pentagon has accused Al-Bahlul of being a “key Al-Qaeda propagandist who produced videos glorifying the murder of Americans to recruit, inspire and motivate other Al-Qaeda members” to attack Americans. The media expert wasn’t so successful, however, on Sept. 11, 2001 — the day Al-Qaeda staged its hijacked plane attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Bin Laden asked Al-Bahlul to set up a satellite connection so the Al-Qaeda leader and other members could watch news reports of the attack from Afghanistan, according to the US military charges, but failed “because of mountainous terrain.” Al-Bahlul followed up by obtaining media reports of the attacks and their economic impact for Bin Laden, military prosecutors say.

Al-Bahlul, 33, and Hamdan, whose age was unavailable, are among four terrorist suspects facing military commission hearings this week at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They both are charged with conspiracy as an Al-Qaeda member to commit war crimes, including attacking civilians and civilian targets, murder, destroying property and terrorism.

Al-Bahlul, according to his family, did not know Hamdan.

Hamdan has acknowledged he was the Al-Qaeda chief’s driver in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but the US detainee denied taking part in terrorist activities.

The US military, however, alleges Hamdan delivered weapons, ammunition or other supplies to Al-Qaeda members and associates from 1996 through 2001. He’s also accused of keeping Bin Laden’s convoys of three-to-nine vehicles running.

Hamdan, also known as Saqr Al-Jaddawi, was a bodyguard and personal driver for Bin Laden between February 1996 and Nov. 24, 2001, when he was captured, the US military said. He isn’t accused of taking part in any specific acts of violence or operational planning of attacks.

Both Al-Bahlul and Hamdan joined a Yemeni branch of the Egyptian militant group Islamic Jihad before Al-Qaeda was formed in 1989, Yemeni security officials said. Neither of them were senior members of the group, said the security officials, adding they left for Afghanistan before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Al-Bahlul’s father said his family has suffered from his son’s detention, both “psychologically and financially. He used to solve all our problems and paid close attention to all our needs.”

He said his son, who is married and has four children, left for Pakistan to seek treatment for his grandson before Sept. 11 and never returned.

In a letter, his son told him Pakistan handed him over to the Americans in a treacherous manner and without legal basis. “In his letters he told me how much he missed his wife and children. He has not committed any crimes and he hates no one,” said Ahmed.