Why not ask those applying for education visas some hard questions to determine their view of the jihad ideology? “Detainee Says He’s Proud to Fight U.S.,” from AP, with thanks to Mackie:
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) – A U.S.-educated Saudi accused of being part of an al-Qaida bomb-making cell said Thursday he is proud that he fought against the United States and doesn’t want an attorney at his military trial.
“I did not come here to defend myself,” Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi calmly told the military judge. “I did what I did and I’m willing to pay the price no matter how many years you sentence me.”
Al-Sharbi, 31, an electrical engineering graduate from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., was captured in March 2002 in Pakistan with senior al-Qaida lieutenant Abu Zubayda and other figures.
He is charged with conspiracy in an alleged plot to build remote-controlled explosives to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan and faces up to life in prison if convicted in the military tribunal at Guantanamo.
The military panel that determined whether al-Sharbi was an “enemy combatant” disclosed that he was known by other detainees as Abu Zubayda’s “right hand man” and that he had been seen “chatting and laughing like pals” with Osama bin Laden at a terrorist training camp, according to Pentagon documents recently obtained by The Associated Press.
At his military trial, al-Sharbi, who has long hair and a thick, flowing beard, told the presiding judge that he would not cooperate with his court-appointed attorney.
“I’m going to make this easy for you guys. I fought against the United States. I took up arms,” he said in English, his hands clasped on the defense table in front of him. Later, he added: “I’m going to tell you what I did. … I’m proud of what I did.”