Among the hundreds of Guantanamo detainees is a man named Salim Hamdan, often described in media reports as "Osama bin Laden's chauffeur." But who is he, and what has he really been accused of doing?
1970: Salim Ahmed Hamdan is Born
Hamdan came into this world in Wadi Hadhramaut, a small town nestled among the deserts of southeastern Yemen. Little has been reported about Hamdan's early life except that he was orphaned at a young age, which would have placed him among the lower economic strata, even by the standards of rural Yemen.1996: Hamdan is Recruited by al-Qaeda
By 1996, Hamdan had moved to Sana, the Yemeni capital. Illiterate, unmarried, lonely, and stuck, he earned a very modest living as a taxi driver by day and slept in a dirty city boardinghouse by night. He was approached by an Islamic militant who offered him a salary, free transportation, and (for perhaps the first time in his life) the respect of his peers. Hamdan accepted, and left to join the anti-Russian insurgency in Tajikistan.But after he arrived in Afghanistan, Hamdan found that he and his comrades couldn't penetrate the Tajik border. He was offered the equivalent of US$200 per week--a great deal of money, by Hamdan's standards--to drive and fix machinery in Afghanistan for al-Qaeda. Fatefully, he accepted.
1999: Hamdan Starts a Family
Hamdan flew back to Yemen to marry Um Fatima in a wedding orchestrated, in part, by Osama bin Laden. They then returned to Afghanistan. Hamdan's wife did not enjoy life among the Afghan jihadis, but Hamdan promised her that in time, his work there would end and they would return to Yemen to start a new life.2000: The Bombing of the U.S.S. Cole
Hamdan was one of many Yemenis suspected of playing a role in orchestrating the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in October 2000, but there was never any specific evidence to support this claim, which seems extremely unlikely. Hamdan, who could not read and had no military background, was useful to al-Qaeda only as a mechanic and driver; he would have been an odd choice to orchestrate anything. In any case, suspicion surrounding the bombing removed the option of returning to Yemen, more or less trapping Hamdan and his wife in Afghanistan with bin Laden.In the same year, Um Fatima gave birth to the couple's first child--a daughter. But Hamdan's involvement in al-Qaeda was about to preclude his already remote prospects for a happy family life.
