Osama bin Laden's media secretary has been sentenced to life in prison for terrorism offences in the second war crimes trial at the US detention centre in Guantánamo Bay.
Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, 39, from Yemen, who made propaganda videos for Bin Laden before being captured in December 2001, was found guilty by a jury of nine military officers who deliberated for just under an hour.
He was convicted of 35 counts of conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder and providing material support for terrorism.
Al-Bahlul told jurors he proudly volunteered to be a plane hijacker on September 11 2001 and called America "the head of the infidels".
He acknowledged joining the al-Qaida terrorist network, accused the US of oppressing Muslims for 50 years and said "we will fight any government that governs America".
He told jurors before being sentenced that he volunteered to be the 20th hijacker in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, but Bin Laden told him his role was to head al-Qaida's propaganda machine.
"We are the only ones on Earth who stand against you," al-Bahlul said. "You have started the war against us."
His lawyer, Air Force Major David Frakt, said he was not surprised by the life sentence considering the defendant's comments.
"I think the 20th hijacker comment pretty much sealed the deal," Frakt said. "But he might have gotten life anyway."
Al-Bahlul had previously called the military tribunal a "legal farce" and refused to mount a defence by boycotting the trial silently at the defence table. At al-Bahlul's request, his military lawyer did not speak either, declining even to answer questions from the judge.
The lead prosecutor, Army Major Daniel Cowhig, said al-Bahlul had shown no remorse or regret.
"When will it be safe for this man to leave confinement? Never," Cowhig said.
Al-Bahlul was not accused of participating in the September 11 attacks, but prosecutors and witnesses said he was so close to Bin Laden that he hooked up a satellite receiver for the pair to hear live radio coverage of the attacks from their base in Afghanistan's Khost province.
Prosecutors said he acknowledged to interrogators that he was al-Qaida's media chief, made propaganda videos that inspired terrorists to attack the US, and arranged for the lead September 11 hijacker, Mohamed Atta, to swear a loyalty oath to the al-Qaida chief.
Witnesses at his sentencing included the father of a sailor killed in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole which featured in a video the military says al-Bahlul produced to train and inspire al-Qaida terrorists in Afghanistan.
Gary Swenchonis Sr, whose son Gary was killed in the attack, said he was devastated al-Bahlul's video had been widely available on the internet.
"It's pervasive," said Swenchonis, of Rockport, Texas. "That's what's so bad. That's what's so wrong."
Al-Bahlul, who was brought to Guantánamo in 2002, is the second prisoner to go through a war crimes trial under the special military commissions system.
The former Bin Laden driver Salim Hamdan was convicted in August and sentenced to five and a half years in prison. He is still at Guantánamo and will have completed his sentence by January 2009 with credit for time served.
A third prisoner, the Australian David Hicks, reached a plea agreement that sent him home to serve a nine-month prison sentence.
The military has not yet decided where al-Bahlul will serve his sentence but for now he will be kept from the general population at Guantánamo.
US officials have said they plan to prosecute about 80 of the 255 prisoners still held at Guantánamo, but critics of the tribunals say they doubt there will be any more trials.
Both the Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, and his Democratic counterpart, Senator Barack Obama, have said they want to close Guantánamo.
"I suspect that's the last of the military commissions," said the former Air Force colonel Morris Davis, who resigned as chief prosecutor for the trials in October 2007 after clashing with his superiors.