Pentagon charges Afghan detainee with terror support

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pentagon prosecutors have charged an Afghan prisoner with spying on U.S. troops in Afghanistan and participating in a rocket attack, according to documents released on Monday.

Mohammed Hashim, who has admitted working for the Taliban and al Qaeda, was charged on May 30 with providing material support for terrorism and spying.

According to the Pentagon, Hashim attended al Qaeda training camps and then made himself available to carry out attacks between December 2001 and October 2002.

He conducted reconnaissance missions against American and coalition forces and participated in at least one rocket attack against U.S. troops for al Qaeda, according to the charges.

"I helped out (Osama) bin Laden," Hashim said at a previous hearing at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That hearing determined his status as an "enemy combatant" at the detention center.

"All of it is true. There are no lies in there," he said of the allegations against him, according to the undated transcript of that hearing posted on the Pentagon's Web site.

Hashim said he worked for al Qaeda "for money" and not because of any ideological link to the group.

The charges must be approved by a Pentagon official who oversees the Guantanamo war court.

The Guantanamo tribunals are the first U.S. war crimes tribunals since World War Two. They were established after the September 11 attacks to try non-American captives whom the Bush administrations considers "enemy combatants" not entitled to the legal protections granted to soldiers and civilians.

The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized the military commissions system as inherently unfair to defendants, in part because it allows the use of hearsay and secret evidence to yield convictions.

(Reporting by Kristin Roberts, Editing by Chris Wilson)