Here's a dash of reality amidst the election madness.  Osama Bin Laden's media spokesman has been convicted of "conspiring with al Qaeda, soliciting murder and providing material support for terrorism;"

Yemeni prisoner Ali Hamza al Bahlul is the second man to be convicted by a jury in the war crimes court at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He faces life in prison and could learn his sentence on Monday.

The jury of nine U.S. military officers deliberated about four hours before reaching their verdict on Friday after a weeklong trial.

FBI interrogators testified that Bahlul scripted the videotaped wills of two September 11 hijackers and boasted of making a two-hour al Qaeda commercial designed to recruit suicide bombers.

The recruitment video was filled with bloody images of violence against Muslims and portrayed the attack on the USS Cole as part of "The Solution." It praised the suicide bombers who drove a boat full of explosives into the side of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000, killing 17 American sailors.

Three New York men who saw the video at a training camp in Afghanistan testified that they were so horrified they opted not to join al Qaeda and fled back to the United States.

Al-Bahlul was considered one of the top catches in the entire war and his conviction will no doubt be protested because he voluntarily offered no defense. He considered the Air Force officer assigned to his defense as "the enemy" but hey! even if the guy wouldn't have hesitated to murder us all in our beds if he got half a chance, the trial was "unfair."

Meanwhile, back in the real world, it is believed al-Bahlul will not receive the death penalty for his actions because he didn't take part in or plan any attacks. All he did was try to set up a satellite link so that Osama could watch live coverage of the carnage from September 11.