Guantanamo Bay, Cuba ? In the most chaotic day so far of the war crimes tribunal here, a Yemeni captive on Thursday rejected his Pentagon defense team and dramatically declared loyalty to al-Qaida before he was cut off just as he seemed about to explain his links to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“I am from al-Qaida,” said Ali Hamza al Bahlul, 36, a self-styled poet from Yemen who refused to stand in respect for the colonels hearing his case.

Then, speaking in Arabic, he began to talk about “the relationship between me and Sept. 11” before a stunned Col. Peter Brownback III, the presiding officer, interrupted him in midsentence.

“Stop,” Brownback ordered. Then, addressing the other members of the tribunal, Brownback warned that Bahlul’s statement shouldn’t be used against him. “You all understand that Mr. Bahlul is not under oath,” Brownback said. “None of this is evidence in any way.”

Prosecutor Navy Cmdr. Scott Lang disagreed, and said he’d file a motion to have Bahlul’s statement used as evidence.

Bahlul is accused of being a propagandist for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and his court appearance was to have been a routine preliminary hearing in which the charges would be read and defense and prosecuting attorneys would spar over procedures.

Instead, Bahlul captivated the courtroom by spurning the two Pentagon lawyers who sat alongside him — Navy Lt. Cmdr. Philip Sundel and Army Maj. Mark Bridges — then pledging loyalty to al-Qaida.

“I don’t want an attorney representing me,” he said. “I’ll attend the sessions if it’s mandatory. If I don’t have to attend the hearing I’d rather not attend.”

At first, Brownback rejected Bahlul’s request. Later, he agreed to refer the question to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s representative, retired Maj. Gen. John Altenburg, an attorney who supervises the process in Washington.

The prosecution alleges Bahlul served as a bin Laden bodyguard, even wearing a bomb belt to protect him, and that he made a videotape glorifying the October 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 sailors.

Today, a fourth Guantanamo captive goes before the panel. Ibrahim Ahmed al Qosi, 44, of Sudan is accused of joining up with al-Qaida during bin Laden’s years in Khartoum and working as a network payroll clerk.

In this courtroom sketch, Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al Bahlul appears before a military commission at Guantanamo Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Bahlul is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes.

A detainee is escorted by military police at Camp 4 of the maximum security prison Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This week the U.S. military held preliminary hearings for four detainees charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes.