Bin Laden son-in-law to stand trial in NYC on terrorism charges

[Jefferson23]

March 3, 2014 9:49PM ET

Jurors will decide whether Sulaiman Abu Ghaith conspired to kill Americans and provide material support to armed groups

Osama bin Laden's son-in-law was introduced to prospective jurors on Monday at the start of his trial on charges that he conspired to kill Americans and support violence in his role as Al-Qaeda's spokesman after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The U.S. government plans to show jurors a picture of Abu Ghaith seated with bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders on Sept. 12, 2001, as they make statements about the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

The trial, expected to last about three to five weeks, began a year after Abu Ghaith was brought to the United States following his capture in Jordan. Abu Ghaith is the highest-ranking Al-Qaeda figure to face trial on U.S. soil since the 9/11 attacks.

The judge told prospective jurors they would need to decide whether Abu Ghaith had conspired to kill Americans, conspired to provide material support and resources to armed groups and then supplied them material support and resources.

in full: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/3/osama-bin-laden-soninlawtrialstarts.html

[sueh]

1. K & R.

[Jefferson23]

2. Jury Selection Begins at Trial of Bin Laden’s Son-in-Law

In the days and weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, a Kuwaiti-born cleric, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, became a familiar figure in propaganda videos for Al Qaeda, appearing in some with Osama bin Laden, and other times alone, issuing blistering threats against the United States.

“The storms shall not stop, especially the airplanes storm,” he said in one speech, a federal indictment charges.

Mr. Abu Ghaith, who later married Bin Laden’s daughter Fatima, was captured last year and brought to the United States on terrorism charges. His trial started on Monday in Manhattan with jury selection which resumes on Tuesday morning. He is the most senior Bin Laden adviser to be tried in a civilian court since the Sept. 11 attacks, experts say.

“Abu Ghaith held a key position in Al Qaeda, comparable to the consigliere in a mob family or propaganda minister in a totalitarian regime,” George Venizelos, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s office in New York, said last year.

Unlike Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Abu Ghaith has not been accused of having advance knowledge of the attacks or being involved in terrorist operations. But prosecutors portray him as a trusted adviser and confidant of Bin Laden’s, and they believe he was probably aware of the plot in which Richard C. Reid tried unsuccessfully to blow up an airplane on a trans-Atlantic flight by detonating explosives in his shoes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/nyregion/bin-laden-relatives-trial-may-fuel-debate-over-trying-terrorism-cases-in-civilian-courts.html?hpw&rref=nyregion&_r=0

[Jefferson23]

3. More on Jury Selection Continues In Terrorism Trial Of Bin Laden’s Son-In-Law

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Jury selection continues in the trial of Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law in Manhattan.

As WCBS 880?s Irene Cornell reported, the jurors chosen to try Sulaiman Abu Ghaith on terrorism charges will remain anonymous.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan told prospective jurors, “even I don’t know your names and it will stay that way.”

Abu Ghaith will be tried on charges that he conspired to kill Americans and support terrorists in his role as al Qaeda’s spokesman after the Sept. 11 attacks.


People who knew someone who died or whose lives were closely touched by the September 11 attacks generally tell the judge they would find it difficult to be impartial and they’re being excused, Cornell reported.

Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, is described as one of the former al Qaeda leader’s closest advisers.

He appeared in propaganda videos after the 9/11 attacks making threats against the United States, prosecutors contend.

The indictment quotes Abu Ghaith warning of more attacks involving airplanes. It also links him to the failed shoe bomber plot that was aimed at bringing down an airliner on a trans-Atlantic flight.

His position in al Qaeda has been compared to that of the consigliere in a mob family, Cornell reported.

Twelve anonymous jurors and several alternates will be selected during the process before opening statements start on Wednesday or Thursday. The trial is expected to last about three to five weeks.

Abu Ghaith was brought to the United States a year ago following his capture in Jordan.

The judge told prospective jurors they would need to decide whether Abu Ghaith had conspired to kill Americans, conspired to provide material support and resources to terrorists and then supplied material support and resources to terrorists.

remainder: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/03/04/jury-selection-continues-in-terrorism-trial-of-bin-ladens-son-in-law/

[Jefferson23]

4. Opening statements today:

A US prosecutor has said Osama bin Laden's son-in-law used the "murderous power of his words" to rally others against America after the 9/11 attacks.

The statement came during opening arguments in the terrorism trial of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who once served as al-Qaeda's spokesman.

Mr Abu Ghaith, 47, has pleaded not guilty to charges he conspired to kill Americans.

The Kuwaiti national was brought to New York from Turkey last year.

Prosecutors say he appeared in videos with bin Laden the day after the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington DC that killed almost 3,000, calling for jihad against "the Jews, the Christians and the Americans".

Assistant US Attorney Nicholas Lewin described Mr Abu Ghaith as a fiery orator who had spoken to those training in al-Qaeda camps in the months before the attacks in order to inspire them.

Mr Lewin said Mr Abu Ghaith had agreed to appear in the group's videos to call for further violence "while our buildings still burned".

"He invoked his twisted view of Islam and declared 'Fight thee against the friends of Satan. Fight with al-Qaeda against America.'

"For more than a year after, the defendant used the murderous power of his words to try to strengthen al-Qaeda."

The Kuwaiti imam is married to the deceased al-Qaeda leader's eldest daughter, Fatima. He is the highest-ranking al-Qaeda official to stand trial in the US since the attacks.

He was turned over to US officials in Jordan in 2013 after being deported from Turkey.

On Wednesday, Mr Abu Ghaith's lawyer mocked the prosecution's opening statement.

"You've just been to the movies ladies and gentlemen," Stanley Cohen said. "At the end of the day, there's really no evidence. There is the substitution for evidence with fright and alarm."

He told them some of what Mr Abu Ghaith had said was "dumb. It's stupid."

But he asked jurors to keep an open mind, saying his client was not bin Laden and the trial is not about the 11 September plot.

The Obama administration's decision to try him in civilian court had been criticised by Republicans.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26458184

[Jefferson23]

5. Thursday 3/6...trial. Testimony came at trial of bin Laden's son-in-law

An American who trained at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in the spring of 2001 before losing his nerve testified Thursday how he encountered Osama bin Laden and the group's spokesman at a safe house — and that bin Laden hinted that a suicide attack on U.S. soil was in the works.

"Just know you have brothers willing to carry their souls in their hands," bin Laden told the witness, Sahim Alwan, and other recruits, Alwan said on the witness stand in federal court in Manhattan.

Asked what he thought that meant, Alwan responded, "To die."

His testimony came at the trial of bin Laden's son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who's accused of plotting to kill Americans by being a motivational speaker at al-Qaeda training camps before the Sept. 11 attacks and as a spokesman for the group afterward when it sought to recruit more militants to its cause.

Alwan, 41, was among a half-dozen men who became known as the Lackawanna Six after their arrests on charges of providing material support to terrorists by attending bin Laden's al-Farooq camp in Afghanistan in 2001. He pleaded guilty in 2003 and served about seven years behind bars.

Testifying under subpoena, Alwan told jurors that he became an aspiring jihadist after worshipping at a mosque in Lackawanna, the western New York city where he grew up. In April of 2001, he travelled to Pakistan and crossed the border to Afghanistan, where he was directed to the safe house to wait for an assignment to a training camp.
Bin Laden showed up in truck

While staying there, bin Laden showed up in a truck with an entourage of AK-47-toting men with masks on their faces, Alwan said. He testified that he recognized bin Laden as the FBI's "most wanted guy."

He also testified that Abu Ghaith showed up at the house days later and explained an Islamic oath, or "bayat." He said the defendant told the men that if they swore allegiance to bin Laden, they were also expected to back the Taliban.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bin-laden-hinted-u-s-attack-was-being-planned-trial-told-1.2563148

[Jefferson23]

6. 3/10/14 Shoe-bomb witness to speak at al-Qaeda trial

The New York trial of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and al-Qaeda spokesman after the September 11 attacks is set to resume with the airing of testimony from a London resident who says he participated in a 2001 shoe-bomb plot.

Saajid Badat will testify live via videotape on Monday from London about his experiences with al-Qaeda after the attacks that demolished the World Trade Center, according to an Associated Press news agency report.

Prosecutors are using his testimony to show that Suleiman Abu Ghaith knew of al-Qaeda's plans when he promised in videotapes aired worldwide that "the storm of airplanes will not abate."

Abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti, faces a possible life prison sentence if he is convicted of conspiring to kill Americans and of providing material support to al-Qaeda.

Badat was convicted in London in the shoe-bomb plot, along with Richard Reid, the man who became known as the shoe bomber after his attempt to detonate explosives on a flight to Miami in 2002.

Reid, a Briton, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in a US court. Badat did not follow through with the plan but was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the plot.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2014/03/shoe-bomb-witness-speak-at-al-qaeda-trial-201431034416426160.html

[Jefferson23]

7. March 14th: Terrorism Expert Testifies In Trial Of Osama Bin Laden’s Son-In-Law

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - Testimony continued in Manhattan federal court Friday in the terrorism trial of Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law.

As WCBS 880?s Irene Cornell reported, the government called Evan Coleman to the stand Friday as an expert witness on terrorism.

Coleman told the jury Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was al Qaeda’s official spokesman. When Abu Ghaith made a rousing videotaped speech the day after the 9/11 attacks, it was to claim a great victory and to recruit al Qaeda trainees to carry out more suicide missions, Coleman testified.


On cross examination, defense attorney Stanley Cohen challenged Coleman’s testimony, suggesting that “perhaps when you hear religious speeches by terrorists with religious music in the background, it’s just about religion.”

“Absolutely not,” Coleman said.

The witness testified that they always use music that talks about suicide bombings, beheadings and blowing up planes.

“That is not religion; that’s recruitment,” Coleman testified.

The jury on Thursday heard testimony from FBI agent Michael Butsch that Abu Ghaith claimed the Sept. 11 terror attacks were a surprise to him, but that the word was all over the al Qaeda training camps that something big was going to happen.

The government’s charge that he provided material support to the terrorist group is based on the fact that when Osama bin Laden summoned him on the very day of the attacks to videotape a speech that would let the world know al Qaeda was responsible, he agreed.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/03/14/terrorism-trial-of-osama-bin-ladens-son-in-law-continues/

[Jefferson23]

8. Trail update: At Trial, Son-in-Law Recalls a Cave Meeting With Bin Laden on 9/11

It was some hours after the World Trade Center towers had been toppled when Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was summoned to a meeting with Osama bin Laden. He recalled a three-hour-or-so drive into the night, finding the leader of Al Qaeda in a cave amid the mountains in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden wanted his opinion on what would happen next, Mr. Abu Ghaith testified on Wednesday. He said he told Bin Laden that he was not a military analyst, but Bin Laden pressed him.

Mr. Abu Ghaith said he told him that “America, if it was proven that you were the one who did this, will not settle until it accomplishes two things: to kill you and topple the state of Taliban.

“He said, ‘You are being too pessimistic.’

“I said, ‘You asked my opinion, and this is my opinion.’ ”

**Related Coverage

Trial Judge Will Not Allow 9/11 Architect’s TestimonyMARCH 18, 2014
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who the government has portrayed as a spokesman for Osama bin Laden.
Prosecutors Argue Against Allowing 9/11 Mastermind’s TestimonyMARCH 17, 2014

In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Abu Ghaith, who later became Bin Laden’s son-in-law, served as a spokesman for him, amplifying some of his pronouncements, and giving voice, prosecutors say, to a broad recruitment drive for fighters committed to wage war on the United States
.
On Wednesday, Mr. Abu Ghaith gave voice to his own cause, unexpectedly taking the stand in a federal courtroom in Manhattan to defend himself against charges that include conspiring to kill Americans and providing material support to terrorists. He is the most senior Bin Laden adviser to be tried — let alone testify — in a civilian trial in the United States since the attacks, and he offered an extraordinarily intimate look at Bin Laden at the time, taking jurors inside his cave in Afghanistan.

After the drive from Kandahar, Mr. Abu Ghaith said, he found Bin Laden “in a cave, inside a mountain, in a rough terrain.”

“He said, ‘Come in, sit down.’ He said, ‘Did you learn about what happened?’ ”

Bin Laden told him that “we are the ones who did it,” the defendant recalled in response to questions posed by his lawyer, Stanley L. Cohen.

The decision by Mr. Abu Ghaith, a 48-year-old Kuwaiti-born cleric, to testify came two weeks into his trial in Federal District Court. Late on Wednesday, the defense rested its case. The jury is expected to begin deliberations early next week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/nyregion/abu-ghaith-terror-trial.html

[Jefferson23]

9. March 25. Trial of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law 'uneventful.' Why that's a big deal.

Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, is being tried on charges of terrorism in a US civilian court. The lack of problems could suggest that civilian courts can handle terror trials.

By Harry Bruinius, Staff writer / March 25, 2014

New York

A Manhattan jury began to deliberate the fate of Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law Tuesday, ending nearly three weeks of testimony in the most high-profile civilian case brought against a 9/11 terror suspect.

Federal prosecutors have argued that Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the Kuwaiti-born Muslim cleric married to Mr. bin Laden’s oldest daughter, Fatima, since 2008, was the fiery spokesman for Al Qaeda, conspiring and providing material support to kill Americans as a member of the inner circle of the global terror network.

The defense, in its closing statements Monday, argued that while the evidence shows Mr. Abu Ghaith did have an association with the organization and its leader, this does not amount to conspiracy to kill Americans or provide material support for terror, the charges for which he faces life in prison.

The trial could carry important implications for how terror suspects held by the US are tried. For a decade, government officials and legal experts have debated whether such terror suspects should be tried in a secret military tribunal or an open civilian court. The Abu Ghaith trail could buttress the arguments of those who say civilian courts can do the job.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2014/0325/Trial-of-Osama-bin-Laden-s-son-in-law-uneventful.-Why-that-s-a-big-deal

[Jefferson23]

10. Verdict: Bin Laden's son-in-law convicted of conspiring to kill Americans

By Tina Susman

March 26, 2014, 8:43 a.m.
NEW YORK -- In a quick decision, a jury convicted Osama bin Laden's son-in-law of conspiring to kill Americans in his role as the angry voice of Al Qaeda after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Sulaiman abu Ghaith, 48, faces life is prison when he is sentenced Sept. 8.

The case has given the public its first and possibly only chance to watch a terrorism trial related to the 2001 attacks unfold in civilian court. Unlike other high-profile terrorism suspects accused of crimes arising from the attacks, Abu Ghaith bypassed the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after his arrest last year.

Instead, he was brought directly to New York, where his trial began March 5 just blocks from where the World Trade Center towers once stood.

The case hinged in part on the importance of Abu Ghaith’s role as a spokesman for the terror group. Prosecutors maintained it was an important one.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-ghaith-convicted-20140326,0,5107319.story#ixzz2x5Ow8zMu