It really does play like a B horror movie.
"Trial of bin Laden son-in-law begins" Associated Press, March 03, 2014
NEW YORK — Amid unusually tight security, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law goes to trial Monday on charges he conspired to kill Americans in his role as Al Qaeda’s mouthpiece after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Spectators at the trial of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith — the highest-ranking Al Qaeda figure to face trial on US soil since the attacks — will pass through a metal detector before entering a Manhattan courtroom, where prosecutors will try to prove to an anonymous jury that the one-time terror network spokesman tried to rally others to kill Americans.
Prosecutors say they plan to show jurors during their opening statement a picture of Abu Ghaith seated with bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders the day after Sept. 11 as they make statements about the attacks.
Also during the trial, prosecutors will show jurors post- 9/11 videos in which the charismatic bearded man promises more attacks on the United States as devastating as those that demolished the World Trade Center.
‘‘The Americans must know that the storm of airplanes will not stop, God willing, and there are thousands of young people who are as keen about death as Americans are about life,’’ Abu Ghaith said in an Oct. 9, 2001, speech.
God must have not been willing because all we got were silly shoe plots and other things that made me crap my pants in laughter.
Defense lawyers are offering some surprises in the case, including an assertion last week that some of the government’s evidence relates to a detainee at Guantanamo Bay with a similar name to Abu Ghaith rather than to the defendant, who has pleaded not guilty.
That evidence must be thrown out because it was acquired under torture.
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Related:
Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law faces judge
Shoe bomber trainee testifies from UK at N.Y. trial
I know I missed some coverage from the stack of unread or linked-only Globes, but I was too busy trying to get the shit off my shoes.
What came off:
"Trial of bin Laden son-in-law begins; Prosecutors say he helped inspire militant recruits" by Tom Hays and Larry Neumeister | Associated Press, March 06, 2014
NEW YORK — In opening statements, Assistant US Attorney Nicholas Lewin told the jury that bin Laden had summoned Sulaiman Abu Ghaith on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, and asked him to use his oratory skills as the public face of Al Qaeda to recruit and inspire recruits to attack the United States again. Abu Ghaith is the highest-ranking Al Qaeda figure to face trial on US soil since suicide attackers struck the city’s twin towers.
‘‘While our buildings still burned, he agreed . . . in what is the most important moment in Al Qaeda’s savage history,’’ Lewin said, showing jurors a photo of Abu Ghaith sitting side-by-side with bin Laden in Afghanistan on Sept. 12, 2001....
Defense attorney Stanley Cohen countered, pointing out that Lewin referenced the Sept. 11 attacks several times, even though his client was not involved in the plot.
‘‘This is not Osama bin Laden,’’ Cohen said, pointing to Abu Ghaith. ‘‘This is Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a Muslim, an Arab from Kuwait, a husband, a father, an imam, a talker, an ideologue.’’
Abu Ghaith, 48, a onetime imam at a Kuwaiti mosque, was brought to New York from Turkey last year. He has pleaded not guilty to charges he conspired to kill Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks and provided material support and resources to a terrorist organization. Born in Kuwait, he is married to bin Laden’s eldest daughter, Fatima.
Prosecutors allege Abu Ghaith began his rise through the ranks for Al Qaeda by becoming a motivational speaker at safe houses and training camps for aspiring jihadists in the weeks and months before Sept. 11. Afterward, bin Laden instructed him to lead recruitment efforts by appearing in widely distributed videos.
‘‘For more than a year after, the defendant used the murderous power of his words to try to strengthen Al Qaeda,’’ Lewin said. He quoted the defendant several times, including one remark he said came weeks after the attack: ‘‘These young men who have destroyed the United States and launched the storm of airplanes against it have done a good deed. The storm of airplanes will not abate.’’
The government contends the statements are evidence that Abu Ghaith had prior knowledge of the failed shoe-bomb airline attack by Richard Reid in December 2001.
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