In a surprise move, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was brought into U.S. District Court in Manhattan today to face trial for crimes connected to the Sept. 11 attacks.
He becomes one of the highest-ranking al Qaida figures to face trial in the U.S. for Sept. 11 crimes. The courtroom where Abu Ghaith appeared was just blocks from the site of the destroyed World Trade Center.
Prosecutors said in court that Abu Ghaith was captured on Feb. 28 and secretly slipped into the United States on March 1. Though some news outlets reported that he was taken into custody in Jordan, government sources told Reuters that Abu Ghaith was arrested in Turkey.
After being led into the large, crowded courtroom, Abu Ghaith, 47, politely followed the proceedings through an interpreter, nodding frequently, according to reports.
Prosecutors presented evidence against Abu Ghaith that included videos, audio recordings of him and others, and a 22-page report with transcripts of remarks he has made to law enforcement since his arrest. One of his court-appointed laywers, Philip Weinstein previously represented Faisal Shazad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen who admitted trying to set off a car bomb in Times Square in 2010 and is serving life in prison without parole.
When the federal government attempted to try another leading suspect, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four accomplices in New York in 2010, Mayor Michael Bloomberg resisted, saying the cost of hosting a trial would exceed $200 million annually.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who like many Republicans objects to Abu Ghaith being charged as a civilian, said in a statement that bringing him to the United States “solely for civilian prosecution makes little sense, and reveals, yet again, a stubborn refusal to avoid holding additional terrorists” at Guantanamo.
As the French battle Islamist forces in Mali, the French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that its forces found rebel weapons “by the tons” and that one cache uncovered in the Ametetai valley included heavy arms, material for improvised explosive devices and suicide bomb belts. The French interpreted the cache to mean al Qaida intended to use north Africa as a base of operations in the region.
