TERRORIST PROPAGANDAIST - ABU GHAITH ON TRIAL

[HairOfTheDog]

Remember this guy?



He is Abu Ghaith, the al Qaeda officer who appeared in post-9/11 videos along side Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawhari (Bin Laden's successor). Ghaith is also Bin Laden's son-in-law; he married Bin Laden's daughter Fatima.

Ghaith is the man who delivered the speech warning the west that “the storms shall not stop, especially the airplanes storm -- Muslims, children and opponents of the United States should not to board any aircraft and not live in high-rises”.

He is the highest-ranking al Qaeda figure to face trial on U.S. soil since the ⁹⁄₁₁ attacks. He is now on trial in Federal Court in NYC; charged with conspiracy to kill Americans nearly 13 years ago. Ghaith pleaded "Not Guilty" to the charges. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Here's the indictment announcement:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/March/13-ag-279.html

The US government is not claiming that he was involved in plotting 9/11. They are charging that he incited terrorism against the US with his propaganda and speeches, recruited soldiers into the al Qaeda army for the purpose of terrorism, and that he had prior knowledge of the failed shoe-bomb airline attack by Richard Reid in December 2001.

Yesterday, Ghaith took the stand at his jury trial -- a move which surprised everyone. Interesting testimony.

[HairOfTheDog]

GHAITH'S TESTIMONY

The decision by 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.

Here are some highlights of what Ghaith told the jurors yesterday.
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. He said he told Bin Laden that he was not a military analyst, but Bin Laden pressed him. Ghaith said that told Bin Laden 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 (Bin Laden) said, ‘You are being too pessimistic.’ “I (Ghaith) said, ‘You asked my opinion, and this is my opinion.’ ”

After the drive from Kandahar, 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.

Ghaith had been in Afghanistan for several months in 2001, where he was delivering religious lectures in Qaeda training camps, he said. On the morning of Sept. 12, he testified, Bin Laden told him he wanted “to deliver a message to the world.”

Ghaith recalled saying that he was “new in this field.” He said Bin Laden replied, “I am going to give you some points and you build around them that speech.”

Ghaith said under direct examination that Bin Laden wanted him to lecture in the Qaeda camps because the trainees had a “hard life.” “I need you to change that,” Bin Laden told him, Ghaith recalled. He said Bin Laden wanted him to make them be merciful.

On cross-examination, prosecutor, Michael Ferrara, later asked Ghaith, “You’re telling this jury that Bin Laden asked you to speak at those training camps where men were armed and learning how to use guns because he wanted you to talk about mercy?” “Yes,” Ghaith replied.

Ghaith had also testified on direct examination that he had no idea “specifically” that the Sept. 11 attacks would occur, saying he only learned of them from news reports. But on cross-examination, he admitted that in the training camps, he had heard that “something” might happen.

“You knew something big was coming from Al Qaeda?” Mr. Ferrara asked. “Yes,” Ghaith replied.

During the questioning by Mr. Cohen, Ghaith said that he had hoped that his speeches and videos would have led the United States to say, “Let’s go and sit down and talk and solve this problem.” (HOTD: for real?)

Mr. Ferrara, though, pressed the defendant about the message he delivered in his speeches.“It was your intention to deliver a message you believed in, right?” the prosecutor asked. Ghaith said "yes".

“Your words carried weight, didn’t they?” Mr. Ferrara added a few questions later. “The listener will have to be the judge of that,” Ghaith said. “I cannot judge my own words.”
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Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/nyregi...egion&_r=0
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bin-laden-so...n-defense/

[HairOfTheDog]

GHAITH FOUND GUILTY

-Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was found guilty today of conspiring to kill Americans.

-He was convicted because he aided al Qaeda as its main spokesman; his attorney argued unsuccessfully that nothing ties Abu Ghaith to terrorism.

-The Kuwaiti cleric and Bin Laden son-in-law faces life in prison at sentencing on September 8.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Fuck him, hang the bastard