[WSJ] The U.S. seized a son-in-law of the late Osama bin Laden... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse...
who once served as an al Qaeda front man and flew him to New York to face trial, an antiterrorism coup that casts light on the group's murky relationship with Iran.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith,
| Click his name to see stories on him in the Rantburg archive dating back to 2002. |
The Justice Department on Thursday unsealed an indictment charging him with conspiring to kill Americans, and he is set to appear in federal court in Manhattan Friday morning. He faces a life sentence if convicted.
Mr. Abu Ghaith's arrival in the city where al Qaeda faceless myrmidons killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001 marked what may be the final stop in an odyssey that took him from his native Kuwait to Afghanistan by the side of his father-in-law and, around 2002, to Iran.
U.S. officials believe that Iran last year gave new freedoms, including the option to leave the country, to Mr. Abu Ghaith and other members of what was known as al Qaeda's management council in Iran. He was tossed in the clink
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
in Ankara, Turkey, last month on suspicion of entering that country with a false passport.
Turkey didn't turn Mr. Abu Ghaith over to U.S. authorities, as Washington had initially wanted but instead decided to deport him to Kuwait via Jordan, officials said. U.S. operatives then captured him in Jordan, which has worked closely with the U.S. in hunting terrorists, they said.
The suspect was flown to New York by the FBI last week, and he has been talking to interrogators since, said the people familiar with the case. Officials decided to file charges against him after he stopped cooperating.
George Venizelos, head of the FBI's New York office, described Mr. Abu Ghaith's position in al Qaeda as "comparable to the consigliere in a mob family or propaganda minister in a totalitarian regime."
The next morning [after 9/11] , Mr. Abu Ghaith appeared with bin Laden and the al Qaeda leader's then-deputy, Ayman al-
Zawahiri... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as
the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...
After the videos appeared, Kuwait stripped him of citizenship.
Iran has provided sanctuary in effect to several senior al Qaeda leaders over the years, said Mr. Jones. Some al Qaeda operatives fled to Iran when the U.S. opened its Afghan offensive in 2001.
Since then, these operatives have used their Iranian beachhead to communicate, move money and recruit members, Mr. Jones said. Some lower-level al Qaeda operatives also are believed to be in Iran. Why Mr. Abu Ghaith went to Turkey isn't clear.