| Newyork(SLpost)The US government has accused Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law with a conspiracy to kill US nationals, after he was arrested in Turkey and brought to New York City to stand trial.Suleiman Abu Ghaith, reportedly a 47-year-old Kuwaiti and allegedly one of the
chief propagandists of the al-Qaeda network, is expected to be arraigned before a US district judge on Friday morning.
Abu Ghaith stands accused of conspiring “to kill nationals of the United States”, the US Justice Department said earlier on Thursday.
Eric Holder, US attorney general, said the arrest showed that the US would never relent in its pursuit of the fighters who launched the attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York and Washington.
“No amount of distance or time will weaken our resolve to bring America’s enemies to justice,” he said.
“To violent extremists who threaten the American people and seek to undermine our way of life, this arrest sends an unmistakable message.
“There is no corner of the world where you can escape from justice because w
e will do everything in our power to hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
US authorities accuse Ghaith of assisting bin Laden, who was killed in a 2011 raid
by
American commandos, and of taking to the airwaves to promote al-Qaeda’s war against America after the 9/11 a
ttacks.
Turkish reports
According to the indictment he allegedly threatened Americans, warning them that a “great army is gathering” and “the storms shall not stop, especially the airplanes storm”.
A Turkish newspaper had reported earlier that Ghaith was seized by US authorities at a hotel in Ankara, the Turkish capital, last month and was deported to Jordan, before being taken to the US.
The Hürriyet reported that Abu Ghaith was passing through Jordan, on his way to Kuwait, shortly after leaving Turkey.
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The newspaper said that Abu Ghaith was taken into custody more than a month ago at a luxury hotel in Ankara.
But Turkish officials decided he had not committe
d any crime in Turkey, and released him, the newspaper reported.
In Ankara, Turkish officials refused to confirm Abu G
haith’s deportation or his capture in Jordan to the Associated Press.
In Amman, the Jordanian capital, a security official said he had no information on the CIA arrest in Jordan.
Initial public confirmation of Abu Ghaith’s capture ca
m
e from Peter King, a senior Republican member of the House of Representatives Inte
lligence Committee and former chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
On Thursday, King called the arrest a “very significant victory” in
the ongoing fight against al-Qaeda.
He said the capture was confirmed to him by US law enforcement officials.
US sources indicated that, while a CIA role in the capture of Abu Ghaith could not be ruled out, the FBI took the lead role in the operation under the auspices of an interagency body known as the High-value Detainee Interrogation Group.
The group was created by Obama’s administration after the president ordered the permanent shutdown of a CIA programme in which rebel suspects were detained and held in a network of secret prisons, during the administration of former President George Bush.
The suspects were sometimes subjected to controversial and phy
sically coercive “enhanced interrogation techniques,” and also sometimes transferred without trial to third countries under a procedure known as “extraordinary rendition”.
US intelligence officials in Washington did not immediately respond to request for information about Abu Ghaith. |
