crimes and misdemeanors

Working for and Marrying Into the bin Laden Family Goes Over Poorly at Terror Trial

This frame grab from the Saudi-owned television network MBC (Middle East Broadcasting Center) shows Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the spokesman of alleged terror mastermind Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, claiming responsibility for the September 11 suicide attacks in the United States in an undated videotape broadcast by the Dubai-based MBC 17 April 2002. Bin laden hailed the economic losses suffered by the US as a result of the attacks on Washington and New York in the same tape which was reportedly recorded in December.
Photo: AFP PHOTO/MBC

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the Al Qaeda spokesperson who went on to marry Osama bin Laden’s daughter, was unsurprisingly found guilty today in Manhattan federal court of conspiring to kill Americans and providing material support to terrorists. Although the defense said that he was all talk, the jury did not buy it, instead siding with prosecutors who argued that the 48-year-old cleric “literally sat at Osama bin Laden’s right hand,” including in a video made on Sept. 12, 2001.

Abu Ghaith himself testified, in a Hail Mary by the defense, that he met with bin Laden in a cave following the attacks, but “was hoping the United States would say, ‘Let’s sit down and talk and solve these problems.’” As the closest bin Laden adviser tried in civilian court since 9/11, he faces life in prison.

Bin Laden Son-in-Law Guilty in Terror Trial