Metro

Bin Laden son-in-law pleads not guilty in NYC court to plotting against Americans

A senior al Qaeda leader and son-in-law of Osama bin Laden pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court in New York to plotting against Americans in his role as the terror network’s top spokesman.

A subdued Sulaiman Abu Ghaith entered the plea through a lawyer to one count of conspiracy to kill Americans after being captured in Jordan over the past week in a hearing that lasted less than 20 minutes.

Abu Ghaith, seemingly bewildered by his surroundings, entered the court wearing navy blue prison scrubs and was handcuffed behind his back.

Abu Ghaith was secretly captured in Jordan and brought to New York to face justice.

Manhattan Federal Prosecutor John Cronan said Abu Ghaith was transferred to US custody before midnight on Feb. 28 and arrived in New York on March 1.

Abu Ghaith gave one word responses to the judge and only answered no when asked if he had sufficient funds to hire an attorney.

He was assigned three federal defenders.

Attorney Philip Weinstein refused to answer questions after the hearing saying, “Anything we’re going to say, we’ll say in court.”

Abu Ghaith was held without bail and is set to return to court April 8. The judge is expected to set a trial date at that time.

Cronan said Abu Ghaith made a 22-page long statement to law enforcement personal after he was arrested and a number of DVD and audio recordings were also recovered.

Prosecutors said the defense was given transcripts for seven of the recordings.

The case marks a legal victory for President Obama’s administration, which has long sought to charge senior al Qaeda suspects in American federal courts instead of military tribunals at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But it runs counter to demands by Republicans in Congress who do not want high-threat terror suspects brought into the United States.

Rep. Peter King (R-LI) called his capture a “very significant victory” in the war on terror.

He “held a key position in al Qaeda, comparable to the consigliere in a mob family or propaganda minister in a totalitarian regime,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos.

Abu Ghaith was born in Kuwait. The Department of Justice said he was the spokesman for al Qaeda, working alongside bin Laden and current leader Ayman al-Zawahri, since at least May 2001. Abu Ghaith is a former mosque preacher and teacher.

The day after the Sept. 11 attacks, prosecutors say, he appeared with bin Laden and al-Zawahri and called on the “nation of Islam” to battle against Jews, Christians and Americans.

A “great army is gathering against you,” Abu Ghaith said on Sept. 12, 2001, according to prosecutors.

Shortly afterward, Abu Ghaith warned in a speech that “the storms shall not stop — especially the airplane storm” and advised Muslims, children and al Qaeda allies to stay out of planes and high-rise buildings. In one video, he was sitting with bin Laden in front of a rock face in Afghanistan. Kuwait stripped him of his citizenship after Sept. 11.

In 2002, under pressure as the US military and CIA searched for bin Laden, Abu Ghaith was smuggled into Iran from Afghanistan, prosecutors said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) blasted the Obama administration’s decision to bring Abu Ghaith to Manhattan rather than the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“This guy didn’t rob a liquor store. He’s a spokesman close to the people who killed over 2,000 Americans,” said Graham.

“Why in the world are we treating him as if he’s some common criminal?”

Generally, Guantanamo detainees have fewer legal rights and due process than they would have in a court in America but could potentially yield more information to prevent future threats.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) said a civilian trial entitles Abu Ghaith to legal rights “before he has been fully interrogated to make sure that we know everything he knows about al Qaeda.”

But federal officials told The Post why he’s in New York: Bin Laden was originally indicted in New York 15 years ago — three years before 9/11 — and the agents and prosecutors on that case all worked in New York.

“The knowledge about bin Laden and al Qaeda is all here,” one official said.

Also, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, off Foley Square, has the facilities for high-value detainees. Abu Ghaith is believed to be in the “terror wing” of the building, where radical preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri and others were held.

The six-page federal indictment charges Abu Ghaith with “conspiracy to kill United States nationals.” It said on the eve of the 9/11 attacks that bin Laden “summoned” him and asked for his assistance. The next morning, Abu Ghaith warned the US and its allies that a “great army is gathering against you.”

Later, he said, of the 9/11 terrorists, “The actions by these young men who destroyed the United States and launched the storm of planes against it have done a good dead.”

After 9/11, Abu Ghaith mysteriously surfaced in Iran, where he remained, possibly under house arrest, for several years.

He sneaked into Turkey using a forged Saudi passport, but Turkish authorities arrested him after being tipped off by the CIA, according to local media reports. He was then deported to Jordan, where US officials took custody of him.

Abu Ghaith’s trial will mark one of the first prosecutions of senior al Qaeda leaders on US soil. Charging foreign terror suspects in American federal courts was a top pledge by Obama shortly after he took office in 2009, aimed, in part, to close Guantanamo Bay.

Additional reporting by Gerry Shields in DC and Josh Margolin in NY.
With AP