In a courtroom shocker, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law took the witness stand at his own terror trial Wednesday and provided a rare, inside look at the al-Qaeda leader on the night of the 9/11 attacks, joyfully boasting,”We are the ones who did it,” inside a cave in Afghanistan.
A relaxed Sulaiman Abu Ghaith told Manhattan federal court jurors it was in that cave where his fiendish, future father-in-law chided him for being “too pessimistic” after Abu Ghaith prophetically predicted America wouldn’t rest until bin Laden was dead and buried.
“Did you learn what happened? We are the ones who did it,” he said bin Laden told him in the hours after the Sept. 11, 2001 jet hijacking attacks that brought down the Twin Towers, demolished a vast section of the Pentagon and left one jumbo jet disintegrated in a Pennsylvania field. He spoke through an Arabic translator.
When bin Laden asked him how he thought the US would react, Abu Ghaith told him, “America, if it is proven you did this, will not settle until it kills you and topples the state of the Taliban.”
A cocky Bin Laden shook off the warning by firing back “you’re being too pessimistic,” the onetime 48-year-old Kuwaiti-born imam recalled.
But a decade later, Abu Ghaith’s prediction would come true when Navy SEALS raided bin Laden’s Pakistani compound and killed the al-Qaeda leader.
Abu Ghaith said that “Sheik Osama” would go on to persuade him to be his talking head by making videotaped sermons the following day, and in the weeks after, seeking to inspire people to join al-Qaeda’s cause. He claimed to have been on a “humanitarian mission” while in Afghanistan and said his hate sermons weren’t his own words — but rather “built around” some “quotes” and “bullet points” supplied by bin Laden.
He also claimed the videotaped speeches talking about future attacks on America were religious in nature and aimed at encouraging Muslims to fight oppression.
Among the videos previously shown to jurors was one made in October 2011 in which Abu Ghaith warns that “the storm of airplanes [against America] will not stop.”
Abu Ghaith’s unexpected decision to become the most senior al-Qaeda official to be tried or testify in a US civilian court since the 9/11 attacks was announced Wednesday morning by his lawyer Stanley Cohen, sending a buzz through the courthouse that quickly led to the seats filling up in what had been a nearly empty courtroom.
Dressed in a charcoal-colored suit and a blue shirt opened at the collar, Abu Ghaith also used his time on the stand to repeatedly deny the feds’ charges that he conspired to kill Americans and boost al-Qaeda as its spokesman.
He also specifically denied knowing in advance about the 9/11 attacks or Richard Reid’s botched shoe bomb plot in late 2001 as the feds allege, claiming he only first learned of them through media reports.
During cross-examination, prosecutor Michael Ferrara pointed out how Abu Ghaith hours earlier testified that he agreed to meet with bin Laden on Sept. 11, 2001 on invitation because the al-Qaeda leader was a sheik who deserved “respect” – even though he was aware bin Laden had orchestrated the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and attack on the USS Cole in 2000.
“So you’re saying you sat down with him because you were being polite,” Ferrara asked.
Abu Ghaith skirted the question, claiming he only agreed to meet with bin Laden to see what he wanted.
Abu Ghaih said he knew was bin Laden was suspected in terrorist attacks but still “wanted to get to know that person.”
“I wanted to see what he had, what is it he wanted,” he said.
Abu Ghaith is married to bin Laden’s eldest daughter, Fatima. Cohen said they were married in 2008 or 2009.
While being questioned by his own lawyer, Abu Ghaith was so free talking that Judge Lewis Kaplan scolded him, saying “save your speeches” and stick to answering the questions.
Abu Ghaith faces life in prison if convicted of conspiring to kill Americans and of providing material support to al Qaeda.