NEW YORK, March 8, (Agencies): Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law and former spokesman pleaded not guilty Friday to terrorism charges in New York, where he was brought a week ago after a top secret US operation.

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, reportedly a 47-year-old former Kuwaiti and allegedly a senior propagandist in the al-Qaeda network, is accused of conspiring “to kill nationals of the United States.”

He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if found guilty.

Judge Lewis Kaplan, presiding over Manhattan’s grandest ceremonial courtroom, remanded Abu Ghaith in custody until an April 8 hearing at which a trial date is expected to be set.

Abu Ghaith, balding and with a short grey beard, wore a dark blue prison smock and was handcuffed in his first public appearance since being spirited to US soil.

Security was visibly heavy, with a beefed up presence of marshals and a bomb sniffing dog in and around the courtroom.

Amid mystery about the circumstances of his arrest, one of Abu Ghaith’s court-appointed defense lawyers said he was detained “by United States law enforcement” overseas on February 28, then was brought to New York on March 1.

The arraignment took place just a few blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, where the Twin Towers were destroyed on September 11, 2001 by airliners hijacked by al-Qaeda militants.

The proximity of Ground Zero to Abu Ghaith’s upcoming trial was already raising political tensions.
In 2010, the government scrapped a plan to put five Qaeda figures on trial in the same court for plotting the 9/11 attacks, after bitter recriminations from some families of those killed in the World Trade Center.

Nightmare
There was also concerted opposition from New York officials, who described the prospect of the trials as a security nightmare. Eventually, the five were sent to the controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay.

The dispute about terrorism trials in New York is also bound up with President Barack Obama’s failure to make good on a promise to close Guantanamo, and Republican pressure to prevent such a move.

Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, lashed out at the White House on Friday, saying Congress should have been told about the surprise arrival of Abu Ghaith. He insisted that Guantanamo is “the only place where we should be detaining America’s most dangerous enemy combatants — period.”

However, Abu Ghaith’s appearance in a civilian court was welcomed by Daphne Eviatar of Human Rights First.

“Today’s efficient arraignment is a far cry from the clumsy military commissions proceedings we see at Guantanamo, she said in a statement.

“Today’s hearing took 17 minutes, the government had already turned over the bulk of its unclassified discovery and the judge announced that he will set a trial date next month.”

By contrast, 13 hours were needed for the initial processing of the alleged 9/11 plotters when they got to Guantanamo and no trial date has been set.

“The prosecution of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith clearly demonstrates that federal courts are the best venue for federal terrorism trials,” she said.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that the arrest showed that the United States would not give up on tracking down al-Qaeda members.

“No amount of distance or time will weaken our resolve to bring America’s enemies to justice,” Holder
said.

“There is no corner of the world where you can escape from justice because we will do everything in our power to hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Abu Ghaith gave an “extensive post-arrest statement” that totaled 22 pages and arrived in the US on March 1, Assistant US Attorney John P. Cronan said. The prosecutor gave no details on the statement.
Abu Ghaith nodded yes when asked, through an interpreter, if he understood his rights. He shook his head no when asked whether he had money to hire an attorney.

Bail was not requested, and none was set. The judge said he would set a trial date April 8. Prosecutors said a trial would last about three weeks.

The case marks a legal victory for the Obama administration, which has long sought to charge senior al-Qaeda suspects in US federal courts instead of holding them at the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Charging foreign terror suspects in federal courts was a top pledge by President Barack Obama shortly after he took office in 2009 — aimed, in part, to close Guantanamo Bay.
Republicans, however, have fought the White House to keep Guantanamo open, and bringing Abu Ghaith to New York led to an outcry. Republicans in Congress do not want high-threat terror suspects brought into the United States, fearing that outcomes in a civilian jury trial are too unpredictable, compared to a military trial.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the case said Abu Ghaith initially agreed to be interviewed without an attorney at the FBI office in Manhattan immediately after his arrival. Later in the day, he requested an attorney and was interviewed with an attorney present. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the case.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced the capture of Abu Ghaith on Thursday, saying “no amount of distance or time will weaken our resolve to bring America’s enemies to justice.”

Holder reluctantly agreed in 2011 to try self-professed al-Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a Guantanamo Bay military court instead of a civilian court after a fierce Republican backlash.

The Justice Department said Abu Ghaith 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 and urged followers to swear allegiance to bin Laden, prosecutors said.

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.
Kuwait stripped him of his citizenship after the 2001 attacks. In 2002, under pressure as the US military and CIA searched for bin Laden, prosecutors said Abu Ghaith was smuggled into Iran from Afghanistan.
Tom Lynch, a research fellow at the National Defense University in Washington, described Abu Ghaith as one of a small handful of senior al-Qaeda leaders “capable of getting the old band back together and postured for a round of real serious international terror.”

“His capture and extradition not only allows the US to hold — and perhaps try — a reputed al-Qaeda core survivor, further tarnishing the AQ core brand, but it also points to the dangers for those few remaining al-Qaeda core refugees,” Lynch said.

Several Republican lawmakers said Abu Ghaith should be considered an enemy combatant and sent to Guantanamo, where he could be questioned more thoroughly than his lawyers likely would allow as a federal defendant on US soil.

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.

Since 2001, 67 foreign terror suspects have been convicted in US federal courts, according to watchdog group Human Rights First, which obtained the data from the Justice Department through a Freedom of Information Act request.

By comparison, of the thousands of detainees who were swept up shortly after the terror attacks and held at Guantanamo Bay, only seven were convicted by military tribunals held at the US Navy base in Cuba, the watchdog group said. The vast majority have been sent back overseas, either for rehabilitation or continued detention and prosecution.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Abu Ghaith, the brother of the al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was recently quoted as saying his brother was a victim of US-Jordan-Turkey conspiracy, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.

Sulaiman was recently seized by the United States CIA agents and taken to America to face justice after Turkey deported him to Jordan.

In a press release Mohammed said he did not expect a Muslim country Turkey to extradite his brother to America. He pointed he has documents to prove Turkey’s hand in his brother’s extradition.

He said Jordan has interfered in issues which do not concern Amman. He said the CIA agents did not arrest his brother because they are ‘smart’ and ‘skilful’ but because he was a victim of a conspiracy.
He also blamed Kuwait for not accepting to receive his brother when on three occasions it refused a request from Turkey to allow the man to enter Kuwait.

He has appealed to HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah to intervene on behalf of his brother. He added his brother is not wanted ‘internationally’. He said it is silly on the part of US to arrest his brother.

Meantime, Kuwait’s security authorities have said they don’t have any information about Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. All that the authorities know is from the media that the al-Qaeda spokesman has been extradited to the US.

However, the authorities said the issue does not concern Kuwait since the man has been stripped of his nationality and is no longer a Kuwaiti citizen.