Teh One Who Knocks
03-08-2013, 12:07 PM
FOX News
http://i.imgur.com/a0Uzd1w.jpg
A top Al Qaeda spokesman, who is the son-in-law of Usama bin Laden, has been captured overseas and charged in the United States with conspiracy to kill Americans, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday, sparking Republican criticism that such terrorists don't belong in the civilian judicial system.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith will appear in a federal New York courtroom Friday, according to the Justice Department statement and indictment outlining the accusations against him.
The capture of Abu Ghaith drew praise from Republican Rep. Peter King of New York, the former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who called it a "very significant victory" in U.S. efforts against Al Qaeda.
However, two of his fellow Republicans, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte, said Thursday the Obama administration's decision to bring Abu Ghaith to court in New York is wrong, "sneaky" and against the will of Congress.
Graham says Abu Ghaith is clearly an enemy combatant and should have been sent straight to the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility in Cuba for extended questioning. Instead, he is expected to appear Friday morning in a federal court in New York City to face charges.
"The Obama administration’s lack of a war-time detention policy for foreign members of al Qaeda, as well as its refusal to detain and interrogate these individuals at Guantanamo, makes our nation less safe," Graham and Ayotte said in a joint written statement. “We are at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliated groups, and America’s detention policy must reflect that reality."
Even so, the Justice Department touted the capture of Abu Ghaith as significant.
"It has been 13 years since Abu Ghaith allegedly worked alongside Usama Bin Laden in his campaign of terror, and 13 years since he allegedly took to the public airwaves, exhorting others to embrace Al Qaeda's cause and warning of more terrorist attacks like the mass murder of 9/11," U.S. Attorney Bharara said in a news release announcing Abu Ghaith's arrest. "The memory of those attacks is indelibly etched on the American psyche, and today's action is the latest example of our commitment to capturing and punishing enemies of the United States, no matter how long it takes."
Attorney General Eric Holder added, "No amount of distance or time will weaken our resolve to bring America's enemies to justice."
Abu Ghaith became an international name in late 2001 when he appeared on pan-Arab satellite television urging Muslims everywhere to fight the United States and warning of more attacks similar to those of Sept. 11.
In one video, he was sitting with bin Laden in front of a rock face in Afghanistan. A teacher and mosque preacher in Kuwait, he was stripped of his Kuwaiti citizenship after 9/11.
He is identified as a major Al Qaeda core official by the New America Foundation think tank in Washington. King said Abu Ghaith was involved in the planning in the 9/11 attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
"Definitely, one by one, we are getting the top echelons of Al Qaeda," King said. "I give the (Obama) administration credit for this: It's steady and it's unrelenting and it's very successful."
It's likely that Abu Ghaith will face a host of terrorism-related charges and possibly murder, which could carry the death penalty, said attorney Michael Rosensaft, who was a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan until last fall and is now in private practice.
He predicted the trial will last months, if not years, and that some of the evidence against Abu Ghaith will be a challenge for prosecutors to bring to court if it is classified.
Abu Ghaith's trial will make one of the few prosecutions of senior Al Qaeda leaders on U.S. soil. Charging foreign terror suspects in American federal courts was a top pledge by President Obama shortly after he took office in 2009 -- aimed, in part, to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"The propaganda statements in which Abu Ghaith and his late father-in-law, Usama bin Laden, praised the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 are alone enough to merit the most serious punishment," King said
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declined to comment on the capture when asked during Thursday's press briefing.
The Obama administration's attempts to move many of the detainees held at Guantanamo into facilities in the United States to stand trial domesstically were halted during Obama's first term after Congress passed a measure with bipartisan majorities opposing such transfers.
http://i.imgur.com/a0Uzd1w.jpg
A top Al Qaeda spokesman, who is the son-in-law of Usama bin Laden, has been captured overseas and charged in the United States with conspiracy to kill Americans, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday, sparking Republican criticism that such terrorists don't belong in the civilian judicial system.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith will appear in a federal New York courtroom Friday, according to the Justice Department statement and indictment outlining the accusations against him.
The capture of Abu Ghaith drew praise from Republican Rep. Peter King of New York, the former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who called it a "very significant victory" in U.S. efforts against Al Qaeda.
However, two of his fellow Republicans, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte, said Thursday the Obama administration's decision to bring Abu Ghaith to court in New York is wrong, "sneaky" and against the will of Congress.
Graham says Abu Ghaith is clearly an enemy combatant and should have been sent straight to the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility in Cuba for extended questioning. Instead, he is expected to appear Friday morning in a federal court in New York City to face charges.
"The Obama administration’s lack of a war-time detention policy for foreign members of al Qaeda, as well as its refusal to detain and interrogate these individuals at Guantanamo, makes our nation less safe," Graham and Ayotte said in a joint written statement. “We are at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliated groups, and America’s detention policy must reflect that reality."
Even so, the Justice Department touted the capture of Abu Ghaith as significant.
"It has been 13 years since Abu Ghaith allegedly worked alongside Usama Bin Laden in his campaign of terror, and 13 years since he allegedly took to the public airwaves, exhorting others to embrace Al Qaeda's cause and warning of more terrorist attacks like the mass murder of 9/11," U.S. Attorney Bharara said in a news release announcing Abu Ghaith's arrest. "The memory of those attacks is indelibly etched on the American psyche, and today's action is the latest example of our commitment to capturing and punishing enemies of the United States, no matter how long it takes."
Attorney General Eric Holder added, "No amount of distance or time will weaken our resolve to bring America's enemies to justice."
Abu Ghaith became an international name in late 2001 when he appeared on pan-Arab satellite television urging Muslims everywhere to fight the United States and warning of more attacks similar to those of Sept. 11.
In one video, he was sitting with bin Laden in front of a rock face in Afghanistan. A teacher and mosque preacher in Kuwait, he was stripped of his Kuwaiti citizenship after 9/11.
He is identified as a major Al Qaeda core official by the New America Foundation think tank in Washington. King said Abu Ghaith was involved in the planning in the 9/11 attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
"Definitely, one by one, we are getting the top echelons of Al Qaeda," King said. "I give the (Obama) administration credit for this: It's steady and it's unrelenting and it's very successful."
It's likely that Abu Ghaith will face a host of terrorism-related charges and possibly murder, which could carry the death penalty, said attorney Michael Rosensaft, who was a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan until last fall and is now in private practice.
He predicted the trial will last months, if not years, and that some of the evidence against Abu Ghaith will be a challenge for prosecutors to bring to court if it is classified.
Abu Ghaith's trial will make one of the few prosecutions of senior Al Qaeda leaders on U.S. soil. Charging foreign terror suspects in American federal courts was a top pledge by President Obama shortly after he took office in 2009 -- aimed, in part, to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"The propaganda statements in which Abu Ghaith and his late father-in-law, Usama bin Laden, praised the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 are alone enough to merit the most serious punishment," King said
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declined to comment on the capture when asked during Thursday's press briefing.
The Obama administration's attempts to move many of the detainees held at Guantanamo into facilities in the United States to stand trial domesstically were halted during Obama's first term after Congress passed a measure with bipartisan majorities opposing such transfers.