Bin Laden son-in-law could yield info on al-Qaida
Source: AP-Excite
By LARA JAKES and TOM HAYS
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the charismatic al-Qaida spokesman, fundraiser and son-in-law to Osama bin Laden, is likely to have a vast trove of knowledge about the terror network's central command but not much useful information about current threats or plots, intelligence officials and other experts say.
Abu Ghaith pleaded not guilty Friday to conspiring to kill Americans in propaganda videos that warned of further assaults against the United States as devastating as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Believed to be more of a strategic player in bin Laden's inner circle than an operational plotter, Abu Ghaith would be the highest-ranking al-Qaida figure to stand trial on U.S. soil since 9/11. Intelligence officials say he may be able to shed new light on al-Qaida's inner workings - concerning al-Qaida's murky dealings in Iran over the past decade, for example - but probably will have few details about specific or imminent ongoing threats.
He gave U.S. officials a 22-page statement after his Feb. 28 arrest in Jordan, according to prosecutors. They would not describe the statement.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130309/DA4T9SPO0.html
This image made available by Al-Jazeera shows Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and spokesman. Abu Ghaith has been captured by the United States, officials said Thursday, March 7, 2013, in what a senior congressman called a "very significant victory" in the fight against al-Qaida. (AP Photo/Al-Jazeera)
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)about trial in NY. Patriots, who cares about America?
rabid_byter
(40 posts)al-Qaida is totally BS. al-Qaida was the name of a data base file of Afgan war fighters we trained when the Soviets were in Afghanistan.. it later was used for Arab mercenaries we used for Black Ops programs and murders. al-Qaida was our baby, we started it. the whole Iraq war was a farce, it was a constant Psy-Ops terror program against Iraq, run by Psychopaths in the Bu$h43 to destabilize the middle east and it was essentially genocide.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/al-qaeda-the-database-2/24738
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)Alamuti Lotus
(3,093 posts)He has been under arrest in Iran since he was seized while trying to pass through there towards the friendly Gulf dictatorships in 2002, and Iran considers his organization and its allies to be a criminal gang and ideological enemy. That feeling is very much mutual; there were brief flirtations to the contrary in the mid 1990s, but any prospects ended when relations between Iran and the Taliban nearly erupted into open warfare in 1999 (back when the US gov't and its allies still warmly received the Taliban as a counter to other influences). So, the only useful information he might have is what he could make up about the vast plots and wholly imagined collaboration between Iran and its sworn enemy. And in this ever-increasingly ridiculous environment, I wouldn't be surprised if precisely that came out of this, but I digress.
It is funny to read the headlines about the United States "capturing" him. Iran seems to have dumped the chump off into hostile territory precisely in order to be captured, but the US gov't is just so desperate to take credit for it apparently as if it was some daunting achievement.
According to the meager reports on movements, he turned up in Turkey not too long ago, and was captured in the police state of Jordan. How'd he get there? Did he stay with the al-Qai'dah fan club running wild in Syria first? Allegedly his plans after Jordan were to then travel to Kuwait--another reactionary dictatorship--and set up shop there. Given the very alert police states that exist in the Gulf at the moment, that sounds so utterly improbable! I want to read his travel diaries from the last couple months, it would probably be fascinating given current events.
He can't have too much information on current operations or the present cast of characters--most of his old gang are dead or are being shuffled around obscure CIA torture centers around the world. The al-Qai'dah "franchise" operations in Syria, Yemen, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and Somalia have little if anything to do with the "base" he used to call home.
There's only two scenarios that make sense at this moment. Iran dumped him off into hostile territory precisely to be captured, which is a rare goodwill gesture these days--makes me wonder what they were offered in return. Or he was intended for use by the Gulf dictatorships to inflame the terrorist insurrection in Syria, but the puppetmaster in chief decided he would be more useful as propaganda on the home front. A lot of fluff and drool either way, enjoy the show trial and hope somebody breaks their arm patting themselves on the back over this.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)Good point about the al-Qai'dah "franchise" operations . I had no idea he was a man without a country.
randome
(34,845 posts)wet_to_activate
(7 posts)Mullah Omar ("old one eye"--his right eye doesn't function properly, if at all) is the spiritual leader of the Taliban.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Omar
Omar reputedly is or was married to one of Osama bin Laden's daughters.
http://www.historyinanhour.com/2012/03/10/osama-bin-laden
It was even thought that Mullah Omar had taken Bin Laden's eldest daughter as a wife, and that Bin Laden may even have taken one of Mullah Omar's daughters as a fourth wife.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13501233
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Its been mentioned before its not in their nature to have such a thing - its an idealogical group.
Response to Omaha Steve (Original post)
biskitheadbob Message auto-removed
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)to you too
Jerry442
(1,265 posts)He probably doesn't know the truth.
Interrogation under torture doesn't elicit the truth.
His interrogators don't want to hear the truth anyway.
dembotoz
(16,799 posts)supposed bad guys to a level of rights that were higher than other countries.
i cringed at the origninal post as i thought of the hell this guy is going to go thru.
people is this country could never figure out why other parts of the world hated us so much.
we really are quite stupid
Enrique
(27,461 posts)and they're trying to tell us that getting his son-in-law is a big deal.
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)leveymg
(36,418 posts)I keep thinking about that too. Wouldn't he have had the most info of all? Good thing he's probably dead and stuff now. Stinky ol' bad guy.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)I've seen it so many different ways, I can't keep track!