http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/07/world/meas...edmn_topstoriesBin Laden's son-in-law, once al Qaeda's 'mouthpiece,' held by U.S.
From Barbara Starr, Susan Candiotti and Josh Levs, CNN
updated 7:00 PM EST, Thu March 7, 2013
(CNN) -- Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, who has served as an al Qaeda spokesman, was captured and has been brought to the United States, two administration officials and a federal law enforcement official said Thursday.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is scheduled to be arraigned at 10 a.m. ET Friday in a federal courtroom in New York.
Ghaith has been charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
"No amount of distance or time will weaken our resolve to bring America's enemies to justice," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. "To violent extremists who threaten the American people and seek to undermine our way of life, this arrest sends an unmistakable message: 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 was captured within the past week in Jordan, according to a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Peter King of New York.
Bin Laden confidant emerged as voice of al Qaeda
Congress was notified when Ghaith was taken into U.S. custody, the administration officials said.
The U.S. Treasury Department has described Abu Ghaith as "the official spokesman of al Qaeda since his appointment to that position after the attacks of September 11, 2001."
He appeared in videos as "the mouthpiece of bin Laden," the department said.
Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported that Abu Ghaith was seized in Ankara "after a tipoff" from the CIA, and was held for 33 days. A Turkish court decided to release him because he had not committed a crime in Turkey. He was considered "stateless" because Kuwait had stripped him of his nationality after he appeared in videos supporting the 9/11 attacks, the report said.
Abu Ghaith entered Turkey illegally from Iran, so he could be deported to Iran or another country, the report said. After Iran did not accept him, Turkey decided to send him to Kuwait through Jordan. The CIA captured Abu Ghaith when he was passing from Jordan into Kuwait, the newspaper said.
The U.S. government did not immediately confirm the report.
Ghaith should have been taken to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for interrogation as an enemy combatant rather than to the United States, Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters Thursday, arguing against civilian criminal proceedings.
"I think we setting a new precedent that will come back to bite us," Graham told reporters. "It's clear to me they snuck him in, if he is here, under the nose of Congress."
The South Carolina senator was joined at a news conference by Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who echoed his comments. "If you are that close to bin Laden, we want to develop all the information that person has," she said.
Abu Ghaith was a high school teacher and preacher at a mosque in Kuwait, the U.S. Treasury says on its website. "He fought in Afghanistan, accused the U.S. government of killing children in Iraq through U.N. sanctions, and joined Muslim guerillas fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the summer of 1994."
He was later banned from his mosque for using his sermons to attack the government.
Before September 11, 2001, "his mission was to recruit elements for training in bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan."
The U.S. 9/11 Commission said Abu Ghaith "reportedly" supported the idea of a major operation directly against the United States in 2001.
Bin Laden, leader of the terrorist al Qaeda network that staged the 9/11 attacks on the United States, was killed in a U.S. Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan in 2011.
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