TerrorismOBL’s assistant on trial in New York for 1998 bombing of U.S. Nairobi embassy
Yesterday’s jury selection in a Manhattan courtroom brought tears to the eyes of many victims of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi. Khalid al-Fawwaz, alleged assistant to Osama Bin Laden, will stand trial for his part in helping plan the attack and for operating an al-Qaeda media office in London between 1994 and the time of his arrest. Prosecution of those involved in the 1998 attack has been slow, but progress has been made. Six men involved in the bombing were sentenced to life sentences in November 1998, several other participants of the attack have been killed abroad, including Bin Laden, but four remain at large.
Yesterday’s jury selection in a Manhattan courtroom brought tears to the eyes of many victims of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi. Khalid al-Fawwaz, alleged assistant to Osama Bin Laden, will stand trial for his part in helping plan the attack and for operating an al-Qaeda media office in London between 1994 and the time of his arrest.
The media office was “a cover for activity in support of al-Qaeda’s ‘military’ activities and serve(d) as a conduit for messages,” The prosecution says.
The terrorist attack in Nairobi killed 213 people and marked the turning point in the U.S. response to then-obscure terrorist group, al-Qaeda, and its leader Bin Laden. Robert McFadden, a U.S. counter intelligence officer stationed in a naval criminal intelligence service bureau in Bahrain at the time of the bombing, said U.S. intelligence agencies still heavily weighted toward assessing the threat emanating from the “cold war legacy,” had remained divided on the threat Bin Laden posed even then. “Any debate within the U.S. intelligence community over al-Qaeda, this UBL (Bin Laden) character and their lethality was put to rest henceforth and forever more in August 1998,” McFadden recalled.
The Guardian notes that President Bill Clinton had dubbed the attack “abhorrent” and “inhumane,” vowing to use “all the means at our disposal to bring those responsible to justice.”
Prosecution of those involved in the 1998 attack has been slow, but progress has been made. Six men involved in the bombing were sentenced to life sentences in November 1998, several other participants of the attack have been killed abroad, including Bin Laden, but four remain at large. Al-Fawwaz, a Saudi Arabian national, was arrested in Britain in the months following the bombing, but he fought extradition for fourteen years. In October 2012, al-Fawwaz — along with Abu Hamza, a radical cleric now serving two life sentences for a separate terrorism case — and Adel Abdul Bary, who pleaded guilty in September 2014 to charges relating to his involvement in the 1998 bombing, were delivered to U.S. authorities.
Al-Fawwaz’s trial has attracted controversy, as DOJ considers calling on journalists to testify that al-Fawwaz facilitated interviews with Bin Laden. According to the Guardian, former ABC News journalist John Miller, who interviewed Bin Laden months before the 1998 attacks, is expected to give evidence. Richard Bonin, a producer for “60 Minutes” who attempted to arrange an interview with Bin Laden, was called by the prosecution to testify, but DOJ withdrew the subpoena for Bonin’s testimony after complaints about press freedom.
“Part of my job as a reporter is to inform the American public about those who want to do us harm,” Bonin said in an interview. “To turn me into a witness for the government will make it difficult for me to do my job in the future and increase the substantial risks already faced by every reporter in the Mideast today.”
Al-Fawwaz has pleaded not guilty to the charges, but DOJ says that it has overwhelming evidence of guilt, including documents seized in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks listing al-Fawwaz as an al-Qaeda member. The prosecution will not seek the death penalty, as it has for others convicted for their involvement in the bombing.
