‘Laden was worried when he thought about 9/11 in cave’
22 March 2014 5:15 AM IST
The son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, said the Al Qaeda leader asked him hours after the attacks what he thought would happen next. ‘Politically, I said, America, if it was proven that you were the one who did this, will not settle until it accomplishes two things: to kill you and topple the state of the Taliban,’ Abu Ghaith said he told him.
Bin Laden responded: ‘You’re being too pessimistic,’ Abu Ghaith recalled in a discussion that he said went late into the night. He said bin Laden had sent a messenger to pick him up earlier on Sept. 11 from a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he had watched the news unfold on television. He said bin Laden told him: ‘We are the ones who did it.’
He said he had met bin Laden only six or seven times previously before he was brought to the cave in a rough mountainous area.
The surprise testimony Wednesday by Abu Ghaith seemed to soften the image of the one-time Kuwaiti teacher and preacher known for fiery anti-American rhetoric on widely circulated post-attack videos until a prosecutor took his turn, eliciting damaging admissions from the 48-year-old defendant before showing a videotape on which Abu Ghaith spoke and included a hijacked plane slamming into a World Trade Center tower. Questioned by defense lawyer Stanley Cohen and later by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ferrara, the bearded Abu Ghaith testified that bin Laden seemed worried that night.
The next morning, Abu Ghaith said, he saw bin Laden with an Al Qaeda military leader, Abu Hafs al-Masri, and current Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri at breakfast, and bin Laden invited him to join them.
He said bin Laden told him: ‘Now, after these events... it’s a no-brainer to predict what is going to happen. What you expected may actually happen. And I want to deliver a message to the world. And Dr. Ayman also wants to deliver a message.
Bin Laden responded: ‘You’re being too pessimistic,’ Abu Ghaith recalled in a discussion that he said went late into the night. He said bin Laden had sent a messenger to pick him up earlier on Sept. 11 from a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he had watched the news unfold on television. He said bin Laden told him: ‘We are the ones who did it.’
He said he had met bin Laden only six or seven times previously before he was brought to the cave in a rough mountainous area.
The surprise testimony Wednesday by Abu Ghaith seemed to soften the image of the one-time Kuwaiti teacher and preacher known for fiery anti-American rhetoric on widely circulated post-attack videos until a prosecutor took his turn, eliciting damaging admissions from the 48-year-old defendant before showing a videotape on which Abu Ghaith spoke and included a hijacked plane slamming into a World Trade Center tower. Questioned by defense lawyer Stanley Cohen and later by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ferrara, the bearded Abu Ghaith testified that bin Laden seemed worried that night.
The next morning, Abu Ghaith said, he saw bin Laden with an Al Qaeda military leader, Abu Hafs al-Masri, and current Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri at breakfast, and bin Laden invited him to join them.
He said bin Laden told him: ‘Now, after these events... it’s a no-brainer to predict what is going to happen. What you expected may actually happen. And I want to deliver a message to the world. And Dr. Ayman also wants to deliver a message.
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