Continued Trial of the US Embassy Bombings"
TRIAL
January 3, 2001 -
Jury selection begins.
January 9, 2001 - Osama bin Laden attends wedding of his son Mohammed in Afghanistan city of Kandahar. The bride is the daughter of Mohamed Atef, bin Laden's military chief.
January 18, 2001 - Salim pleads "not guilty" to charges that he attempted to murder a jail guard last November.
January 29, 2001 - Judge Sand announces he will deny defense motions to suppress post-arrest statements by al-'Owhali, Odeh and K.K. Mohamed.
February 1, 2001 - A jury of six men and six women is chosen, along with six alternates.
February 5, 2001 - In opening statements, prosecutor Paul Butler says, "All four defendants entered into an illegal agreement with Osama bin Laden and others to kill Americans anywhere in the world they could be found." Attorneys for Odeh and el Hage admit their clients dealt with bin Laden but say they did not engage in any violent activity. Attorney for K.K. Mohamed admits his client had a role in the Tanzania bombing but was only "a gofer."
February 6, 2001 - Prosecution begins its case. Government informant Jamal Al-Fadl, heretofore held in secrecy, describes the founding of al Qaeda to focus on jihad, or holy war. The trial's first witness, Al-Fadl testifies bin Laden wanted to force American troops out of the Persian Gulf region.
February 7, 2001 - Witness Al-Fadl says he tried to purchase uranium, a component of nuclear bombs, for bin Laden in 1994. Al-Fadl says after leaving bin Laden's group in 1996, he warned American officials about possible attacks on U.S. embassies.
February 8, 2001 - CIA director George Tenet tells a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, "Osama bin Laden and his global network of lieutenants and associates remain the most immediate and serious threat" to the United States.
February 13, 2001 - Under cross-examination, witness Al-Fadl testifies that bin Laden considered bombing the U.S. embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
February 14, 2001 - Witness Essam Al-Ridi says el Hage hired him to acquire a private plane to ship shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to bin Laden's Sudan headquarters in the early 1990s. Al-Ridi says bin Laden got the plane but no missiles. Witness Ashif Juma says el Hage came from Kenya to Tanzania in 1996 after a ferry accident claimed the life of Juma's brother-in-law, al Qaeda's former military chief. Juma testifies that his brother, Sikander, was asked by el Hage associate Fazul Abdullah Mohamed to rent the residence where the Nairobi bomb was assembled.
February 15, 2001 - Jury hears the 1996 fatwah by bin Laden calling on followers to fight Americans occupying Muslim lands. The jury also hears el Hage's 1997 grand jury testimony admitting his acquaintance with convicted World Trade Center bomber Mamdouh Abouhalima, for whom he bought guns, and with convicted terrorism plotters Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and El Sayyid Nosair.
February 20, 2001 - Witness Al-Fadl, under cross-examination by el Hage attorney Sam Schmidt, admits he spied on bin Laden for the Sudan's government and that he later discussed with Saudi Arabia's intelligence service a plot to kill bin Laden.
February 21, 2001 - FBI agent Daniel Coleman describes the search of el Hage's wiretapped Kenya residence in August 21, 1997, and the seizure of personal items including el Hage's laptop computer and his address books. Witness L'Houssaine Kherchtou, an al Qaeda defector, describes what Odeh and el Hage did in Kenya and talks about how al Qaeda members went to Somalia. The jury is shown CNN's 1997 interview with bin Laden.
February 22, 2001 - Witness Kherchtou says Odeh and el Hage were acquaintances in Kenya, the first time a witness established a personal connection between any of the four defendants.
February 26, 2001 - Witness Kherchtou says bin Laden knew el Hage and considered him trustworthy, but the witness was not sure if el Hage took a loyalty oath (bayat) to al Qaeda.
February 27, 2001 - Prosecutors read bin Laden's February 1998 fatwah (opinion) calling for the killing of Americans, including civilians, anywhere in the world. Kenyan fisheries inspector Kubarua Mjitta describes Odeh's fishing boat and business in the coastal town of Witu. FBI Agent John Anticev begins his testimony about interviewing Odeh over a 12-day period in August 1998 in a Kenyan jail.
February 28, 2001 - FBI Special agent John Anticev says Odeh told him he thought the Nairobi, Kenya, attack was a "blunder" because it killed so many civilians. But Anticev says Odeh denied planning or carrying out the bombing, although did admit being in the company of suspected bombers in the days leading up to the attack. Anticev testified Odeh was among the al Qaeda operatives who spent months in 1993 training Somali tribes to fight U.N. or U.S. forces in the capital of Mogadishu. FBI agent Robert Crisali describes producing a mirror image of el Hage's computer hard drive and copying his files.
March 1, 2001 - FBI special agent Howard Ledbetter describes sketches resembling the Kenya embassy compound, obtained from an August 1998 search of Odeh's Kenyan home. Jury hears testimony from former U.S. ambassador Prudence Bushnell who survived the Kenya embassy bombing in Nairobi on August 7, 1998.
March 7, 2001 - FBI Agent Stephen Gaudin testifies about al-'Owhali's alleged role in the Kenya embassy bombing. Gaudin says al-'Owhali, in post-arrest interrogations, admitted riding in the bomb truck and thought he would die carrying out his mission to get the truck close to the embassy building. The agent says al-'Owhali told him he thought the Kenya embassy was an easy target made more tempting because its U.S. ambassador was a woman, whose death would create more publicity. Earlier, 12 Kenya bombing survivors testify about the attack they witnessed, about the injuries they sustained, and about how they escaped.
March 8, 2001 - Kenyan embassy technician Charles Mwaka Mula testifies that he witnessed al-'Owhali exit the bomb truck and throw grenades at a security post. A hospital janitor testifies he found bomb truck keys and bullets discarded by al-'Owhali in the hospital where he was treated for injuries sustained from the blast.
March 12, 2001 - FBI agent Donald Sachtleben describes recovered auto parts pointing to a Toyota vehicle as carrying the bomb in the attack on the embassy in Kenya. The Japanese designer of the Toyota Dyna truck confirms the model was the bomb vehicle, and a Kenyan poultry farmer testifies he sold the offending truck to Sheik Ahmed Swedan, an indicted fugitive in the case.
March 13, 2001 -FBI agents testify about an Odeh fingerprint lifted from the guest room door at Nairobi's Hilltop Hotel, where bombers allegedly met in the days before the embassy attack. The agents say an al-'Owhali fingerprint came from an airline ticket found in the briefcase of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, alleged leader of the Kenya bomb attack. The case turns for the first time to the Tanzania bombing, as survivors recall the attack. The FBI agent who led the forensic evidence team in Dar es Salaam says recovered auto parts point to a Nissan truck as carrying the bomb.
March 14, 2001 - After a former Nissan service manger identifies the bomb truck as a 1987 Nissan Atlas, a Tanzanian driver says he sold the vehicle to Swedan and Ahmed Ghailiani on July 1998, and a Tanzanian welder says Swedan hired him to retrofit the truck. Later, a housekeeper says defendant K.K. Mohamed was a regular visitor at Ghailiani's house, where prosecutors stipulate Mohamed's passport photo was found after the bombings. A Tanzanian real estate broker testifies that he leased to K.K. Mohamed another house where, prosecutors say, the Dar es Salaam bomb was prepared.
March 16, 2001 - Mohamed Suleiman al Nalfi pleads "not guilty" to four counts of terrorism conspiracy. Al-Nalfi, jailed secretly since last November, becomes the 22nd active defendant in the embassy bombings case. He is accused of founding a "jihad" group in Sudan and helping bin Laden establish a base of operations there in the early 1990s.
March 19, 2001 - FBI Agent Abigail Perkins testifies that during her post-arrest interrogation of K.K. Mohamed in South Africa in October 1999 he confessed to a role in the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania. Perkins says Mohamed told her he was responsible for arranging transportation for the attack and finding a house where the conspirators could prepare the bomb.
March 20, 2001 - FBI Agent Robert Miranda testifies that el Hage said he knew bin Laden personally and left his employment on good terms. Miranda, who interviewed el Hage in his home in Arlington, Texas, testified that el Hage told him he did not know anything about who was responsible for the embassy bombings but did not think bin Laden was.
March 22, 2001 - Agent Miranda, on cross-examination, testifies the thought that el Hage understood bin Laden opposed U.S. troop presence in Saudi Arabia and that el Hage believed the United States was unfairly supportive of Israel. Miranda testifies el Hage told him that as a true-believing Muslim he followed the Koran, not people, and that he would not support bin Laden if he orchestrated the embassy bombings.
March 26, 2001 - Prosecutors present el Hage's grand jury testimony and evidence alleging that el Hage lied about his contacts with bin Laden and his relationship with members of al Qaeda, including trial codefendant Mohamed Odeh. The jury is shown a document written to Kenya's fisheries office that assigned control of a boat in el Hage's name to someone named Mohamed "Olideh" and shipping receipts that show a "Wadih Hage" in Nairobi sent a "Mohammed Oudeh" in Mombasa, Kenya, three packages during 1995.
March 27, 2001 - Prosecutors show the jury letters faxed from a London office that claimed responsibility for embassy bombings the "Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places." The faxes, in Arabic, were sent in the early morning hours of August 7, 1998, the day of the bombings to media outlets. British detectives testify about discovering the faxes in a September 1998 search of an office and residences used by indicted defendants al-Fawwaz, Eidarous, and Abdel Bary -- all incarcerated in England.
April 2, 2001 - The jury hears about Odeh's arrest at Karachi, Pakistan, airport on the morning of the embassy bombings. A Pakistani immigration official noticed that Odeh did not look like the photo in the Yemeni passport he carried, according to testimony.
April 3, 2001 - FBI chemist Kelly Mount tells the jury that clothes inside the travel bag Odeh carried the day of his arrest contained TNT residue.
April 4, 2001 - After reading translations of faxed documents that claimed responsibility for both embassy bombings and were allegedly sent by bin Laden's London cell, prosecutors rest the government's case after 25 days of testimony. Judge Sand orders a recess until April 16.
April 12, 2001 - Judge Sand dismisses charges that link al-'Owhali and Odeh to the Tanzania embassy bombing and asks prosecutors to simplify the indictment to be handed over to the jury. Prosecutors agree to delete some overt acts alleged under the main count, conspiracy to kill Americans.
April 16, 2001 - The defense case begins. Odeh defense witness John Lloyd says it is possible that the TNT residue on clothes Odeh carried in his travel bag when he left Kenya could have been transferred from another source.
April 17, 2001 - El Hage defense witness Mohamed Ali M.S. Odeh describes being partners with el Hage in the gemstone trade and other business ventures in Kenya.
April 18, 2001 - El Hage defense witness Sikander Juma says he was tricked by fugitive Fazul Abdullah Mohammed into renting the house at 43 Runda Estates in Nairobi where the government says the bomb used in the attack on the U.S. embassy was built.
April 23, 2001 - Former U.S. Army helicopter pilot James Yacone describes the October 3-4, 1993, battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, where 18 American soldiers died. Yacone says enemy radio transmissions in Arabic and the high volume of rocket-propelled grenades fired at U.S. helicopters indicated that outsiders might have helped the Somali fighters. A Somalia expert for the defense tells the jury that Arabic is the second language of native Somalis and that the Somali army was well armed and trained before the nation's civil war that led to U.N. intervention.
April 24, 2001 - A defense witness for Odeh, Muslim cleric Siraj Wahhaj, testifies that individual Muslims are taught not to blindly follow orders and to confront leaders whose teachings do not seem Islamically correct. Wahhaj says killing innocents is against the religion.
April 25, 2001 - El Hage's defense team presents documents and transcripts of wiretapped phone calls that show the defendant engaged in a variety of lawful business deals during his time in Kenya.
April 26, 2001 - Prosecutors agree to drop allegation that al Qaeda caused the deaths of 18 U.S. soldiers in Somalia but still assert bin Laden's group trained some Somalis. Judge Sand agrees to a defense motion to strike pilot Yacone's testimony.
April 30, 2001 - Defense attorneys rest their case. No defendants testify. Al-'Owhali and K.K. Mohamed call no witnesses.
May 1-2, 2001 - Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Karas begins the government's closing arguments, taking the jury on an almost day-by-day account of the alleged bombings conspiracy
May 3, 2001 - Karas concludes the government's arguments by saying the four defendants "hated, targeted and killed people merely because of their nationality and religion. It is time for the defendants to be held accountable for what they have done." Defense attorneys begin their closing arguments.
May 7, 2001 - Attorney Sam Schmidt says in his closing argument that el Hage "didn't do anything to help Mr. bin Laden" in Kenya and to say his client ran a terrorist cell while conducting business and raising a family "just doesn't make sense." Anthony Ricco tells jurors Odeh was "out of the loop" and his association with al Qaeda does not prove his guilt.
May 8, 2001 - Attorney Fred Cohn says al-'Owhali "was the most minor participant" in the Kenya bombing. He suggests al-'Owhali's incriminating statement to the FBI was "involuntary." David Ruhnke says on behalf of Mohamed that the alleged terror conspiracy "existed long before he becomes aware of it," adding that Mohamed never met bin Laden or heard him speak.
May 9, 2001 - Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald says in rebuttal there was "no secret in al Qaeda that America is the enemy" and that anyone associated with the group knew it. He calls the trial "a search through the rubble pile of evidence for justice." Judge Sand begins instructing the jury.
May 10, 2001 - The jury of seven women and five men begins deliberations.
May 29, 2001 - The jury returns "guilty" verdicts on all 302 counts against all four defendants. The jury convicts al-'Owhali and Odeh of the Kenya bombing and the murders of 213 people it killed. The jury convicts K.K. Mohamed of the Tanzania bombing and the murder of the 11 people it killed. The jury convicts all four, including el Hage, of the conspiracy to kill Americans and destroy U.S. government property.
May 30, 2001 - The penalty phase begins for al-'Owhali. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald tells the jury, "The only just punishment, the only punishment that does justice for the victims, the only punishment that fits the crime is the death penalty." Defense attorney David Baugh says, "I trust at the conclusion of this penalty phase you will find killing never fixes anything. It just makes more people more angry and this gives more reason for killing."
May 31, 2001 - Prosecutors complete their case after calling more then two dozen witnesses from the U.S. and Kenya to describe the impact of losing loved ones or suffering serious injury in the Nairobi bombing.
June 4, 2001 - Defense attorneys call one witness and play a half-dozen videotapes to explain the political circumstances behind al-'Owhali's actions -- U.S. policy toward Iraq, namely air strikes and economic sanctions since the Gulf War that allegedly contributed to the deaths of more than 1 million Iraqis.
June 5, 2001 - In closing statements, prosecutor Michael Garcia says al-'Owhali's crime "is mass murder, murder of 213 individuals with families, with lives, with hopes, with dreams, and the penalty, the penalty that does justice for the victims of those crimes, the only penalty that fits those crimes is the death penalty." Defense attorney David Baugh tells jurors, "Each of you individually today is going to be asked to kill. Is it appropriate that we make another martyr?" The jury begins its deliberations.
June 12, 2001 - The jury decides al-'Owhali should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jurors describe lethal injection as being "very humane" and life imprisonment as a more severe punishment, and say they do not want al-'Owhali to become a martyr for his terrorist cause.
June 19, 2001 - The sentencing phase begins Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, convicted of the Tanzania embassy bombing and murdering the 11 people it killed. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia tells jurors, "Justice for the victims of those crimes requires no less" than the death penalty. Defense atttorney David Ruhnke, asking for a life sentence, says Mohamed "is going to die in a United States penitentiary. The only question is when." Ten witnesses describe the impact the bombing and the death of loved ones had on their lives.
June 20, 2001 - Prosecutors tell jurors that Mohamed participated in a jail assault that left a guard permanently disabled, a stabbing with a sharpened comb allegedly by Mohamed's cellmate, Mamdouh Salim. The jail doctor says the injured guard told him, "I gave them a good fight." Another jail guard says Mohamed lunged at him when he came to the rescue.
June 21, 2001 - FBI agents say one English note found in Mohamed and Salim's cell begins, "We are the Muslims who were falsly (sic) accused of bombing the embassy in Africa." That note and others have only Salim's fingerprints. Officials explain that no videotape exists of the guard assault although their jail section is under 24-hour-a-day camera surveillance.
June 22, 2001 - Spanish police arrest a man suspected of ties to bin Laden -- Mohamed Bensakhria, 34, an Algerian, and allegedly a leader of a German terrorist cell that planned an attack on a Strasbourg, France cathedral and market.
June 25, 2001 - An FBI forensic examiner tells the jury that sweatpants and T-shirt worn by Mohamed bore stains of the assaulted jail guard's blood, and that Mohamed's blood was found only in one place, in a corridor down the hall from the cell where investigators believe the stabbing occurred. Prosecutors rest their case.
June 26, 2001 - Defense attorneys show jurors what life behind bars is like, focusing on the federal super-maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado reserved for the "worst of the worst" criminals, including terrorists. Prisoners live in a 7 X 10-foot cells no larger than the jury box and are escorted from their cells in handcuffs and leg shackles by three guards carrying metal-tipped batons.
June 27, 2001 - A defense psychiatrist says Mohamed has expressed remorse for the Tanzania bombing. "He recounted to me that when he first saw the pictures of the bombed-out shells of the building he was really horrified," said witness Jerrold Post, who said "tears came to his eyes" as Mohamed spoke of "those innocent victims."
June 28, 2001 - A woman who hired and housed Mohamed in South Africa, now knowing his true identity after the embassy bombings, tells jurors, "He's the kind of person...a parent would want...the kind of guy we would marry to our daughters." Mohamed's mother and siblings ask jurors to reject a death penalty. "It will hurt me. He's my son," said Hidaya Rubeya Juma, his mother. The defense rests.
July 2, 2001 - In closing arguments, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald tells jurors Mohamed "is a person who killed in cold blood and could do it again if given a chance." Fitzgerald says the bombing victims can't be thought of as "water under the bridge." Defense attorney David Stern tells jurors Mohamed was a low ranking member of the conspiracy to kill Americans. "Not only was he not a leader, there was no one lower than he," Stern says. He asks jurors not to make Mohamed a martyr. "Send him to jail and he'll be forgotten," Stern says, "Kill him and you guarantee him immortality."
July 3, 2001 - Judge Sand instructs the jury on its choice in Mohamed's sentence -- imposing the death penalty by a unanimous vote or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sand says, "What the sentencing decision should be is your exclusive duty and responsibility." Meanwhile, across the street in another federal terrorism trial, Ahmed Ressam, convicted of charges related to a New Year's 2000 bomb plot in the U.S, testifies he trained in bin Laden-financed, Islamic militant camps inside Afghanistan. Ressam says he learned how to use guns and explosives at the Khaldan camp, where convicted Kenya embassy bomber Mohamed al-'Owhali also trained.
July 5, 2001 - The jury begins deliberations on Mohamed's sentence.
July 10, 2001 - In its third day of deliberations, the jury decides that Mohamed will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, marking the second time the jury rejects the government's request for the death penalty in connection with the embassy bombings. A majority of jurors find Mohamed was a minor player in the terror conspiracy, others more culpable don't face the death penalty, an execution would make him a martyr and cause his own family to suffer. Some jurors find "life in prison is a harsher punishment that being put to death."
p2bAAT |
