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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: U Up U Down who wrote (18413)	10/18/2001 12:05:35 AM
From: U Up U Down	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 59480

Osama bin Laden's followers to be sentenced for their roles in bombing U.S. embassies Copyright APonline Embassy bombing defendants facing sentencing By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press NEW YORK (October 16, 2001 10:44 p.m. EDT) - The first men convicted of carrying out Osama bin Laden's 1998 edict to kill Americans wherever they are found will be sentenced under extremely tight security Thursday in the deadly 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa. The four men were found guilty last May in a trial that laid out in detail what the government knew about bin Laden and his network of terror. Their sentencing will take place at the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, just blocks from the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center. U.S. marshals with shotguns guard the courthouse. Barricades block the adjacent street, and steel posts protect the building. The four were arrested in the near-simultaneous Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and led to an international manhunt for top leaders of bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network. The six-month trial attracted few spectators beyond government employees and the families of the victims. But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that have been blamed on bin Laden have spurred new interest in the trial and the evidence the government collected. The defendants were the first convicted by a U.S. jury after bin Laden issued a February 1998 edict to kill all Americans wherever they are found. They were convicted of conspiracy charges that alleged their actions were carried out in furtherance of bin Laden's order, or fatwa. Bin Laden was indicted in the embassy case but is believed to be hiding out in Afghanistan. Federal prosecutor Kenneth Karas told the jury that the government had "established the guilt of these defendants ... in a conspiracy to murder the people of the United States merely because they were Americans." Two defendants - Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali, 24, and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 28 - could have gotten the death penalty, but jurors fearful of making the men martyrs decided not to impose it. Al-'Owhali rode the bomb vehicle up to the embassy in Nairobi, slinging stun grenades at guards before fleeing. Mohamed helped to build the bomb that struck the embassy in Dar es Salaam. Two others - Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, and Wadih El-Hage, 41 - were convicted after the evidence showed they had played significant roles in al-Qaida. Prosecutors alleged that El-Hage, the only U.S. citizen among the group, led "a secret double life," traveling the globe to raise money and smuggle weapons like Stinger missiles for al-Qaida's terror plots. They said Odeh was an explosives expert who was a "technical adviser" to the terror group. Al-'Owhali and Mohamed face a mandatory life sentence. Security had already been increased around the two federal courthouses in downtown Manhattan in the past year. The measures included installation of two of the world's largest hydraulically operated street barricades and a row of steel posts in front of the courthouse. Since the Trade Center attack, visitors are required to submit bags and briefcases for inspection outside the courthouse. Environmental workers have regularly checked the air inside court for contamination. nandotimes.com