NBC's Pete Williams reports on Sulaiman Abu Ghaith's not guilty plea to charges of plotting to kill Americans in New York federal court.
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
Osama bin Laden?s son-in-law pleaded not guilty Friday to a charge of plotting to kill Americans.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, in handcuffs and using earphones to listen to translation, appeared in New York federal court and entered the plea through his lawyer. A judge read him his rights and ordered him to appear in court again April 8.
Prosecutors said that Abu Ghaith had been captured Feb. 28 and taken to the United States the following day. They said that he answered questions from American interrogators after he was captured, yielding what amounted to a 22-page statement.
Ghaith warned in a video after the Sept. 11 attacks that ?the storms shall not stop.? He was captured in Turkey and taken to New York in what will be one of the first prosecutions of senior al-Qaida leaders in the United States. Prosecutors said that he was also an al-Qaida spokesman.
After the detention became public, some lawmakers were caught by surprise and said that the Obama administration was dodging Congress. They said that Abu Ghaith should have been taken to the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
?Rather than issuing doomsday predictions about sequestration, the president should be notifying Congress that he's planning a U.S. civilian court trial for a terrorist who took credit for 9/11 and is on video threatening to blow up more U.S. buildings and planes,? Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, said Friday.? ?Gitmo is still up and running. And as long as it is, it's the only place where we should be detaining America's most dangerous enemy combatants ? period.?
Officials tell NBC News he had been a prisoner in Iran for most of the past decade and is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Whether terror suspects should be tried in the United States or in American military courts has been a matter of contention. President Barack Obama said when he took office in 2009 that he wanted more foreign terror suspects tried in civilian courts.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said that it was fine with him that Abu Ghaith was taken to New York because state and city officials had been consulted.
Abu Ghaith was expected to appear in court later Friday morning to enter a plea on the conspiracy charge.
NBC News exclusive: Iran was holding Abu Ghaith, U.S. officials say
In an indictment of Abu Ghaith, federal prosecutors said that he was so close to bin Laden that the terrorist mastermind summoned him for help on the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, in Afghanistan.
Abu Ghaith and bin Laden appeared together on the morning of Sept. 12, and Abu Ghaith warned the United States that a ?great army is gathering against you? and called on Muslims to do battle with Christians, Jews and Americans.
Later, in the weeks after 9/11, Abu Ghaith warned Americans that ?the storms shall not stop, especially the airplanes storm,? and said that Muslims and opponents of the United States should not board plans or live in high rises.
Kuwait stripped Abu Ghaith of citizenship after Sept. 11. The following year, under pressure as the U.S. military hunted bin Laden, Abu Ghaith was smuggled into Iran from Afghanistan, prosecutors said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published on Fri Mar 8, 2013 8:11 AM EST
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