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| British al-Qaida turncoat to testify in trial of Bin Laden's son-in-law | British al-Qaida turncoat to testify in trial of Bin Laden's son-in-law |
| (6 months later) | |
| A British man who plotted to shoe-bomb a plane for al-Qaida will on Monday begin a series of appearances as a star witness for the US government, testifying from London against Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law and propagandist. | A British man who plotted to shoe-bomb a plane for al-Qaida will on Monday begin a series of appearances as a star witness for the US government, testifying from London against Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law and propagandist. |
| Saajid Badat, who became a valuable turncoat after being jailed in 2005, is due to be beamed via video link into the Manhattan courtroom a few blocks from Ground Zero where Suleiman Abu Ghaith is on trial for conspiring to kill Americans and giving support to the jihadist network. | Saajid Badat, who became a valuable turncoat after being jailed in 2005, is due to be beamed via video link into the Manhattan courtroom a few blocks from Ground Zero where Suleiman Abu Ghaith is on trial for conspiring to kill Americans and giving support to the jihadist network. |
| Amid complaints from defence lawyers that his testimony cannot be trusted because it helped buy his early release from prison, Badat is also being lined up to give evidence in the New York trial of Abu Hamza, the radical cleric deported from London, and in the sentencing of Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan, Britons who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in Connecticut. | Amid complaints from defence lawyers that his testimony cannot be trusted because it helped buy his early release from prison, Badat is also being lined up to give evidence in the New York trial of Abu Hamza, the radical cleric deported from London, and in the sentencing of Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan, Britons who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in Connecticut. |
| Badat, 35, who was raised in Gloucester, is appearing by video because he faces criminal charges in Boston if he enters the US. He may also be called to testify in the military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the US. | Badat, 35, who was raised in Gloucester, is appearing by video because he faces criminal charges in Boston if he enters the US. He may also be called to testify in the military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the US. |
| US prosecutors plan on Monday to use Badat’s confession that he and fellow Briton Richard Reid conspired to bring down passenger jets with shoe bombs late in 2001 as evidence that statements by Abu Ghaith after September 11 that “the storm of airplanes will not stop” related to specific plots. | US prosecutors plan on Monday to use Badat’s confession that he and fellow Briton Richard Reid conspired to bring down passenger jets with shoe bombs late in 2001 as evidence that statements by Abu Ghaith after September 11 that “the storm of airplanes will not stop” related to specific plots. |
| “After you hear his testimony, and compare it to the defendant’s ‘storm of airplanes’ warning, you will know that the defendant was not making empty threats,” assistant US attorney Nicholas Lewin told the jury in his opening statement last week. “He was deadly serious.” | “After you hear his testimony, and compare it to the defendant’s ‘storm of airplanes’ warning, you will know that the defendant was not making empty threats,” assistant US attorney Nicholas Lewin told the jury in his opening statement last week. “He was deadly serious.” |
| Abu Ghaith appeared with Bin Laden in video clips soon after September 11 and is accused of using “the murderous power of his words” to help recruit new jihadists. He is married to Bin Laden’s eldest daughter, Fatima, one of nearly two dozen children said to have been fathered by the al-Qaida leader before he was killed in a raid by US navy Seals in Pakistan in 2011. | Abu Ghaith appeared with Bin Laden in video clips soon after September 11 and is accused of using “the murderous power of his words” to help recruit new jihadists. He is married to Bin Laden’s eldest daughter, Fatima, one of nearly two dozen children said to have been fathered by the al-Qaida leader before he was killed in a raid by US navy Seals in Pakistan in 2011. |
| Badat is expected to testify about his training in “urban warfare” in spring 2001 at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan, where Abu Ghaith delivered a speech later that year. He has said he took part in firearms training in which students shot at balloons labelled “Blair”, “Clinton” and “Sharon”. | Badat is expected to testify about his training in “urban warfare” in spring 2001 at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan, where Abu Ghaith delivered a speech later that year. He has said he took part in firearms training in which students shot at balloons labelled “Blair”, “Clinton” and “Sharon”. |
| He told authorities after his arrest in Lancashire in 2003 that he backed out of the shoe-bombing plot after booking a flight to Amsterdam, from where he had planned to fly to the US. Reid tried unsuccessfully to detonate his explosives on a flight to Miami in December 2001. Now notorious as “the shoe bomber”, he is serving a life sentence in a US supermax jail. | He told authorities after his arrest in Lancashire in 2003 that he backed out of the shoe-bombing plot after booking a flight to Amsterdam, from where he had planned to fly to the US. Reid tried unsuccessfully to detonate his explosives on a flight to Miami in December 2001. Now notorious as “the shoe bomber”, he is serving a life sentence in a US supermax jail. |
| Badat received a 13-year sentence at the Old Bailey in 2005 but was released after six years, after agreeing to assist terrorism prosecutions in Britain and the US. In 2012 it emerged in separate court proceedings in New York that he had been given public funds by the British government for rehousing, education, his mobile phone bill and other costs. | Badat received a 13-year sentence at the Old Bailey in 2005 but was released after six years, after agreeing to assist terrorism prosecutions in Britain and the US. In 2012 it emerged in separate court proceedings in New York that he had been given public funds by the British government for rehousing, education, his mobile phone bill and other costs. |
| He told the court in 2012 that after receiving funding for office space and training he had found a job, but did not elaborate. Further details of his present-day life may emerge on Monday under questioning from prosecutors and Abu Ghaith’s lawyers, who have flown in from New York. | He told the court in 2012 that after receiving funding for office space and training he had found a job, but did not elaborate. Further details of his present-day life may emerge on Monday under questioning from prosecutors and Abu Ghaith’s lawyers, who have flown in from New York. |
| Stanley Cohen, Abu Ghaith’s lead attorney, mocked Badat during his own opening statement last week as an overhyped “supergrass”. He described Badat as “the real terrorist” and suggested his testimony was questionable because it was linked to his early release. | Stanley Cohen, Abu Ghaith’s lead attorney, mocked Badat during his own opening statement last week as an overhyped “supergrass”. He described Badat as “the real terrorist” and suggested his testimony was questionable because it was linked to his early release. |
| “They sit around and talk, and he gives them what they want,” Cohen said of Badat and western law-enforcement authorities. “But the one thing he doesn’t do is put Suleiman Abu Ghaith at the centre of a shoe-bombing plot. | “They sit around and talk, and he gives them what they want,” Cohen said of Badat and western law-enforcement authorities. “But the one thing he doesn’t do is put Suleiman Abu Ghaith at the centre of a shoe-bombing plot. |
| “The interesting thing is, this supergrass, he takes training in bomb-making, he takes training in poison-making, he is one of their key underground people. But when asked 10 years ago, ‘Who is Suleiman Abu Ghaith?’ you don’t hear a word. He says, ‘I don’t know.’ At one point, he says the name rings a bell.” | “The interesting thing is, this supergrass, he takes training in bomb-making, he takes training in poison-making, he is one of their key underground people. But when asked 10 years ago, ‘Who is Suleiman Abu Ghaith?’ you don’t hear a word. He says, ‘I don’t know.’ At one point, he says the name rings a bell.” |
| Cohen told the Guardian on Sunday that after hearing Badat’s testimony “not a person in that courtroom will believe anything the guy says”. | |
| “This is a man who tried to become a mass-murderer,” said Cohen. “He is under indictment in the US and would face a life sentence. Yet there has been no attempt to extradite him and he only served six years. He got a pretty good deal.” | |
| Badat is expected to tell the court in the Connecticut trial of Ahmad and Ahsan that Ahmad was the person who sent him to Afghanistan to train for jihad, and to tell Abu Hamza’s trial in New York that he trained at the camp alongside a “lieutenant” sent by the radical cleric formerly of the Finsbury Park mosque. | Badat is expected to tell the court in the Connecticut trial of Ahmad and Ahsan that Ahmad was the person who sent him to Afghanistan to train for jihad, and to tell Abu Hamza’s trial in New York that he trained at the camp alongside a “lieutenant” sent by the radical cleric formerly of the Finsbury Park mosque. |
| Lawyers for Ahmad and Ahsan argued to the judge in Connecticut last week that if Badat could not be forced to testify in person, they and their clients should be present in the room while he is questioned. | Lawyers for Ahmad and Ahsan argued to the judge in Connecticut last week that if Badat could not be forced to testify in person, they and their clients should be present in the room while he is questioned. |
| “Of all the possible witnesses from whom the government could seek to elicit testimony, the witness has perhaps the greatest incentive to lie and the greatest need for effective confrontation,” the lawyers wrote in a court filing. “The benefits he is receiving for his cooperation are vast.” | “Of all the possible witnesses from whom the government could seek to elicit testimony, the witness has perhaps the greatest incentive to lie and the greatest need for effective confrontation,” the lawyers wrote in a court filing. “The benefits he is receiving for his cooperation are vast.” |
| US prosecutors previously said Badat was personally instructed for his shoe-bomb plot by Bin Laden and Mohammed. Badat may also be called to testify at Mohammed’s ongoing tribunal at the US naval base in Cuba. | US prosecutors previously said Badat was personally instructed for his shoe-bomb plot by Bin Laden and Mohammed. Badat may also be called to testify at Mohammed’s ongoing tribunal at the US naval base in Cuba. |
| He also said during the 2012 proceedings, which related to the trial of Adis Medunjanin, a Bosnian-born American accused of plotting to bomb the New York subway system, that he had planned previously undisclosed attacks against Jewish targets in South Africa for al-Qaida. | He also said during the 2012 proceedings, which related to the trial of Adis Medunjanin, a Bosnian-born American accused of plotting to bomb the New York subway system, that he had planned previously undisclosed attacks against Jewish targets in South Africa for al-Qaida. |
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