Interrogation of Bin Laden Relative Is Recounted

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/nyregion/interrogation-of-bin-laden-relative-is-recounted.html

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Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a close associate of Osama bin Laden’s, told the authorities after his arrest last year that the Sept. 11 terror attacks were a surprise to him, but that he had heard around Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan “that something big was going to happen,” a federal agent testified on Thursday.

The agent’s testimony came in the trial of Mr. Abu Ghaith, 48, who later married Bin Laden’s daughter and now faces charges that include conspiring to kill Americans and providing material support to terrorists.

A prosecutor had told the jury that it would hear about Mr. Abu Ghaith’s “confession,” and that he had agreed, at Bin Laden’s request, to make motivational speeches in Al Qaeda’s training camps and, after Sept. 11, to make proclamations on behalf of the group.

Mr. Abu Ghaith’s lawyers had asked that they be allowed to present the jury with the full 21-page summary of their client’s interrogation aboard a flight from Jordan to the United States, arguing that it was inappropriate for the government to present it in a “piecemeal fashion.”

Prosecutors had objected, and the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court, denied the defense request on Thursday. But he did allow Mr. Abu Ghaith’s lawyers to ask about a few select portions of the interrogation.

Daniel C. Richman, a law professor at Columbia University, said in a phone interview that although prosecutors are free to select portions of a defendant’s statements to use at trial, “the evidence rules make it very hard for a defendant to use his own out-of-court statements instead of taking the stand.”

“One reason,” Professor Richman said, “is to prevent defendants from using self-serving statements and avoiding cross-examination.”

It is unclear whether Mr. Abu Ghaith will testify in the trial.

Michael S. Butsch, the F.B.I. special agent who testified Thursday, said the questioning of Mr. Abu Ghaith, who was in handcuffs and ankle bracelets, was “a respectful, relaxed conversation.”

The agent said Mr. Abu Ghaith had claimed that he had told Bin Laden that he would not swear an oath of loyalty to him, or join Al Qaeda. But Mr. Abu Ghaith said that he was a religious scholar and orator, and had been willing to assist Al Qaeda in that capacity, Agent Butsch testified.

One section of the summary of Mr. Abu Ghaith’s interrogation that his lawyers had sought to use was his denial of having “prior knowledge” of a Qaeda plot to have terrorists like Richard C. Reid blow up airplanes by detonating explosives hidden in their shoes.

Prosecutors had told the jury that a speech by Mr. Abu Ghaith in which he threatened that the “storm of the airplanes” would not abate showed that he knew about the shoe-bomber plot.

Judge Kaplan denied the defense’s request to allow the jury to hear about Mr. Abu Ghaith’s denial of foreknowledge.