The radical Islamic preacher known as Abu
Hamza al-Masri and two alleged al Qaeda operatives made their first
apperarances in a U.S. court on Saturday after years of fighting their
extradition from Brtain.
All three accused terrorists were presented
to a federal magistrate in Lower Manhattan less than 12 hours after touching
down on U.S. soil at 2:40am on Saturday.
Abu Hamza, 54, an Egyptian-born as Mustafa
Kamel Mustafa, earned infamy as an imam at London's Finsbury Park mosque, where
his followers included 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe bomber
Richard Reid.
Former Assistant United States Attorney
Edward O'Callaghan said in an interview Abu Hamza was a spiriutal leader of the
al Qaeda movement.
"To commit violence and to essentially
rise up and follow the al Qaeda fatwah, which was essentially to commit
violence against the West," said O'Callgahan, who helped prosecute Abu
Hamza's case following his 2004 indictment.
Abu Hamza, who has already served six years
in British prison for incitement, faces U.S. charges that he assisted a plot
hatched in 1999 to establish a terrorist training camp in rural Bly, Oregon,
that could have served as a base for sleeeper cells.
O'Callaghan said, "The camp would have
trained al Qaeda sympathizers here in the United States with U.S. passports or
other western country passports and have them trained in explosives training
and, frankly, soldier training."
In a 2002 interview with CBS News, Abu
Hamza downplayed his ties to camp organizers.
"I don't know if these people, they
ask me some questions, or if some of them, they've come to visit the mosque,
but no structural link," he said. "I'm not from al Qaeda, and I don't
recruit from any group."
Flanked by U.S. Marshals, Abu Hamza walked
into Manhattan federal court wearing a short-sleeved navy blue jail uniform, a
gray beard, and closely-cut gray hair.
Both of his arms were exposed, showing
where his hands had been amputated, he has claimed, after an explosion fighting
with the anti-Soviet Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The explosion also
cost him vision in one eye.
Sabrina Scroff, Abu Hamza's acting defense
attorney, asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Mass to order the Bureau of Prisons
to return the defendant's prosthetic hands immediately so he could attend to
"his daily needs."
"Otherwise, he will not be able to
function in a civilized manner," Scrhoff said. The attorney requested that
Abu Hanza, who suffers from diabetes and hypertension, receive a full medical
exam. She said he will want a dictaphone to help prepare his defense since he
cannot write notes.
Abu Hazma did not enter a plea. His formal
arraignment is set for next Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Katherine
Forrest.
Also appearing in court Saturday were
Khaled al-Fawwaz, 50, a Saudi, and Adel Abdel Bary, 52, an Egyptian, who are
accused of key roles in al Qaeda's London cell in the 1990s. They fought
extradition for 14 years, appealing to every available court in UK and Europe.
Al-Fawwaz, who helped found the terror
group's East Africa cell in the 1990s before moving to London, was Osama Bin
Laden's chief propagandist, distributing his 1996 and 1998 fatwahs declaring
war on the U.S. and justifying attacks on Americans.
In the 1990s, al-Fawwaz procured a
satellite phone and air minutes for bin Laden that the leader used from inside
Afghanistan to contact operatives around the world. Federal prosecutors once
called the communications device "the jihad phone."
On August 7, 1998, al-Fawwaz faxed to
select media orgzaniations al Qaeda claims of resonsibility for the twin truck
bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
which killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans, and injured thousands. It
was the group's deadliest attack until 9/11.
"He received the statement of
responsibility for the bombing three days before the bombing actually happened,
so it was clear evidence that he was connected to the group," said
O'Callaghan, now in private practice with Clifford Chance law firm.
Al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary also wore
standard blue jail uniforms, long hair, and long beards that have grayed during
their incarceration.
Al-Fawazz told Judge Maas he was "not
guilty." Defense counsel Andrew Patel entered the same plea for Abdel
Bary.
The two defendants will be formally
arraigned next Tuesday before U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, who
inherited the embassy bombings docket after the first four men were convicted
in the conspiracy in 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Kaplan presided over the 2010 trial of
Tanzania embassy bomber Ahmed Khlafan Ghaliani, who was the first and last
detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison transferred to federal
court. Kaplan sentenced Ghaliani to life imprisonment.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Buckley told
Judge Maas the government, which has twice won jury trials stemming from the
embassy bombings, will commence to turn over evidence to defense attorneys for
al-Fawwaz and Abdel Bary on Tuesday.
None of three new defedants challenged
their detention or made a bail application, though Patel said Abdel Bary
reserved the right to do so.
Defense attorneys said al-Fawwaz suffers
from high blood pressure and a stomach condition, while Abdel Bary has asthma.
In addition to the terror camp scheme in
Oregon, Abu Hamza is accused of assisting in the 1998 abduction of 16 Western
hostages, including two American tourists, in Yemen. Four hostages died in that
incident.
Abu Hamza is also charged with dispartching
recruits and supplies to terrorist training camps in Afghanistan in 2000-2001.
Abu Hamza, al-Fawwaz, and Abdel Bary all
face possible life sentences.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called the
long-awaited extraditions pursued by his office "a watershed moment in our
nation's efforts to eradicate terrorism."
"These are men who were at the nerve
centers of al Qaeda's acts of terror, and they caused blood to be shed, lives
to be lost, and families to be shattered," Bharara said in a written
statement.
"I'm absolutely delighted that Abu
Hamza is now out of this country," British Prime Minister David Cameron
said. "Like the rest of the public, I'm sick to the back teeth of people
who come here, threaten our country, who stay at vast expense to the taxpayer,
and we can't get rid of them."
In Connecticut on Saturday, two other men
extradited from Britain, Babar Hamad, 38, and Syed Talha Ahsan, 33, were
presented in federal court, where they pleaded not guilty to charges of
providing matreial support to terrorists in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Ahmad had
been held in the U.K. since 2004.
