WASHINGTON — Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the charismatic Al-Qaeda spokesman, fundraiser and son-in-law to Osama Bin Laden, is likely to have a vast trove of knowledge about the terror network's central command but not much useful information about current threats or plots, intelligence officials and other experts say. Abu Ghaith pleaded not guilty Friday to conspiring to kill Americans in propaganda videos that warned of further assaults against the United States as devastating as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people. Believed to be more of a strategic player in bin Laden's inner circle than an operational plotter, Abu Ghaith would be the highest-ranking Al-Qaeda figure to stand trial on US soil since 9/11. Intelligence officials say he may be able to shed new light on Al-Qaeda's inner workings — concerning Al-Qaeda's murky dealings in Iran over the past decade, for example — but probably will have few details about specific or imminent ongoing threats. He gave US officials a 22-page statement after his Feb. 28 arrest in Jordan, according to prosecutors. They would not describe the statement. Bearded and balding, Abu Ghaith said little during the 15-minute hearing in US District Court in New York — in lower Manhattan just blocks from Ground Zero — and displayed none of the finger-wagging or strident orations that marked his propaganda in the days and months after 9/11. Through an interpreter, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan asked whether he understood his rights. Abu Ghaith nodded and said, “Yes.” Asked whether he had money to hire an attorney, he shook his head and said no. He nodded and said yes when asked whether he had signed an affidavit describing his financial situation. Kaplan promised to set a trial date when the case returns to court on April 8. Bail was not requested, and none was set. Abu Ghaith's lawyer declined comment after the hearing. The fact that the defendant is being tried in federal district court is controversial in itself. Republicans are criticizing the Obama administration for bringing Abu Ghaith to New York instead of sending him to the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Abu Ghaith's charisma and impassioned rhetoric, which helped Al-Qaeda recruit followers and raise money, made him a natural choice as Bin Laden's spokesman and key adviser, said Tom Lynch, a senior research fellow at National Defense University. He said Abu Ghaith would have all but certainly been included in discussions about the 9/11 attack before it was launched — even if he was not directly involved in the plot. “He was on Osama Bin Laden's right-hand side, and was used by him as a mouthpiece for the organization,” said attorney Michael Rosensaft, who prosecuted terrorism cases in the US Attorney's office in Manhattan until late 2012. Even so, the US intelligence official said Abu Ghaith probably has few details about ongoing terror threats or other current operational details to share with US officials. “We're not alleging that he was a planner, but a player within the group,” the official said. Abu Ghaith fled with Bin Laden when the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan in 2001, living for nearly a year in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunar province before crossing into Pakistan, according to Taliban officials familiar with his movements. Abu Ghaith operated between Pakistan's North Waziristan region and Middle Eastern countries, they said. Prosecutors said Abu Ghaith was smuggled into Iran from Afghanistan in 2002. He lived there under house arrest until 2010. At that time, Western officials say, Tehran brokered a deal with Al-Qaeda to release Iranian diplomat Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, who was kidnapped in 2008 in Pakistan's border city of Peshawar, in exchange for Abu Ghaith and several members of bin Laden's family, including one of his sons. That agreement also allowed Al-Qaeda access throughout Iran. Lynch said it's believed that while living in Iran Abu Ghaith helped coordinate the flow of funding and foreign terror fighters in and out of Pakistan, Iraq and possibly Yemen. “I know of nobody else we've captured who has spent as much time in the Iranian environment post-9/11, and we know there was a lot going on there helping facilitate this organization,” said Lynch, a retired Army colonel who was a counter-terror and South Asia adviser to former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and former Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid. Lynch said it's believed Abu Ghaith returned to Pakistan after leaving Iran but was uncomfortable there and sought to enter Turkey through Iran within the past several months. Tipped off by the CIA, Turkish officials took Abu Ghaith into custody but released him in late February without being able to charge him with a crime there. The intelligence official said Abu Ghaith was being deported to Kuwait when he stopped in Jordan. There, he was captured by the FBI and flown to the US on March 1. — AP
