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| Bin Laden's son-in-law convicted of conspiring to kill Americans - Los Angeles Times Posted: 26 Mar 2014 08:55 AM PDT after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Sulaiman abu Ghaith, 48, faces life is prison when he is sentenced Sept. 8. The case has given the public its first and possibly only chance to watch a terrorism trial related to the 2001 attacks unfold in civilian court. Unlike other high-profile terrorism suspects accused of crimes arising from the attacks, Abu Ghaith bypassed the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after his arrest last year. Instead, he was brought directly to New York, where his trial began March 5 just blocks from where the World Trade Center towers once stood. The case hinged in part on the importance of Abu Ghaith's role as a spokesman for the terror group. Prosecutors maintained it was an important one. "This man was not Osama bin Laden's puppet," said Jonathan Cronan, an assistant U.S. attorney, as he pointed his finger at Abu Ghaith during the trial "He was not a robot." Cronan insisted Abu Ghaith was a high-ranking Al Qaeda leader who was summoned to Bin Laden's cave in the mountains outside Kabul, Afghanistan, on the evening of Sept. 11, 2001. There, Abu Ghaith was asked to deliver a rousing speech heralding the killings and urging young Muslims to stage more attacks, Cronan said. "Al Qaeda's purpose was to murder Americans, and the defendant was all in," Cronan said as Abu Ghaith listened through an interpreter. But Abu Ghaith's defense attorney, Stanley Cohen, dismissed the government's case as based not on evidence but on recordings and videos, including one showing hijacked jets slamming into the World Trade Center towers and the buildings enveloped in black smoke. "It was intended to sweep you away ... in anguish and pain," said Cohen, comparing the prosecution's case to a movie. "The movie's over, the lights are back on, and we've walked out of the theater. Let's look at the evidence," he said, before dismissing the government's allegations as "speculation" and its witnesses as liars or frauds. Also shown repeatedly to the jury during the trial were frames of a video made Sept. 12, 2001, that showed Abu Ghaith seated next to Bin Laden and two other top Al Qaeda leaders as they tried to justify the attacks. Jurors deliberated roughly five hours before convicting Abu Ghaith of conspiring to kill Americans, providing material support to terrorists; and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Follow LA Times National on Facebook ALSO: Washington's deadly mudslide: A survivor's story Washington mudslide's confirmed death toll rises to 16 Girl who goes bald to support pal with cancer gets dress code waiver |
| Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: China demands satellite data used to conclude ... - CBS News Posted: 26 Mar 2014 08:31 AM PDT Last Updated Mar 25, 2014 4:15 PM EDT KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- China demanded Tuesday that Malaysia turn over the satellite data used to conclude that a Malaysia Airlines jetliner had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, killing all 239 on board. Officials sharply narrowed the search area as a result of that assessment, but the zone remains as large as Texas and Oklahoma combined. Australia said improved weather would allow the hunt for the plane to resume Wednesday after gale-force winds and heavy rain forced a daylong delay. Searchers face a daunting task of combing a vast expanse of choppy seas for suspected remnants of the aircraft sighted earlier. "We're not searching for a needle in a haystack -- we're still trying to define where the haystack is," Australia's deputy defense chief, Air Marshal Mark Binskin, told reporters in Perth at a military base as idled planes remained parked behind him.In remarks to the Malaysian Parliament, Prime Minister Najib Razak also cautioned that the search will take a long time and "we will have to face unexpected and extraordinary challenges." Late Monday, Najib announced that the Boeing 777 had gone down in the sea with no survivors. But that's all that investigators and the Malaysian government have been able to say with certainty about Flight 370's fate since it disappeared on March 8 shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. Left unanswered are many troubling questions about why it was so far off-course -- the plane essentially back-tracked its route over Malaysia and then traveled in the opposite direction in the Indian Ocean. Investigators will be looking at various possibilities including possible mechanical or electrical failure, hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or someone else on board. "We do not know why. We do not know how. We do not how the terrible tragedy happened," the airline's chief executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, told reporters. Monday night's e announcement unleashed a storm of sorrow and anger among the families of the plane's 239 passengers and crew - two-thirds of them Chinese. Family members of the missing passengers have complained bitterly about a lack of reliable information and some say they are not being told the whole truth.Nearly 100 relatives and their supporters marched on the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing, where they threw plastic water bottles, tried to rush the gate and chanted, "Liars!" Many wore white T-shirts that read "Let's pray for MH370" as they held banners and shouted, "Tell the truth! Return our relatives!" There was a heavy police presence at the embassy and there was a brief scuffle between police and a group of relatives who tried to approach journalists.  Relatives of Chinese passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, flight MH370, hold signs in protest outside the Malaysia Embassy in Beijing, China, March 25, 2014. CBS Xu Dengwang, whose wife was a passenger on Flight 370, was reeling from the shock Monday in his room at the Lido hotel in Beijing, where many family members have been waiting for days for news. "I learned the news from television. I couldn't handle it. I fainted," Xu told CBS News, speaking through a translator. "How can you announce this news to the world without providing evidence?" Some relatives of Chinese passengers aboard the flight read out an emotional statement Monday, calling for Malaysia Airlines and Malaysia's government to be held accountable, CBS News Shannon Van Sant reported from Beijing. "Malaysia Airlines, the government of Malaysia... and the military forces of Malaysia have concealed, delayed and hid the truth from the relatives and the peoples of the world," the statement said. "This despicable act aimed to fool the relatives of the 154 Chinese passengers have devastated us physically and mentally, while misleading and delaying the rescue operation, wasting a lot of manpower, material resources and leading to the loss of precious rescue time." Malaysia Airlines Chairman Mohammed Nor Mohammed Yusof said at a news conference Tuesday that it may take time for further answers to come clear. "This has been an unprecedented event requiring an unprecedented response," he said. "The investigation still underway may yet prove to be even longer and more complex than it has been since March 8th." He added that even though no wreckage has been found, there was no doubt it had crashed. "This by the evidence given to us, and by rational deduction, we could only arrive at that conclusion: That is, for Malaysia Airlines to declare that it has lost its plane, and by extension, the people in the plane," he said. The conclusions were based on a more thorough analysis of the brief signals the plane sent every hour to a satellite belonging to Inmarsat, a British company, even after other communication systems on the jetliner shut down for unknown reasons.  Although there have been an increasing number of apparent leads, there has been no definitive identification of any debris. For several days now, search planes have been scouring seas 1,550 miles southwest of Perth, and have spotted several floating objects, but none have been retrieved or proven to be from the missing plane. "It is impossible to predict how long this will take. But after 17 days, the announcement made last night and shared with the families is the reality which we must now accept," Ahmad Jauhari, the airline's chief executive, said. The latest satellite information cannot provide an exact location but just a rough estimate of where the jet crashed into the sea. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he had spoken to Najib to offer help with the ongoing search and investigation. "What up until now has been a search, moves into a recovery and investigation phase," Abbott said. "I have offered Malaysia, as the country legally responsible for this, every assistance and cooperation from Australia." Several countries had already been moving specialized equipment into the area to prepare for a possible search for the plane and its black boxes, the common name for the cockpit voice and data recorders - needed to help determine what happened to the jetliner.  CBS An Australian navy support vessel, the Ocean Shield, equipped with acoustic detection equipment, was expected to arrive in several days in the search zone. And the U.S. Pacific Command said it was sending a black box locator to the region in case a debris field is located. The U.S. Navy has also sent an unmanned underwater vehicle to Perth that could be used if debris is located, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman. The Bluefin-21, expected to arrive in Perth on Wednesday, has side-scanning sonar and what is called a "multi-beam echo sounder" that can be used to take a closer look at objects under water, he added. It can operate at a depth of 14,700 feet. The search for the wreckage and the plane's recorders could take years because the ocean can extend to up to 23,000 feet deep in some parts. It took two years to find the black box from an Air France jet that went down in the Atlantic Ocean on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, and searchers knew within days where the crash site was. "We've got to get lucky," said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. "It's a race to get to the area in time to catch the black box pinger while it's still working."© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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