Embassy bombers to spend life in prison

NEW YORK, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Four men believed to be associates of Saudi terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden were sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for their roles in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Mohamad Rashed Daoud al Owhali, a 24-year-old Saudi, was sentenced for driving a truck bomb in the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kenya.

Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 28, of Tanzania, was given the same sentence by Judge Leonard Sand, for his part in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Mohamad, through his attorney, thanked the jury for having spared his life, but declined to address the court.

Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, of Jordan, received the same sentence for his role as chief of the Nairobi terrorist cell. He posed as a Mombassa fisherman while masterminding the plot.

Wadih al Hage, 41, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen from Arlington, Texas, and once bin Laden's personal secretary, was also sentenced to life in prison.

The attacks killed 224 people and wounded 4,600.

Mohamed was convicted of helping to grind high explosives and load the bomb into a refrigerator truck, which was then driven to the embassy and detonated. The bomb was constructed in a house in Ilala, court documents said.

"Owhali, who had been trained in kidnapping and bomb-making operations in bin Laden terrorist camps in Afghanistan, was activated for the plot to kill Americans in early 1998," the documents said. "He drove the truck carrying the 1,800-pound bomb in a pick-up truck to the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi where he threw stun grenades at guards."

Court documents said that by 1997, Kenya had become a key financial conduit for funding the various cells of the growing bin Laden network in Western Europe and the United States. The network was also using Kenya as a transit point for huge amounts of drugs coming in from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most important, it was a key "insertion" point for bin Laden's operatives with strike missions in Western Europe or America.

When joint Kenyan-Egyptian-American counterintelligence operations proved a dire threat to the network, bin Laden plotted to rid the area of Americans, to punish the United States for its activities in the region, they said.

All three men were convicted last May of direct involvement in the bombings, but escaped the death penalty when the jury deadlocked 10-2 over whether they should be executed. Because of the deadlock, U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand was required by federal law to impose life sentences.

Asked about the $33 million restitution ordered by judge Sand, the attorney for al Owhali, David Baugh, said, "As you know defendants had access to funds, limited access to their funds, and the rest of their funds are to go to paying restitution.

"Everybody is responsible for all of it" said Baugh referring to payment of the restitution.

The scene around the Manhattan courthouse at 500 Pearl St. was bristling with barricades and marshals armed with shotguns and automatic weapons. Access to the building was roped off, and anyone entering the courthouse, including the media, was thoroughly checked.

Asked by reporters outside the courthouse how he was affected by the trial, al Owhali's attorney told them, "One of the things this case has given me is a perspective, an insight, into both sides of an extremely complex issue and that has been a personal benefit to me.

"Right now, as we are bombing Afghanistan, I am reminded that the people who did those horrible acts on Sept. 11 probably considered themselves to be retaliating against us," said Baugh. "It's possible that both sides are wrong, it's possible that both sides are right, and it's probable that only the innocents die."

The court was only 500 yards from the site of the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed Sept. 11 by suicide airline hijackers. Washington says bin Laden was responsible for those attacks in which nearly 6,000 people were killed.

Al Hague's attorney, Sam Schmidt, recounted for reporters his client's hand-written statement distributed in the courtroom prior to his sentencing.

"He stated that he opposed the acts of August 1998, the embassy bombings, and he opposed the acts of last month, which was the Sept. 11 tragedy," Schmidt said. "I hesitate to interpret my clients words or repeat my clients words which are now part of the record, which is obviously the most accurate rendition of what he has said.

"He has said that he is a devout Muslim and it his belief that in the Muslim faith that, even in times of conflict, that civilians, non-combatants, innocents, property, crops everything must be protected and not targeted," the lawyer said. "As a devout Muslim, since that is his belief, he believes that the conduct in 1998 and last month is wrong."

But the attorney for al Hage went on to characterize trial witnesses descriptions of how bin Laden's al Qaida organization developed, which Schmidt said al Hage has always denied being a member of the group, while only being associated with its members.

"Al Qaida was formed to assist Muslim insurgencies in Muslim countries against oppressive regimes," Schmidt said of the witnesses' testimony. "Obviously, it appears from everything we see everyday now, that al Qaida evolved into something that committed terrorism against civilian targets and he (al Hage) denies being involved with or agreeing with that evolution."

The attorney said his client "has always admitted that he acted as a personal secretary when he was in the Sudan working, among other jobs for Bin Laden's companies."

Asked if al Hage had ever denounced the actions of bin Laden's group, Schmidt declined to answer directly "but he said in 1998, when he was interviewed (about the embassy bombing) that the acts were wrong and that if Bin Laden was involved in them than he (bin Laden) was wrong."

However, Jim Owens, 53, who suffered numerous injuries at the U.S. Embassy bombing in Dar es Salaaam, said he did not "believe anything they say," referring to statements made by the convicted men.