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Prosecution turns to embassy bombing claims

From Phil Hirschkorn
CNN New York Bureau

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors Tuesday showed a jury faxed letters from a London office that claimed responsibility for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania -- before the actual explosions rocked the buildings.

The original copies of the faxes, in Arabic, were sent in the early morning hours of August 7, 1998, the day of the bombings, according to the time stamped on the documents introduced as evidence.

The faxes, according to the indictment, claimed responsibility for the dual explosions in the name of the "Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places." But prosecutors have yet to offer the jury a translation.

The faxes were among the evidence seized in September 1998 by British detectives searching a London office and residences used by three men suspected in the alleged worldwide terrorist conspiracy.

CASE FILE Shattered Diplomacy: The U.S. Embassy Bombings Trial An in-depth special report on the trial of four men charged with the embassy bombings Trial reports | Timeline | Key Figures   GALLERY Images from the U.S. embassy bombing in Tanzania  TRANSCRIPT Testimony of FBI agent Abigail Perkins - March 19, 2001 (PDF) Documents in PDF format require Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing.

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The three men, Khaled al-Fawwaz, Ibrahim Eidarous, and Adel Abdel Bary, have been incarcerated in Britain since their arrests two-and-half years ago in an anti-terror sweep. The three are still fighting extradition to the United States.

The faxes were sent starting 4:45 a.m. London time, or roughly three-and-half hours before the nearly simultaneous explosions started at 10:30 a.m. local time in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam Tanzania, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injuring more than 4,500 other people. (There is a two-hour time difference between London and Nairobi).

Scotland Yard detective Gary Clubb testified that a Paris radio station, Radio France International, received one of the faxes. So did media organizations in Doha, Qatar and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, according to the indictment.

The fax stated that two Saudi nationals carried out the Kenya suicide truck bombing, according to the indictment. One of those alleged bombers, Mohamed al-'Owhali, 24, from Saudi Arabia, is one of four men on trial in U.S District Court.

Al-'Owhali told FBI agent Stephen Gaudin that he rode in the bomb truck's passenger seat in what was supposed to be a martyr mission. Al-'Owhali and the driver who died, "Azzam," made a home video two months before the bombing celebrating their anticipated martyrdom, according to Gaudin's testimony.

The video, never shown in court, claimed credit for the bombing in the name of the "Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places," according to Gaudin's testimony about interrogating al-'Owhali.

Prosecutors consider the "Army" referenced in the video and the faxes a fictitious group. They charge that Islamic militants loyal to Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and his group, al Qaeda, carried out the attack. Bin Laden is one of 13 fugitives charged in the case.

Bin Laden's most dangerous "fatwah," or religious decree, issued in February 1998, called for killing American civilians worldwide in the name of the "International Islamic Front for Jihad on the Jews and Crusaders."

The leading reason for the threatened violence -- the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, home to the two holiest Muslim sites, in Mecca and Medina.

Trial evidence on Tuesday indicated that the office on London's Beethoven Street, leased by al-Fawwaz and Abdel Bary, received and may have distributed the fatwah. Telephone records showed calls between the London office and bin Laden's satellite phone immediately before London's Arabic newspaper published the fatwah.

Al-Fawwaz is accused of starting a bin Laden's London cell and keeping tabs on the Kenya cell, including by maintaining contact with trial defendant Wadih el Hage.

El Hage, who admits being a former business associate of bin Laden but denies connections to violent activity, is accused of organizing the Kenyan cell. El Hage, a 40-year-old naturalized American, is not charged with a direct role in the bombings.

The two other trial defendants, besides al-'Owhali, are. Mohamed Odeh, a 36-year-old Jordanian, allegedly played a part in the Kenya bombing, and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, a 27-year-old Tanzanian, played a role in the Tanzania attack.

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FBI agent: Accused called bombings 'a message to America'
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Defendant connected to alleged Tanzania bombers
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Survivors recall blast of Tanzania embassy
March 13, 2001
Witnesses identify truck parts in bombing trial
March 12, 2001
Agent: Defendant said Kenya embassy 'easy target'
March 7, 2001
Jury hears and sees first account of lethal Kenya blast
March 1, 2001
Agent: Defendant called Kenya attack a 'blunder'
February 28, 2001
Witness backtracks at embassy bombings trial
February 27, 2001
Embassy bombings witness cross-examined
February 26, 2001
Witness links two embassy bombing defendants
February 22, 2001

U.S. State Department
 •  International Information Programs:
 •  Counterterrorism
 •  Links to United States Embassies and Consulates Worldwide
Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999
FBI Websites Document Evidence Against Bin Laden
Ussamah Bin Laden
US District Court, Southern District of New York
Terrorism Research Center
Africa News on the World Wide Web

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