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U.S.-Licensed Pilot Tells Court He Flew For Bin Laden
NEW YORK, Feb 14 (News Agencies) - A U.S. pilot of Egyptian origin recounted to a New York court Wednesday how he bought and flew a private jet for Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, who is wanted in the United States on charges related to the near-simultaneous 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Essam al-Ridi, 43, was called by prosecution lawyers to give evidence at the trial of four men charged on connection with the bombings.
The prosecution argues that the bombings, which left 224 people dead, including 12 U.S. citizens, were carried out on behalf of bin Laden.
Ridi, who wears a short beard and was dressed in a suit, told the court how he was born in Cairo, brought up in Kuwait, and immigrated to Texas in 1979. In 1983, two years after obtaining a pilot's license, he felt motivated to volunteer with Muslim forces fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
He presented himself at a volunteer training camp in Peshawar, Pakistan. "They told me that they have no air force, but that I could help in flying some things for them," he told the New York jury.
For the next 18 months, Ridi bought and transported equipment, including night-vision goggles sourced in Britain, television sets, and diving equipment.
Ridi met bin Laden, who had placed his fortune at the disposal of this 'jihad' (holy struggle) movement in Afghanistan.
However, "I didn't agree with him giving orders. If you don't have experience in certain fields, you shouldn't make decisions," Ridi told the court. "He lacked military experience, to the extent that it cost the life of people following his orders."
Returning to Texas, Ridi worked as a flying instructor. However, in 1992, bin Laden's network, now based in Sudan, was back in contact with him with a view to having him buy a private jet for them, he said.
"They wanted a 2000-mile [3,220-kilometer] range, because they had things they wanted to ship from Peshawar to Khartoum - Stinger missiles," Ridi said, in answer to questions by the lead federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald.
"I said they have to have legal permit to depart Peshawar and land in Khartoum with the missiles," added Ridi, who claims he did nothing illegal in his contacts with bin Laden's network.
The court had already heard, in February 6th evidence from another witness, Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, that Sudan Airways eventually transported the Stinger missiles as cargo.
Ridi said that he did buy, in Arizona in 1993, a six- to eight-seater Sabre T-39 jet for $210,000, which was transferred into his account from Sudan.
The plane was not suitable for a direct transatlantic flight, so he instead took a week to fly to Khartoum via Canada, Iceland, Britain, Rome and Cairo. In Khartoum, he handed over the aircraft's keys to bin Laden in person, but turned down the offer of a full-time job as a pilot, as he thought the salary offered ($1,200 monthly) too low.
However, Ridi told the court, he was subsequently called upon several times to make short flights between the Sudanese capital and Nairobi or Beirut.
In October 1998, contacted by U.S. investigators probing the embassy bombings, he agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
The four defendants, whose trial began early January and could last for a year, have all pleaded innocent over the embassy bombings.
If convicted, two of them - Saudi national Mohamed Rashid al-Owhali, 23, and Tanzanian Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27 - could face the death penalty. The remaining two - Lebanese-American Wadih al-Hage, 40, and Jordanian Mohamed Saddiq Odeh, 35 - would face life prison terms.
Bin Laden, in exile in Afghanistan under the protection of the ruling Taliban militia, is among the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's 10 most wanted fugitives.
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