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Defector From Bin Laden Group Cross-Examined In New York
NEW YORK, Feb 13 (News Agencies) - Attorneys of four men charged in the 1998 US twin embassy bombings in East Africa on Tuesday cross-examined key prosecution witness Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, an alleged defector from a group allegedly founded by Osama bin Laden.
The defendants' attorneys attempted to weaken the credibility of Fadl's earlier testimony. The 34-year-old Sudanese man's identity had been kept secret until his appearance last week in court.
Three of the four lawyers questioned Fadl about his background and role in bin Laden's network, seeking to persuade jurors in the federal courtroom here that a defector like Fadl, who, they said, had betrayed his friends and informed on them to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, is not to be trusted.
Fadl remained calm and frequently resorted to help from an interpreter.
"When you took the 'bay-at' [oath of allegiance], you agreed to follow orders?" David Baugh, lawyer for Saudi national Mohammed Rashid Daud al-Owhali asked the witness.
"Yes," he replied.
"Even to kill people, set up bombs, even to die?"
"Yes," Fadl said.
"Were you prepared to kill innocents?"
"Yes."
But Fadl also made his share of vague responses. "Hard to say yes or no," "You're right, ... but not exactly," "Sometimes, yes ... but I need a little explanation," "There are different ways to understand the Qur'an," he replied to other questions.
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had previously spent three days questioning him.
Last week, Fadl, in halting English, outlined his journey from a Brooklyn mosque, where he was recruited by bin Laden in 1988, to training camps and battlefields in Afghanistan as an original member of bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.
The group, he said, was created to re-establish political unity, under one leader, in the Islamic world.
Accused by bin Laden's al-Qaeda group of stealing money, Fadl was forced to flee in 1996. He has been under U.S. protection through the witness protection program ever since.
Since Fadl's arrival in the United States, Baugh said, the nation has spent close to a million dollars on bills for him through the program.
Neither Fadl nor the prosecution confirmed this figure, but Fadl said he had simply not done the math.
"I didn't count," he insisted. "They give me money to pay for the rent and the food."
When a lawyer pressed him on whether the U.S. embargo against Iraq had in part motivated al-Qaeda's anti-U.S. stance, Fadl answered that was not the case.
"I believe that what happened in the Gulf area is more political than religious, because you don't know what Saddam would have done if somebody didn't stop him," Fadl said.
"Bin Laden himself gave us a lecture in '88 in Pakistan against Saddam, saying that he wants to take the Gulf area," he added.
The cross-examination is to resume Wednesday.
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 - the Saudi national Owhali, 23, and Tanzanian Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27 - could face the death penalty.
The remaining two - Lebanese-American Wadih El Hage, 40, and Jordanian Mohamed Saddiq Odeh, 35 - would face life prison terms.
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