American tells of meeting bin Laden before 9/11
NEW YORK - An American who trained at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in the spring of 2001 before losing his nerve testified Thursday how he encountered Osama bin Laden and bin Laden's son-in-law at a safe house - and that bin Laden hinted that a suicide attack on US soil was in the works.
"Just know you have brothers willing to carry their souls in their hands," bin Laden told the witness, Sahim Alwan, and other recruits, Alwan said on the witness stand in federal court in New York City. Asked what he thought that meant, Alwan responded, "To die."
His testimony came at the trial of the son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who's accused of plotting to kill Americans by being a motivational speaker at al-Qaeda training camps before the Sept. 11 attacks and as a spokesman for the terror group afterward when it sought to recruit more militants to its cause. (AP)
