Sulaiman Abu Ghaith testified on his own behalf last week in federal court in New York against charges he served as a propagandist for al-Qaeda and recruited fighters for Osama bin Laden immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Although video evidence showed him vowing more attacks on the United States, including one in which he said the “storm of airplanes” would continue, he denied having advance knowledge of any plots.
UNCOMFORTABLE IN MOSCOW
The uncertainty surrounding deteriorating relations between Russia and the United States following the former’s annexation of Crimea has American lawyers in Moscow worried. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Moscow attracted Western firms seeking transactional work rising from the country’s natural resources including oil and gas reserves. But now foreigners in the Russian capital are exposed to unwelcome scrutiny at a time of heightened nationalism, one senior U.S. lawyer told The Moscow Times this week on the condition of anonymity. “It is scary,” he said.
