Ex-US Navy Sailor on Trial for Conspiring With al-Qaeda…..
In secretly recorded phone calls that rang through a quiet courtroom, an ex-U.S. Navy sailor laughs with a friend as a sniper tears U.S. soldiers’ bodies apart, and lauds the “psychological anxiety†wreaked on the USA by his coded hero, “Under the Black Leaves.â€
“Under the Black Leaves†was a thinly veiled name for Usama (Osama) Bin Laden — the man Hassan Abu-Jihaad was supposed to be fighting with his naval battle group back in 2000 and 2001.
Instead of helping the U.S. fight Bin Laden, government prosecutors charge, the former sailor leaked sensitive information about the Navy’s movements to people involved in a London-based terrorist cell.
The bulk of the government’s case rests on emails Abu-Jihaad allegedly sent to a London-based organization called Azzam Publications, leaking information about the Navy’s weaknesses and whereabouts.
The case began in 2003, when British law enforcement seized a floppy disk containing leaked Navy info. Azzam’s website had originally been run on servers in Trumbull, Conn., leading the case — and this week’s pre-trial hearing — to the charge of the New Haven FBI.
In one conversation with a friend, Abu-Jihaad praises the “Juba Sniper,†a man who claimed to have killed 37 U.S. soldiers. The friend asks if Abu-Jihaad has seen an internet video where the sniper tears apart the bodies of soldiers.
According to the tapes played in court, Abu-Jihaad says in reverence: “Juba was a cold dude … if he’s still breathing, may Allah still let him be plugging them dudes … If not, I know he done train more … in the skills and tactics that he got … ‘cuz he was laying ‘em down!†(ughh, why is this man still breathing? -ed.)
ZIP
Crossposted via Weasel Zippers….
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Posted by WeaselZipper on December 1, 2007 9:06 pm
» Filed Under News, War On Terror
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