Washington, May 22 (ANI): Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden's former Tanzanian cook is coming to New York to face charges for his role in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa 11 years ago, President Obama announced Thursday.
Ahmed Kalfan Ghailani will be moved from Guantanamo Bay as part of Obama's controversial order to shut down the U.S. terror prison camps in Cuba over the objections of many lawmakers from both parties.
"Preventing this detainee from coming to our shores would prevent his trial and conviction," Obama said in a Washington speech.
The baby-faced and diminutive Ghailani - known as "Foopie" - faced a bounty of 25 million dollars when he was nabbed in July 2004 after a 12-hour shootout at an Al Qaeda safe house in Pakistan.
Ghailani rose from an Al Qaeda "rank-and-file soldier" in Afghanistan before 9/11 to become Bin Laden's cook and his most prolific passport forger and travel agent, according to a Directorate of National Intelligence biography.
Four other plotters were convicted in federal trials in the city for the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, which killed a dozen Americans and 211 others.
Ghailani was among the original 22 "most wanted" terrorists designated by ex-President Bush's FBI after 9/11, even though the government admits he "was not directly involved in operational planning" by Al Qaeda. (ANI)
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