Posted on 11/01/2001 11:38:59 AM PST by Pericles
Thursday November 1 2:32 PM ET
Indictment Made in Hijack Case
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Pictures of Osama bin Laden and videotapes about martyrs were found in the car and apartment of a college student from Jordan who knew two hijackers of the airliner that hit the Pentagon, prosecutors said in an indictment Thursday.
The indictment against Osama Awadallah, 21, was handed up in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where two perjury counts were brought against Awadallah last month.
According to the indictment, a search of Awadallah's car after he was taken into custody in September produced videotapes titled ``Martyrs of Bosnia,'' ``Bosnia 1993'' and ``The Koran v. the Bible, Which is God's Word?''
A search of Awadallah's apartment yielded computer-generated photographs of bin Laden, the indictment said.
Awadallah, 21, is a student at Grossmont College in La Mesa, Calif., near San Diego.
The indictment, returned late Wednesday and made public Thursday, charges Awadallah with two counts of perjury for allegedly lying about his association with hijackers Nawaf Al-Hazmi and Khalid Al-Mihdhar. The two have been identified by federal authorities as the hijackers of the airliner that hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
The indictment said a search of a car registered to Al-Hazmi produced a piece of paper on which was written ``OSAMA'' and a seven-digit phone number.
Prosecutors said the investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon, killing thousands of people, revealed that the seven-digit number, combined with the 619 area code used in the San Diego area, was a former telephone number assigned to Awadallah.
The telephone number found in the Al-Hazmi vehicle at the Dulles Airport in Virginia was mentioned when Awadallah made an initial court appearance after he was charged last month.
At the time, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robin Baker said Awadallah, ``by lying to the grand jury ... promoted terrorism.''
His lawyer, Jesse Berman, said he could not immediately comment Thursday.
Last month, Berman said his client had ``nothing to do with the terrible things that happened on Sept. 11.'' He said Awadallah, having identified one hijacker, had no reason to lie about another. ``He just wasn't sure on that name.''
Prosecutors said Awadallah identified Al-Hazmi in photographs during testimony Oct. 10, saying he saw him 35 to 40 times in the San Diego area between April 2000 and last January.
Hummmm. Let's see. Lying to a grand jury. Where have I heard that before?
OK, then hang him!
Where's Jack Ruby when you need him!!
Deeds not words, Turko.
It was the USA that saved the Bosnians
Saved it for Osama Bin Laden. Your nation of origin at the time of Bosnia was ruled by that heroin/jihadist smuggling whore named Tansu Ciller.
Turkey was in bed with Osama during Bosnia and helped provide Jihad fighters Bin Laden In Turkey Twice.
You became a member on 10/25/01...I see.
More on your former PM, heroin/jihadist smuggling whore named Tansu Ciller who was in power druing Bosnia
Trial of Islamist party disgrace for Turkey: ex-PM Erbakan
ANKARA, Dec 28 1997 (AFP) - Islamist former premier Necmettin Erbakan on Sunday strongly criticised an ongoing trial of his Islam-based Welfare Party, saying the process that could end up with a ban on his group was "a disgrace for Turkey."
"Under normal judicial considerations, Welfare can in no way be closed down. We hope the constitutional court will correct a mistake," Erbakan told a party meeting.
"But in any case, the trial of Welfare is a disgrace for Turkey," he added.
The constitutional court, Turkey's highest judicial body, has since May been conducting hearings into Welfare, which was in power until earlier this year.
State prosecutors have charged Welfare, or Refah in Turkish, with attempting to overthrow Turkey's secular regime and seek its closure. The court is likely to announce its verdict in the next few days.
Erbakan's former coalition partner and another ex-premier, Tansu Ciller, Saturday urged the constitutional court not to dissolve Welfare.
"In an advanced democracy, bans on parties are out of the question," Ciller's conservative True Path Party said in a statement. "The closure (of Welfare) would be a punishment to millions of its voters," it added.
Erbakan expressed his gratitude to Ciller, saying: "Our former partner has passed in the test of democracy."
Ciller's True Path is the only major political party to demand Welfare's acquittal.
In the event of a ban, Erbakan and several other party leaders would be barred from active politics for up to five years. They would also lose their parliamentary immunity and could be taken to court personally.
Erbakan became Turkey's first Islamist prime minister in the middle of last year by setting up a coalition with Ciller, but his one-year term was marred by major rows with Turkey's powerful pro-secular army over creeping Islamisation.
He was forced to step down under heavy military pressure in June and replaced by a conservative, Mesut Yilmaz, as prime minister and head of a three-party coalition.
Welfare garnered 21 percent of the vote in the December 1995 legislative elections and currently has 150 deputies in the 550-seat house.
The United States and several other western countries have expressed concern over the threat to ban Welfare.
Turkey's Islamist party charged with embezzling Libyan money for Chechens
Copyright 1997 by Agence France-Presse
Tue, 26 Aug 1997 9:51:14
ANKARA, Aug 26 (AFP) - Turkish prosecutors have launched a fresh investigation into charges the former ruling pro-Islamic Welfare Party had embezzled Libyan money sent for independence-seeking Chechens in Russia, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had sent 10 million dollars to Welfare officials for aid to the Chechen rebels, but most of the money never reached them, the liberal Istanbul daily Hurriyet said, quoting legal sources.
Aides to Welfare leader and former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan categorically denied the charge, saying the allegation was "ridiculous and part of a plot to defame" the party.
Hurriyet said a Libyan diplomat last year brought the money to Welfare officials here for delivery to the Chechens.
But only a two-million-dollar portion of the money was given to the rebels some time later, with Welfare authorities embezzling the rest, Hurriyet said.
"This claim is untrue, absurd and illogical," Welfare's deputy leader Abdulkadir Aksu told reporters here. "Their aim is to undermine Welfare."
Ankara's state security court prosecutors, whom Hurriyet said were investigating the allegation, failed to comment on the matter.
During the Chechnya war between late 1994 and last year, Russia had accused Ankara of failing to prevent radical Moslem or ethnic Caucasian groups here from sending arms and volunteers in support of the rebels, a claim denied by the Turkish foreign ministry.
Erbakan's Welfare is already facing a possible ban by the constitutional court, Turkey's highest judiciary body authorised to close parties violating the constitution.
A showdown with powerful pro-secular army generals over creeping fundamentalism in this mainly Moslem state led to the resignation of Erbakan's one-year-old Islamist-led government on June 18. He was replaced by conservative Mesut Yilmaz.
Amid the army-Islamist power struggle, the high court in early June launched legal proceedings against Welfare that could lead to the group's closure and a political ban on its leaders.
In their request to ban Welfare, prosecutors accused the party of "undermining Turkey's secular regime and bringing the country to the brink of civil war."
The constitutional court is expected to hear Welfare's final defence in September and announce its decision on the party's fate in November.
Earlier this year some Turkish newspapers alleged that Erbakan was a leading member of an "Islamic army" led by Gadhafi, a claim denied by Welfare.
Hey, Clintonista Humanitarian Warriors how does it feel to have given aid and comfort to the likes of the Martyrs of Bosnia ?
It depends on what the meaning of TERRORISM is.
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