Those details are included in an FBI document that was filed in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday in the case of the cleric, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, 48, who later married one of bin Laden's daughters and who is now on trial on terrorism charges.
The document is a summary of hours of interrogation of Abu Ghaith as he was flown from Jordan to New York about a year ago. During the questioning, Abu Ghaith told the agents and a deputy U.S. marshal: "I am willing to tell you anything and will not hold back. I will be honest with you," the summary says.
"You will hear things of al-Qaida that you never imagined," Abu Ghaith added. He is said to be the most senior bin Laden associate to be tried in a civilian court in the United States since 9/11.
Prosecutors have said that in his statement Abu Ghaith confessed to having assisted bin Laden in Afghanistan, including making speeches after 9/11, warning of future attacks and helping bin Laden spread his jihadist message to the world.
Although handwritten notes of Abu Ghaith's statement were filed in court last year and brief excerpts have been cited in court papers, the full 21-page summary from the FBI was made public Wednesday. Abu Ghaith's lawyers attached it to a motion asking Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of U.S. District Court to allow them to present the statement in its entirety to the jury.
Calling the statement "the linchpin of the government's case," one of Abu Ghaith's lawyers, Zoe J. Dolan, argued that it was "inappropriate" to introduce it before the jury "in piecemeal fashion."
Prosecutors had opposed introducing the full statement to the jury, and declined to comment Wednesday. But beyond what the government calls Abu Ghaith's admissions, the statement is rich with new detail about his interactions with bin Laden, particularly after 9/11.
Even before agents read Abu Ghaith his rights aboard a Gulfstream V aircraft, they asked him whether he knew of any threats or operations aimed at the United States or other countries. He replied that he had been "completely disconnected from the outside world" while in Iranian custody since 2003, and was not aware of any threats, the summary shows.
Abu Ghaith said that he had first traveled to Afghanistan in June 2001, eventually bringing his family there and renting a house in Kandahar, the summary says. He immediately asked to meet with bin Laden, who "took a liking to him," he said. It turned out that bin Laden knew of Abu Ghaith's religious background and had seen a tape of one of his speeches, he said.
Bin Laden asked that Abu Ghaith give religious lectures to Qaida trainees at a guesthouse and a nearby camp because, as bin Laden put it, the "military hardens the heart," Abu Ghaith recalled.
Abu Ghaith said he gave speeches at camps where he knew trainees were learning to use weapons, explosives and guerrilla tactics. He said that the speeches were "religious in nature," and intended to help the trainees "understand the purpose of the training they were receiving." Prosecutors have said that was part of his support for al-Qaida.
Abu Ghaith said that he had never urged the trainees to pledge "bayat," an oath of loyalty to bin Laden.
As they met more frequently, Abu Ghaith said, bin Laden asked him to join al-Qaida, but Abu Ghaith said he refused and also would not swear bayat to bin Laden.
But, as he put it, they reached a "personal agreement" that Abu Ghaith would "do anything he could within his capabilities as a religious scholar and experienced orator to assist" bin Laden and al-Qaida, the FBI summary says.
Before 9/11, the summary also says, Abu Ghaith said he was not aware of specific plans to attack the United States, "though he had heard people around the Qaeda training camps saying that 'something big was going to happen.'"
The night of Sept. 11, 2001, he was summoned to see bin Laden, who told him, "We did this operation," the summary says.
At bin Laden's request, the document adds, Abu Ghaith began making videotaped speeches on behalf of al-Qaida for which bin Laden "provided the bullet points."
In one speech, Abu Ghaith warned that the "storm of the airplanes" would not abate. Abu Ghaith, in the summary, is quoted as saying that he had later concluded that the reference had "something to do with the shoe-bomb plot," but that he "had no prior knowledge" of it.
In the summary, Abu Ghaith describes having been smuggled into Iran in mid-2002, and eventually being jailed there. "That's the politics of Iran: no lawyers, no charges, no rights," he said.
While jailed in Iran, Abu Ghaith wrote a manuscript about jihad, inspired by what he described as a "misunderstanding" that jihad was "only used in the context of fighting and violence," the summary says. He is quoted as claiming that he was against the killing of "innocent Muslims and non-Muslims."
He said that he had given the manuscript to another of bin Laden's daughters, Eman, who took it with her when she escaped from Iran.
"Ghaith believes it was Eman who got his manuscript published," the summary notes.
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