[Terrorism] Bin Laden Bought U.S. Jet
Number Six
Witness Says Bin Laden Bought U.S. Jet
By Gail Appleson, Law Correspondent
02/14/01
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Osama bin Laden aide, on trial for plotting to kill
Americans, helped arrange for the Saudi dissident to buy a jet in the United
States that could be used to transport Stinger missiles, a witness alleged
on Wednesday.
Essan Al-Ridi, who was working as a flight instructor in the Texas,
testified he was contacted by defendant Wadih El-Hage in 1993 and asked if
he could help obtain a jet for the wealthy Saudi exile.
Al-Ridi took the stand in Manhattan federal court as a government witness in
the trial of four bin Laden followers charged in a conspiracy dating back to
1989 that included the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
The indictment alleges bin Laden and his followers were responsible for
twin blasts in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 224 people, including 12
Americans, and wounded thousands.
The defendants are also charged with killing 18 American soldiers in attacks
in 1993 on U.S. military personnel stationed in Somalia.
Lawyers for El-Hage, 40, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon,
acknowledge he had worked as a close aide to bin Laden. However they say he
was only involved in bin Laden's business operations and had no role in any
conspiracies aimed at killing Americans.
El-Hage and the three other defendants are charged with being members of al
Qaeda (the Base), which prosecutors say is an "international terrorist
group" run by bin Laden "dedicated to opposing non-Islamic governments with
force and violence."
A former member of al Qaeda testified last week about al Qaeda's business
operations, run out of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, and said the group
had received fatwas, or religious decrees, ordering the killing of
Americans.
LEARNED TO FLY IN TEXAS
Al-Ridi, an Egyptian who later became a U.S. citizen, said he attended
aviation school in Texas in the early 1980s and later met El-Hage at a
Muslim youth convention. The two became friendly and he helped El Hage get a
telephone in Arlington, Texas, where he was living with his wife and
children.
Al-Ridi said he traveled to Peshawar, Pakistan, in about 1983 to help
Muslims in their fight against the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan.
Al-Ridi testified his job was to travel throughout the world and obtain
items needed by fighters that included scuba diving equipment and night
vision goggles.
He returned to the United States in 1985, where he worked as a flight
instructor in Arlington, Texas. During this time he stayed in touch with
El-Hage and continued to provide him with items that could be used by
Muslims against the Soviet Union.
In 1993, El-Hage, who was living in Khartoum, contacted Al-Ridi and said bin
Laden wanted to buy a jet, the witness testified. El-Hage said bin Laden
wanted to transport goods from Peshawar to Khartoum and that these items
included Stinger missiles.
El-Hage told him that bin Laden did not want to spend more than $250,000.
Al-Ridi said he was eventually able to find a plane at a "boneyard" storage
facility in Tuczon, Arizona. Al Ridi agreed to refurbish the jet and flew it
himself from Texas to Khartoum in a trip that took about a week.
After arriving in Khartoum, Al-Ridi said he met with bin Laden, who offered
him a job as a pilot. Al-Ridi said he did not want a military job as part of
the Jihad or holy war and bin Laden assured him the job was "strictly
business," with responsibilities for crop dusting and carrying cargo.
Al-Ridi said he refused the job because the pay was too low. However, he
said El-Hage asked him for help a few months later and he agreed to fly five
passengers from Khartoum to Nairobi.