Four Guilty In Embassy Bombings

A federal jury Tuesday convicted four men of conspiracy in twin bomb attacks on American embassies in Africa, concluding a trial dominated by a man on the other side of the world: Osama bin Laden.

Prosecutors say the attacks on embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Aug. 7, 1998, were ordered by bin Laden, the fugitive Saudi millionaire and reputed leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist group who remains on the FBI's most wanted list.

Among the 224 people killed were 12 Americans.

Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali, 24, of Saudi Arabia, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, of Tanzania, Wadih El-Hage, 40, of Arlington, Texas, and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, of Jordan, were found guilty of conspiring to kill Americans in the bombings.

Al-'Owhali and Mohamed could face the death penalty. Each was found guilty of using an explosive to cause mass destruction — Al-'Owhali in the Kenya bombing, Mohamed in the Tanzania attack. The jury will return Wednesday to begin the penalty phase.

The tightly guarded Manhattan courtroom was packed with about 100 spectators when the verdict from an anonymous federal jury was finally read after 12 days of deliberations. The courtroom fell silent as the verdicts continued for more than one hour.

Several relatives of defendants wiped away tears or hung their heads as each man's name was read aloud by the judge's deputy, followed by a litany of dozens of "guilty" verdicts.

Afterwards, relatives of victims applauded the jury's findings. But Edith Bartley, whose father and brother died in the Nairobi blast, said, "While the law was definitely on our side today, we know the verdicts do not minimize the loss or the grief that our family or other families — both Kenyan, Tanzanian or Americans —suffer to this day."

Prosecutors repeatedly invoked bin Laden's name, charging that as al-Qaeda's kingpin he commanded a ragtag army of Islamic extremists who had answered the call to repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

As early as 1989, prosecutors said, bin Laden was taking aim at another superpower — the United States — and by 1998 had issued an edict to kill Americans anywhere they were found.

CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports prosecutors said defendants like Odeh were soldiers in bin Laden's army, a term even defense lawyers used while discussing the verdict.

"Mohammad is a soldier and he took it like a soldier," said Odeh attorney Anthony Ricco. "He took it with pride and dignity."

In a confession recounted during the trial by an FBI agent, Al-Owhali told investigators he rode the bomb-carrying truck to the embassy in Nairobi and tossed stun grenades to distract guards. The would-be suicide bomber fled before he could become a martyr.

In a similar confession to another agent, Mohamed said he helped grind TNT for the bomb in Tanzania before loading the bomb truck and seeing it off, praying that it would achieve its deadly purpose.

Prosecutors alleged that El-Hage — bin Laden's personal secretary — led "a secret double life," globe-trotting to raise money and smuggle weapons such as Stinger missiles for al-Qaeda's terror plots.

Odeh, an alleged explosives expert, was accused of being a "technical adviser" to the terror group. He stayed in the same hotel room as the mastermind of the Nairobi bombing in the days just before the attack, prosecutors said.

Defense lawyers claimed Mohamed was a mere "pawn" unaware of the bomb's intent, while Al-'Owhali should have been exonerated because he was accused of a decade-long worldwide conspiracy he knew nothing about.

The bombings brought an unprecedented worldwide response to terrorism by undreds of FBI agents and prosecutors. Treating terrorism like organized crime, investigators used informants, turncoat terrorists, telephone bugs and confessions to build the case.

"Today's guilty verdicts are a triumph for world justice and world unity in combating international terrorism," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White.

Terror experts, however, warned that the case is likely to have only a limited impact on international terrorism.

"No one should think that even guilty verdicts in this trial is going to end bin Laden's network, or even stop bin Laden," said analyst Julie Kayyem.

More trials are expected. Of 22 people indicted in the bombing, six are in custody; the others, including bin Laden, are still being sought.

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