Ghailani Terror Trial

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, 36, is the first former detainee from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, transferred to U.S. mainland for a civilian jury trial in federal court. He was accused of participating in al Qaeda's global terror conspiracy and a direct role in the 1998 truck bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, when he was 24. He was captured in Pakistan in 2004.

The embassy in Tanzania was a white, three-floor white building that stood in the capital city, Dar es Salaam, just a five minute walk from the Indian Ocean. On the morning of August 7, 1998, a truck laden with 1,000 pounds of TNT detonated 50 feet from the embassy entrance. This occurred 10 minutes after a nearly identical truck bomb attack on the U.S. embassy in neighboring Kenya. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

Five of the ten embassy security guards on duty that morning were killed by the bombing, half the fatalities in Dar es Salaam. Guard Valentine Katunda told the court the attack sounded like "a loud rumbling like lightning...and I was thrown to the floor and lost consciousness." His younger brother was one of the guards killed. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

The Tanzania blast killed 11 people and injured 85 people, many severely. The explosion blew in the windows and left a crater 20 feet wide and three-and-half-feet deep. A 22-pound piece of the embassy gate was found 1,200 feet away, and a 66-pound piece landed on the roof of a building 600 feet away. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

Evidence gathered at the scene, including a truck part with the vehicle identification number, revealed that a used 1987 Nissan Atlas refrigeration truck, like the one depicted here, had carried the bomb. A prosecution witness said he brokered the sale of the truck to Ghailani and a second al Qaeda operative in July 1998. The price was $6,000 cash, and the broker said Ghailani paid his commission. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

Investigators found hundreds of metal fragments for tanks that held oxygen and flammable acetylene gas. An FBI explosives expert told the court the gases would have enhance the power of any bomb and spray tank fragments like shrapnel. A welder testified that Ghailani had obtained seven such tanks from him claiming he had a scrap metal job. An FBI metallurgist estimated there were at least 19 tanks attached to the truck bomb. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

John Lange, who was the senior U.S. diplomat on duty in Tanzania, was in his top floor embassy office when the explosion occurred. He told the court that the embassy's wall clocks stopped when the blast occurred at 10:39am. After he exited the building, he saw a man "body blackened, charred...in his last gasps of life just trying to breathe and laying there." Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

Ghailani lived with two other men in a modest dwelling on Amani Street in Dar es Salaam. After the bombing, Tanzanian police and FBI agents, following leads stemming from identifying the bomb truck, went looking for an "Ahmed" at this address. He had fled the country. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

An FBI agent told the court he found this inch-and-half long electric detonator, or blasting cap, wedged behind the shelf on the armoire in Ghailani's room. The aluminum-coated, PETN-charged detonator matched one found at the house where conspirators assembled the truck bomb.

Two pairs of jeans and a handful of shirts in Ghailani's armoire tested positive for TNT or PETN residue. But Ghailani's attorneys said the search was "botched," because the crime scene had not been properly sealed, and investigators hands were contaminated with residue from another location. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

This car that prosecutors said the Tanzania embassy bombers used as a utility vehicle was found outside Ghailani's house, its interior laced with TNT and PETN residue. The keys on the key ring opened the doors at the house where the bomb was assembled. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

A pair of Tanzania cell members rented this walled house in the Ilala district of Dar es Salaam in the summer of 1998. One day, one of the men went to the next door neighbor, she testified, with a heads up: "I came just to give you a fair warning that if you heard any loud noises not to be concerned. We're fixing our gate." Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

Ghailani worked at this clothing store in coastal Mombasa, Kenya, a day's drive north of Dar es Salaam. It was owned by the family of al Qaeda operative Fahad Ally Msalam. When the store closed, the building became an al Qaeda "safe house," prosecutors said, where a number of embassy bombing conspirators met and slept. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

A Ghailani fingerprint was lifted from a Fanta soda bottle found in the Azzan store in Mombasa, where witnesses saw al Qaeda members meeting. The only other Ghailani fingerprints introduced at trial were those on the bill for a cell phone in his name which, prosecutors said, was an operational phone of al Qaeda's East Africa crew. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

Sheik Ahmed Salim Swedan, from Mombassa, Kenya, was in the trucking business and allegedly oversaw the purchase and retrofitting of both bomb trucks - in Tanzania, with Ghailani, and in Kenya. Defense attorneys said Ghailani was just tagging along with Swedan, who was five years older. Swedan, never captured to face trial, was reportedly killed in a U.S. drone missile attack in Pakistan in 2009. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

Little is known about the suicide driver of the Tanzania bomb truck other than he was from Egypt. Pictured here, his name was Hameden Khalif Allah Awad, according to the FBI, and he was known to the al Qaeda cell as "Amhad the Egyptian" or "Amhad the German" due to his light complexion. Three of the last phone calls on Ghailani's cell phone were made to his relatives in Egypt, including one just 90 minutes before he detonated the bomb in Dar es Salaam. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

The four-story U.S. embassy in Kenya was located right in downtown Nairobi. It had been built in the 1970s to withstand earthquakes. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

The truck bombing at 1030a on a Friday morning blew out windows in the embassy and the tall Cooperative Bank building next door. In between stood Ufundi House, an eight-story residence that was reduced to rubble. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

A dozen Americans working inside the U.S. embassy were killed. The Nairobi blast killed a total of 213 people. A majority of the fatalities in Kenya occurred at the collapsed Ufundi House next to the embassy. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

In April 1998, Al Qaeda rented a fenced compound away from downtown Nairobi as a location to construct its truck bomb. Leasing agent Tamara Ratemo testified that her brother-in-law died in the attack. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

The Kenya bombers converted a Toyota Dyna pickup truck into a weapon of mass destruction inside this garage. The FBI estimates the truck was packed with 1,000 pounds of TNT. Agents found traces of bomb residue all over the garage. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

A poultry farmer sold the used Toyota Dyna pickup to al Qaeda operative Sheik Swedan for $10,000 cash in Kenya shillings, about double what he had paid for it. Said Salim Omar said Swedan told him he would use the truck to carry relief supplies. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

Ghailani's lead defense attorney told the jury that his client was a "dupe" who was used by his friends and did not know the objectives of the al Qaeda conspiracy to bomb the embassies in East Africa. Peter Quijano said, "Ahmed didn't know, and if he didn't know, you have to acquit." Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

Judge Lewis Kaplan prohibited a Tanzanian miner who told the FBI he sold Ghailani TNT from testifying, because the government learned of him only during interrogations while Ghailani was held incommunicado CIA custody. Allowing Hussein Abebe to testify, Kaplan ruled, would violate Ghailani's right against self incrimination. However, Kaplan also ruled that Ghailani's five years in military custody before he was transferred to the U.S. did not violate his right to a speedy trial. Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

Assistant United States Attorney Michael Fabiarz told the jury that Ghailani was no dupe, because "the operatives in this plot lie, and he is one of the liars." Fabiarz said the Tanzania attack was "his truck, his tanks." Produced by Phil Hirschkorn

On August 6, 1998, the day before the embassy bombings, Ghailani flew a Kenya Airways flight to Karachi, Pakistan under the alias "Abubakr Ahmed," prosecutors said, citing this plane ticket and false passport in that name. Three senior al Qaeda operatives were on board that flight, the evidence showed. The defense argued if Ghailani were really on that flight, the government would have produced a witness who saw him.