Kenya Bombing Suspect Admits Bin Laden Link

A second suspect in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya has admitted he belonged to a terrorist organization headed by exiled Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden, according to an FBI complaint unsealed Friday, and has accepted responsibility for the loss of life in the blast.

Mohammed Saddiq Odeh denied that he was directly involved in the Aug. 7 explosion and in the almost simultaneous bombing of the American Embassy in Tanzania. But the complaint says he accepted responsibility for the acts of terror because of his association with Bin Laden, who U.S. officials say was the mastermind behind the attacks.

Odeh, who was arrested in Pakistan with a stolen passport and brought to the United States on Friday, was being held without bail in Federal Court in Manhattan on charges including murder.

The 34-year-old accused terrorist told FBI agents that he joined Bin Laden’s group Al Qaida (“The Base”) in 1992 and that he believed the bombings of both embassies were carried out by that organization, the complaint says.

Outside court, Jack Sachs, Odeh’s lawyer, confirmed that his client was a follower of Bin Laden but said, “It was not his mission in life to injure unarmed civilians.

“He said there are Muslims and there are Muslims,” Sachs said, seeking to draw a distinction between his client and more militant members of the Saudi dissident’s organization.

Three days before the bombing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, members of Al Qaida scouted the embassy, the complaint charges, and the day before the blast, Odeh left Kenya for Pakistan under an assumed name.

Odeh stated that he was trained in explosives in camps affiliated with Bin Laden and that his training was “extensive enough for him to have carried out the bombings of the embassies in Dar es Salaam [the Tanzanian capital] and Nairobi,” the complaint says.

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He was the second suspect in the Kenya bombing to appear in a New York courtroom in two days. On Thursday, Mohammed Rashed Daoud Owhali also was held on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and use of weapons of mass destruction. Court papers said he confessed to involvement in the Nairobi attack, which was supposed to be a “martyrdom operation.”

Odeh had little to say when he appeared before Magistrate Judge Sharon E. Grubin in the heavily guarded courthouse. Security was so tight that huge orange sanitation trucks filled with sand acted as barriers against a car-bomb attack.

In the courtroom, Odeh, dressed in blue prison garments, sat quietly listening to cases involving narcotics and the cloning of cell phone numbers before it was his turn to appear before the magistrate.

The dark-haired, bearded defendant said he knew English but preferred to use an interpreter. He said he wished to review the financial affidavit he had filled out, which showed he was married with two children and earned $150 a month making and selling furniture.

Grubin held Odeh without bail for a hearing Sept. 28.

The complaint charges that, in 1993, Odeh used his training to instruct Islamic fighters in Somalia who were opposed to U.N. forces there. The next year, he moved to Mombasa, Kenya, and set up a fishing business with Al Qaida funds, allegedly to support the group’s operations in that nation.

In 1996, top commanders of the terrorist organization visited him in Kenya, and dynamite and detonators were displayed to him, the complaint says.

Prosecutors said that on Aug. 1, Odeh was advised that all members of Bin Laden’s group had to leave Kenya by Aug. 6, the day before the bomb exploded. Before departing, he allegedly traveled to Nairobi for a meeting with other members of Al Qaida, including an explosives expert.

“Odeh stated that . . . he was provided by another Al Qaida member with a new pair of pants and a razor to shave with,” the complaint says. “Odeh stated that all Al Qaida members often shave before traveling so as not to attract the suspicions of customs officials.”

It also quotes Odeh as saying that Al Qaida members in Afghanistan were relocating to avoid retaliation by the United States.

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When questioned by the FBI, Odeh said he had never been to Tanzania, but the complaint says that two witnesses told FBI agents that Odeh had spent several months in Dar es Salaam.

Affidavits filed supporting the arrest of the two alleged terrorists contain revealing glimpses of the case that prosecutors are building against Bin Laden.

Government lawyers are expected to charge that the millionaire Saudi dissident sought to influence U.S. foreign policy by killing Americans--both civilians and military personnel--worldwide.

Bin Laden called for a holy war against U.S. targets in 1996 and, in February, allegedly heated up the quest by joining other militant groups in calling on Muslims to kill Americans.

These threats are believed to have culminated in the attacks on the East African embassies, which killed more than 260 people, including 12 Americans, and left more than 5,000 injured.