Last Updated 1:47 p.m. ET
NEW YORK Radical preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri and two other terrorism suspects who fought for years to avoid facing charges in the United States are appearing in a New York court, hours after being extradited from Britain.
Khaled al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary pleaded not guilty Saturday afternoon. Al-Masri is in court but has not yet entered a plea.
Lawyers for both al-Fawwaz and Bary note the ailments of their clients and say they're concerned that they get their medication. The lawyers did not seek bail for their clients though Bary's attorney reserved the right to do so in the future.
Two other men extradited with them, Babar Hamad, 38, and Syed Talha Ahsan, 33, appeared earlier Saturday in federal district court in Connecticut, where they pleaded not guilty to charges that they provided terrorists in Afghanistan and Chechnya with cash, recruits and equipment.
Ahmad made efforts to secure GPS devices, Kevlar helmets, night vision goggles, ballistic vests and camouflage uniforms, prosecutors said.
They are detained while they await trial in Connecticut, where an Internet service provider was allegedly used to host a website. Their lawyers declined to comment.
Earlier Saturday, al-Masri was taken to a lockup next to the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. He faces charges that he conspired with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and that he helped abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998.
Al-Masri, a one-time nightclub bouncer, will be housed in Manhattan along with Khaled al-Fawwaz, 50, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, and Adel Abdul Bary, 52, an Egyptian citizen, who will face trial on charges that they participated in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. They were indicted in a case that also charged Osama bin Laden.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called the extraditions "a watershed moment in our nation's efforts to eradicate terrorism."
He added: "As is charged, these are men who were at the nerve centers of Al Qaeda's acts of terror, and they caused blood to be shed, lives to be lost, and families to be shattered."
On "CBS This Morning: Saturday," Bob Orr said the extradition fight has been so protracted because Masri knows, if convicted in the United States, he faces a life sentence.
He said this case is important because it provides the Department of Justice with another opportunity to prove terror prosecutions can be handled successfully in civilian court. Also, Orr said, "He's been a big recruiter, and successful prosecution on American soil will effectively strike another big blow against al Qaeda."
In the 1990s, al-Masri turned London's Finsbury Park Mosque into a training ground for extremist Islamists, attracting men including Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
Al-Masri is not the first ailing Egyptian-born preacher to be brought to Manhattan for trial. A blind sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman, is serving a life sentence after he was convicted in 1995 in a plot to assassinate then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and in another to blow up New York landmarks, including the United Nations and two tunnels and a bridge linking New Jersey to Manhattan. Abdel-Rahman has numerous health issues, including heart trouble.
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NEW YORK Radical preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri and two other terrorism suspects who fought for years to avoid facing charges in the United States are appearing in a New York court, hours after being extradited from Britain.
Khaled al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary pleaded not guilty Saturday afternoon. Al-Masri is in court but has not yet entered a plea.
Lawyers for both al-Fawwaz and Bary note the ailments of their clients and say they're concerned that they get their medication. The lawyers did not seek bail for their clients though Bary's attorney reserved the right to do so in the future.
Two other men extradited with them, Babar Hamad, 38, and Syed Talha Ahsan, 33, appeared earlier Saturday in federal district court in Connecticut, where they pleaded not guilty to charges that they provided terrorists in Afghanistan and Chechnya with cash, recruits and equipment.
Ahmad made efforts to secure GPS devices, Kevlar helmets, night vision goggles, ballistic vests and camouflage uniforms, prosecutors said.
They are detained while they await trial in Connecticut, where an Internet service provider was allegedly used to host a website. Their lawyers declined to comment.
Earlier Saturday, al-Masri was taken to a lockup next to the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. He faces charges that he conspired with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and that he helped abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998.
Al-Masri, a one-time nightclub bouncer, will be housed in Manhattan along with Khaled al-Fawwaz, 50, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, and Adel Abdul Bary, 52, an Egyptian citizen, who will face trial on charges that they participated in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. They were indicted in a case that also charged Osama bin Laden.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called the extraditions "a watershed moment in our nation's efforts to eradicate terrorism."
He added: "As is charged, these are men who were at the nerve centers of Al Qaeda's acts of terror, and they caused blood to be shed, lives to be lost, and families to be shattered."
On "CBS This Morning: Saturday," Bob Orr said the extradition fight has been so protracted because Masri knows, if convicted in the United States, he faces a life sentence.
He said this case is important because it provides the Department of Justice with another opportunity to prove terror prosecutions can be handled successfully in civilian court. Also, Orr said, "He's been a big recruiter, and successful prosecution on American soil will effectively strike another big blow against al Qaeda."
In the 1990s, al-Masri turned London's Finsbury Park Mosque into a training ground for extremist Islamists, attracting men including Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
Al-Masri is not the first ailing Egyptian-born preacher to be brought to Manhattan for trial. A blind sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman, is serving a life sentence after he was convicted in 1995 in a plot to assassinate then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and in another to blow up New York landmarks, including the United Nations and two tunnels and a bridge linking New Jersey to Manhattan. Abdel-Rahman has numerous health issues, including heart trouble.
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