Bin Laden warned of thousands of deaths, court hears

Osama bin Laden told followers before the September 11 attacks that “we must strike at America” and there would be “thousands of dead,” a witness at the trial of an alleged plot member testified today.

Jordanian-born Shadi Abdellah, 25, told a Hamburg court he briefly served as bin Laden’s bodyguard while attending an al-Qaida training camp in Kandahar, Afghanistan, from early 2000 until May 2001.

Mounir el Motassadeq, whose Hamburg trial is the first of a 9/11 suspect, was also at the camp and was present for a speech in which the al-Qaida leader preached jihad, or holy war, Abdellah testified.

El Motassadeq has admitted attending an Afghan camp, but denied meeting bin Laden.

Abdellah said he often heard bin Laden talking about attacking the United States, though not specifically about the September 11 plot or the three suicide hijackers who lived undetected in Hamburg.

“His words were very strong – we must strike at America and destroy it. He said there would be thousands of dead,” he told the court.

Abdellah, a tall unkempt man with a dark beard and glasses, said he learned to shoot pistols and assault rifles at the Afghan training camp.

Speaking in Arabic through a German interpreter, he said he served bin Laden as a bodyguard for two weeks while at the camp.

“All the people there said the aggressors against Islamic lands should be killed,” Abdellah testified. Asked by the judges who were the aggressors, he said, “The Americans, naturally.”

He said that while in Afghanistan he also met Ramzi Binalshibh, a key alleged member of the Hamburg September 11 cell surrounding lead hijacker Mohamed Atta. Binalshibh was arrested in Pakistan in September and is in American custody.

German authorities have accused Abdellah of belonging to an Islamic extremist group, Al Tawhid, that they raided in April on suspicion that members were plotting attacks on US, British and Israeli targets in Germany.

El Motassadeq, a 28-year-old Moroccan, is charged with more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and with belonging to a terrorist group. German prosecutors allege he helped funnel money to the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers for flying lessons in the United States.