The evidence that reveals Bin Laden's methods and his British connections

America's Public Enemy No. 1 has been 'on trial' before. And the court transcripts reveal a chilling insight into his terror network. By Paul Lashmar

America has identified the Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden as Public Enemy Number One and wants to bring him to trial for the attacks of 11 September. Yet Mr bin Laden was already on trial, in effect, for much of the spring and summer in New York in "US vs Bin Laden and others".

On 7 August, 1998, a truck bomb destroyed the US embassy in Kenya, closely followed by another bomb explosion outside the US embassy in Tanzania. The bombings killed 213 in Kenya and 11 in Tanzania. The investigation led to Mr bin Laden and his followers, and a federal grand jury indicted 22 men with crimes related to the bombings, including Mr bin Laden.

For six months from February this year, court 318 in the southern district of New York saw the prosecution and conviction of four of those involved in the bombing of the two US embassies in east Africa. The Independent on Sunday has now examined the full transcripts of the 70 days of the trial involving thousands of pages of documents, including a 180 page book in Arabic: "Military Studies in the Holy War against Tyrants" seized from a Manchester house connected to Mr bin Laden's East African network, and presented as a "how to" guide for terrorist acts.

They paint a picture of Mr bin Laden and his organisation's methods, indicate a significant British connection with his operations, and reveal striking similarities in the methods used to carry out the African and New York attacks.

The US prosecution claimed that the African bombings were part of Mr bin Laden's campaign against the West. "Osama bin Laden saw this as an opportunity to use these well-trained fighters to overthrow governments that he did not like, that is, governments that did not share his extremist beliefs. So he founded Al-Qa'edah as a base for military operations. It was a base not only for the members of his own group but for a network of other groups and people who shared his extremist philosophy."

According to testimony from FBI Agent John Anticev, who referred to his interrogation of Mohamed Sadeek Odeh in a Kenyan jail in Nairobi, Al-Qa'edah members use code words in phone messages to hide their real intentions. According to agent Anticev, Mr Odeh gave him a partial glossary: "working" means jihad, "tools" means weapons, "potatoes" means hand grenades, "papers" means bad documents and "goods" means fake documents.

This helped the jury understand phonetapped conversations on defendant Wadih el Hage's Kenyan home telephone. The transcripts and tapes, which date from two years before the Kenya bombing, revealed Mr el Hage spoke with Al-Qa'edah operatives like "Harun", also known as Fazul Abdullah Mohamed, who is still wanted as the suspected builder of the Nairobi bomb. One transcript shows Harun and Mr Odeh speaking about common friends, money and "the director", a code name for Mr bin Laden.

The FBI agent said of Mr Odeh: "He received military training that was broken up into three segments. The first was basic use of firearms, particularly the AK47, moving up to a belt-fed machine gun. On the second level, they started learning about topography, map reading, and were introduced to explosives, particularly C3, C4 and TNT. The third level involved more sophisticated weapons like anti-tank missiles, rocket launchers, mortars and anti-aircraft weapons."

According to FBI agent Stephen Gaudin's testimony, suicide bomber Abdallah Azzam and his alleged passenger, Mohamed al-'Owhali, were "chanting poems for motivation in preparing to die". Mr al-'Owhali, the court was told, was a Bin Laden veteran from the the 1980s. "Mr al-'Owhali, originally from Saudi Arabia, was being trained in Mr bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan in the tools of terrorism, including assassinations, surveillance and explosives. He fought in a battle and distinguished himself so well that he met Mr bin Laden. It was at that meeting that he asked Mr bin Laden for a mission."

This was the embassy bombings. As Mr Azzam pulled the bomb truck into the embassy's rear parking lot, Mr al-'Owhali threw a stun grenade at a security guard so Mr Azzam could get closer to the target. But apparently lacking the "rational fanaticism" required of a suicide bomber, Mr al-'Owhali fled the scene. Mr Azzam then detonated the bomb, killing 213 innocents and himself in the explosion.

Another witness, Charles Mwaka Mula, an embassy technician who was in the parking lot, said he saw Mr al-'Owhali throw the grenade and then run away toward the street. Mr Mula later identified Mr al-'Owhali in a Kenyan police identification parade.

Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, from Tanzania, was accused of a direct role in the attack on the embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and gave the FBI a self-incriminating statement in part corroborated by physical evidence. He told FBI agent Abigail Perkins that he was responsible for arranging transportation for the bombing in Tanzania and for finding a place for the bomb to be built.

A Tanzanian maid gave evidence that Mr Mohamed was a frequent visitor at another Dar es Salaam house used by men charged in the bombing. Investigators found a fake passport – in a friend's name but with Mr Mohamed's picture – in the house in South Africa, where Mr Mohamed fled. There, a telephone number he wrote on a "to do" list matched the number for the man prosecutors suspect of designing the embassy bombs.

Perhaps the most important defendant was Wadih el Hage, 40, a naturalized US citizen, accused of managing Mr bin Laden's Kenyan terrorist operation. Mr bin Laden's satellite phone records show four outgoing calls to Mr el Hage's Kenyan number in 1996-97, according to evidence introduced by prosecutors. Wiretap transcripts show Mr bin Laden's military chief, Mohamed Atef, made at least one of those calls. And Mr el Hage gave Mr bin Laden's satellite phone number – 873 682 505 331 – to Harun in another wiretapped call.

Damning evidence was produced by a protected witness, L'Houssaine Kherchtou, who testified that his Nairobi apartment was used by Bin Laden operatives to conduct surveillance of the US embassy.

Kherchtou said that every operative in Al-Qa'edah had lessons in surveillance, map reading and other terrorist activities and was given a code name beginning with 'Abu'.

The "British connection" came from the alleged involvement of Khalid al Fawwaz and two other men based in Britain. They would have been on trial with the other defendants but have fought extradition from the UK to the US. They are appealing to the House of Lords and their legal aid bill is said to exceed £1m. According to evidence, Mr al Fawwaz had been sent to Kenya to set up the bombing operations but had later been arrested by the Kenyan police. Although he was released, Mr al Fawwaz went back to London and Mr el Hage allegedly took over the operation command.

Mr al Fawwaz was accused of buying the satellite phone for Mr bin Laden's use that was used for organising the East African bombings. It was said Mr al Fawwaz was the most regular individual recipient of Bin Laden satellite phone calls and that, according to account records, 143 were made to his London numbers. It was claimed that more than 200 calls were placed to Yemen, and more than 100 calls were each placed to Sudan and to Iran. Numerous other calls were said to have been placed to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Baku in Azerbaijan, and Kenya – four of them went to the Nairobi home number of trial defendant Mr el Hage. The jury were told that Mr al Fawwaz was "one of the critical members of the conspiracy".

Those accused were of varied Arab and African extraction, and worked at different levels of the organisation. All four defendants were found guilty. The jury decided against the death sentence and all four are now facing life in prison.