Wadih el-Hage

Wadih el-Hage
Born	(1960-07-25)July 25, 1960 Sidon,Lebanon
Detained at	ADX Florence
Alleged to be a member of	al-Qaeda
Charge(s)	Criminal conspiracy Perjury
Penalty	Life imprisonmentwithout the possibility ofparoleplus $33.8 million inrestitution.
Occupation	Secretary forOsama bin Laden
Spouse	April el-Hage
Children	7

Wadih Elias el-Hage(Arabic:وديع الحاج,Wadī‘ al-Ḥāj) (born July 25, 1960) is aLebaneseand naturalized American citizen, who is servinglife imprisonment in the United Statesbased on conspiracy charges relating to the1998 United States embassy bombings.

Struggling financially, he decided to move his family toQuetta, Pakistan,but returned to run theAl Kifah Refugee CenterinBrooklynafter the death ofMustafa Shalabi.While running the al-Kifah Refugee Center he met some of the extremists involved in the1993 World Trade Center bombing.At the time of their trial, he was inSudanworking as a secretary forOsama Bin Laden.In 1996 and 1997, after Bin Laden left Sudan for Afghanistan, el-Hage worked inNairobi, Kenya.Under the pretense of doing charity work, he organized the al-Qaeda network that planned and carried out the embassy bombing in Nairobi.

El-Hage was indictedand arrested in 1998, and convicted on all counts and sentencedtolife without parolein 2001. His sentence was overturned in 2008 because it was based on federal mandatory sentencing guidelines invalidated by theUS Supreme Courtin 2005.He was re-sentenced to life without parole in 2013.

Early life

El-Hage was born in aMaronite Christianfamily on 25 July 1960 inSidon,Lebanon,but grew up inKuwait,where he converted toIslam.His family was so angered by his conversion that he was forced to leave home and was taken in by a Kuwaiti sheikh who paid for his education, including college.He traveled to the United States for college. From 1978, he studied urban planning at theUniversity of Louisiana at Lafayette,then-named the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

During theSoviet–Afghan Warel-Hage traveled to Pakistan to work for a Saudi charity, returning to the US in 1985. He married 18 year old April Ray, an American citizen who had recently converted to Islam, gaining American citizenship in 1989.

El-Hage interrupted his schooling to travel toAfghanistanviaPakistan,although his lifelong physical disability prevented any direct participation in the fighting against the USSR, he instead worked for a Saudi charity called theMuslim World League.He was reportedly underAbdullah Yusuf Azzam,an important figure in the early history ofal-Qaeda.El-Hage returned to his university in January 1985, graduating in 1986. He married an 18-year-old American Muslim named April and relocated toArizona.There he held several low-wage jobs, including city custodian. He became anaturalized citizenof the United States in 1989.

Over the next few years, the el-Hage family traveled repeatedly to Pakistan, initially taking along his mother-in-law and her husband. In an interview withPBSFrontline, el-Hage's mother-in-law said, "I was the matron surgical nurse at an Afghan surgical hospital. Wadih did not actually fight, but acted as an educator. My husband went with Wadih to deliver textbooks and Qur'ans to the young people. It was a Jihad, a fight for Islam."

Background

At an Islamic conference inOklahomain December 1989, el-Hage metMahmud Abouhalima,who was later convicted for his part in the1993 World Trade Center bombing.El-Hage's prosecutors say that Abouhalima told el-Hage to buy a.38 caliber revolver.El Sayyid Nosairused that revolver to killRabbiMeir Kahane.

At some later point, el-Hage moved with his family toArlington,Texas.He was called to theBrooklyncharityAlkifah Refugee Center,by the group's office in Tucson, via el-Hage's mosque in Arlington. Family members acknowledge that he was in contact with the Alkifah group, and say that he was called in to mediate a dispute. A week later, the group's leader,Mustafa Shalabi,was found stabbed to death in an apartment that he shared with Abouhalima. This murder is unsolved. El-Hage's family said that he cried when he heard that Shalabi was dead.

In January 1992, el-Hage was arrested for writing false checks. In the car with him wasMarwan Salama,whose phone records show his contact with the conspirators of the1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Shortly thereafter, el-Hage moved his family toSudanand worked as a secretary forOsama bin Laden,who operated a network of businesses and charities, some of them fronts, in East Africa at the time. El-Hage often travelled toEuropein this capacity. Prosecutors believe that el-Hage became a key aide to Bin Laden.

In 1994, his wife April convinced el-Hage to leave Sudan and stop working for Bin Laden's organization there. As his mother in law said, "April would have none of that. She is Muslim, but she is also American, and she wouldn't stand for it." However, prosecutors believe that el-Hage continued to work for bin Laden's organisation inNairobi,Kenya.In Kenya, he became the director ofHelp Africa People,a Muslim charity organization, which Kenyan documents say helped controlmalaria.El-Hage also made money in the jewelry business. Prosecutors say that el-Hage was in contact in Kenya withAbu Ubaidah al-Banshiri,who was al-Qaeda's #2 member until his death in 1996. The badly wanted al-Qaeda suspectFazul Abdullah Mohammedmoved in and worked at the house as a secretary. A letter,Mohammed Saddiq Odeh,admitted knowing el-Hage in Nairobi and said that el-Hage attended his wedding.

On August 21, 1997, el-Hage's home in Nairobi was raided by Nairobi Police and FBI agents who had a search warrant. Wadih was away in Afghanistan during the raid and documents and a computer were taken from the home. His wife and mother said that they were told by the authorities that they should go back to the United States. Two days later, el-Hage was questioned upon his return from Afghanistan and told to leave Kenya. In September 1997, he returned to Arlington with his family; several accounts say that he sold all of his possessions to fund the trip.

Arrest & trial

ADX Supermax,Hage's current residence as of today.

A year after el-Hage returned to America with his family, the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya were attacked with truck bombs on August 7, 1998. Two weeks after the attacks, the FBI interviewed el-Hage and questioned him about his connection to Osama bin Laden. During this interview, el-Hage denied knowing Mohammed Odeh and claimed he didn't recognize a picture of him. He also testified before a grand jury investigating the embassy attacks where he claimed to have never known al-Banshiri, Odeh or other associates of bin-Laden. Soon after, he was arrested on charges of perjury and conspiracy to kill American nationals. After a six-month trial, el-Hage was convicted of conspiracies to kill U.S. nationals; to murder U.S. government employees and internationally protected persons; and to destroy buildings and property of the United States as well as multiple counts of perjury. On October 18, 2001, he was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2008, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his sentence, citing a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down the mandatory application of federal sentencing guidelines used in his case. His resentencing was scheduled for 2009, but his defense asked that the date be pushed back. In April 2013, he was sentenced to life in prison and additionally ordered to pay $33.8 million in restitution.He is incarcerated atFlorence ADMAX USP,hisBureau of Prisonsnumber 42393-054.