Report: US captures Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law in Jordan

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who was also the terror group’s main spokesman and part of al Qaeda’s core leadership, has been transported to a detention facility in New York City for interrogation after being taken in Jordan, according to reports by The Wall Street Journal. 

{mosads}Bin Laden was killed in May 2011 during a U.S. special operations forces raid on his compound in Abottabad, Pakistan. 

Abu Ghaith had been under Turkish custody before Anakra deported the terror suspect Jordan, where he was intercepted by American counterterrorism officials there, the Journal reports. 

It remains unclear which specific charged are being leveled against Abu Ghaith, but the Kuwaiti national will likely make an initial court appearance in New York sometime next week. 

On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham slammed the administration’s decision to hold Abu Ghaith in federal court in New York, and not the military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. 

“I’ve got a real problem of taking someone who is an enemy combatant and putting them in civilian court. I don’t know if there’s a trial venue beyond [Guantanamo] We’ve got a good courtroom down there. We should use it,” Graham told The Hill. 

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other accused 9/11 conspirators are still undergoing pretrial hearings for their military tribunal case in Cuba. 

That said, Graham approved of the White House’s decision to capture Abu Ghaith and not take him out via an armed drone strike. 

“I’m glad we didn’t blow him up with a drone. I’m glad we captured him,” Graham said. 

Bin Laden’s son is one of the few top al Qaeda leaders U.S. officials have taken into custody under the White House’s increasingly aggressive counterterrorism campaign against al Qaeda and various factions of the radical Islamic terror group.  

That campaign has depended heavily on the use of targeted killings of suspected terrorists via armed drone strikes across the globe, particularly in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. 

The Obama administration has credited the use of armed drone strikes as playing a key role in dismantling al Qaeda’s top leadership and quashing efforts by the groups to launch attacks against the United States and its allies. 

However, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have claimed the administration’s policies governing the use of armed drones against terror suspects — including those who are American citizens — undercuts civil liberties rights under the Constitution and is a severe overreach of presidential powers. 

The issue came to a boiling point on Wednesday, when Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) launched a 12-hour filibuster against CIA nominee John Brennan, using the time to chastise the White House’s drone program. 

Paul argued the administration’s policies allowing drone strikes against U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism overseas could lead to armed drone strikes Americans on U.S. soil. 

On Thursday, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) lambasted Paul’s arguments, calling the possibility of armed drones being used inside the United States “ridiculous.”

“To infer that the president is going to kill someone … who disagrees with him is simply ridiculous,” McCain said on the floor Thursday. “If someone is an enemy combatant, that enemy combatant has no where to hide.” 

The growing furor over the drone program has already prompted a number of GOP senators, including Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), to say they will vote against Brennan’s nomination to become CIA director. 

During his time at CIA, and later as White House counterterrorism chief, Brennan played a key policy role in ushering in the aggressive use of targeted killings of suspected terrorists via armed aerial drone strikes. 

The growing political pressure in Washington on the drone program prompted Brennan to turn down the CIA nomination in 2008, paving the way for then-Gen. David Petraeus to assume the post. 

Petraeus stepped down from CIA last year after admitting to an extramarital affair. 

–Jeremy Herb contrinuted to this report