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Embassy bomb suspect sent to U.S.
By Nairobi Bureau Chief Catherine Bond
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- A suspected Al Qaeda member is travelling to the U.S. from Kenya to face charges in connection with the August 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Kenyan officials said. Suleiman Abdalla, who also used the alias "Ngaka" and "Chuck Norris," was seized early last week in the Somali capital of Mogadishu by Kenyan security personnel with the help of some Somali leaders, national security chief Chris Murungaru said. In a statement, Murungaru said Abdalla was being transferred to the U.S. Wednesday because "all the arrested terrorists connected to the attacks were tried in the U.S.A. It has been decided, therefore, that Suleiman should be taken to the U.S. for trial like all the previous suspects." But Justice Department and FBI officials in Washington say nobody is being brought to the United States from Kenya to face criminal charges in the embassy bombings case. However, the officials would not rule out the possibility some other federal agency might have an interest in Abdalla. Information Abdalla gave Kenyan security agents during interrogation "greatly implicated him" in a "planning and execution" role in the 1998 bombings, the Kenyan security chief told journalists. Abdalla had also given what Murungaru termed "useful leads" on last November's terrorist attack on an Israeli-owned hotel near Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, and "on possible future terrorist plans in the region." "The information we have got from him will go a long way to forestalling any of the planned terrorist activities, not just in Kenya, but in the region," he said. The name Suleiman Abdalla does not appear on U.S. indictments of suspects wanted for the 1998 embassy bombings. But Murungaru said Abdalla was someone Kenyan and American investigators had been looking for. "I am sure his capture is a very welcome development for American security agencies," he said. U.S. agents 'involved'Plainclothes U.S. security agents are also said by some to have been involved in Abdalla's dramatic seizure in Mogadishu. Murungaru acknowledged only that Kenyan security personnel received what he called "technical assistance... from other friendly agencies" during the operation. Murungaru said Abdalla was "already en route to the U.S." This was not an extradition as such, he said, as the suspect was not a Kenyan national. Abdalla's nationality remains unclear to Kenyan investigators. Kenya's security chief said the suspect was in his early 30s. He said Kenya had been liaising with the U.S. State Department to determine his fate. The 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, and about 16 people died in the bombing of the Israeli hotel on November 18, 2002. The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi said it would have no comment on the developments.
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