L'Houssaine Kherchtou

L'Houssaine Kherchtou
Born (1964-05-15) 15 May 1964 (age 60)[1]
Morocco
Other namesAbu Zaid al Maghrebi,[2]
Abu Talal[2]
Occupation(s)Cook, militant, state witness
ChildrenThree daughters[3]

L'Houssaine Kherchtou (born 15 May 1964) was an early initiate in al-Qaeda, joining the militant group in 1991. In 2000, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder, but as he was the chief witness against four of his former colleagues, all of whom were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment, his charges were withdrawn and he entered the witness protection program.[4]

Testifying in New York in the summer of 2001, he noted that al-Qaeda had trained suicide pilots to fly planes into buildings.[5] Together with Jamal al-Fadl, his testimony forms the bulk of the information known about the early years of the Islamist group.

  1. ^ United States v. Usama bin Laden, Transcript of Day 8
  2. ^ a b L'Houssaine Khertchou testimony, United States vs. Osama bin Laden et al., trial transcript, Day 8, Feb. 21, 2001.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference cnn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference yank was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Report Warned Of Suicide Hijackings", CBS.com, May 17, 2002