Osama bin Laden hinted at 9/11 attacks six months before event: Witness

A witness in the federal trial of an accused high-level al Qaeda spokesman said that Osama bin Laden said Islamist "brothers" are ready to die for jihad told to a group of American recruits in Afghanistan just six months before the 9/11 attacks.

Sahim Alwan said that Bin Laden told recruits just know that they have brothers willing to carry their souls in their hands, the New York Post reported.

Asked by a prosecutor on Thursday what he believed bin Laden meant these "brothers" were willing to do, to which Alwan answered, "To die."

Alwan, 41, is one of the "Lackawanna Six" - a half-dozen Yemeni-Americans from the Buffalo area, convicted in 2003, for providing material support to Al Qaeda by attending bin Laden's al-Farooq terrorist training camp near Kandahar in spring 2001.

Alwan's testimony was the most damaging testimony yet against Abu Ghaith, who is married to bin Laden's eldest daughter, Fatima.