A son-in-law of Osama bin Laden who served as al Qaeda's spokesman was arrested in Jordan and then brought to New York in an operation led by Jordanian authorities and the FBI, U.S. government sources said on Thursday.

The sources said Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a militant who appeared in videos representing al Qaeda after the September 11th, attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, had initially been picked up in Turkey.

The Turkish government deported him to Jordan, where local authorities and the FBI took custody of him. He had been brought to the United States in the last few days, a law enforcement source said.

Abu Ghaith is now being held in a detention facility in the New York City area and is expected to be charged and eventually brought to trial in federal court. The trial would most likely be in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan, only blocks from the site of the World Trade Centre.

Initial public confirmation of Abu Ghaith's capture came from Representative Peter King, a senior Republican member of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee and former chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

U.S. sources indicated that, while a CIA role in the capture of Abu Ghaith could not be ruled out, the FBI took the lead role in the operation under the auspices of an interagency body known as the High-value Detainee Interrogation Group.

The group was created by Obama's administration after the president ordered the shut down of a CIA program in which militant suspects were detained and held in a network of secret prisons, during the administration of President George W. Bush.

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