Midday Roundup: Al-Qaeda spokesman heads to U.S. prison for life

Behind bars. Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law received a life sentence in U.S. court today for acting as al-Qaeda’s spokesman after the 9/11 attacks. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said he saw “no remorse whatsoever” from 48-year-old Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. Abu Ghaith was the highest-ranking al-Qaeda figure to face trial on U.S. soil since the attacks. Just before he was sentenced, Abu Ghaith said through an interpreter: “At the same moment you were shackling my hands and intending to bury me alive, you are at the same time unleashing the hands of hundreds of Muslim youths. … They will join the ranks of the free men soon, and very soon the world will see the end of these theater plays.”

Vengeance. The Israeli military today killed two Palestinians suspected in the June abduction and slaying of three Israeli teenagers, an attack that triggered the war in Gaza this summer. The deaths of the two suspects, identified by the Israeli military as well-known Hamas militants, ended one of the largest manhunts ever conducted by the Israeli security forces. Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship, were abducted June 12 while hitchhiking home in the West Bank. They were killed soon afterward. “This episode sends a clear and unambiguous message that Israel will do whatever it needs to to deal with threats and challenges wherever they may occur,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the raid.

Intruder alert. The man who stormed into the White House on Friday was arrested this past summer in rural Virginia, heavily armed and carrying a map of Washington with a circle drawn around the White House. Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, is an Army veteran from Copperas Cove, Texas. He was pulled over in July by a Virginia state trooper, who found an illegal, sawed-off shotgun and the map, which was tucked inside a Bible. When Gonzalez was arrested inside the White House on Friday he was armed with a knife, according to federal prosecutors. Officials said they later found 800 rounds of ammunition, a machete, and two hatchets in his vehicle. His ex-wife told a local news affiliate that Gonzalez served two tours with the Army in Iraq and suffered from mental illness, including post-traumatic stress disorder. According to an affidavit, Gonzalez told officers after his arrest that he was trying to get information to the president.

Trail of trash. Skeptics are questioning just how much attendees at the People’s Climate March really care about the environment after they left tons of trash scattered through Midtown Manhattan following the weekend rally. Following Sunday’s march, critics took to Twitter posting snapshots of soda cans and paper coffee cops piled up along the route. The march attracted nearly 400,000 people, including celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. It was timed to call attention to the U.N.’s Climate Summit that begins today.