Embassy bomber draws a life sentence with no parole in first US-based criminal trial of a Gitmo detainee

This in this morning's New York Times:

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first former detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to be tried in the civilian court system, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for his role in the 1998 bombings of two United States Embassies in East Africa.

The U.S. Attorney who successfully tried the case to a federal jury in the courthouse in Manhattan (not far from Ground Zero) issued the following statement:

STATEMENT OF MANHATTAN U.S. ATTORNEY PREET BHARARA
ON THE SENTENCING OF AHMED KHALFAN GHAILANI
"Today, in Manhattan Federal Court, justice wasserved. Ahmed Ghailani is a remorseless terrorist, massmurderer, and Al Qaeda operative, and now he will spend the restof his life in prison. As we said in court on the day this trialbegan, Ghailani was a vital member of the East African terrorcell that murdered 224 innocent people and wounded thousands ofothers in the 1998 bombings of the American Embassies in Kenyaand Tanzania. Finally, twelve-and-a-half years after thosedevastating and despicable attacks, Ahmed Ghailani will pay forhis crimes.
This was a difficult case for a number of reasons. Our goal all along was to hold Ghailani accountable for his heinousconduct, and, no matter the obstacles, to see to it that he wouldreceive the punishment he deserved. Today, our goal wasachieved, as Ahmed Ghailani will never again breathe free air.
The reason we are at this point today is theextraordinary hard work done in difficult circumstances by a lotof people.
I salute the unflagging commitment, dedication, andtalent of the FBI agents who so thoroughly investigated this caseand the prosecutors who so ably tried it. They spent years oftheir lives putting this case together -- traveling around theworld, interviewing hundreds of witnesses, and piecing togetherfragments of evidence from the bombed-out shells of two Americanembassies. I would like to personally thank the lawyers from myoffice who oversaw the prosecution -- Michael Farbiarz, NickLewin, Harry Chernoff, and Sean Buckley. I would also like to thank the hard-working detectives of the NYPD and all our otherpartners in the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, the NationalSecurity Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, theTanzanian National Police, and the Kenyan Police for theirexceptional work and assistance in this case.
While we can never turn back the clock and rewrite this tragic piece of violent history, we hope that today's lifesentence for this brutal terrorist will provide at least somemeasure of comfort and closure to the surviving victims of thebombings and to the families and friends of those who perished."

Human Rights Watch approved the outcome, issuing the following statement:
US: Ghailani Sentence Validates Federal Court Trials
JAN 25, 2011
The sentence of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani to life in prison without the possibility of parole underscored the value of trying terrorism suspects in civilian courts rather than in discredited military commissions. The sentence marks the end of the first successful prosecution of a former Guantanamo detainee in US federal court.