Putting Terror Inc. on Trial in New York
The case against bin Laden's alleged followers
A fourth man, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, allegedly purchased the 1998 Toyota Dyna truck that carried the bomb in Nairobi. His case was recently severed from the others after he stabbed a prison guard in the eye. Investigators are hoping a fifth defendant, Wadih el-Hage, will follow Ali Mohamed's lead and cooperate. A tire store manager in Arlington, Texas, he acted, prosecutors contend, as a bag man and passport fixer while working as bin Laden's personal secretary.
Targets. Ali Mohamed's testimony, which will likely earn him a reduced sentence, may prove particularly damning to el-Hage. The former U.S. Army sergeant, a naturalized American citizen born in Egypt, claims he worked with el-Hage in Nairobi and that during a visit to the man's house, bin Laden's security chief told him to surveil American, British, French, and Israeli "targets" in Senegal.
Defense attorneys on the case know they're facing tough odds. Mohamed's guilty plea has thrown "a wrench" into their strategies, acknowledges one. For defendants facing the death penalty, their lawyers' primary focus is to stop them "from getting killed," adds another. If Ali Mohamed does indeed take the stand, his credibility will likely come under fire. The talkative terrorist has a record of shifting loyalties and admits to lying to investigators in the past.
El-Hage, a naturalized U.S. citizen, certainly seems to be feeling the pressure. Five days after Mohamed's testimony, he suddenly also attempted to plead guilty. The plea, offered without consulting with prosecutors, was thrown out because el-Hage told the judge he was acting not out of guilt but because he wanted to escape the humiliation of a trial. Should el-Hage decide to flip with prosecutorial blessing, his testimony could offer a trove of information. Court documents place the 40-year-old el-Hage within a rogues' gallery of terrorists. The Lebanese native is allegedly tied not only to the embassy bombs but to a string of criminal acts, including attempted arms sales to those later convicted in the 1990 murder of radical Rabbi Meir Kahane and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Further revelations may come from Ali Mohamed, who is cooperating with the FBI. Terrorism experts already are pondering his assertion that through the mid-1990s, bin Laden's al-Qaeda maintained close ties to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia, and to Iranian security forces. Al-Qaeda and its allies received explosives training at Hezbollah camps in Lebanon, Mohamed claimed, and received bombs "disguised to look like rocks" from the Iranians. The implications are troubling. "Iran is an untold story in this," argues Larry Johnson, the State Department's former deputy director of counterterrorism. "How many elements have they kept out of this indictment?"
Perhaps several. Ties to the USS Cole bombing may well emerge from trial testimony, says one top law enforcement official. And a further indictment in New York--this one under seal--names even more alleged bin Laden conspirators, U.S. News has learned. Clearly the trial will be but one act in an ongoing and altogether grim play.
With Chitra Ragavan
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