Putting Terror Inc. on Trial in New York
The case against bin Laden's alleged followers
Ali Mohamed is a man of many faces: Egyptian intelligence agent, U.S. Army paratrooper, FBI informant, aide to accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. Before bombs shattered U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Mohamed says, he scouted possible targets and personally brought bin Laden photos of Nairobi sites. "Bin Laden looked at the picture of the American Embassy," he claims, "and pointed to where a truck could go as a suicide bomber."
Mohamed, 48, is now poised to play a new role--as the Justice Department's star witness in the long-awaited trial of bin Laden's alleged followers starting this week in New York City. A sweeping 319-count indictment charges bin Laden and 20 others with a terrorist crime spree dating back to 1991. Among the charges: bombings, perjury, and conspiracy to murder Americans around the globe. The attacks include not only those on the U.S. embassies in 1998--which left over 220 dead and 5,000 injured--but also on U.S. troops in Somalia and Saudi Arabia. Although bin Laden remains at large (with a $5 million U.S. reward on his head), five of those indicted are now in U.S. custody--as is Mohamed, who pleaded guilty in October.
Infidels. October's suicide bombing of the USS Cole--tied by investigators to bin Laden's network--has added fresh urgency to the government's efforts to thwart the Saudi exile, now hiding in the badlands of Afghanistan. Led by Mohamed's likely testimony, the trial promises an unprecedented look at America's most wanted terrorist and at al-Qaeda, the fanatic organization that he guides. The indictment imparts an image of a paranoid, virulently anti-American network determined to purge Muslim lands of "infidels." To achieve this, bin Laden's men strove to obtain chemical and even nuclear weapons, according to prosecutors.
Proving a grand conspiracy may be difficult. Prosecuting international terrorists is often a delicate balance between law enforcement's need for evidence and the intelligence world's need to protect sources and methods. Through electronic eavesdropping, for example, U.S. officials say they quickly learned of bin Laden's involvement in the embassy blasts, but they are loath to introduce such sensitive records into court.
Holy war. Such concerns may explain the indictment's at-times tenuous links among the alleged terrorists. Prosecutors tie bin Laden to the conspiracy largely through his funding of al-Qaeda and his calls for holy war against the West. For some defendants, their work with al-Qaeda appears to be enough. For others, it is their work in his businesses in Sudan, from construction and agriculture to an investment house, which prosecutors call fronts for terror. Still others are tied to al-Qaeda's ruling council, where terrorist plots are said to be hatched.
With his guilty plea, Mohamed has now made the prosecution's job far easier. Under oath, Mohamed already has done more than tie bin Laden directly to the embassy bombings. He strongly hinted he could connect the dots to the five others in custody, who have all pleaded not guilty; four of them face trial January 3.
Two of the defendants, Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-Owali and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, face the death penalty if convicted, as prosecutors have the strongest evidence tying them to the embassy attacks. Al-Owali, a Saudi Arabian, allegedly filmed a statement before the bombing celebrating his "martyrdom," and rode in the pickup carrying the Nairobi bomb; he was found later in a hospital with keys to the truck's padlock nearby. Prosecutors say Khalfan Mohamed, a Tanzanian, helped grind up TNT and load the truck used in the Dar es Salaam bombing. A third defendant, Saddiq Odeh, a Jordanian, is allegedly tied to TNT and detonators used in Tanzania.
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
This story appears in the January 8, 2001 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.