Group May Have Planned to Bomb LAX Last Year, Prosecutors Say

Accused terrorist Ahmed Ressam and alleged co-conspirators may have planned to bomb Los Angeles International Airport or two smaller Southern California airports last year during millennial celebrations, according to federal prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Francis J. Diskin and colleagues said that after Ressam’s arrest Dec. 14, 1999, in Washington state, Canadian authorities seized a map from his former Montreal apartment that had circles drawn around LAX, Long Beach Airport and Ontario Airport.

Authorities also allegedly found large amounts of explosives and several timing devices in Ressam’s car.

“It is quite possible a reasonable person would conclude that one or more of these airports may have been an ultimate target of this conspiracy,” Diskin wrote in documents filed Jan. 11 in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

The new court filing also contends that Ressam--who authorities say has connections to an Algerian terrorist organization--had a French guidebook to California when he was arrested.

Federal authorities previously said they found maps of Washington, California and Oregon in Ressam’s possession after his arrest.

The chief of security at LAX and Ontario airports said Friday that the maps could mean almost anything.

“Lots of people have maps with LAX on them. It can mean a lot of things,” said Chief Bernard Wilson, who said he was never notified by authorities about a potential terrorist risk. “Quite possibly he may have circled them as a place to fly from or to after doing something else.”

Ressam’s lead defense attorney, Tom Hillier, said Friday that he learned only last week that prosecutors believe their case may include Southern California.

“They say California all of a sudden, and we think, what is this all about?” said Hillier, the chief federal public defender in Seattle.

Ressam, now 33, was stopped by Border Patrol agents after driving a rental car off a ferry from Canada into Port Angeles, Wash. Authorities said they discovered enough explosive materials in the trunk of his car to level several buildings.

Ressam was later indicted on nine felony counts, including conspiring to bring explosives into the United States and conspiring to damage or destroy people or buildings in this country.

Authorities have not revealed where they thought Ressam and at least three alleged associates were planning to launch one or more attacks. Some speculated that Seattle was the target, prompting the city’s mayor to cancel events surrounding its large, public New Year’s Eve festivities a year ago.

Publicity about the case later prompted U.S. District Judge John Coughenour to move the trial from Seattle to Los Angeles in the hope that Ressam would be treated fairly.

Ressam, who faces life in prison if convicted on all counts, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Two alleged accomplices, Mokhtar Haouari and Abdel Ghani Meskini, also have pleaded not guilty after their indictment in New York on charges that they conspired to provide Ressam with logistical and financial assistance.

Another of Ressam’s alleged accomplices, Abdelmajid Dahoumane, was indicted in Seattle. Authorities believe he is in Algeria.

Few details about the map and guidebook were disclosed in the court filings last week, which were contained in Diskin’s motion to have Ressam’s trial moved back to Seattle from Los Angeles.

Coughenour rejected that motion this week, paving the way for Ressam’s trial to begin as scheduled March 12 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. But the timing of the disclosure, Hillier said, is suspicious.

“We don’t know if it’s a real prosecutorial theory or simply a prop to advance their request to have the venue moved back to Seattle,” Hillier said.

Prosecutors have vigorously opposed moving the trial to Los Angeles, citing the difficulty in moving the judge, jury, witnesses and security teams.

In his motion, Diskin said the disclosures about Ressam potentially targeting Los Angeles area airports might unfairly prejudice a jury here, making Seattle just as good a place for the trial.

Diskin also cited additional reasons for keeping the trial in Seattle. Among them: that the yearlong delay in bringing the case to trial has allowed most of the publicity to subside, mitigating concerns that Ressam couldn’t get a fair trial in Seattle.

Also, Diskin wrote, the proposed courtroom in Los Angeles is too small, allowing for half as many spectators as the courtroom in Seattle. The room’s size also will make the presentation of evidence “much more difficult, as will the lack of projection equipment and television monitors for the jury and all other parties,” Diskin wrote.

And then, he said, there is the problem of Los Angeles traffic.

Travel from LAX to the federal courthouse for more than 110 potential witnesses “requires driving on three different freeways and routinely takes two hours during rush hour [and] will create substantial logistical concerns and . . . unexpected delays,” Diskin wrote.