Terrorist to Be Star Witness at Trial

Convicted millennial terrorist Ahmed Ressam will be the star witness at the federal trial of an alleged accomplice accused of assisting in a bomb plot believed to have targeted Los Angeles International Airport, an attorney in the case confirmed Sunday.

Ressam is expected to testify that Mokhtar Haouari, a fellow Algerian emigre from Montreal, provided $3,000 in cash and a fake driver’s license to support the still-mysterious plan to attack an American target on the eve of the millennium New Year. Ressam, 33, was arrested in December 1999 crossing the Canadian border with a trunkful of explosives.

Haouari’s defense attorney, Daniel Ollen, said federal prosecutors advised him over the weekend that Ressam would reveal details of Haouari’s support.

“They’re saying my guy didn’t know exactly what was going on, but that he knew it was going to be an act of terrorism,” he said.

Haouari, 32, is scheduled to go on trial here Tuesday on federal charges of conspiring with Ressam and others to commit an international act of terrorism. He also is charged with raising money through fraud and theft to provide “material support and resources to a terrorist organization” and to Ressam.

In an interview with The Times, Ollen said federal authorities informed him that Ressam planned to testify against Haouari and provided him with a brief synopsis of what he plans to say under oath.

Haouari, who has pleaded not guilty, has insisted he is innocent, Ollen said.

Ressam’s reported pledge to testify and his allegations, if true, would be a major victory for prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Atty. David Kelley said Sunday that he could not comment on any aspect of the pending case. A Ressam public defender, Thomas Hillier, said he was unaware of Ressam’s reported remarks.

The testimony would place Haouari, a Montreal shopkeeper, squarely in the middle of the plot by Montreal-based Islamic militants to smuggle explosives into the United States on the eve of the new millennium, and detonate them to “punish America.”

In the past, prosecutors had alleged publicly that Haouari was linked to the plot only by instructing a third man to fly from New York to Seattle to provide Ressam with money and logistical support.

Ressam never reached Seattle because he was arrested Dec. 14, 1999 at the Port Angeles, Wa. border crossing. He recently told authorities he intended to bomb LAX.

Ressam’s agreement to testify comes as part of his promise to cooperate in an ongoing terrorism investigation in exchange for leniency after his own conviction April 6. He faces as much as 140 years in prison, but far less if his cooperation helps convict Haouari, and if it proves valuable in providing a rare glimpse into the murky underworld of global Islamic militancy, as authorities expect.

The prosecutors’ disclosures to Ollen marked their first public confirmation that Ressam is, indeed, cooperating. The New York federal probe focuses on the Montreal cell of Algerian expatriates, many of whom--like Ressam--allegedly trained in Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden’s jihad training camps in Afghanistan.

Authorities want to know if members of the Montreal cell have ties to Bin Laden, the world’s most wanted terrorist, and whether his operatives played a role in the millennial bombing plot. They also hope that Ressam leads them to other suspected conspiracy members who have never been caught.

Haouari was arrested Jan. 10 in Montreal, almost a month after Ressam’s arrest set off one of the most intensive counter-terrorism investigations ever conducted on U.S. soil.

His trial is expected to last several weeks. If convicted on all six felony counts, Haouari faces as much as 85 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. After unsuccessfully fighting extradition from Canada, he has been in U.S. custody since last Aug. 12.

In financial affidavits, Haouari says he is an unemployed shop owner who made about $15,000 last year from his Montreal arts, crafts and clothing store. He says he is single, with no children and $12,000 in the bank.

It was not known Sunday what Ressam has told authorities regarding what roles Haouari may have played in the plot, and what roles may have been played by others.

It was unclear, for instance, what, exactly, Ressam alleges he was supposed to do with the $3,000, and whether Haouari was giving him orders as a leader of the plot or merely assisting him. The circumstances surrounding a purported fake driver’s license also were not known. When arrested, Ressam had in his possession identification for two aliases--Benni A. Noris and Mario Roig.

Ollen would not speculate on the potential impact that Ressam’s testimony would have if he does take the stand against Haouari.

Another alleged accomplice, Abdelghani Meskini, may testify against Haouari. Meskini entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors in exchange for leniency, and testified against Ressam during his trial in Los Angeles in late March. Meskini has added mystery to the case by saying Ressam was supposed to drive the explosives-laden car to Seattle and then walk away from it, so that others could use it.

Whether that issue, and the larger issue of global terrorism, will come up at trial remains to be seen.

The specter of Bin Laden is expected to hang heavily over the courtroom during Haouari’s trial. But his name, and those of others suspected of leading a global jihad, or holy war against the West, may never be mentioned.

That was the case during Ressam’s trial; prosecutors sought only to prove that he crossed the border with the explosives and four home-made timing devices, and that he had helped buy and assemble them in the weeks leading up to his border crossing.

That was enough to prompt a jury to convict Ressam unanimously of conspiring to commit a terrorist act, although prosecutors freely admitted that they had no idea what, if anything, he intended to blow up.

In Ressam’s trial, prosecutors on only a few occasions sought to mention the larger issues of terrorism. And U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour in Los Angeles essentially prohibited any mention of Bin Laden’s name.

In Haouari’s trial, prosecutors appear to be focusing on such narrow issues as well, trying to prove that Haouari and Meskini committed credit card fraud and bank fraud, and trafficked in fake passports and other IDs, as a way to support Ressam and the terrorist plot. As proof, they say they will enter into evidence a long paper trail that links Haouari to such criminal behavior, dating back to late 1997. They plan to buttress those financial records with testimony by Meskini and “several of their co-conspirators” in fraud schemes, including Nasr Eddine Helal, court records show.

And in an effort to convict Haouari on the sole terrorism count, prosecutors are trying to prove that he intended to help Ressam in his efforts to smuggle the explosives into the United States, court records show.

Meskini has testified that he and Haouari did exactly that. Prosecutors also plan to use tape-recorded phone discussions between Haouari and Meskini to prove that Haouari knowingly played a role in the millennium plot.

After Meskini was arrested Dec. 30, 1999, he spent 11 hours telling FBI agents about the conspiracy.

Meskini confessed that he had gone to Haouari saying he wanted to become a jihad fighter, and that Haouari told him he could help by traveling to Seattle to aid and assist an “very important brother” who turned out to be Ressam.

In his plea agreement, Meskini swore that Haouari told him to give Ressam money that he obtained from ATM machines, as well as transportation, a cell phone “and other means of assistance should he request it.”

And Meskini agreed to allow FBI agents to listen in while he called Haouari to discuss the aborted plot. Those tape-recorded discussions are expected to be entered into evidence at Haouari’s trial, as is another tape-recorded call from Dec. 22, 1999.

In that call, authorities allege, Meskini speaks to Haouari in code, in an effort to find out if the man arrested at the border had been his intended contact.

“Listen. Was that woman your cousin?” Meskini asks.

“Yes,” Haouari replies.