| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| FBI witness ends his testimony in Fort Dix terror trial |
| 2008-11-21 |
| Mahmoud Omar had endured 14 days on the witness stand at the trial of an alleged South Jersey terror cell -- explaining, defending or evading questions about his life and work as a wire-wearing, jihad-supporting informant. As his testimony came to an end today in Camden, the attorneys scrambled to leave jurors with lasting but overriding impressions: One portrayed Omar as a lying con man, milking his assignment to get a steady FBI paycheck. The other suggested he was simply a human recorder, the tool that helped agents record incriminating conversations with five Muslim immigrants and disrupt a potentially deadly attack against Fort Dix. The prosecutors and defense attorneys didn't do this by asking Omar any new or substantive questions. Because this is what both sides call a "tapes case" -- one that will succeed or fail depending on how much the jurors absorb and believe the recordings -- they just zeroed in on the choicest cuts. During two weeks of cross-examination, Omar repeatedly admitted he never discussed details of the alleged attack with any of the defendants other than Mohamad Shnewer, a cab driver from Cherry Hill. So Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hammer pointed to conversations in which Shnewer said he preferred one-on-one discussions to group meetings. Hammer then highlighted transcripts that suggested each of the others independently knew about and supported the plot. The prosecutor noted Elvjir "Sulayman" Duka, a youth leader at a Palmyra mosque and one of three Cherry Hill brothers charged, told Omar he would try to find a trustworthy imam who would issue a fatwa, the Islamic approval needed before an attack on enemies. Hammer showed jurors another transcript in which Dritan Duka told Omar he played paintball almost every day because it he considered it military-like training that was "necessary" for a jihad. And one in which Shain Duka congratulated Omar after one paintball session by saying: "Good training." Then the prosecutor showed jurors conversations in which the fifth defendant, Serdar Tatar, told Omar he would need help fleeing the country after any attack. In the same conversation, Tatar told the informant: "I'm in, honestly, I'm in." The defense attorneys have argued that much of the inflammatory talk was bluster or "fantasy" from Shnewer, 23, who they say was the butt of jokes and easily manipulated by the 39-year-old informant. Shnewer's attorney, Rocco Cipparone, pointed out that Shnewer told Omar the others were his "lifetime companions" but that he really only met them a year or two before the alleged plot began. Michael Huff, the attorney for Dritan Duka, noted that more than once his client told Omar that he wanted the weapons so his brothers and other friends had enough guns for their group vacations to a firing range in the Pocono Mountains. And Troy Archie, the attorney for Eljvir "Sulayman" Duka, showed Omar a conversation from March 2007, about six weeks before the arrests, in which the informant acknowledged he was unsure how much, if anything, Eljvir Duka knew about the plot. "At that late date, you were still unsure whether or not Sulayman was involved, is that correct?" Archie asked. Omar said Shnewer had insisted the Dukas were involved, but that they were cautious. "Duka's family never trust me about something like that," he testified. Hammer, the prosecutor, ended his questioning by reinforcing the heart of the government case. He said that defense attorneys had spent hours dissecting Omar's criminal history, his conviction for bank fraud, his auto parts business, his use of marijuana and other spotty chapters in his life. "With all that, Mr. Omar," the prosecutor asked, "has a single word in these transcripts changed? "No, sir," the witness replied The trial resumes Tuesday. |
| Posted by:ryuge |