Recorded conversations - more than 300 hours' worth - of an undercover informant and three Toledo-area men revealed a terrorist cell in northwest Ohio, a group formed with the goal of injuring or killing U.S. soldiers overseas, an assistant U.S. attorney told jurors yesterday.
| Despite those hundreds of hours of conversations focused on concepts such as holy wars and suicide vests and roadside bombs, the evidence will show that "nothing happened," defense attorneys countered. |
Despite those hundreds of hours of conversations focused on concepts such as holy wars and suicide vests and roadside bombs, the evidence will show that "nothing happened," defense attorneys countered. Instead, the tapes will reveal a government informant who constantly criticizes U.S. policy in the Middle East and finally gets the three men to tepidly agree, defense attorney Stephen Hartman said.
The trial for Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 28; Marwan Othman El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim I. Mazloum, 26, on terrorism-related charges began with opening statements in U.S. District Court in Toledo. The three Toledo-area men are each charged with planning to wage a "holy war" using skills they learned on the Internet. Specifically, federal officials alleged that the men conspired to kill or injure people in the Middle East - including U.S. troops serving in Iraq - by providing "support and resources." They also are charged with "distributing information regarding explosives."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Getz outlined the government's case against the men in a 40-minute opening statement. He referred to 2003, when he said Mr. Amawi returned from an extended stay in Jordan a different man, one who was more extreme in his beliefs, in his appearance, and in his disdain for Westerners. "At this time he was accessing jihadist Web sites that showed the beheading of Americans and the killing of American soldiers," Mr. Getz said. "He would sing along to jihadist songs and hum along with the soundtrack of these violent videos."
Mr. El-Hindi, Mr. Getz added, was "extremely familiar with these sites." But Mr. El-Hindi's role was as the "moneyman of the operation," Mr. Getz said. Saying Mr. El-Hindi helped create various organizations and businesses, the assistant U.S. attorney said the goal was to use this money "to fund some of the violent jihad training." It is through one such company, which recruited students for medical schools overseas, that Mr. El-Hindi met and subsequently recruited two cousins from the Chicago area into the terrorist training, Mr. Getz said.
Khaleel and Zubair Ahmed face terrorism-related charges and will be tried separately in U.S. District Court in Toledo. "Mr. El-Hindi knew about the cousins' radical thoughts and secretly recruited them, not for medical school, but convinced them that they needed to be trained," he said.
Attorneys said the bulk of the government's evidence is in the form of taped conversations over three years of the men and the government's informant, Darren Griffin, a former member of the U.S. Army's Special Forces. The informant met the men through the local mosque, where he presented himself as a converted Muslim activist with radical views who opposed the war in Iraq.
Defense attorneys attacked Mr. Griffin's credibility in their opening statements. Speaking for about one hour each, defense attorneys for Mr. Amawi and Mr. El-Hindi said that Mr. Griffin was a man with a sordid past who was paid more than $350,000 for his information.
Despite the government's contention that Mr. Griffin's conversations with the three defendants reveal radical thoughts in their "minds and hearts," the defense team said these conversations were in fact "twisted" by Mr. Griffin to sound sinister. "When you hear these tapes, when you hear words like jihad, when you pay attention to who is saying these words . ... They are not going to be said by Mr. Amawi. They are not going to be said by Mr. El-Hindi. They are not going to be said by Mr. Mazloum. They are going to be said, the evidence will show, by Mr. Griffin," said Timothy Ivey, who is representing Mr. Amawi. Mr. Ivey called the case against the men "a misplaced effort by the government to go out and find terrorists." And Mr. Griffin, he said, made that happen by engaging the men in conversations that they likely never would have had.
Mr. Hartman, who is representing Mr. El-Hindi, said that the snippets of recorded conversations that the government will present as evidence won't show the whole picture. Instead, it's the conversations in between that show Mr. Griffin "pushing" and Mr. El-Hindi's lack of response. Mr. Mazloum's attorneys chose not to make an opening statement.
| Mr. Amawi has dual Jordanian and American citizenship and was living in Toledo. |
Mr. Amawi has dual Jordanian and American citizenship and was living in Toledo. Mr. El-Hindi, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was born in Jordan and living in Toledo at the time of his arrest. Mr. Mazloum, who is from Lebanon but is a legal permanent resident of the United States and who was living in Sylvania, was a University of Toledo student at the time of his arrest.
Defense attorneys said that the fear of terrorism on local soil and the fear of the Islamic religion are fueling the drive to seek out terrorist cells. They reminded jurors that the men's opposition to the war in Iraq and to U.S. foreign policy is not illegal. "Part of the evidence will be about fear, fear about Islam and about the war on terror," Mr. Hartman said. |
TOLEDO, Ohio - Four men pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that they plotted to recruit and train terrorists to attack U.S. and allied troops overseas. Zubair A. Ahmed, Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi and Wassim I. Mazloum are accused of conspiring to kill or maim people outside the United States, including military personnel in Iraq.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Two cousins were arrested Wednesday on charges of conspiring to commit "jihad" terrorist acts against Americans overseas, including U.S. military forces in Iraq.