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2005-01-08 Europe
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Al-Qaeda "finance minister" goes on trial in Germany
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 Ali Hassan al-Muajjad will get his day in court in New York on Monday. The Yemenite is accused of having raised $20 million for Osama bin Laden. But the case against him hinges on the testimony of a single star witness who is now backing out. What he has to say may not be worth much anyway and could be a major embarrassment for the FBI. Mohammed al-Ansi chose the public stage for his last message to the world. As flames consumed his body, the 52-year-old Yemeni briefly stood upright, a living torch, until the pain forced him to fall to the ground. Directly in front of the entrance to the White House in Washington. His screams could be heard in nearby offices, and secret service agents rushed fire extinguishers to the scene. Bodyguards of United States President George W. Bush had turned Ansi away only moments earlier. The letter he had sought to deliver to Bush was still in the pocket of his trousers when he set his jacket aflame with a lighter.
The aborted self-immolation took place on November 15, 2004. The Yemeni was rushed to a hospital in the US capital, where he is now recovering from the burns he suffered. Yet while his outlook may be good, that for the upcoming terrorist trial which depends on Ansi's testimony suddenly looks bleak. It is one of the biggest terror trials yet, and Ansi has decided not to play along. Ansi has been one of the FBI's key informants in the US war on terrorism. He has provided information that has led to the arrest of 20 suspected terrorists. But his most spectacular case is the current one soon to go on trial involving Yemeni imam Ali Hassan al-Muajjad, arrested in Frankfurt, Germany in January 2003 and subsequently extradited to the United States. Attorney General John Ashcroft claims that al-Muajjad raised $20 million to finance Al-Qaida terrorist activities and the German tabloid Bild has dubbed him "bin Laden's finance minister." His trial begins in New York on Monday. In addition to being a potentially major anti-terrorism coup, his arrest, which involved close cooperation between German and American authorities, is seen by US authorities as evidence that it is possible to cooperate effectively with the otherwise obstinate Germans.
At home, Muajjad, the principal imam at the most important mosque in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, is revered as a popular hero. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salih earmarked $50,000 in government funds for the imam's legal defense, and personally asked German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder for Muajjad's release. But Salih's diplomatic offensive fell on deaf ears with a German government that has no interest in undermining the Americans. Just how risky it was for German security agents to help out the Americans became apparent soon after Muajjad's arrest, when angry protestors staged demonstrations in front of the German embassy in Yemen, prompting Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office to issue warnings about possible retaliatory attacks against German interests in the Arab region. And the Yemeni government was furious with Berlin, demanding irrefutable evidence and a fair trial for Muajjad. German security authorities see the Muajjad trial as a test case on just how reliable the information furnished by Germany's powerful ally is. As it turns out, things aren't going quite the way the Germans -- or the Americans -- had expected.
Continued from Page 1
The entire case against Muajjad, as it turns out, depends on Ansi -- his testimony is all prosecutors have. Ansi was the one who tipped off the FBI and managed to lure Muajjad to Frankfurt. Even more critical, Ansi is the only person whom Muajjad told about his close friendship with bin Laden and his high-ranking position within Al-Qaida. Ansi, however, is now refusing to testify. Prosecutors will likely be forced to rely on FBI agentsâ second-hand accounts of what Ansi told them. The problem, however, is not that Ansi is recanting his testimony. Rather, he feels abandoned by his former employers, and has even threatened to file a civil suit against the FBI. Instead of the $100,000 he received as a reward for the information he provided that led to the imamâs arrest, he is now demanding $5 million in compensation. "They just laughed at me," says Ansi, "but I would never have destroyed my life for such a petty sum."
At home in Yemen, Ansi is considered a traitor, and even members of his clan have disowned him. In his farewell letter, Ansi wrote: "My death is the greatest gift I can give to my family." He is one of those people who always dreams of better times ahead, so itâs quite possible that he will change his mind and testify after all. Unfortunately for prosecutors, however, new details surrounding his past are coming to light that will likely complicate their case. The FBIâs key source (code name CI 1) is emerging as a less-than-reliable witness, even by the agencyâs relatively loose standards. In Yemen, a warrant has been issued for Ansiâs arrest for fraud, and he is also under indictment in the United States for writing rubber checks. Ansi was always a big spender when he had money, giving his barber $100 tips, for example. But when he was broke, which was more often the case, he would make ends meet by borrowing money from fellow Muslims, telling them heart-rending stories about his woes. Most recently, the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, a suburb of Washington, took pity on Ansi, who was using an assumed name, and gave him a job in the mosqueâs book store. He subsequently disappeared, leaving the center with more than $1,500 in unpaid phone bills.
His career at the FBI also began with an improbable story. Ansi applied for a job with the agency three months after the attacks of September 11, claiming that he was outraged by the attacks and wanted to help the Americans in their time of need. Ansi made a good impression. His English was perfect, he seemed confident, and he proudly presented interviewers with a photograph that showed him shaking hands with the American ambassador in Yemen. Ansi worked as a travel agent for the US embassy in Sanaa until 1984. Apparently he neglected to mention in his FBI interview that he had been fired for being unreliable. Ansi arrived at exactly the right time for the FBI, a time when US intelligence agencies were desperately in need of informants to support their battle against Al-Qaida. Ansi was just as desperate. He had traveled to the United States hoping to make a good living, but everything he touched seemed destined to fail. He was running a small travel agency in Brooklyn, but his landlord was threatening to evict him because he was behind in his rent.
Ansi was hoping for better results in his newfound profession. He offered the FBI something that could have been a true coup against Al-Qaida, telling agents that an old acquaintance of his was a key figure in the terrorist network. The acquaintance was Muajjad, and Ansi had once prayed in his mosque. No one seemed concerned about the fact that the imam had not come to the attention of US intelligence agencies in the past. In the coming months, agent CI 1 returned to Sanaa, this time on behalf of the FBI, to renew his acquaintance with Muajjad. He soon reported to the FBI that he had gained the imamâs full confidence, and that Muajjad had told him that he had raised $20 million and procured weapons and recruits for his friend Bin Laden. The US Department of Justice decided that it was time to make its big move.
To help lure Muajjad to the United States, Ansi told him that fellow Muslims in the United States were interested in donating $2 million for the jihad, but that Muajjad would have to travel to the US to collect the money. But Muajjad refused and the two men agreed that he would travel to German instead. That was when Operation Frankfurt began. US authorities brought Berlin into the picture just a few days prior to the imamâs arrival in Frankfurt. To gain the support of German authorities, FBI officials told them that a man they believed was a "high-ranking Al-Qaida operative" was traveling to Germany, but that they werenât entirely sure why. The Germans were skeptical. It was well-known that the imam had been supporting the Palestinian Hamas terrorist organization, but German intelligence had never heard of Muajjadâs supposed Al-Qaida connections. But the Americans were unrelenting.
When the imam, accompanied by his private secretary, arrived in Frankfurt in January 2003, everything was prepared. Room 6231 at the Sheraton Airport Hotel had already been reserved for the intelligence agenciesâ unsuspecting guest of honor. The mini-bar was stocked with non-alcoholic beverages, the furniture was bugged, and a video camera had been concealed in the room. The sting went on for the next three days. Ansi acted as an interpreter, while an FBI agent masqueraded as the supposed wealthy US Muslim donor, and the two men did their utmost to squeeze a few incriminating remarks from the imam. But Muajjad simply sat on the edge of his bed, insisted on regular breaks for prayer and proved to be a rather difficult negotiating partner.
Speaking in a loud falsetto, he denied having had any advance notice of the attacks on New York and Washington. He was either unwilling or unable to reveal the identities of Al-Qaida contacts in the United States, saying: "We will discuss that at the appropriate time." When asked whether the next big attack would be directed against America or Israel, his response was ambiguous at best: "We must first organize our papers." The FBI duo insisted that the Muslims in America would want more details on how their money would be used for jihad. Then, according to the FBI, Muajjad said that he would use the money to "support mujahidin from Al-Qaida and Hamas." Muajjadâs attorney denies that his client ever mentioned Al-Qaida. He has had the tapes of the conversation re-translated, and claims that Ansi "translated incorrectly and exaggerated." Despite the rather meager evidence, German investigators quickly arrested Muajjad. 
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Posted by Dan Darling 2005-01-08 12:49:51 AM||
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