Posted on 11/17/2004 7:59:56 PM PST by notkerry
NEW YORK (AP) - An FBI informant who set himself on fire in front of the White House played a role in at least three terror investigations, court documents show.
Defense attorneys said Wednesday they are re-examining Mohamed Alanssi's role in the cases against their clients, who are accused of helping fund Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida and the Palestinian group Hamas.
"Ultimately what I'm heading for is a motion for dismissal," said Frank Hancock, the lawyer for Abad Elfgeeh, a Yemeni-born man accused of illegally sending millions of dollars overseas.
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf, who filed the three cases in Brooklyn, said her office had no comment.
On Monday, Alanssi, 52, sent suicide notes to the FBI and The Washington Post complaining the government was treating him badly despite his assistance in trying to cut off the flow of money to terrorists.
Hours later, he set his clothing ablaze at the White House gate. He was in serious condition Wednesday.
Alanssi was central to the probe of Ali Hassan al-Moayad, a Yemeni sheik who called himself bin Laden's one-time instructor in Islamic law. Investigators recorded Alanssi and al-Moayad in Germany allegedly discussing a scheme to move money from an American Muslim to al-Qaida and Hamas, according to court filings and lawyers in the case. He's charged with conspiring to provide material support to the terror groups.
Al-Moayad's attorney, Howard Jacobs, said Alanssi's written allegations could weaken the prosecution. In one note, he said he was afraid the government might jail and torture him if he stopped cooperating. He also said FBI agents told him he would "be a millionaire" and receive permanent U.S. residency in exchange for his help.
According to court documents, Alanssi also helped the government in its case against Elfgeeh, a naturalized U.S. citizen who allegedly sent $20 million overseas illegally from his ice-cream shop in Brooklyn.
Alanssi asked Elfgeeh how to secretly move money overseas and recorded Elfgeeh, 49, advising him to give cash to another Yemeni sheik, whom prosecutors call an outspoken bin Laden supporter and advocate of Islamic jihad in Chechnya.
The probe of that sheik, Abdullah Satar, led to the conviction earlier this year of Numan Maflahi, who was sentenced to five years for lying to FBI agents about a fund-raising trip to Brooklyn by Satar in 1999.
Maflahi's lawyer said Wednesday he did not believe new information about Alanssi would affect the case, because Alanssi had not testified at trial.
AP-ES-11-17-04 2230EST
So let me see...
You find out an informant spilled the beans on your client.
You contact him and let him know that he can either make a dramatic show of insanity, or you will light him on fire somewhere that nobody with a fire extinguisher will be.
I would not put this past the lawyers...
BUMP
BS...
First I've heard about this connection. It sounds very unfortunate. Let's hope they have other witnesses or evidence, because this guy has certainly undermined his credibility.
while I don't condone the actions of the lawyers of the terror suspects...if this guy who set himself on fire was truly valuable, the FBI should have taken better care of him. I don't suspect misconduct, but we need all the informants we can get, and cooperating informants deserve treatment in kind with the risks they take and benefits they offer. Hell, if the FBI cozied up to Gravano just to get Gotti, when Gravano probably killed more people than anyone in the Gambino family's history.
I realize this guy had his own terror ties, but plenty of those we take into custody don't cooperate, and those are the ones who should get the shaft. If we finally snag someone who can help us against these punks, let's make sure to keep him happy enough to give us the goods. It's just cost/benefit analysis for me. Sometimes you have to hold these guys feet to the fire (no pun intended), but I think it would have been fair to get his dying wife over here. Am I wrong?
They should fire the Secret Service agent who doused this idiot :-) ...just kidding
It sounds like he was burning his candle at both ends.
there I was, marshmellows in a stick ready to go...and out of the blue, here come these guys with fire extinguishers
He was raising funds fror "The United Arab Jihad Fund". a match is a terrible thing to waste...
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