Loan goes to heart of terror case

Albany Times-Union ^ | 10/4/06 | BRENDAN J. LYONS

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Loan goes to heart of terror case Jury must decide if Albany defendants linked money with talk of attack

ALBANY -- It all started, according to a federal prosecutor, because the FBI needed to know what was in Yassin Aref's mind. That was the catalyst of a year-long counterterrorism sting that ultimately ensnared Aref, a Kurdish refugee from Iraq, and Mohammed M. Hossain, an Albany pizzeria owner, on charges they helped launder thousands of dollars from the sale of a missile launcher to terrorists. "They had a choice, and that's what a sting is," Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericak told a federal jury Tuesday during closing arguments at their trial. "You don't twist their arms, you don't threaten them ... you put it out there."

Defense attorneys, in their summations, painted sharply different portraits of the FBI's case, accusing the agency of using a manipulative informant to target two law-abiding immigrants in a sting case built on language barriers and poor translations. "As I stand here, I can't believe the government did that," said Hossain's attorney, Kevin A. Luibrand. "They knew that he was innocent when they did that, and they had no business doing that."

In many ways, the case represents the aggressive and sometimes controversial posture of an FBI that was redefined after the 9/11 attacks. The agency, which underwent a fundamental transformation five years ago with counterterrorism as its top priority, has engaged in a smattering of cases like the Albany sting. The investigations involve highly resourced task forces that use undercover informants to ply the minds of Muslim Americans, tempting those the FBI suspects may pose a danger or harbor a deep hatred of the United States.

Aref was the "ultimate target" in the investigation. The informant first befriended Hossain, Aref's acquaintance from a Central Avenue mosque, and slowly coaxed him into becoming involved in an alleged money-laundering scheme that federal prosecutors admitted was initially set up as a loan between friends. At points in the year-long sting, it's questionable whether either defendant believed they were laundering money, defense attorneys said. Both insisted that all the transactions be written down, and Aref at one point questioned whether Hossain had "borrowed" too much money. The informant agreed to loan Hossain $50,000 in return for Hossain returning the money in smaller amounts by writing checks to the informant's business. At the end, Hossain would receive $5,000 as a gift, the informant said.

Federal authorities contend the informant made it clear the money came from selling weapons to terrorists, but defense attorneys have argued the informant spoke so cryptically that he never made it clear they were directly involved in a crime. But several months after the sting began, on Nov. 20, 2003, the informant, a Loudonville businessman who went by the name "Malik," hoisted a shoulder-fired missile above his head during a meeting with Hossain in Latham. Aref had not yet been drawn into the scheme. "This is for destroying airplanes," the informant told him. "This comes for our Mujahid brothers." Pericak called that meeting "a big elephant in the room." "Mr. Hossain knew it's a surface-to-air missile for God's sake, and it's going to New York for a terrorist attack," Pericak said. "The charge is whether he was ready and willing, without persuasion, to engage in the conduct." But three weeks later, the informant, posing as a wealthy importer, told Hossain he was not breaking any laws.

Luibrand seized on that disclosure, which he said the informant blurted out without authorization from his FBI handlers. Pericak disputed its significance, contending the informant was referring to Islamic laws. "You can't do that," Luibrand said. "If you think he said 'American law,' they're finished. They're finished." Still, whether the defendants ever connected the loan with the informant's alarming talk about terrorists and an impending missile attack in New York City is at the heart of the case.

Aref's attorney, Terence L. Kindlon, reminded jurors his client never saw the missile launcher and was never present when the informant allegedly suggested using "Chaudry" as a code name for missile. In other instances, when the informant did talk about missiles in Aref's presence, he used pronunciations of the word that were purposefully misleading because he wanted to confuse Aref while soliciting religious guidance, Kindlon said. "The government wants you to think that Yassin Aref is a terrorist," Kindlon told jurors. "He's the exact opposite, ladies and gentlemen. ... What happened was 9/11 ... and the world really changed for people from the Middle East, and Yassin was one of them."

Kindlon said Aref's poor English-speaking skills made him vulnerable to the informant, who he characterized as a slick and polished turncoat witness who had become adept at working stings by the time he was enlisted to take down Aref. Aref, who grew up under Saddam Hussein's brutal dictatorship, came from an area of northern Iraq without banks, checks or credit cards; where people loaned one another money through centuries-old customs of writing down transactions and having a witness. "Yassin doesn't get money laundering, he doesn't get it," Kindlon said. "He's got the financial sophistication of a 7-year-old. ... There was a failure to communicate."

Attorneys on both sides urged the jury to read all of the cases' transcripts. The lengthy documents, which unfold mostly in broken English, were culled from more than 50 hours of secretly recorded conversations between Hossain, Aref and the informant. Much of the conversations involved ideological discussions about Islam.

But defense attorneys argued that the informant preyed on Aref and Hossain's deeply religious backgrounds to press them repeatedly on whether Islamic laws allowed him to help a Pakistani organization -- Jaish e-Mohammed -- involved in terrorism. Hossain thought JEM was a musical group, while Aref heard about it on television but told the informant he knew little about them. When the sting began, Aref was working as the imam of a Central Avenue mosque. Hossain runs a pizza shop and also owns a few rental properties that he bought from auctions and refurbished. "If Malik had not walked into his life, this man ... would be breaking no law and he would be living his life," said Luibrand, who asked the jury to find that the FBI unlawfully entrapped his client.

The pair face up to 400 years in prison under a 27-count indictment that includes charges of money laundering, laundering money in support of terrorism and conspiracy to support terrorism. Aref also is accused of lying to FBI agents and on a green card application about his connections to a Kurdish political group that is not considered a terrorist organization. This morning, U.S. District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy is scheduled to instruct the jury on the charges before they deliberate

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"As I stand here, I can't believe the government did that," said Hossain's attorney, Kevin A. Luibrand. "They knew that he was innocent when they did that, and they had no business doing that."

Not exactly F. Lee Bailey.