Unknown to each other, two spies worked Fort Dix case

star ledger ^ | 12.07.08 | John P. Martin

[Coleus]

The 15-month FBI investigation into the alleged Fort Dix terror plot was not without its moments of irony. One came in March 2007, as Besnik Bakalli was talking to the suspects about Mahmoud Omar, an Egyptian who attended their mosque and had joined them on a recent getaway to the Pocono Mountains. Bakalli didn't like Omar. "What a very bad, dirty liar," he said. The Egyptian was arrogant, he complained, always spouting opinions about jihads "like he know everything." At the time, Bakalli was secretly working for the FBI. He didn't know it, but so was Omar.

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Separately, the two informants recorded hundreds of conversations with the five defendants who prosecutors say were inspired by al Qaeda and plotted to attack Fort Dix or another military base. Since the defendants' conspiracy trial in Camden started in October, Omar and Bakalli have occupied the witness stand for all but six of the 23 days of testimony. Bakalli began testifying last week, and could finish his cross-examination tomorrow or Tuesday, Prosecutors could conclude their case later this week. For most of the time, the star witnesses have served as narrators, adding details and context to the hours of tape played for jurors and U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler.

They also have offered a rare glimpse into the sometimes complicated and shadowy world of informants, particularly the kind who have become a regular tool for government agents trying to detect or disrupt terrorists. Defense attorneys have cast Omar and Bakalli as con men and criminals who manufactured a conspiracy to enrich or save themselves. Prosecutors have contended that the informants, while not ideal citizens, were critical because their backgrounds gave them access that investigators could not get on their own.

[pandoraou812]

This is the case I was telling you about.

[padre35]

Provocateur or Good Work?

[Joe Marine 76]

Three questions:

1. How did this info get outside the FBI?

2. Who decided that the public needed to know this information.

3. Why don’t we show ours hands in ALL our attempts to subvert terrorism?

Clowns.

[pelicandriver]

It looks like it all came out in trial testimony. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to publish it. OTOH, it’s not exactly a secret that LE uses confidential informants.