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Prosecutors: Ex-security guard at Andrews Air Force Base hid ties to controversial imam
November 27, 2007

GREENBELT, Md. - A former security guard at Andrews Air Force Base who failed to put his Muslim name on a job application was trying to conceal his ties to a controversial Washington imam, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

U.S. District Court jurors began hearing the case against Darrick Michael Jackson, who failed to list ''Abdul-Jalil Mohammed'' as an alias on an application for a job at the suburban Washington base, home to Air Force One.

Jackson's attorney, David Chamble, said that Jackson used the Mohammed name only while at mosque or with Muslim friends, and that he didn't consider it a true alias that he needed to disclose. Chamble called it ''an innocent omission'' and excoriated the government for pursing criminal charges against Jackson. Jackson is charged with making a false statement and could face five years in prison if convicted.

He already was a security guard at Andrews when he reapplied in 2005 after the contract for security at the base changed. He had to fill out a federal form, which asked whether he had any aliases. At the time, he was affiliated with the Masjid Al-Islam mosque in southeast Washington, which is led by a fiery imam named Abdul Alim Musa. Musa is not on trial in the case, but prosecutors said Jackson tried to hide his ties to Musa and the mosque to avoid an investigation that might have led to the denial of his application.

Federal prosecutor David Salem told jurors, without elaborating, that Musa ''has made some inflammatory statements about the United States.'' He told jurors the government was not pursuing the case because of Jackson's religion. Musa, who was not at the trial, did not immediately return a phone call left Tuesday at the Masjid Al-Islam mosque seeking comment. Some of his public comments have included praise for Palestinian suicide bombers and a paraphrasing of the former 1960s Black Panther H. Rap Brown, now known as Jamil Al-Amin, saying, ''We're going to burn America down.''

Jackson's lawyer said his client did not try to cover his tracks. His application included references that had ties to the mosque and an e-mail address that incorporated part of his Muslim name. And some of the documents he faxed as part of his job application contained the fax heading of the mosque. ''The government, in their hysteria to try to prove they are doing something, has gotten this whole case wrong,'' Chamble said.

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