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Finding that a Yemeni cleric and his assistant had been deprived of a fair trial because of errors by the presiding judge, a federal appeals panel in New York on Thursday overturned their convictions in a prominent terrorism case once hailed by the Bush administration as a significant blow to Al Qaeda. The appeals court judges found that the defendants, Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, did not receive a fair trial because the trial judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., allowed the jury to hear inflammatory testimony and other evidence that prejudiced the defendants’ case.

February 3, 2005 -- Brooklyn jurors on the terror-financing case of a Yemeni sheik yesterday viewed secret tapes of him huddling with an assistant — allegedly to create code words for weapons and ammunition. Not knowing his German hotel room was wired, Sheik Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad allegedly suggested to his assistant that instead of referring to a shortage of ammunition, they could say, "The corn is running low." "A person must be clever," al-Moayad, 56, tells Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31, on the tape. "For example, if you wish to buy ammunition . . . 'By God, Sheik Mohammed,...

The ruins of the World Trade Center were still burning when federal agents arrested two men at Kennedy Airport who were found with more than $140,000 hidden in cardboard boxes with honey jars bound for Yemen. For the agents, aware that terrorists were said to use honey shipments to hide money, that slender lead could not be ignored. If the world was suddenly different for everybody back then, in October 2001, with federal agents and prosecutors both properly alarmed and also under sudden pressure to make terrorism cases, they still relied on old techniques developed in generations of Mafia and...

A Yemeni cleric who once said that Osama bin Laden had called him his sheik was convicted of financing terrorism yesterday in a federal court in New York City. The victory for the Justice Department came in one of the government's most visible terrorism-financing prosecutions, a case that had for a time appeared uncertain after the F.B.I.'s star informer set himself on fire outside the White House in November. Advertisement The sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, a prominent Yemeni who once held a government post in his country, was convicted by a jury in Federal Court in Brooklyn of conspiracy...

NEW YORK (AP) - A Yemeni sheik and his assistant were convicted Thursday of plotting to funnel money to al-Qaida and Hamas, handing a victory to prosecutors shaken last year when the man who was supposed to be their star witness set himself on fire outside the White House. Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad and Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed were found guilty on all but two of the 10 charges in an indictment that accused them of vital roles in a terror-funding network that stretched from Brooklyn to Yemen. In a meeting with FBI informants in a German hotel room,...

NEW YORK (AP) - An FBI informant testified Tuesday that he wanted to put "the world on notice" when he set himself on fire outside the White House, throwing the terror-funding case against a Yemeni sheik into turmoil. Testifying for the second day as a hostile witness for the defense, Mohamed Alanssi said he had not intended to kill himself, even though he sent suicide notes to the FBI and The Washington Post. "I did not have the intention but I wanted to put the government and the world on notice," Alanssi said. Until he set himself on fire outside...

NEW YORK (AP) - An FBI informant who was set to be the star prosecution witness in a terror trial until he set himself ablaze outside the White House took the stand for the defense Thursday, saying he had sought $5 million for leading prosecutors to a Yemeni sheik he says gave Osama bin Laden money, arms and fighters. "I deserve that," Mohamed Alanssi said through an Arabic-English interpreter. "After I chase the terrorist and I bring him here to America I deserve even $10 million." Alanssi quickly laid out some of the government's most serious allegations against Sheik Mohammed...

NEW YORK (AP) - A Yemeni sheik accused of funding terrorist organizations boasted of his ties to Osama bin Laden and Palestinian militant leaders on surveillance tapes played Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court. "He used to say that I'm his sheik," Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad said of bin Laden on the tapes secretly recorded in a German hotel room. "I used to teach him some of the Islamic laws," he added. Defense lawyers said al-Moayad made idle boasts to wheedle millions of dollars from an FBI informant posing as a militant Islamist. The informant had proposed giving al-Moayad $2.5 million...

NEW YORK (AP) -- A judge earlier this week refused to let federal prosecutors present some of the most potentially damaging evidence against a Yemeni sheik charged with funneling millions of dollars to terrorists. Prosecutors will not be able to present documents allegedly linking Sheik Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad to suspected al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan and Croatia, Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. ruled. Opening arguments are due to begin this week in the case of Al-Moayad and his Yemeni assistant Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, who are charged in federal court in Brooklyn with supporting al Qaeda and the Palestinian extremist...

NEW YORK (AP) - Federal prosecutors are challenging efforts by the Yemeni government to intervene in the courtroom defense of an outspoken sheik accused of funneling millions of dollars to al-Qaida. Sheik Ali Hassan al-Moayad has been jailed in Brooklyn since last year over the objections of Yemen, where he was a leading member of an Islamic-oriented political party. With a trial nearing, officials in Yemen recently hired a prominent Yemeni lawyer and sent him to New York to monitor the case. The lawyer, Khaled al-Ansi, was cleared to enter the United States. But when he showed up in court...

Mar. 5, 2003 Yemeni cleric charged with raising funds for Al Qaida and Hamas By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK A Yemeni cleric detained in Germany bragged to an FBI informant that he supplied $20 million, recruits and weapons to Osama bin Laden in the years leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks, US officials said Tuesday. Much of the money came from contributors in the United States, including worshippers at the Al Farouq mosque in New York, Attorney General John Ashcroft said in announcing charges against Sheik Mohammed Al Hasan Al-Moayad. Amid an undercover operation, Al-Moayad "boasted that jihad...

Frustrated by Arab anti-Semitism? Upset by people’s insensitivity toward Jewish concerns? Think you’re powerless to influence your school or community? Think again. A group of Harvard students spoke out against hate speech in the Middle East and, thanks to the support of the community, achieved results. I helped organize the group and our efforts resulted in shutting down an Arab League think tank that distributes hate speech against Americans and Jews. It all started last year when I was a student at the Harvard Divinity School. In December, I helped organize a panel on the rise of global anti-Semitism. One...