U.S. Terror Case Said in Jeopardy
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a major blow in the war on terror in March 2003: The government had charged a Muslim cleric with personally handing $20 million to Osama bin Laden.
But as the trial approaches for Sheik Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad, the jurors are unlikely to hear that spectacular allegation. Its sole source, an FBI informant from Yemen, set himself on fire in front of the White House late last year, and it is all but certain prosecutors will not put him on the stand.
“The government has acted outrageously and unethically by trumpeting charges that it was not prepared to prove,” said Mr. al-Moayad’s attorney, William Goodman. “Now they’re hanging by their fingernails.”
U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf declined to comment.
