Egypt Swayed U.S., Sheik’s Lawyer Says : Trial: Cairo trying to stifle revolution at home, jurors in N.Y. terrorism case are told. Informant is denounced by cleric’s attorney.

NEW YORK —  Lawyers for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman charged Thursday that Egypt manipulated the United States and that the prosecution’s chief informant duped the FBI in an effort to put Abdel-Rahman in prison so he could not foment revolution overseas.

“There is no jihad in America,” Lynne F. Stewart, the chief lawyer for the controversial cleric, told jurors in closing arguments at the trial of the sheik and nine followers on charges of plotting a war of urban terrorism against the United States.

Stewart launched an all-out attack on the credibility of the informant, Emad Salem, labeling him as untrustworthy and an advocate of torture and planting evidence.

“Egypt has duped America and Salem [a former Egyptian army officer] has duped the FBI,” the defense lawyer charged. “ . . . His loyalty is to Egypt. He talks about protecting his motherland. . . . You can’t trust his testimony.”

In contrast, Stewart called the sheik a mediator of disputes and a man of God.

Abdel-Rahman and the other defendants are charged with plotting to explode bombs at the United Nations, two commuter tunnels and the Manhattan headquarters of the FBI. They are also charged with planning to kill Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak during a visit to New York.

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Prosecutors also allege that the plot was part of a broader conspiracy which included the 1990 assassination in New York of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the militant Jewish Defense League, and the bombing of the World Trade Center three years later that killed six people and injured more than 1,000.

Stewart charged that Salem, who infiltrated the sheik’s inner circle and acted as a trusted aide, misled the FBI and that the bureau ignored his Egyptian connections.

“Where is Emad’s loyalty?” she asked the jurors, adding: “Suppose there had been no Salem. I suggest to you there would have been . . . no indictment.”

“I submit to you, the whole World Trade Center bombing was put into this case to make you fear these men,” Stewart said.

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“The charge in this case is seditious conspiracy,” the defense lawyer added. “Sedition is a kissing cousin to treason. Aren’t you entitled to more than generalities? We are supposed to prosecute people for crimes, not for what they say.”

During his testimony, Salem pictured the sheik as a militant spiritual leader who encouraged and approved acts of jihad against the United States and who was sometimes consulted about potential targets.

In her summation, Stewart charged that Salem lied and his motive was clear.

“One thing is certain,” she said, “Sheik Rahman had his foot in the eye of the Egyptian government.”