Jury in Terrorist Bomb Plot Goes Into Deliberations

Federal prosecutors Thursday urged a Los Angeles jury to convict Ahmed Ressam of terrorism, saying during closing statements that overwhelming evidence proved he participated in a conspiracy to bomb the United States.

One defense lawyer countered by asking jurors to acquit Ressam, 33, because, he said, the government’s case is based more on “innuendo, speculation and sensationalism” than evidence.

The U.S. District Court jury, after listening to both sides, began deliberations in a case that could result in a prison sentence of up to 130 years for Ressam.

He was arrested Dec. 14, 1999, when a ferry brought him to Washington state from Canada. The trunk of his rental car was filled with more than 130 pounds of explosive compounds and four bomb-timing devices.

In addition to conspiracy to commit terrorism, the charges against Ressam include using false identification to gain entry into the United States and transporting explosives.

Early Thursday, prosecutors and Ressam’s defense lawyers emphasized the strengths of their cases for jurors.

Because of Ressam’s capture before New Year’s Day 2000, “No bombs went off. No buildings were destroyed,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Andrew R. Hamilton.

“Ahmed Ressam was a trained terrorist who entered this country to inflict widespread terror and destruction,” Hamilton said. “His plan was to tear apart the very fabric of our society. He must be held accountable for his actions.”

Prosecutor Jerry Diskin played an FBI videotape of a bomb blast simulating what would have happened if the explosives Ressam was carrying went off. It reduced a mid-size car to twisted, flaming wreckage.

“People would have died in this blast,” Diskin said.

The two prosecutors said the government did not need to show that Ressam had any targets in mind--or even that he was anything more than a courier--to convict him of conspiring to commit an act of international terrorism.

And they reminded the jury that during three weeks of testimony, prosecutors called 110 witnesses and presented more than 5,000 exhibits and other evidence to link Ressam to the explosives and timing devices, to a Vancouver motel room where the explosives allegedly were mixed, to the rental car and to other key elements of the alleged bomb plot.

But defense lawyer Jo Ann Oliver said prosecutors were using the explosives, and the vague specter of terrorism to appeal to jurors’ “emotions and gut reaction.”

“The government has tried to paint all of this in a light that is very sinister without proving anything concrete,” Oliver said. “Reasonable doubt? There is so much after almost a month of testimony that I can’t hit everything here.”

Ressam’s fingerprints, for instance, were not found on the explosive materials, and no explosives residue was found in the Vancouver motel room that the government says was used by Ressam and another man to mix the bomb components, she said.

Oliver also argued that Ressam was unaware that the explosives were in the trunk of his car, or didn’t know their significance.

And Ressam’s use of aliases and false identifications was not proof that he was a terrorist, as the government alleges, but that he was an illegal refugee in Canada who feared being sent back to his war-torn homeland of Algeria, Oliver said.

The real terrorist, she told jurors, was Abdelmajid Dahoumane, Ressam’s friend from Montreal, whom prosecutors have charged as his co-conspirator.

Dahoumane shadowed Ressam “every step of the way” and made many of the arrangements, yet “oddly” kept his fingerprints off of everything, Oliver said.

Dahoumane could not be tried with Ressam because he is in custody in Algeria, which does not have an extradition policy with the United States. Algerian authorities recently said they plan to try Dahoumane on terrorism charges.