N.J. terror suspects to appear in court for bail hearing

on June 10, 2010 at 5:11 AM, updated July 06, 2010 at 1:23 PM
almonte_alessa.jpgCarlos Eduardo Almonte, left, and Mohamed Mahmood Alessa are to appear in federal court in Newark today for a bail hearing after being arrested Saturday at John F. Kennedy International Airport on charges of conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people abroad.
It was all talk. They were playing paintball, not training for jihad. They were entrapped by a fast-talking, undercover cop.

Those are among the arguments defense lawyers could raise in the case of two New Jersey men charged with conspiring to trying to join an overseas militia group with ties to al Qaeda. But if Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte want to avoid spending the rest of their lives behind bars, their best option may be to admit guilt and offer whatever information they can provide to investigators, said defense lawyers who have handled other terrorism cases.

"Your defense here is to get a plea bargain to avoid a life sentence. There is no way you try this case and win," said Henry E. Klingeman, a former federal prosecutor who defended Hemant Lakhani, a 74-year-old British businessman serving 47 years in prison for selling weapons to an FBI informant posing as a Somali terrorist.

Alessa, 20, and Almonte, 24, are to appear in federal court in Newark today for a bail hearing. The men were arrested Saturday night at John F. Kennedy International Airport, trying to begin journeys to Somalia where, authorities say, they hoped to join an insurgent group fighting the U.S. backed government.

Prosecutors plan to argue Alessa and Almonte should not be granted bail because they are a danger to the community and a flight risk. Their lawyers did not respond to requests for interviews.

The men, both U.S. citizens, had been being monitored by the FBI since 2006 after they began watching lectures by radical Muslim clerics on the Internet. Authorities say Alessa, of North Bergen, and Almonte, of Elmwood Park, were caught on tape talking about killing, beheading and sending Americans home in body bags.

To counteract those seemingly damning words, lawyers who have taken similar cases to trial said a possible strategy is to argue the men are impressionable blowhards who had no concrete plans about what to do once they landed in Somalia. Alessa, who authorities say did most of the tough talking, was only 16 when the alleged plot began. Other than folding knives, authorities have not indicated the men had acquired weapons. And there is no indication they had actually made contact with the terror group, al Shabaab.

"These guys are nothing but disaffected young people and loudmouth talkers. If they actually ever made it to Somalia, they would have wound up getting shot," said Ronald L. Kuby, a lawyer who represented one of the men convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

No matter what they argue, Alessa and Almonte would likely have a tough time beating the charges at trail, defense lawyers said. The federal government puts tremendous resources into terrorism investigations. And jurors in New Jersey can easily see themselves as potential victims of terrorism, the lawyers said.

Alessa and Almonte are charged with conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people in a foreign land. The law has been used in other recent cases including that of Colleen R. LaRose, a Muslim convert from Pennsylvania who allegedly called herself JihadJane as she tried to recruit men online to wage jihad in southern Asia and Europe. The statute carries a maximum life sentence.

"It’s a biblical measure of justice because the crime has monumental consequences," said Michael J. Wildes, a former federal prosecutor.

It remains unclear how the defendants met. Alessa, the son of Palestinian immigrants, bounced between several schools, where officials recalled him as an angry youth who talked of mutilating homosexuals and subordinating women in the name of Islam. Almonte, who was born in the Domincan Republic, grew up Catholic. He converted to Islam several years ago and worked at local computer shop.

A break in the case came last year, when Alessa and Almonte were befriended by a man of Egyptian descent who turned out to be an undercover New York City police officer living in Jersey City. He spent months with them, ultimately earning their trust. Using a hidden recorder, the Arabic-speaking officer made tapes on their conversations as the three planned a trip to Somalia and talked about slaughtering Americans.

"A question that immediately gets raised in a case like this is did the undercover officer push talk into action," said attorney David A. Ruhnke, who represented one of the men convicted in the 1998 bombing of the American Embassy in Tanzania. Like most lawyers interviewed, Ruhnke said is hard to speculate about possible defenses without first seeing the evidence.

It is very difficult to mount a successful entrapment defense, lawyers said. Essentially, Alessa and Almonte would have to prove they were not predisposed to participating in an alleged terror plot.

That argument could be undone by the men’s attempt to travel to Somalia and if prosecutors have surveillance tapes of them cheering at violent jihadist videos, Klingeman said.

During a news conference Monday, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman rejected the argument Alessa and Almonte were entrapped. "The government expects to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants had the intent and the predisposition to commit this crime," he said.

The case echoes the last terror prosecution in New Jersey, in which five men were convicted of plotting to attack Fort Dix. In both instances, the men watched lectures of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric who preaches violence and martyrdom on the Internet. The defendants all played paintball. And in each case, they were undone by an undercover operative.

During the Fort Dix case, defense lawyers argued the paintball games were just games. And they tried to portray the undercover operative, who had been convicted of bank fraud, as a manipulator and a thief.

The jury did not buy either argument. All five defendants were convicted; four were sentenced to life. Defense lawyers said it could be even harder for Alessa and Almonte to erode the credibility of the police officer who brought them down. He was not a shadowy ex-con.

"They need to cop a plea," Kuby said. "These guys are bagged and tagged."

Pedro Almonte talks about his son's terror arrest
Pedro Almonte talks about his son's terror arrest Pedro Almonte talks about his son's terrorism arrest outside his Elmwood Park home. Carlos Eduardo Almonte was arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York City.
FBI and NYPD raid home of Mohamed Alessa in North Bergen
FBI and NYPD raid home of Mohamed Alessa in North Bergen Members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the New York Police Department spent hours at the home of Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, who was arrested and charged with conspiring to commit an act of international terrorism. (Video by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger)