L.A. Jury Jury Convicts Algerian of Terrorism

L O S   A N G E L E S, April 6, 2001 -- A jury today convicted Ahmed Ressam of terrorism in connection with what prosecutors said was a sweeping plan to disrupt millennium celebrations with explosives.

Ressam, a 33-year-old Algerian national, was found guilty of all nine counts against him, the most serious of which is "an act of terrorism transcending a national boundary," for which Ressam could receive 25 years in jail. If fully sentenced on all counts, Ressam will face 130 years in federal prison.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 28. Ressam's defense attorneys said they will appeal.

The case was moved to Los Angeles because of excessive pretrial publicity in Seattle. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour of the Western District of Washington brought his entire operation to California to try the case.

The verdict was the second for Ressam today. Besides the U.S. trial, a court in France also heard of Ressam's alleged connection to the terror network of Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden. Today in Paris, he was convicted and sentenced to five years for belonging to a support network for Islamic militants.

Prosecution: Trail of Terror

In December 1999, Ressam was captured in Port Angeles, Wash., after crossing into the United States from Canada. He fled on foot after an agent for the U.S. Customs Service asked to do a secondary inspection of his vehicle.

Authorities said they found bomb-making materials in the wheel well of his car, including chemicals and four timing devices.

Ressam's destination was Seattle. His capture and concern over possible terrorism caused the city to cancel its New Year's millennium celebration.

The government did not know Ressam's targets but prosecutors said such knowledge was not needed to prove their case. In closing arguments Thursday, Andrew Hamilton of the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle, urged the jury to hold Ressam accountable for planning a terrorist attack on the United States designed to "tear apart the very fabric of our society."

Hamilton portrayed Ressam's capture as a success story in which "two countries stood side-by-side and took a stand against terrorism."

The prosecution produced a trail of evidence that showed Ressam allegedly purchased bomb-making components using credit cards that bore a false name. Ressam had adopted the name of Benni Antoine Norris to elude Canadian authorities who had warrants out for his arrest.

According to ABCNEWS consultant Salim Jiwa, "using a Visa card proved to be Ressam's undoing. Law enforcement officials were able to tie virtually every item found in his car to purchases he had made on the card."

Defense: Ignore Red Herrings

Closing for the defense, Jo Ann Olliver said the government had gone far beyond the hard evidence and had played to jurors' emotions. She described some government exhibits as "props" to make the jury jump to conclusions.

Olliver used as an example a map of Los Angeles found in Ressam's Montreal apartment on which three major airports had been circled. The prosecution suggested the airports might be targets, Olliver said, in order to alarm the jurors, all residents of Los Angeles.

Olliver then raised doubts about who had drawn the circles on the maps and asked why Ressam had left the map behind if he had intended to use it to plant bombs.

She urged the jurors not to follow the "all these red herrings" and to be "dispassionate, reasonable and careful."

Repeating one of her key arguments from the opening of the trial, Olliver asserted that Ressam's actions were influenced by his alleged co-conspirator, Abdel Magid Dahoumane. Dahoumane and Ressam lived together for three weeks in the 2400 Motel in Vancouver before Ressam crossed the border.

The government has argued the two concocted bomb components together in the motel room. Defense attorney Thomas Hillier held up an enlarged photograph of Dahoumane for the jurors as Olliver spoke.

Olliver argued that Dahoumane was the mastermind of the operation who did all the talking, reinforcing the notion that Ressam was gullible. She described how Dahoumane escorted Ressam to the ferry terminal in Canada before he crossed to Port Angeles so as to "shadow" him and make sure he followed through on the plan.

She also pointed out that Ressam had left a clear trail behind him and asked: "Is he hiding? Not at all." Later she said he was "not a good liar, not polished."

By comparison Dahoumane mysteriously left no fingerprints behind and vanished after Ressam was caught, Olliver said.

Authorities had put up a $5 million award for his capture. Dahoumane has recently resurfaced in Algeria and will face trial. He has reportedly confessed to playing a full role in the bomb plot.

What the Jury Didn't Hear

What may be most significant is what jurors didn't hear. To avoid inflaming jurors, Judge John Coughenour prohibited the prosecution from mentioning Ressam's alleged connection to the network of bin Laden.

Coughenour limited the testimony of Jean-Louis Bruguiere, one of the world's foremost experts on radical Islamic terrrorists and a French investigating magistrate. While the jury was absent, Bruguiere outlined clear links between Ressam and other Islamists linked to bin Laden's operation in Afghanistan.

Bruguiere said a Swiss bank daybook seized in the Montreal apartment contained a P.O. box number for Abu Zubaida, whom authorities believe is a conduit for weapons in bin Laden's organization. Another instance Bruguiere cited was a coded phone number of someone known by the initial "J" that was found on Ressam.

Bruguiere said that when uncoded, that telephone number belonged to Abu Jaffer, another conduit to bin Laden's organization in Peshawar, Pakistan.

ABCNEWS consultant Salim Jiwa contributed to this report.