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Prosecutors: Algerian planned millennium attack

Ressam was arrested in Port Angeles, Washington, for allegedly trying to cross into the U.S. from Canada with a car full of bomb-making materials.

From CNN Correspondent Frank Buckley

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Prosecutors Tuesday said an Algerian national planned to bomb New Year's 2000 celebrations in the United States, but authorities foiled the plot in a "law enforcement success story."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Gonzalez outlined the government's case in opening statements against Ahmed Ressam, 33, who authorities say has ties to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

Ressam has pleaded not guilty to terrorism, possession of explosives and other felony charges. He faces more than 100 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

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The Algerian national was arrested in Port Angeles, Wash., on Dec. 14, 1999, after crossing the Canada-U.S. border with a car allegedly loaded with bomb-making material.

Prosecutors say he was planning to use that material to carry out bombings at celebrations bringing in the year 2000. Ressam's attorneys say he was an unwitting courier of the material.

"This case is a law enforcement success story, a case of a tragedy averted," Gonzalez said. "We will ask you to find the defendant to be the terrorist we will have proven him to be."

He said Ressam was planning an attack "transcending a national boundary."

When authorities began pulling explosive materials from the trunk of Ressam's car, Gonzalez said, Ressam, who had been placed in the back seat of a patrol car, ducked down.

"Did he know it was there and did he know what it was?" asked Gonzalez. The government's case, he said, would prove that answer to be, "Yes."

The jury of eight women and four men listened attentively to the prosecution's opening statements. Ressam sat at the defense table, listening with headphones to translations of the court proceedings from English to Arabic. He occasionally smiled.

His attorney, Jo Ann Oliver, conceded that customs agents did the country a "great service" when it found the explosives material in the trunk, but her client didn't know what it was.

"The evidence you are going to hear is not going to demonstrate that Mr. Ressam knew about everything in that trunk and what it was intended for," she said.

"Mr. Ressam is not a bomber and he is not a terrorist."

The case is expected to last more than three weeks and involve 100-plus witnesses. The jury was seated in one day Monday, and includes a parole officer and a Jewish shoe store manager who said his ties to Israel would not prevent him from being fair to the defendant.

Security remained tight at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, with extra police and bomb-sniffing dogs combing the building. The court is presided over by U.S. District Judge John Coughenour.

The U.S. District Court in Seattle granted Ressam a change of venue to Los Angeles after defense attorneys argued publicity in the Seattle area made it impossible to seat an impartial jury.

Last week, a Nigerian man accused of conspiring with Ressam -- Abdel Ghani Meskini -- reached an agreement with the government and pleaded guilty to eight counts, including conspiracy to provide material terrorism support and use of fraudulent documents. He could face a maximum 105 years in prison.

As part of his plea, Meskini said a man he knew only as "Reda" was to enter the United States through Canada and that his entry "created a substantial risk of destruction of real or personal property within the United States." U.S. authorities say Reda is Ressam.

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U.S. District Court of Southern New York

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