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Haouari, a Montreal shopkeeper, is charged with multiple counts of aiding a terrorist plot and fraud.

By Phil Hirschkorn
CNN New York Bureau

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A government witness Monday told a jury defendant Mokhtar Haouari asked him to travel to Seattle, Washington, in December 1999 to assist someone who would be carrying out a violent act in the United States.

Abdel Ghani Meskini said his job was to bring cash, rent a car and serve as a translator for a third man, whom he had never met and knew only by the code name, "Reda."

Reda turned out to be Ahmed Ressam, who was caught December 14, 1999, as he drove across the Canadian border into Washington state with a trunk full of explosive materials and timing devices.

Ressam was convicted on terrorism charges in Los Angeles, California, in April and is expected to testify against Haouari on Tuesday.

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All three men are Algerian nationals in their 30s.

Meskini said Haouari told him Ressam was someone who could help fulfill his goal of training in Islamic military camps inside Afghanistan. Ressam had been there and had fought alongside Muslims in Bosnia against the Serbs, he was told.

Meskini said Haouari also told him Ressam was coming to the United States to raise money for "jihad."

"The fire is on and it's coming," Meskini said Haouari told him 10 days before the planned rendezvous in Seattle. Meskini said the remark aroused his suspicions.

"I have a hunch this guy was not coming for raising money," Meskini said. "This guy was coming for some violent act."

Meskini told the court he planned to sit with Ressam and see what he had to say. "If he could convince me 100 percent by the Koran," Meskini said, "then it would happen."

Meskini said he arrived in Seattle on December 11 and planned to give Ressam $2,000. On cross-examination by defense attorney Dan Ollen, Meskini could not explain why he just did not wire Ressam the money.

Meskini said he received a call from Ressam on December 13 saying he would arrive the next day, driving down from Vancouver. Instead, Ressam was arrested.

"Your friend didn't show up," Meskini said he told Haouari, and he left Seattle the next day, flying home to New York City. On December 17, when news of Ressam's arrest became public, Meskini said Haouari told him to change his phone number, throw away his fake ID cards, move out of his apartment, and not call him anymore.

Unknown to both men, federal agents had found a scrap of paper in Ressam's car with the name "Ghani" and what turned out to be Meskini's home phone number.

Agents began staking out Meskini's Brooklyn apartment and wiretapping his phone. The agents found a paper trail of his travels in his apartment's outdoor trash bin.

Defense attorney Dan Ollen, in his cross-examination of government witness Abdel Ghani Meskini, called him a liar, a thief and a con man

Meskini and Haouari spoke again five days later, a call intercepted by the FBI. It is the only one of 255 wiretapped Meskini calls on which Haouari's voice is heard, the government says.

"Was that woman your cousin?" Meskini said he asked, claiming he was speaking in code about Ressam, his friend who was arrested. "Yes," Haouari said, according to Meskini, confirming that Ressam was "Reda."

It was the first time Meskini and Haouari had used such code words, Meskini testified.

FBI agents arrested Meskini on December 30, 1999. At their behest, he called Haouari from his wiretapped phone. "The cops are after me. I am really in trouble. That jackass friend of yours kept my number," Meskini said in voice mail.

Haouari did not call back, but Meskini said he heard him speaking in the background during a friend's call.

"They're listening, they're listening," Meskini recalled Haouari saying. Haouari was arrested the next month.

While incarcerated, Meskini said he and Haouari discussed whether Meskini should give false testimony -- admitting only to some of the credit card and bank fraud charges they faced, while denying knowledge of the terrorist plot or "jihad" ideas.

Defense attorney Ollen got Meskini to admit that before 1999 he "had zero, nothing to do with jihad" and that the Ressam plot would have been "the first jihad" in his life.

Ollen in his questions called Meskini a thief, a liar and a con man, terms the witness did not dispute. He has admitted before the jury to a career of bank and credit card scams and document forgeries, implicating Haouari in a number of schemes.

In addition to the two counts of supporting a terrorist enterprise, Haouari faces five fraud counts. Meskini pleaded guilty to nearly identical charges in March and is now cooperating with the government. He testified against Ressam.

"You need to tell people lies in order to make a living in your chosen business," Ollen said.

"Sometimes," said Meskini. "Lying is a part of life."

Ollen attacked Meskini's credibility, suggesting he had often lied about this case and even his religious beliefs.

Ollen asked if it was permissible "too slaughter innocent men, women, and children" under Islam, "to participate in a terrorist act?"

"No," Meskini said.

Meskini completed his testimony with no audible reaction from the defendant -- a contrast from Friday, when Haouari threw a tantrum as Meskini discussed "jihad" and the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa.