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Haouari

By Phil Hirschkorn
CNN Producer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors asked a jury Wednesday to convict an Algerian man of terrorism conspiracy charges for aiding a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport around New Year's 2000, while the defendant's attorney asked the jury acquit their client.

The jury heard closing arguments in the case against Mokhtar Haouari, 32, a Montreal shopkeeper accused of assisting Ahmed Ressam in his effort to detonate a suitcase bomb at the airport.

After the closing arguments, U.S. District Judge John Keenan completed his jury instructions and told the jurors to begin their deliberations Thursday morning.

Ressam, 34, also from Algeria, was stopped on December 14, 1999, driving across the U.S.-Canadian border with a trunk full of explosives and timing devices. He was convicted in April and is now cooperating with the government to reduce his prison time. However, during his testimony Ressam said he never disclosed his plans to Haouari or anyone else "for security reasons."

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But Assistant United States Attorney Robin Baker argued, "The defendant must have figured out Ressam planned to bomb something in the United States."

Evidence showed that Haouari loaned Ressam $3,000 (Canadian) and created a fake Canadian driver's license for him in late 1999. But under the law the government's must prove Haouari knew that Ressam intended to damage U.S. property by fire or explosion.

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Baker reminded jurors that Ressam testified he told Haouari he was traveling on "very important and dangerous business" in the United States and that he was "not going for tourism."

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Baker said Haouari and Ressam "repeatedly discussed jihad" and saw the United States as "the biggest enemy of Islam."

She said Haouari knew that Ressam learned how to make bombs at Islamic militant training camps inside Afghanistan, and that Ressam approved of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania but felt it would be better to strike inside the United States.

Haouari allegedly told Ressam that a friend interested in jihad camps, Abdelghani Meskini, could meet him in Seattle, to drive him around and to translate for him. Meskini, 33, an Algerian who lived in Brooklyn, was Haouari's co-defendant until pleading guilty in March and cooperating with the government.

The government's case relies almost entirely on Ressam and Meskini -- each with a history of crime in Canada.

"We're not asking you to give them a reward for good citizenship," Baker said. "Believe their testimony."

Ressam, acquainted with Haouari since immigrating to Canada in the 1990s, told the court he lived off welfare and fraud, at times in schemes run with the defendant.

Defense attorney Ollen

Baker said it made sense that Ressam turned to Haouari for help because they had "a trusting relationship of committing crime together."

Dan Ollen, Haouari's attorney, asked the jury to discount the testimony of Ressam and Meskini.

"We could search the entire planet and never find two men less worthy of belief," Ollen said. "That these two men have been offered leniency by our government is disgraceful."

Ollen said prosecutors were "desperate" when they entered agreements with the pair who are "trying to save their own skins."

Ollen said Ressam "tailored" his testimony after reviewing all the evidence in the case and his story did not make sense.

Ollen called Meskini a liar who invented conversations, such as the incriminating one with Haouari, saying, "the fire is on," pointing out Meskini did not reveal that conversation to prosecutors until his third interview with them. On rebuttal, Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Bianco said Meskini did not discuss terrorism at all in the initial meetings.

Ollen said Haouari ordered Meskini, after Ressam's arrest, to change his phone number and stop calling him. But five days later, in a call taped by investigators, Meskini called Haouari. "Haouari doesn't say, 'Didn't I tell you not to call,'" Ollen said, suggesting Haouari's panic call never happened.

But Bianco said Haouari was worried, purchasing a new cell phone, and asking Meskini during that taped call, "Is this a clean phone?"

In addition to the two terrorism counts, Haouari is charged with four counts of financial and document fraud. He allegedly trafficked in fake and stolen passports and scammed banks with counterfeit checks and credit cards.

"Mokhtar Haouari is no angel," Ollen said. "He is a criminal but he is not a terrorist," he said.