Foreign Worker in NY Admits al–Qaida Plot

NEW YORK (AP) - Nov. 11, 2005 -- A Pakistani man working in Manhattan confessed that he conspired in 2003 to try to sneak an al-Qaida operative into the country who was planning a chemical attack against Americans, a prosecutor said as a terrorism trial began Wednesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Bruce accused Uzair Paracha, 25, of agreeing to support the plot during meetings in Pakistan with two al-Qaida operatives and his father, a businessman.

"This trial is about the defendant's role in helping al-Qaida penetrate this country and attack the United States from within its own borders," Bruce said in his opening statement.

Edward Wilford, a lawyer for Paracha, told jurors the government's claims stemmed from a false confession Paracha gave after he was subjected to 72 hours of interrogation without being told he could consult a lawyer or speak with his parents. "Uzair Paracha agreed to assist his father," Wilford said. "At no point did Uzair Paracha agree to help al-Qaida do anything."

Paracha's father is being held as an enemy combatant at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Paracha was arrested in March 2003 and charged with conspiring to support al-Qaida, conspiring to violate laws barring economic support for al-Qaida and committing identification document fraud in aid of terrorism.

Bruce said Paracha was trying to help Majid Khan, an al-Qaida member who had been living in Baltimore. Khan had been granted asylum along with other family members after his mother alleged in 1997 that they would be tortured in Pakistan, he said. Bruce said Khan needed Paracha's help to return to the United States after leaving the country improperly to go to Pakistan.

Paracha "believed Majid Khan was planning a chemical attack against the United States," Bruce said. "He agreed to help it."

The prosecutor said Paracha made deposits into a bank account in Khan's name to make it appear he was in United States and posed as Khan to try to obtain an immigration document so Khan could return.

Bruce repeatedly referred to a planned chemical attack by Khan but never described the plot or when and where it would occur.

He said a woman affiliated with al-Qaida opened a Maryland post office box in the names of herself and Khan so the immigration document could be sent there.

Bruce said the woman, if asked, would "help carry out a deadly Anthrax attack against the United States." Her whereabouts were unknown.

But it was the only mention of Anthrax in his opening and the prosecutor never said whether Anthrax was part of Khan's plot.

Outside court, Wilford said Anthrax was not the alleged Khan plot.

"Now you have a chemical attack, you have Anthrax. It feeds the government's purpose ... to get the jury worked up, to look at the case as terrorism rather than what happened here," Wilford said.

The government said Paracha told investigators in April and May 2003 that he believed that Khan was an al-Qaida operative, court documents show.

Bruce said at the time of Khan's arrest, his key chain included a key for the post office box where Khan's immigration document was to be delivered.

In the Brooklyn apartment where Paracha was staying with relatives, investigators found Khan's driver's license, Social Security card and bank card, Bruce said.

"The evidence will show the defendant was caught red handed," Bruce said. "The defendant has confessed to every crime in this indictment."

Included in trial evidence will be one-page summaries of statements made by Khan and another al-Qaida operative who are presumed to be in U.S. custody overseas, though the U.S. government has refused to acknowledge it.

In the unclassified summary of an interrogation of Khan, the government wrote that Khan was "reported to have stated" that he thought he might have been interested in trying to recruit Paracha to al-Qaida but only after he knew him better.

The government said Khan would give Paracha only a 5-10 percent suitability assessment, "citing the fact that Uzair Paracha had no extremist views and was not really a practicing Muslim."

The second al-Qaida operative, Ammar Al-Baluchi, told investigators that Paracha knew nothing about al-Qaida operations and that neither Al-Baluchi nor Khan ever told him they were al-Qaida members, according to a summary of his statement.

If convicted of all charges, Paracha could face up to 75 years in prison.

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