Back in February, I posted on the trial of Numan Maflahi, a curious case involving Yemeni charities alleged to be funding terrorism. Now comes a curious story related to that case. Originally published in Newsday
Informant who set himself on fire figured in at least three terror probes
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
Associated Press Writer
November 17, 2004, 6:55 PM EST
NEW YORK -- An FBI informant who set himself on fire in front of the White House earlier this week played a role in at least three investigations of a network that allegedly funneled millions of dollars to terrorist groups, court documents show.
Defense attorneys said Wednesday that they are re-examining Mohamed Alanssi's role in the cases against their clients, who are accused of helping fund Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida and the Palestinian group Hamas.
"This is like a shot of vitamin C in the arm," said Frank Hancock, the lawyer for a Yemeni-born man accused of illegally sending millions of dollars overseas. "Ultimately what I'm heading for is a motion for dismissal."
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf, who filed the three cases in Brooklyn, said her office would have no comment.
Alanssi, 52, emerged from anonymity Monday when he sent suicide notes to the FBI and The Washington Post complaining that the government was treating him badly despite his assistance in trying to cut off the flow of money to terrorists.
Hours later, Alanssi set his clothing ablaze at the White House gate. He was hospitalized in serious condition Wednesday.
Alanssi was central to the probe of Ali Hassan al-Moayad, a Yemeni sheik who called himself bin Laden's one-time instructor in Islamic law and is now facing charges of supporting the al-Qaida leader.
Alanssi approached al-Moayad in a Yemeni mosque and lured him to Germany, where investigators recorded the men discussing a scheme to move hundreds of thousands of dollars from an American Muslim to al-Qaida and Hamas, according to court filings and lawyers in the case.
Al-Moayad and his assistant were arrested and extradited to the United States, where they are awaiting trial on charges of conspiring to provide material support to the terror groups.
Al-Moayad's attorney, Howard Jacobs, said Wednesday that Alanssi's allegations in his notes that the government had coerced him could weaken the prosecution.
In one note, Alanssi said he was afraid the government might jail and torture him if he stopped cooperating. He also said FBI agents told him he would "be a millionaire" and receive permanent U.S. residency in exchange for his help.
"We have people checking in Yemen on him," Jacobs said of Alanssi. "It truly can help the defense."
According to court documents, Alanssi also helped the government in its case against Abad Elfgeeh, a naturalized U.S. citizen who allegedly sent $20 million overseas illegally from his tiny Brooklyn ice-cream shop.
After al-Moayad said Elfgeeh had sent him money from the United States, the FBI dispatched Alanssi to Elfgeeh's shop on the edge of the Park Slope neighborhood in 2002, according to prosecution documents.
Alanssi asked Elfgeeh how to secretly move money overseas and recorded Elfgeeh, 49, advising him to give cash to another Yemeni sheik, whom prosecutors call an outspoken bin Laden supporter and advocate of Islamic jihad in Chechnya.
The probe of that sheik, Abdullah Satar, led to the conviction earlier this year of a New Jersey gas station owner, Numan Maflahi, who was sentenced to the maximum of five years in prison for lying to FBI agents about a fund-raising trip to Brooklyn by Satar in 1999.
Maflahi's lawyer said Wednesday he did not believe that new information about Alanssi would affect the case, because Alanssi had not testified at trial.