From ABC News, 8/13/03:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/World/missile030813_sting.html
Less Than Meets the Eye?
U.S. Government Sting Operation Criticized as Setup
By Brian Ross
Administration officials are leaving out key facts and exaggerating
the significance of the alleged plot to smuggle a shoulder-launched
missile into the United States, law enforcement officials told
ABCNEWS.
They say there's a lot less than meets the eye.
The accused ringleader, British national Hemant Lakhani, appeared
today in federal court in Newark, N.J., and was ordered held without
bond on charges of attempting to provide material support and material
resources to terrorists and acting as an arms broker without a
license.
Outside the courtroom, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie called
Lakhani an ally of terrorists who want to kill Americans.
"He, on many occasions, in recorded conversations, referred to
Americans as 'bastards' [and] Osama bin Laden as a hero," said
Christie.
But what he did not say was just how much of the alleged missile plot
was a government setup from start to finish.
For example, Lakhani had no contacts in Russia to buy the missiles
before the sting and had no known criminal record for arms dealing,
officials told ABCNEWS.
"Here we have a sting operation on some kind of small operator --
who's bought one weapon when actually, on the gray and black market,
hundreds of such weapons charge hands," said military analyst Pavel
Felgenhauer.
Court documents show much of the case is based on the government's key
cooperating witness, an informant seeking lenient treatment on federal
drug charges, officials told ABCNEWS.
He was the first person who led the government to Lakhani.
‘He Might Say Anything’
The missile shipped into the New York area last month was not a real
missile -- just a mockup -- also arranged entirely by the government.
The government also arranged the meetings at a New Jersey hotel and
elsewhere, where Lakhani allegedly told undercover agents posing as al
Qaeda terrorists about his support of bin Laden.
"One would have to ask yourself, would this have occurred at all
without the government?" said Gerald Lefcourt, a criminal defense
attorney.
In London today, Lakhani's neighbors described him as a quiet man who
worked in the garment industry and had faced serious financial
problems.
"I would have hoped the United States is thwarting real terrorism and
not something manufactured because here all they're doing is stopping
something they created," said Lefcourt.
Government officials said the case will show that Lakhani went along
with the scheme willingly and was not entrapped.
But the question remains whether any of this would have happened if
the government had not set it up.
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Sounds like just another Bush wag the dog to me.
Harry
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