Ressam’s bungling led law-enforcement agents to uncover what they believe was a deadly plot by Ressam and several other Algerian exiles–perhaps under the direction of Osama bin Laden or other Islamic terrorist organizations–to blow up U.S. targets. It is still unclear what the alleged conspirators may have intended to destroy. But a senior U.S. law-enforcement official told NEWSWEEK that investigators now believe they have evidence that the bombing plot was directed specifically at New York City. Earlier this month, Canadian officials arrested another Algerian exile, Mokhtar Haouari, a Montreal shopkeeper who they suggested was one of the plan’s leaders. In court, Canadian police gave a detailed reconstruction of the alleged scheme, and how the plotters’ incompetence caused it to fail. All of the accused plotters deny guilt; as Haouari’s lawyer put it, “My client is not a terrorist.”
According to the police account, Haouari sent another conspirator to Seattle on Dec. 11 to meet Ressam as he crossed the border with the explosives. Abdel Ghani Meskini, who lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., was instructed to chauffeur Ressam, who spoke no English and didn’t have a valid driver’s license. But the plan went awry when Ressam was arrested and didn’t show up when Meskini expected. Worried, Meskini frantically began calling Haouari back in Montreal to find out what was happening. Unknown to him, U.S. and Canadian law-enforcement agents soon began tracking him. When Ressam was arrested, he was carrying Meskini’s phone number.
Meskini returned to Brooklyn, police officials said, where Haouari ordered him to change his phone number and move to a new address. But by that time, the FBI was watching his every move. In custody, Meskini allegedly told authorities that Haouari was a “player” with “jihad” connections, according to a document prepared by U.S. prosecutors. The document also alleges that Meskini told a confidential FBI source that he spent time in Afghanistan, where there are terrorist training camps. The Feds believe Ressam also visited training camps. Now, U.S. and Canadian officials want to know where seemingly petty criminals like Ressam got the money to pay for overseas travel and explosives–and if others are now set to finish a job their compatriots failed to carry out.
