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Lawyers predict another Moussaoui case
From Phil Hirschkorn
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Attorneys for a Pakistani national arraigned Tuesday on terrorism-related charges predict their case is headed for the same legal standoff that has sent the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui into disarray. The attorneys said Uzair Paracha's defense will hinge on his ability to gain access to the top al Qaeda captive in U.S. custody, Khalid Shaiykh Mohammed, the architect of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks whose connection to Paracha is central to the government's accusations. Federal prosecutors are likely to vigorously oppose such access, as they have in the Moussaoui case, causing a showdown over Paracha's right to a fair trial. In the Moussaoui trial, the Justice Department has opposed on national security grounds any access to Mohammed and two other top al Qaeda captives sought for questioning by the defendant. That dispute, which has indefinitely delayed the only U.S. prosecution directly related to the September 11 attacks, is pending before a federal appeals court. "Most of these cases become the battleground for fundamental issues that every defendant has in a criminal case," defense attorney Anthony Ricco said. On Tuesday, Paracha, 23, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Lower Manhattan, as a dozen relatives watched. "We think he's innocent," said an uncle who declined to be identified by name. Paracha, a legal U.S resident who has been jailed for six months, was indicted last week for allegedly helping an al Qaeda operative re-enter the United States. That operative, Majid Khan, a one-time Baltimore resident, is believed to have conducted surveillance for al Qaeda in the United States before he left the country. Paracha allegedly helped Khan obtain travel documents and posed as Khan when telephoning the Immigration and Naturalization Service. "He's always taken the position that he didn't have the intent to assist a terrorist organization. He's going to take the case to trial," Ricco said. "There was no intent here to assist al Qaeda to do anything." Before he came to the United States in late February, Paracha allegedly met with Mohammed and Khan twice in Karachi, Pakistan. The al Qaeda members asked him to retrieve Khan's passport from a Maryland post office box, to deposit money in his bank account, and to use his credit cards to make it appear as if Khan were still in the United States. Prosecutors say al Qaeda promised to "invest" $200,000 in Paracha's business ventures, until the Muslim terrorist group needed the cash back. "We would like to speak with Khalid Shaikyh Mohammed," defense attorney Edward Wilford told CNN. "We'd like to speak with Majid Khan. We'd also like to speak to Mr. Paracha's father, who is in custody. We will be moving early on in this case to have access to all of those individuals." Judge Sidney Stein gave the defense six weeks to present that motion. Paracha's father has been detained at the U.S. air base in Baghram, Afghanistan, since July. Mohammed and Khan's detention locations overseas are undisclosed. The defense attorneys say those al Qaeda captives must testify to guarantee Paracha's constitutional right to call available witnesses of his own choosing. "The defendant's access to individuals in custody is going to be the centerpiece of this trial, just like you've seen in the Moussaoui trial, " Ricco said. "We think if we call them as witnesses in the trial, a jury will hear that young Uzair Paracha was used unknowingly." After his arrival in New York, Paracha, a college graduate with a business degree, moved in with a cousin in Brooklyn and worked in a midtown Manhattan office selling Karachi residences owned by his father to Pakistanis moving back to their homeland, according to his attorneys and his mother. Paracha's father was also a partner in an import-export company that shipped clothing in container ships. FBI agents said that in Paracha's residence they found Khan's Maryland driver's license, his Social Security card, his Bank of America ATM card, and a key to his post office box in Paracha's residence. Papers possessed by Paracha included handwritten instructions, such as "always call from a pay phone" and "put some money in my account," and statements such as "my status: asylee or refugee," according to the criminal charges. Paracha's mother, Farhat, in a recent interview with CNN, denied that her husband or son are al Qaeda associates. "My husband is not involved in any terrorist organization, let me tell you that, and I'm 100 percent sure of it. And neither is my son," she said.
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