The attorney for Abdul Kadir continued her cross examination of the governments star witness in that JFK terror plot trial on Monday. From all appearances Kadir’s attorney is trying to put to the jury that Kadir was not involved in the plot but was more concerned about the building of a mosque in Linden.
The defense attorney played back the same tapes entered into evidence by the prosecution and grilled the witness about what was said on those tapes and the meaning of what was said by Kadir. With regard to Kadir talking on the tape about the demolishing of a building, the witness admitted that the building Kadir was talking about is an old cinema in Guyana where he, the witness was mugged twice during his visits.
He told the court that when he and Russel Defreitas, the other accused, returned to the US from Guyana, documents that Defreitas was carrying were seized and he was well searched. Those documents had to do with Kadir’s plan to build a mosque in linden.
The defense continued to press the witness about the recordings he made and whether he was the one to benefit the most from the plot. On one of the recordings, the defense attorney pointed out to the witness that while Kadir spoke about the construction of a mosque and the need to get funding for the project, it was the witness who brought up conversations about using google earth software to see the airport. Kadir could be heard clearly telling the man that you can see Guyana and just about any other place. The witness also testified that he met with another Muslim man in new York but that the meeting was about him serving as an investor for Kadir’s mosque.
On several occasions, the state witness said he could not recall various parts of the many conversations he had with the men on trial and about all the recordings. A number of times he asked for evidence to refresh his memory.
The man testified that when he made the recordings he had little control over it since the device was always handed right back over to the FBI. He said he was the eyes and ears of the FBI and that when he was in Guyana he had a drop off point for the recording device. He spoke too about talk of a bank account being used to collect funds, and admitted that the funds they were talking about had to do with the construction of the mosque.
Today’s hearing had a number of side bar conferences as the defense continued to question the witness. A US drug convict who is currently awaiting sentencing and who could get life in probation rather than life in prison for his cooperation with the us government on this and several other cases that he told the court are too numerous to remember.
