Bin Laden ties hard to prove

Prosecutors struggle to link the exiled Saudi to his supporters' crimes

By TOD ROBBERSON
The Dallas Morning News

AMMAN, Jordan – Raed Hijazi's eyelids fluttered as he as he raised his head skyward and muttered inaudibly. As he opened his palms in prayer, a pair of handcuffs dangled from his left wrist.

The California-born Mr. Hijazi, 32, stood inside a wrought-iron cell as he went on trial in military court Monday on charges of conspiring to bomb an Amman hotel, a plot that the government says was masterminded by exiled Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden.

Although the government has won convictions on subversion-related charges against all but one of the 28 men who have been tried so far, it has been unsuccessful in winning convictions on the charge of involvement in an illegal organization, Mr. bin Laden's Afghanistan-based group al-Qaeda.

The case underscores the difficulties prosecutors are having around the world established a direct link between Mr. bin Laden and numerous bombings and killings carried out by his supporters. He has insisted that the supporters were acting of their own volition.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "all roads lead to bin Laden" as the likely mastermind behind last week's attacks in New York and Washington.

Proving his direct link to previous conspiracies, such as the one in Jordan, will play a crucial role in Washington's ability to muster international support for a sustained military campaign against al-Qaeda's vast international network. Anti-terrorism specialists say the group is believed to have cells in more than 30 countries, including the United States.

The chief judge in the Amman case, Col. Tayel Raqqad, acknowledged the political sensitivities in the case against Mr. Hijazi. But as a matter of law, he insisted, the government has failed to show any demonstrable link between Mr. bin Laden and the group that allegedly conspired to place a bomb in Amman's Radisson Hotel.

The government asserts that the plot, foiled by Jordanian security forces, was to have been launched against American tourists in the Jordanian capital as well as at Holy Land sites on the banks of the Jordan River at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve 1999.

"We're not taking Mr. bin Laden to court," Col. Raqqad told reporters. "We're taking to court an individual accused of doing something to destabilize Jordan's security, both internally and externally," but there is no evidence of a link to Mr. bin Laden, he said.

He did acknowledge, however, that some of the convicted conspirators had visited Afghanistan before launching their attack, using explosives and light weapons.

Mr. Hijazi, who was captured in Syria last October and extradited to stand trial in Jordan, already had been convicted in absentia and sentenced to death for his participation in the plot along with eight other accused conspirators who remain at large. But now, 21 months after the plot was foiled, Mr. Hijazi must be retried under Jordanian law because he is physically present to face the charges.

He appeared in court wearing an Islamic white skullcap and denim prison uniform. Nearly a dozen military guards armed with assault rifles stood guard around the courtroom as the trial got under way. Mr. Hijazi at times seemed alert and upbeat as he listened to his defense lawyer construct a case alleging that he had been tortured during his imprisonment.

But as the trial progressed, Mr. Hijazi appeared to lose himself in prayer, at one point shouting in Arabic, "Allahu Akbar!" or God is great, as a stunned panel of lawyers, judges and audience members stared at him in his cell.

"He has no relationship whatsoever with bin Laden," his father, Hassan Hijazi, 66, insisted just before the trial began. "He is a Muslim, but he is not as they accuse him. He is not a terrorist. If I am a religious man, this does not mean I am a terrorist."

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban government insists that the allegations against Mr. bin Laden are being fabricated, but security analysts say al-Qaeda requires strict secrecy as part of its cellular structure. Supporters are taught never to reveal linkages to people outside any particular cell.

Thus, when a suspect is captured in any bombing case, a physical trail leading back to Mr. bin Laden becomes difficult to prove.

In Yemen, authorities working under heavy U.S. pressure are preparing to prosecute eight suspects accused of involvement in last year's suicide bombing of the USS Cole, another case the United States hopes to use in establishing a link to Mr. bin Laden.