>From the ToI:
NRI missile dealer case may be a dud CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2003 07:07:33 PM ] WASHINGTON: The US case against Hemant Lakhani, the British national of Indian origin accused of selling arms to terrorists, might turn out to be as much a dud as the dummy weapon American decoys sold him. Hours after law enforcement authorities trumpeted Lakhani's arrest and produced him before a court in New Jersey, questions are being raised about the entire episode. There are suggestions that the accused was entrapped and the US officials merely stopped what they themselves had initiated and choreographed instead of stopping any real terrorism. Lakhani, whose first name was initially mangled in the media frenzy and given out as Hemat and Hikmat, turns out to be Hemant, a grandfatherly Londoner of 68 who lived a quiet life as a garment merchant and had fallen on bad days financially. Contrary to the grand conspiracy and shadowy links US law enforcement outlined, it turns out that he had no contacts in Russia to buy any weapons and no criminal record of arms dealing until American law enforcement decoys set him up. In fact the case against Lakhani is largely based on the information provided by an unnamed government witness who is seeking lenient treatment in a drug case, according to court documents. "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," Pavel Felgenhauer, a military analyst, told ABC News. Even that single weapon was a dud supplied by undercover agents in an elaborate set-up. Some legal experts too scoffed at the US case. "One would have to ask yourself, would this have occurred at all without the government?" Gerald Lefcourt, a criminal defense attorney, asked the network. "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." Under US law, authorities are not permitted to coerce someone into committing a crime but they are allowed to engage in different types of deceit and pretence to find out whether a target "has a predisposition to commit a crime." US officials are arguing that Lakhani did have such a predisposition. In their moment before television cameras that fed a frenzied coverage for a few hours in the dog days of August, authorities described Lakhani as an ally of terrorists who wanted to kill Americans. "He, on many occasions, in recorded conversations, referred to Americans as 'bastards' and Osama bin Laden as a hero," US Attorney Christopher Christie told reporters outside the courtroom. At least one other man arrested in connection with the sting also appears to be an unlikely terrorist ally. New York gem dealer Yehuda Abraham is a 76-year old man who is a prominent member of the local Jewish community. Abraham is charged with transferring $ 30,000 in a hawala transaction for the arms deal. Not much is known about the third accused Moinudden Ahmed Hameed, said to be from Malaysia. _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
