Military Plot Informant Tells of Videos

Friday, April 4, 2008 3:30 PM

TOLEDO, Ohio -- One of three men accused of plotting to kill U.S. soldiers overseas showed a government informant videos displaying gruesome beheadings and U.S. Marines killing Iraqis, the informant said Friday in federal court.

The two also watched a video of the burning World Trade Center towers, said Darren Griffin, a former solider who began working for the FBI shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

According to a secret recording made by Griffin, Mohammad Zaki Amawi said he was troubled by the loss of life in New York and that it wasn't right because "you live here."

But then Amawi quickly added: "Killing Americans in Iraq is OK."

Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi and Wassim I. Mazloum are charged with conspiring to kill or maim people outside the United States, including military personnel in Iraq. They have all pleaded not guilty. The men face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.

Griffin recorded the defendants at their homes, when they ate together and when they practiced shooting guns. But he didn't record them when they prayed "out of respect for the faith," he said.

Prosecutors have about 300 hours of taped conversations but intend to play only a fraction of them.

During one conversation in October 2004, Griffin and Amawi talked about shooting guns, military tactics and the need to train.

Amawi said he needed to learn more. "I'm not doing this because I love blood," he said, according to taped conversation.

Defense attorneys say Griffin made up the case so he would keep getting paid as an informant. They said he lied and manipulated the defendants, putting words in their mouths.

Amawi and El-Hindi are U.S. citizens, and Mazloum came to the U.S. legally from Lebanon. El-Hindi was born in Jordan, and Amawi was born in the U.S. but also has Jordanian citizenship.

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