Informant credibility targeted in Dix trial

[unhappycamper]

Informant credibility targeted in Dix trial
By Geoff Mulvihill - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Nov 6, 2008 6:20:07 EST

CAMDEN, N.J. — Attorneys for five men accused of plotting to kill soldiers in New Jersey began cross-examining a key government informant Wednesday as they tried to pin blame for the alleged conspiracy on him.

The four previous days Mahmoud Omar spent on the witness stand mostly involved prosecutors asking him to clarify secret recordings he made that are key to the government’s case. Defense lawyers contend it was Omar who tried to create a conspiracy and draw the other men into it.

Rocco Cipparone, the lawyer for defendant Mohamad Shnewer, quizzed Omar about his past crimes, what he was getting for cooperating with the FBI, his investigative methods and his truthfulness.

Omar, 39, became an informant in 2005 after being caught in a bank fraud scam. Beginning in March 2006, he infiltrated the group of men eventually charged with plotting the attack on Fort Dix, an Army installation used primarily to train soldiers for deployments in Iraq. No attack took place.

In one lengthy exchange, Cipparone asked Omar repeatedly if he wanted to remain in the country. Omar’s answers, given in Arabic through an interpreter, rambled.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_dixplot_110608/%2e