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Monday March 12 12:39 PM EST

Millennium Terror Trial To Begin

By ABCNEWS.com

Prosecutors say Ahmed Ressam planned to unleash destruction just as the United States rang in the year 2000. His trial on charges of conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism is scheduled to begin today in Los Angeles.

The trial of a soft-spoken Algerian terrorist bomb suspect who prosecutors say hoped to kill hundreds of Americans on the eve of 2000 is set to start today.

Ahmed Ressam is expected to go on trial in Los Angeles, where he faces federal charges of conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism, and other counts.

Federal prosecutors say Ressam was a key figure in a plot to bomb several American sites , including Seattle's Space Needle and the Los Angeles Airport. He was arrested Dec. 14, 1999, as he crossed the border from Canada to Port Angeles, Wash., in a car allegedly loaded with explosives and bomb-making materials.

Authorities believe Ressam, who was reportedly sweating and shuddering during routine questioning by customs agents, was part of a bomb plot long in the making,.

Ties To Osama Bin Laden

Investigators have told ABCNEWS they have "credible evidence" that links Ressam to Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors filed documents in federal court in Seattle saying they expect to prove Ressam learned to make bombs at a bin Laden-supported terrorism camp in Afghanistan in 1998.

The case against Ressam may have been bolstered Wednesday when Abdel Ghani Meskini, 33, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to taking part in the alleged conspiracy. Meskini was arrested in New York after federal surveillance connected him to Ressam, officials said.

Meskini and Mokhtar Haouari, another Algerian arrested in Canada and brought to the United States in 1997 for trial, were charged with conspiring to support a terrorist group and conceal support for Ressam. With Meskini's guilty plea, it is likely he will testify for the prosecution, but lawyers would not offer any details on the case, and have not yet decided if they will call him.

Chaos Thwarted

Ressam's attorneys asked for a postponement on the conspiracy charges Friday to "eliminate the chaos that an appearance by Meskini would create," said public defender Thomas Hillier. He added the defense team would not have enough time to review Meskini's taped testimony if the conspiracy trial begins today. Judge John Coughenour denied the motion to have a separate trial on the terrorism conspiracy charge.

A key piece of evidence in the case will be flight records that Hillier says proves his client planned to fly to London the day after he arrived in the United States. The public defender has said that Ressam was oblivious to what he was carrying and that he was simply an unwitting courier.

But, prosecutors see the airplane ticket to London as evidence Ressam was coordinating his movements with others as part of a plot.

A second man, Abdelmjid Dahoumane, 33, a suspected associate of Ressam, is in custody in Algeria. Dahoumane allegedly shared a Vancouver hotel room with Ressam just before Ressam tried to enter the United States. The men were both indicted in Seattle on federal charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism.

Ressam reportedly fought for the rebel Armed Islamic Group before fleeing Algeria in 1994. He is being tried in absentia in France, where prosecutors allege he was part of a group that bombed a Paris subway in 1996. A verdict is expected soon.

French terrorist hunter and investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere, known as "The Cowboy," is expected to provide key Los Angeles testimony.

According to a revised indictment filed in February, U.S. prosecutors may try to link bin Laden to Ressam's "cell," which allegedly includes the other Algerians arrested in the Northeast.

ABCNEWS' Neal Karlinsky and ABCNEWS.com's Rose Palazzolo contributed to this report.

-- (in@the.news), March 12, 2001