Less Than Meets the Eye?

["Alain St-Amour" <alainstamour@xxxxxxxx>]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/World/missile030813_sting.html

Less Than Meets
the Eye?
U.S. Government Sting Operation Criticized as Setup

By Brian Ross

Aug. 13? Administration officials are leaving out key facts and exaggerating 
the significance of the alleged plot to smuggle a shoulder-launched missile 
into the United States, law enforcement officials told ABCNEWS. They say 
there's a lot less than meets the eye.




The accused ringleader, British national Hemant Lakhani, appeared today in 
federal court in Newark, N.J., and was ordered held without bond on charges of 
attempting to provide material support and material resources to terrorists and 
acting as an arms broker without a license.

Outside the courtroom, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie called Lakhani an 
ally of terrorists who want to kill Americans.

"He, on many occasions, in recorded conversations, referred to Americans as 
'bastards' [and] Osama bin Laden as a hero," said Christie.

But what he did not say was just how much of the alleged missile plot was a 
government setup from start to finish.

For example, Lakhani had no contacts in Russia to buy the missiles before the 
sting and had no known criminal record for arms dealing, officials told ABCNEWS.

"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," said military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

Court documents show much of the case is based on the government's key 
cooperating witness, an informant seeking lenient treatment on federal drug 
charges, officials told ABCNEWS. He was the first person who led the government 
to Lakhani.

?Something They Created?

The missile shipped into the New York area last month was not a real missile ? 
just a mockup ? also arranged entirely by the government. The government also 
arranged the meetings at a New Jersey hotel and elsewhere, where Lakhani 
allegedly told undercover agents posing as al Qaeda terrorists about his 
support of bin Laden.

"One would have to ask yourself, would this have occurred at all without the 
government?" said Gerald Lefcourt, a criminal defense attorney.

In London today, Lakhani's neighbors described him as a quiet man who worked in 
the garment industry and had faced serious financial problems.

"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," said Lefcourt.

Government officials said the case will show that Lakhani went along with the 
scheme willingly and was not entrapped. But the question remains whether any of 
this would have happened if the government had not set it up.
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