Defendant in N.Y. terror case says he tried to help his business, not terrorists in dealings
NEW YORK -- A man accused of trying to funnel money to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan is arguing that his dealings with an undercover operative were aimed at helping his own business, not terrorists' goals.
Recordings secretly made by federal agents show that Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari "was interested more in the profit potential of the undercover's supposed money backers and himself than he was to their 'cause,"' his lawyers, Richard Rosenberg and Daniel Parker, wrote in a letter this week to a federal judge in Manhattan.
The undercover agent passed himself off as a rich Middle Easterner, and Alishtari hoped the man would invest in Flat Electronic Data Interchange, a loan investment program he was running. Federal prosecutors have called it a fraud.
A spokeswoman for federal prosecutors did not immediately respond to a telephone message left at her office early Friday.
Alishtari and his lawyers filed papers this week asking U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to release him from a segregated unit of a Manhattan jail, where he has been held since his arrest in February 2007. They are asking for Alishtari, 54, to be held in the jail's general population.
He has pleaded not guilty to terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and other charges.
"I am a proud citizen of the United States," Alishtari, also known as Michael Mixon, said in the papers filed this week.
Alishtari's lawyers said the strict confinement represents "unduly harsh treatment of a pretrial detainee" and has hampered his ability to prepare his defense against the charges, which carry a potential penalty of 95 years in prison.
An indictment has accused Alishtari of trying to support terrorists by accepting an unspecified amount of money to transfer $152,000 that he believed was going to buy night vision goggles and other equipment for a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
He also has been charged with money laundering, wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud.
Alishtari donated $15,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee between April 2002 and August 2004, according to records maintained by the Federal Election Commission and two Web sites that track campaign donors, politicalmoneyline.org and opensecrets.org. An NRCC spokeswoman has said the committee will donate the money to charity if Alishtari is convicted.
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