Accused Syrian arms dealer a spy for Spain-lawyers
Edith Honan, Reuters, Nov 05 2008
A Syrian arms dealer on trial for agreeing to sell weapons to Colombian rebels was in fact providing information to Spanish intelligence officers who were targeting the group, defense lawyers said Wednesday. Monzer al-Kassar, 62, a longtime Spanish resident known as the “prince of Marbella” for his rich lifestyle in the glitzy seaside town, is accused of conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia also known as the FARC. In opening arguments at Manhattan federal court, Assistant US Attorney Brendan McGuire said the US government hired undercover operatives to pose as FARC arms buyers and to videotape their negotiations with Kassar and a second defendant, Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 59. They met at Kassar’s home in Marbella and discussed the sale of weapons, including assault and sniper rifles and rocket propelled grenade launchers, to the FARC, McGuire said. Kassar told the men he understood the arms would be used against US helicopters and also offered to send 1,000 men to fight with the FARC against the US military, McGuire said. The US government has designated the FARC as a foreign terrorist organization. The rebels have been fighting for socialist revolution since 1964 and have at times controlled large swathes of Colombia.
But defense lawyers called Kassar a legitimate arms merchant who provided information to Spanish intelligence. The defense lawyers said Kassar was feeding information about the deal to two high level intelligence officers, both of whom will be called as defense witnesses. “It was a game of cat on mouse on both sides,” said Moreno Godey’s lawyer Roger Stavis. Kassar, who prosecutors call one of the most prolific arms dealers in the world, is charged with conspiring to kill US nationals and officers, conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles and providing support to a terrorist organization. Referring to the video tapes of meetings between Kassar and the informants, McGuire told jurors, “You will watch the FARC weapons deal in real time.” Kassar’s lawyer Ira Sorkin said that audiotapes would also be played of Kassar’s conversations with the Spanish intelligence operatives. The US Embassy in Madrid said Kassar has been selling weapons since the 1970s to the Palestinian Liberation Front and clients in Nicaragua, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia. Kassar was arrested at the Madrid airport in June 2007 and was extradited after Madrid received US assurances he would face neither the death penalty nor a life sentence without chance of parole. The trial of a third man charged in the same case, Tareq Mousa al Ghazi, 61, of Lebanon, was moved to a later date due to medical reasons.
Niqnaq 