FBI Informant Testifies at Sheik’s Terror Funds Trial
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NEW YORK — An FBI informant testified Tuesday that he wanted to put “the world on notice” when he set himself on fire outside the White House, an act that threw the terror-funding case against a Yemeni sheik into turmoil.
Testifying for the second day as a hostile witness for the defense, Mohamed Alanssi said he had not intended to kill himself, even though he sent suicide notes to the FBI and the Washington Post.
“I did not have the intention, but I wanted to put the government and the world on notice,” Alanssi said.
He acknowledged that he was trying to get more money from the government, which had paid him $100,000 for helping build its case against Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan Moayad.
Until the fire in November, Alanssi had been scheduled to be the star prosecution witness against Moayad.
Instead, the defense called Alanssi in an effort to portray him as greedy and untruthful.
Moayad and co-defendant Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed were charged with conspiring to fund and attempting to fund Hamas and Al Qaeda.
Moayad also is charged with supporting the groups.
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