Legal experts say that the terrorism trial now in the jury selection stage in Detroit could have a major impact on the Government's credibility . The defendants were arrested on September 17, 2001, following a raid on an apartment in which the Government was looking for a former cabdriver who was on the FBI's terrorism watch list. They didn't find the cabdriver, but they arrested three other men present, all of whom said they didn't know the cabdriver.

Since then, one potential witness has apparently committed suicide by jumping off an overpass; a potential defendant has become the government's key witness; and the original target of the raid may testify at trial but faces no terrorism charges of his own.

Jury selection has been closed to the public, at the request of the defense. These Dearborn, MI detainees are the first to face a federal terrorism trial, post-9/11.

Prosecutors have called the defendants a "combat operational sleeper cell" and allege they were conspiring to blow up U.S. targets both overseas and in the United States. One key piece of evidence is a videotape of Disneyland and a Las Vegas hotel that authorities describe as the result of scouting efforts in preparation for attacks.

Defense attorneys have indicated in court filings and courtroom statements that they believe the government's key witnesses are unreliable, and they say that much of the rest of the evidence presented by the government is circumstantial at best. Three of the defendants say they were simply caught in the wrong place -- the Dearborn apartment -- at the wrong time, just six days after Sept. 11.

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and other top officials have repeatedly cited it as an example of their war on terrorism.

"This case is going to be very closely watched both locally and nationally," said David Moran, a law professor at Wayne State University. "If the government is not able to convince a jury that these men were an actual terror cell, that will have real impact. . . . If it can't actually produce the goods here, the government's credibility will be hurt nationwide."