Wednesday we wrote about another federal terrorism case unraveling in Detroit.

Another of Ashcroft's terror cases bites the dust. Omar Shishani, held in Detroit for nine months on terror charges related to his possession of $12 million in counterfeit checks, pleaded guilty to counterfeit security charges Tuesday while all terror-related charges were dropped.

Today there is a new development regarding Shishani: He is going to be a witness for the defense in the ongoing Detroit terror trial of the four men accused of operating a sleeer cell. Shishani is expected to discredit the Government's star witness.

While in jail, Shishani was incarcerated with Youssef Hmimssa, a convicted credit card thief, who has provided the most damning testimony thus far against Karim Koubriti, Farouk Ali-Haimoud, Ahmed Hannan and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi.

Hmimssa had testified earlier in the trial that the four men are Muslim extremists who were trying to buy Stinger missiles and planning attacks in the United States and abroad that might have included shooting down airplanes and driving truck bombs into stadiums.

But Shishani's attorney, Corbett Edge O'Meara, said his client shared adjoining cells with Hmimssa in February and March and began to talk about the terror trial. Shishani asked Hmimssa if the defendants subscribed to a radical branch of Islam that advocates killing those who don't conform to it.

" 'I don't know,' " O'Meara said Hmimssa told his client. " 'I just want revenge for them ruining my life.' "

Prosecutors have assured Shishani, who entered his own guilty plea yesterday, that he won't get a stiffer sentence if he testifies for the defense in the terror trial.