This is Omar's background:
Mahmoud Omar [is] an Egyptian-born 39-year-old who entered the U.S. illegally through Mexico in the 1990s .... Omar became an informant in 2005 after being caught in a bank fraud scam. ... Under questioning, Omar said that just last month the FBI negotiated terms for him to pay back more than $4,000 to Commerce Bank, which he defrauded nearly four years ago. He said he would not have considered returning the money if the government didn't tell him he would be prosecuted if he didn't pay it back.
Our federal government usually takes an uncharitable view of illegal aliens who commit felonies. Once apprehended, they typically serve time before being deported. Not Omar.
Prosecutors have said that if Omar is helpful in the trial, they will ask customs officials to allow him to remain in the United States as a permanent resident or even a citizen.
So Omar hopes to buy both freedom and citizenship by cooperating with the government against the five so-called terrorists. That makes Omar credible, doesn't it? He couldn't possibly have a bias to say whatever he thinks will make him look "helpful," could he?
Then there's this:
[Defense lawyer Rocco] Cipparone played a recording made in the investigation in which Omar described how to create a fake title from a stolen car and export it overseas. In the recording, he said he used to do that, but not anymore.
Poor Omar's criminal career was better before 9/11.
He said the terrorist attacks on America in 2001 made it harder for Muslims to get away with crimes. "Before Sept. 11, he can do a lot of fraud. Nobody looking at you."
An underappreciated tragedy of 9/11: it became tougher for Mahmoud Omar to scam people with his fraudulent schemes. Fortunately, Omar found a gullible group of government agents and prosecutors who were willing to take his story about paintball-wielding terrorists at face value. He managed to save himself from prison, earn a regular paycheck, and put himself on a track for citizenship just by finding five clueless guys, getting them ramped up with a little jihadist rhetoric, and taking them out for an afternoon of paintballing. Masterful work, Omar.
Recorded conversations reveal that Omar discussed a number of improbable plots, mostly with defendant Mohamad Shnewer, including "a rocket attack on the Philadelphia Navy Yard during the Army-Navy game ... and a proposal to shoot down military transport planes as they flew out of Dover or McGuire Air Force Base." For all the yakking they did, they weren't good at actual planning.
Omar conceded that none of the plans had been carried out and that Shnewer often had failed to follow up on discussions, arrange training sessions, or plan strategy meetings.
Why bother with strategic planning when it's so much more fun to play paintball?
Next up on the government's trial menu: a second key government informant, Besnik Bakalli.
Little has been made public about the former Northeast Philadelphia resident, but the prosecution has conceded that he was facing possible deportation when he agreed to cooperate and that, in exchange for his help, the government promised to assist him and his family in their attempt to remain in the United States.
Does Lou Dobbs know the government is working so diligently to assist foreigners who enter the country illegally and commit crimes? These guys are a lot more trouble than anyone who crosses the border to pick lettuce or slaughter cattle. Lou? Lou? You there, Lou?
