Drug use by Ft. Dix informant acknowledged

Four days before taking the stand as the key government witness in the Fort Dix terrorism trial last month, Mahmoud Omar was smoking marijuana while living in a safe house under FBI protection, according to a motion filed yesterday by federal prosecutors in the case.

Prosecutors also said that Omar, a convicted felon with a checkered criminal past, has admitted using marijuana "on an intermittent basis" from late in 2007 to early in 2008, and that on a trip to his native Egypt in the summer of 2007 "he used hashish on a number of occasions."

Omar's drug use - an issue raised by the defense in opening arguments - is expected to be part of a pointed cross-examination when lawyers for the five defendants in the Fort Dix case begin questioning him tomorrow.

Omar, 39, began testifying on Oct. 28. He finished his fourth and final day of direct examination yesterday as prosecutors were filing the motion that detailed his pot use - a motion that sought to bar the defense from questioning him about it.

Judge Robert Kugler rejected the government's request.

Prosecutors said Omar smoked marijuana on the night of Oct. 24 after an investigator for the defense in the case located him and questioned him.

Omar, his wife and two young daughters have been living in an undisclosed location since federal authorities ended the Fort Dix investigation with a series of arrests on May 7, 2007.

In pretrial motions and in statements to the jury when the trial opened on Oct. 20, defense attorneys attacked the credibility and motivation of the lead prosecution witness, claiming he created a conspiracy where none existed in order to curry favor with his FBI handlers.

They have portrayed Omar as a "serial fraud artist," a convicted felon who entered the United States illegally in the mid-1990s and who has used his role as an informant as a "gravy train" - he has been paid $240,000 - and to avoid deportation.

They argued yesterday that his most recent use of marijuana was another example of how he believes his cooperation in the terrorism case allows him to operate above the law.

"It shows that Mr. Omar believes he can continue his criminal activities while under the control of the FBI . . . that he thought he could get high with impunity," defense attorney Rocco Cipparone Jr. argued.

Deputy U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick, the lead prosecutor in the case, said the government learned of Omar's most recent marijuana use over the weekend and immediately informed the defense and the court.

Fitzpatrick argued the issue had no bearing on the case and balked at Kugler's suggestion the government was "turning a blind eye" when its key witness broke the law.

Fitzpatrick said his office would notify the Camden County Prosecutor's Office and ask officials there to deal with the case.

But he described the offense as a misdemeanor and said it should not be balanced against "protecting the lives of American military personnel."

Omar's criminal past includes a conviction for passing bad checks in 2002. He served six months in prison for that offense and was placed on five years' supervised release. He also filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and was facing possible deportation.

Three years later, he was targeted in a similar check-cashing scam and, the defense argues, agreed to cooperate with the FBI in terrorism investigations in order to avoid prosecution and deportation.

Prior to the Fort Dix case, authorities said, he worked on cases in New Jersey and Texas. They declined to provide details about those investigations.

One of the lead government investigators testified earlier that Omar had tested positive for marijuana use while on supervised release in 2005, following his bank fraud conviction.

But the investigator said Omar had remained clean after that test. He completed his supervised release - probation - sometime in 2007.

Tight security has surrounded his appearance in court. He arrives at and leaves the federal courthouse in Camden each day accompanied by federal agents. Several U.S. marshals are seated around the courtroom.

But according to the prosecution motion, an investigator for the defense located Omar shortly before he was to take the stand last month and that night Omar smoked marijuana.

Questions about how he obtained the pot and where the money he used to buy it came from - he has been unemployed and receiving an FBI stipend of about $1,500 a week - also could be part of the cross-examination as the defense tries to challenge his credibility and motivation.

During the four days Omar has been on the witness stand, the jury has heard dozens of secretly recorded conversations he taped while meeting with and discussing various aspects of the alleged Fort Dix plot with several of the defendants.

Five foreign-born Muslims raised in the Cherry Hill area have been charged with plotting a jihad-inspired attack on the military complex.

Tapes played yesterday included conversations in which he arranged a gun deal with defendant Dritan Duka, 29, and had defendant Serdar Tatar, 25, obtain a map of Fort Dix for him.

In two different conversations, Tatar raised the possibility that Omar might be working for the government.

"How do I know you're not a fed?" Tatar said. "How do I really know who you are?"

In another, Omar joked about the possibility, laughingly telling the defendant, "I'm no George Bush."

In reply, Tatar offered a comment that appeared to support the government's contention that he and the other defendants were committed radical Muslim jihadists bent on a suicide mission to kill American military personnel.

"I don't know whether you're FBI," Tatar said when Omar asked him again about giving him a map of Fort Dix. "[But] I'm gonna do it whether you are or not. . . . I'm gonna give it to you. . . . It doesn't matter . . . whether I die. I'm doing it in the name of Allah."

In other conversations, however, both Tatar and Duka were more cautious and circumspect.

"What I'm trying to say is sometimes war is not the only way," Tatar told Omar.

Duka, while asking to buy assault rifles and pistols, balked at Omar's suggestion that he could obtain a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

"That's heavy stuff," said Duka, who, his lawyer has argued, wanted the guns only for target shooting.

"I just want to be safe," Duka said. "I have five kids. I trust you, brother. I don't want to go down . . . people think I'm a terrorist."

Duka and his brother Shain, 27, were arrested on May 7, 2007, in Omar's Cherry Hill apartment after purchasing seven assault rifles in a sting set up by the FBI. The gun deal was picked up on audio and videotape and played for the jury earlier in the trial.

Tatar and defendants Eljvir Duka, 25, and Mohamad Shnewer, 24, were arrested separately that same night.