Terrorist Informants’ Role Questioned
Defense lawyers and friends of some accused terrorists are focusing on informants, saying they exploited and entrapped defendants for money.
Those kinds of accusations have taken a toll on the informant who helped convict Shahawar Matin Siraj, a Pakistani immigrant accused of conspiracy to bomb a New York subway station, according to the Washington Post.
New York police paid Osama Eldawoody $100,000 for information and relocation costs, and now pays his rent plus $3,200 a month, he told the Post. Eldawoody is in fear for his safety and appears depressed, the newspaper reports, and rarely ventures far from his new home.
Eldawoody met Siraj at a mosque, where he was given to anti-American rants. It was Eldawoody who suggested acquiring material for a dirty bomb and using a remote-control device to detonate it, the paper says. But Siraj accompanied Eldawoody to the subway station to point out good places to plant explosives.
Siraj was sentenced to 30 years in prison in January.
