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TwitThisThe Climax
The courthouse looked like a military zone when Hammoud's trial finally got underway. Bell showed up at a building ringed by concrete barriers. Federal marshals with shotguns and assault rifles stood guard. The jurors, whose names were kept secret, were driven to the courthouse from a secret location by armed marshals. It was all for good reason: Harb's brothers had reported that before they left Lebanon, Hezbollah leaders had grilled them for details about security at the courthouse.Hammoud, now 29, sat in the courtroom in shackles, "staring daggers through Bell," as one agent on the case put it.
Hammoud's lawyer, Deke Falls, argued to the jury that his client was the victim of an unfair post-9/11 witch hunt, and that he sympathized with Hezbollah only for its peaceful social work and political activities. "This man right here is not a terrorist," he told the jury as he pointed to Hammoud. "This is an overblown cigarette case."
Bell countered by playing for the jury several of the videotapes seized from Hammoud's home, one of which showed a "Martyr's Squad" -- a few dozen men dressed in fatigues with explosive belts strapped around their waists. A speaker says they will "detonate ourselves to cause the earth to shake under the feet of our enemy, America and Israel." On another tape, Hammoud's sister could be heard speaking to his two cousins. "Who are you?" she asks. One of them, a young boy, begins to cry as he is told "Hezbollah."
"Hezbollah," the boy repeats, with a raised fist. "Hezbollah!"
When Said Harb testified, he said that Hammoud had solicited donations for Hezbollah at the Thursday night meetings, and had given him $3,500 to take to Hezbollah officials in Lebanon. Falls tried to discredit Harb as a sleazy hustler whose testimony was just one more con.
Everyone knew Bell's cross-exam of Hammoud would be the climax of the trial. The day came on June 14, 2002. For more than three hours, Bell grilled Hammoud about his Hezbollah connections.
Hammoud was composed, and spoke with gentle warmth. Bell sensed that the good-looking defendant was even making flirtatious eye contact with the female jurors. Hammoud stated that he had come from Lebanon not for sinister purposes, but to flee nonstop violence, like the Israeli rocket attack that had killed one of his boyhood friends. He admitted to sympathizing with Hezbollah, but only for its resistance to Israel and political and humanitarian work in Lebanon. Hammoud said he did not hate Americans and would not live with them if he did. He also suggested he was being unfairly persecuted. "I am in the United States. I am not in Syria or any other country." America, he said, is "the mother of democracy."
Bell then produced a striking photograph of a teenage Hammoud at a Hezbollah youth center in Lebanon. The picture showed Hammoud in military garb, holding up an assault rifle. "And that's part of your good works with Hezbollah right there in your hand?" Bell asked.
He also pressed Hammoud about a letter that had been found at his house from Sheikh Abbas Harake, a Hezbollah military leader in Beirut. Harake, according to Said Harb's testimony, was the recipient of the $3,500 "donation." The letter referred to Hammoud as "a dear brother who has not forgotten his field of work," and also to unspecified places where Harake and Hammoud "worked together."
"What was your 'field of work'?" Bell asked.
"I don't know what he's talking about," Hammoud replied.
It was the one moment when he did not have a ready answer. And yet he never fully lost his composure the way any prosecutor would hope a defendant would. Bell was left exhausted, and returned to his chair feeling discouraged. He turned to one of his colleagues and muttered, "I'm not sure I laid a glove on him."
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