FBI Informant Divulges Past In Bronx Terror Plot Trial

Testimony from the government’s main witness against four men accused of planning terrorist attacks in the Bronx and at an upstate air base continued Thursday in Manhattan federal court. NY1’s Dean Meminger filed the following report.

More and more shocking information is coming out about Shahed Hussain, the FBI informant at the heart of the prosecution’s case. On the stand in federal court Thursday, he admitted attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and traveling to London, all while on the FBI payroll.

“Oh he’s good, he’s a shyster, so I can see why they use him. This case should be called ‘who could lie the most,’” said one of the defendants’ aunts, Alicia McWilliams-McCollum.

Hussain, working as an undercover informant, supplied James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen with fake explosives and recorded their conversations. The men from Newburgh are on trial for allegedly trying to blow up synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes in Orange County.

Hussain surprised the courtroom when he said he was friends of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in 2007. He said while Bhutto was in the city in 2002 she gave his family $40,000 to buy a Mercedes Benz. He also testified he comes from a wealthy family in Pakistan and has received a half a million dollars from a trust fund since being in the United States.

“Totally surprised. We had never heard of the trust fund. It is not on any of his financial documents, it is not in the bankruptcy filing, it is not on any statement that he has ever filed regarding his income,” said defense attorney Susanne Brody.

Brody says she wrapped up her cross examination of Hussain by asking him, “Isn’t being able to stay in the United States more important than any money the FBI will ever pay you?” To that question, Hussain answered, “Yes.”

“He should have been deported years ago, he shouldn’t have been in the country,” said Williams’ father, David Williams.

Hussain says he came to this country illegally while trying to escape political persecution. He faces deportation because of his alleged involvement in a scheme to sell drivers licenses to illegal aliens. After he was busted for that, he agreed to be an informant.

Testimony in the trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.