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Al-Masri’s terrorists used me as a human shield: kidnapped tourist

A brave technology tycoon who was one of the 16 tourists kidnapped in 1998 by Islamist terrorists in Yemen described to jurors Wednesday how she escaped her captors while being used as a human shield during open gunfire – and then two years later got handless hate preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri to admit on tape his alleged role in the conspiracy.

“At one point, I could feel the bullets come so close to my face that I could feel the air move,” Mary Quin, a 59-year-old New Zealander with dual US citizenship, told a Manhattan federal jury during al-Masri’s terror trial.

Quin told jurors her predominantly British tour group was stopped by armed militants on a southern Yemen road on Dec. 28, 1998 and then taken to a remote area in the desert where the kidnappers had laptop computers and their leader, Abu Hassan, was carrying a satellite phone supplied by al-Masri.

The captors, she recalled, identified themselves as “mujahideen.”

She said that after Yemeni troops attempted to rescue the tour group, the terrorists cowardly lined up the hostages atop a two-foot sandy berm. She said the tourists were used for roughly two hours as human shields while bullets whizzed by them from both sides.

One of her captors was actually firing his rifle from between her legs, she told the court, and said the “zinging sound of the bullets” reminded her of the “movies.”

Quin said she was eventually able to escape after a terrorist guarding her with an AK-47 rifle pressed against her spine was wounded during gunfire and fell to the ground.

She was eventually able to secure the rifle during a heated struggle with the captor, whom she had nicknamed “purple skirt.”

“He was still holding on to it, so I put my foot down on this head and that gave me the leverage to get the gun out of his hand,” she said.

“Then I ran towards the [Yemeni rescue] troops.”

Quin also told jurors said she tracked down al-Masri at his London mosque in October 2000 and convinced the one-eyed, hook-handed preacher to be interviewed for a book she wound up writing about her terrifying ordeal.

The taped meeting with al-Masri is credited with helping the government pursue its case against the 56-year-old preacher.

After pointing out al-Masri to jurors, Quin recalled him saying during the interview that “Islamically” the kidnapping – in which four of the tourists were killed during the rescue effort — “was justified.” He also claimed it was “necessary” for a prisoner exchange with Yemen government, she recalled.

Quin said al-Masri admitted to her that he “placed a phone to call” overseas to Hassan “during the kidnapping.”

The feds say al-Masri supplied the kidnappers with a satellite phone and advice.

Prosecutors played audio some of the 45-minute interview in which Quin asked al-Masri if he supplied Hassan with the phone. He responded, “Yeah, perhaps.”

Recalling his phone call with Hassan, he told Quinn in broken English, “I advise him not be in the first line” of gunfire.

When asked if al-Masri expressed regret about the kidnapping, she said “No.”

Al-Masri is expected to take the stand in his own defense shortly after Quin finishes testifying for the government.

Besides conspiring with the kidnappers, al-Masri is accused of setting up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and committing other terror crimes. He faces life in prison if convicted.