One-eyed, hook-handed hate preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri is charged with aiding and abetting terrorism against the United States, but history may one day view him in the same light as a famed freedom fighter or the father of our country, his defense lawyer told jurors Thursday.
Defense lawyer Joshua Dratel stunningly compared the infamous Islamic cleric to Nelson Mandela and George Washington during opening statements at al-Masri’s terror trial in Manhattan federal court.
“Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist and now he’s considered an icon — things change,” Dratel said in a courtroom just blocks from Ground Zero.
“George Washington was considered a rebel but now he’s an icon for our country for 250 years.”
Earlier, federal prosecutor Edward Kim said al-Masri used his London mosque as the secret stage for a “global campaign to spread terror” — including scheming to set up an al Qaeda training camp in Bly, Ore.
Kim said al-Masri “did not just talk the talk, he walked the walk,” filling his followers with hatred and sending them out to wage war against non-Muslims.
“Abu Hamza was not just a preacher of religion,” Kim said during his opening statement.
“He was a trainer of terrorists and he used the cover of religion so he could hide in plain sight.”
Kim also noted that when authorities searched al-Masri’s Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, they found knives, a gas mask and chemical-warfare suits, all “stocked in a place of worship.”
Al-Masri gained infamy for his fiery sermons to followers including failed “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Al-Masri — who lost his eye and hands fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s — sent a last-minute letter asking permission to deliver his own opening argument, but the judge shot him down.
The government’s star witness is expected to be Mary Quin, of Alaska, who was among 16 tourists kidnapped by Islamic militants in Yemen in 1998.
Years later, Quin confronted al-Masri at his mosque and secretly recorded him saying that her abduction was “justified” and admitting that he gave the kidnappers satellite phones to aid the plot.