Suspect appears in court

An FBI agent posed as a terrorist interested in buying the missile.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A suspected arms dealer who authorities say thought he was selling a shoulder-fired missile to a Muslim terrorist bent on shooting down an airliner was arraigned on federal charges today.
Hemant Lakhani, 68, of London was ordered held without bail by U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan D. Wigenton pending a custody hearing Monday. He is charged with attempting to provide material support and material resources to terrorists and acting as an arms broker without a license.
Lakhani's lawyer refused to comment on the case after the hearing.
Another defendant in the case, Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed, was also ordered held without bail pending a hearing Aug. 20 on charges of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Officials also announced charges against a third man, Yehuda Abraham, who was to be arraigned in federal court in Manhattan today on money laundering charges.
Investigation
Authorities in the United States, Britain and Russia cooperated in the investigation, which began months ago with a tip that the dealer was seeking weapons to buy in St. Petersburg, Russia, several U.S. law enforcement officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The probe culminated Tuesday in the arrest of Lakhani at a hotel in Newark, N.J., where, officials said, he had flown from London to close the deal on a sophisticated Russian SA-18 Igla missile capable of bringing down commercial airliners.
The Muslim extremist who wanted the missile actually was an undercover FBI agent, and the weapon was an inoperable copy brought from Russia to the United States aboard a ship to make the deal seem real, officials said.
Lakhani is not believed to be connected to Al-Qaida or any other known terrorist group, federal officials say. Authorities also stressed that there was no specific, credible threat to shoot down an airliner in the United States.
But one official said the understanding between Lakhani and the undercover FBI agent was that the missile needed to be capable of bringing down a commercial airliner.
Evidence against Lakhani includes hours of audio and videotapes in which he discusses the plot, speaks favorably of Osama bin Laden and refers to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as "a good thing," according to another federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The investigation began when Russian authorities s passed on a tip about the reputed arms dealer's activities to the FBI, which was permitted to work inside Russia, U.S. officials said. British officials, including the MI5 domestic intelligence agency, helped track the man's whereabouts.
Cooperation
The investigation also involved the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Secret Service.
The chief spokesman for Russia's Federal Security Service or FSB, the main successor of the KGB, said the operation was a result of close cooperation among the secret services of the United States, Russia and Britain, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
"This action marks a new stage in the development of cooperation between the special services of these countries," ITAR-Tass quoted FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko as saying. He said it was the first such operation since the Cold War.
Concerns about terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down commercial airliners increased in November when two SA-7 missiles narrowly missed an Israeli passenger jet after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya. Officials concluded that Al-Qaida probably was behind the attack, which coincided with a bomb blast at a nearby hotel.
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of shoulder-fired missiles -- heat-seeking rockets that can hit low-flying aircraft within three miles -- are said to be available on the worldwide arms market. Older missile launchers can be bought for as little as several thousand dollars.
Chechen rebels have used Igla shoulder-fired missiles against Russian military aircraft. Last week they used a missile to shoot down a Russian helicopter, killing three of the crew. And last year the rebels shot down a Russian troop-carrying helicopter, killing more than 100 people.
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