Ga. terror suspect defends himself as trial begins

ATLANTA - The high-profile trial of a second Georgia suspect charged with trying to help overseas terrorists wage ``violent jihad'' on America began Monday with a surprise as the 23-year-old man decided to defend himself.

Ehsanul Islam Sadequee could face up to 60 years in prison on four charges that he plotted and ultimately aided terror suspects overseas. Sadequee has pleaded not guilty, and his former attorneys have said he will be exonerated.

However, Sadequee's decision throws a wrench in defense plans and echoes a move made by his suspected cohort, Dawsonville native Syed Haris Ahmed, who waived a jury trial so he could deliver his own closing arguments.

After a bizarre closing argument that focused on Islamic principles and included nine verses of the Quran in Arabic, Ahmed was convicted in June and could face up to 15 years in prison.

Sadequee's family members, visibly distraught by his decision to go it alone, passed him a note through his ex-attorney urging him not to represent himself. And U.S. District Judge Bill Duffey tried to sway Sadequee, telling him it's a ``very, very unwise choice.''

``I strongly urge you not to represent yourself,'' he said.

But Sadequee, sporting a scraggly black beard and a white skullcap, would not relent.

``I believe I'm prepared enough,'' he told the judge. ``I'm not a lawyer, but I'm prepared.''

Prosecutors have said that Sadequee never posed an immediate threat with his plots, but that authorities had to intervene before it was too late. The trial, which is expected to last a week, is likely to focus on evidence that investigators have compiled for years.

The FBI began building a case against Ahmed and Sadequee both U.S. citizens after they took a bus to Toronto in March 2005 and met with at least three other targets of a federal investigation.

While there, investigators said, Sadequee and Ahmed discussed potential terrorist targets in the U.S., including military bases and oil refineries. They also said the group discussed a way to disrupt the worldwide Global Positioning System.

The two piled in Ahmed's pickup truck a month later and drove to Washington to shoot choppy footage of U.S. landmarks and other less notable sites, including a fuel depot and a Masonic Temple in northern Virginia, authorities said.

Sadequee sent at least two of the clips which prosecutors say are ``casing videos'' to an overseas contact days after he returned, authorities said, disguising them as ``jimmy's 13th birthday party'' and ``volleyball contest.''

In August 2005, Sadequee headed overseas himself, departing for Bangladesh to get married, seek religious training and, authorities say, to try to link up with terror groups.

They say he communicated with Ahmed and other suspected terrorists, including Mirsad Bektasevic, a Balkan-born Swede who was convicted in 2007 of planning to blow up a European target to force the pullout of foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sadequee's mission for the trip, according to prosecutors, was to offer himself as a ready and willing volunteer ``in support of violent jihad.'' The FBI arrested Sadequee in Bangladesh in April 2006 and he has since been held without bond.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)