By Aram Roston, NBC News Producer
A notorious international arms dealer was convicted in federal court in Manhattan Thursday, in what's likely to be the end of the colorful career of the so-called "Prince of Marbella," a man who sold weapons to rogue regimes around the world. The conviction of the flamboyant 63-year-old Syrian, Monzer Al Kassar, was a victory for the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration, whose agents had pursued him for more than 15 years.
Al Kassar's lavish lifestyle and his dealings with unsavory terrorists made him seem like the villain in a James Bond movie. A federal jury convicted him of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals and conspiring to acquire and ship anti-aircraft missiles. He had been caught in a sting operation, in which DEA informants posed as representatives of the Colombia FARC insurgent group. FARC is designated a terrorist group.
I met Al Kassar at his 15-room palace overlooking the Mediterranean in 2006, well before he was indicted in the current case. In an exclusive interview, shortly after he was accused of supporting insurgent groups in Iraq in a separate case, Al Kassar showed off his palace - with its spiral staircases, glass-domed ceiling and lavish carpets. He swore loudly to me that he was simply a "legal arms dealer."
In the recent case, Al Kassar's defense lawyers revealed that he had been an asset or informant for the Spanish police, and had even contacted an inspector the very day he was arrested. Defense lawyers argued Al Kassar kept the Spanish police informed of the illegal deal, and that he thought it was legal. "He was on his way with the briefcase filled with evidence in the case to give over to this very, very high-ranking Spanish intelligence official, who he had been working with as an intelligence asset for many, many years," a defense lawyer said.
Oddly, during his interview with me, he denied being an informant for any government, although he admitted he had friends in Spanish intelligence.
Federal prosecutors in New York acknowledged that Al Kassar worked with the Spanish police, but said he had been playing both sides, and had not revealed the true nature of the illegal weapons deal. Assistant U.S. Attorney Boyd Johnson told a jury in his closing arguments that "the defendants agreed with each other to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons and to sell them to men they thought were going to use them to kill Americans."
Al Kassar has a resume that includes extensive terrorist contacts and ties to men once considered among the most dangerous on the planet. In 2006, the government of Iraq put him on their most-wanted list for allegedly aiding insurgents. In Spain in the 1990's, he was tried and acquitted for alleged involvement in the 1986 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise liner, where a wheelchair bound American Jewish tourist was murdered. The hijacking had been organized by Palestinian terrorist Abu Abbas, whom Al Kassar acknowledged was a friend.
Al Kassar was also implicated in arms sales to Somalia, Iran and to the Hezbollah terror group. A government report said he sold weapons to Oliver North during the Iran Contra operation, although Al Kassar denied it.
On the wall of his palace in Marbella, Spain, Al Kassar kept a variety of photos of himself and international figures - a virtual rogues gallery from around the world - including Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein, and terrorist Abu Abbas.
Although the sentences for today's conviction are potentially lengthy, Al Kassar does not face a life sentence. Prior to his extradition from Spain, the U.S. promised the Spanish officials it would not pursue a life-in-prison sentence for him.
Al Kassar long had claimed he had retired from the arms business, but he had never apologized for his business or for his alleged crimes. In the 2006 interview, he told me: "I met interesting people: good people, bad people. How do I know who's good and who's bad? This is a matter of opinion ... The bad people for you may be the good people for me."
