Amitava Kumar is a novelist, poet, journalist, and Professor of English at Vassar College. He is the author of Husband of a Fanatic, a New York Times “Editors’ Choice”; Bombay-London-New York, a New Statesman (UK) “Book of the Year”; and Passport Photos. He is the editor of several books, including Away: The Indian Writer as an Expatriate, The Humour and the Pity: Essays on V.S. Naipaul, and World Bank Literature. He is also an editor of the online journal Politics and Culture and the screenwriter and narrator of the prize-winning documentary film Pure Chutney. Kumar’s writing has appeared in the Nation, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, American Prospect, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Hindu, and other publications in North America and India.

A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb

By Amitava Kumar

Duke University Press

Copyright © 2010 Duke University Press
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8223-4562-6

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………..XIPROLOGUE: A MISSILE IN THE LIVING ROOM……………………1INTRODUCTION: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?…………………….131. BIRTH OF A SALESMAN………………………………….332. THE LATE CAREER OF THE STING OPERATION…………………583. THE ART OF SURVEILLANCE………………………………664. THE TERROR AND THE PITY………………………………925. I HAVE DELIVERED THE PIZZA……………………………1116. A COLLABORATOR IN KASHMIR…………………………….1417. A NIGHT IN AN ARMY CAMP………………………………1518. TOURIST-THEORIST-TERRORIST……………………………162EPILOGUE: WE ARE THE WORLD………………………………179NOTES…………………………………………………187BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………..199INDEX…………………………………………………207

Chapter One

Birth of a Salesman

So, sadly, the dreamers and the haters are not two groups. They are often one and the same persons. -Arjun Appadurai, Fear of Small Numbers

The U.S. government’s exhibit 1002 in United States of America v. Hemant Lakhani was a document from the commissary in the Corrections Bureau in Passaic County, New Jersey. It indicated that on March 16, 2005, in the “early afternoon hours the defendant went to the commissary and notwithstanding his medical condition ordered four bags of hot buffalo chips.” That same afternoon, the defendant also purchased one bag of crunchy cheese chips. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart Rabner flipped through the rest of the pages of exhibit 1002. On March 21, Rabner told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the defendant had received five bags of hot buffalo chips, five bags of salty peanuts, and five bags of crunchy cheese chips. On March 28, he received one cheese pizza, and again, five bags each of hot buffalo chips, salted peanuts, and crunchy cheese chips-and five apple pies. Turning to another page, Rabner said that on April 8 the defendant had ordered five bags of hot buffalo chips, five bags of salted peanuts, and two bags of crunchy cheese chips. And then on April 11, the food items ordered were five bags of hot buffalo chips, five bags of salted peanuts, three apple pies, two honey buns, and a cheese pizza.

“The defendant’s conduct,” the prosecutor argued, “can indeed be determined to be a contributing factor to the swollen legs that he now complains about and on which basis he seeks an adjournment of this trial. He should not be allowed.”

Hemant Lakhani’s diet was under scrutiny because he had undergone three surgeries in three weeks. The trial had begun in early January, but only ten days later the defendant had needed to be hospitalized. On the morning of January 14, a deputy marshal informed the court that the defendant had been admitted the previous evening at the St. Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey with a variety of problems: a hernia, a congenital heart condition, and renal failure. Speaking on record four days later, Lakhani’s doctor reminded the court that his patient was nearly seventy. He was probably suffering from hypertension. And it was possible that his heart needed surgical treatment. Later that week, Lakhani underwent an angioplasty and a pacemaker was inserted into his body. He was having problems with one of his knees and a rheumatologist had been pressed into service. The court couldn’t meet for three weeks because the defendant had needed time to recuperate.

Henry Klingeman, the defendant’s lawyer, stated that his client had described the jail food as “inedible,” and had complained that he wasn’t given rice, which had “been a staple of his diet for his entire life.” The commissary food was used as a “supplement” and, because he had a “sweet tooth,” he used to order apple pies.

The judge in the case, Katherine Hayden, took a considered view of the medical opinion she had been provided about the defendant. She declared that Lakhani was “ready to go” and commented with some concern that the diet the defendant had chosen was “loaded with salt” and “loaded with sugar.” She noted that Lakhani had more than once refused nutritious meals consisting of salad, bread, beans, apples, cookies, and hard-boiled eggs. With adequate good reason, the appeal to adjourn was denied by the judge.

Judicial trials by their very nature are about acts. They concern themselves with what has actually been done by an individual or group. But the Lakhani trial from the very beginning had seemed to be about who he was rather than what he had done. He had been indicted for providing material aid to terrorists, unlawful brokering, and money laundering, but, because much of the wrongdoing had been at the suggestion of an under cover government agent, the real argument was that he had the immoral nature of someone who might be a terrorist. Even when it came to the slightly farcical matter of his diet, there was no doubt that what was being scrutinized was the defendant’s character. In effect, the prosecution was saying, “Look, this person is irresponsible. He lies. He complains about the food in prison and then tucks away several bags of buffalo chips. You can’t trust him.”

More than four months earlier, when the trial began, FBI agents had brought in a wooden box and put it down heavily in the center of the courtroom. The prosecutors then proceeded to take out of the box a long green steel tube and showed it to the jurors. This object was an SA18 Igla shoulder-fired missile. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rabner told the court that Hemant Lakhani had sold the missile to a man whom he believed was a terrorist. Lakhani had also expressed his willingness to broker the sale of two hundred more such missiles.

The trial was taking place in a courthouse that would have been sitting in the shadow of the World Trade Center towers if they had still been there. At one point in the trial, the prosecutors played the videotape that was recorded by a secret camera during the final meeting between the defendant Lakhani and an FBI informant named Muhammad Habib Rehman. The meeting had taken place in a suite booked by Rehman in the Wyndham Hotel in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Strategically, the room overlooked the runways of the Newark International Airport. Lakhani had entered the room and discovered that the missile, which he had last seen in Russia, had indeed made it to the United States. Here are some lines from the grainy black and white videotape played for the jury:

LAKHANI: This thing is now in front of us.

REHMAN: And also the airport is in front of us.

LAKHANI: Yes, if we strike fifty at one time simultaneously, it will fuck their mother…. It will shake them. Then they will run. Where will they run?

And:

REHMAN: Boss, look at this now … Just see how many aircraft are parked there.

LAKHANI: It will fuck their mother if one or two fall down … If it happens ten or fifteen places simultaneously at the same time, say Sunday morning at 10 o’clock…. The people will be scared to death that how this could have happened. They will realize that you people are wide awake, alive and vibrant. They will know that you people are not yet dead…. What will happen … In this case, the magnitude will be very big. It means if fifteen planes come down at the same time, they will be shaken. It will fuck their mother. They will be wondering from where it came, how it came. That will be something.

The government prosecutor paused to ask the FBI informant Rehman, who was at that time on the witness stand, to take note of the gesture Lakhani had made with his hands to indicate how badly the Americans would be shaken. After that, Rehman explained how he had left the hotel room and had given to the FBI agents outside the room the wire that he was wearing on his body. On the government’s videotape, half a dozen FBI agents can be seen entering the hotel room and arresting a stunned and docile Lakhani.

The investigation that ended with Lakhani’s arrest on August 12, 2003, had begun in the weeks immediately following the attacks of September 11. The informant Habib Rehman had been in touch with an Indian gangster living in Dubai. The Indian man, whose name was Abdul Qayyum, had been a part of the gang responsible for the Bombay blasts in 1993. He was now in exile. The informant Rehman first heard of Lakhani in a long-distance phone conversation with Qayyum in Dubai. And it was Qayyum who told Lakhani about Rehman, repeating to Lakhani what Rehman had said about himself, that he was a powerful man in America. When Lakhani contacted Rehman, he told him that he was a businessman dealing in groceries, textile, oil, and weapons. They were talking in Hindi and, according to Rehman, the term Lakhani had used for the last trade was “mara-mari,” which means “killing.” This happened during their first phone conversation and later that day Rehman got in touch with his FBI handlers.

The FBI soon provided Rehman with a tape recorder to begin recording his conversations with Lakhani. Rehman told Lakhani that he was a representative of a Somalian organization called the Ogaden National Liberation Front and-although this isn’t true of the actual group that has that name-that this was a terrorist group with links to al Qaeda. This group needed weapons. “The main thing,” Rehman told Lakhani, “is anti-aircraft guns and missiles.” Lakhani responded by asking how many were needed, and Rehman said that probably twenty to fifty missiles, but more of the anti-aircraft guns, maybe two to three hundred. Lakhani said, “You will get whatever quantity you ask.”

Rehman had told the FBI agents that Lakhani was a main weapons trafficker living in London and supplying arms to Pakistani and Indian criminals and extremists, as well as terrorists in Nepal and the United Arab Emirates. He had also told them that Lakhani sold weapons to the Ukrainian government. He informed the special agent investigating the case that Lakhani was worth $300 to $400 million dollars.

Rehman and Lakhani had over 200 conversations over the next 22 months. They also met half a dozen times during this time, and these meetings were secretly recorded too. There were 154 tapes of these conversations, and the transcripts of these tapes, duly translated, filled three three-ring binders that were given to the members of the jury. It was to these transcripts that the jurors would turn when the prosecutor asked the witness to look at the lines, for instance, when Lakhani (unconsciously taking a leaf out of Ambrose Bierce, who had commented “War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography”) said to Rehman, “Now they know where Afghanistan is. Bin Laden taught them where Afghanistan is.” But Klingeman, Lakhani’s lawyer, read those conversations differently. As far as Lakhani was concerned, it was mere talk. Pointing to a transcript of a conversation on January 7, 2002, Klingeman asked Rehman, “He spends a good deal of time telling you what he’s about, what he does?” When Rehman had asked him whether he had an office in Ukraine, Lakhani had said that he did. In the courtroom, Klingeman questioned Rehman about having ever come across any evidence, “any stationery, any letterhead, any mail, any indication at all” that Lakhani actually had an office in Ukraine. If Lakhani was really a businessman, why did he not even have a business card? In fact, he didn’t have an office in London either. The faxes he sent Rehman were from different numbers, often from a friend’s office. Had Rehman ever heard about an employee or staff that Lakhani employed? Did he ever supply a company name? To all these questions, Rehman answered in the negative.

KLINGEMAN: And I take it you never visited him in London?

REHMAN: No, sir.

KLINGEMAN: Have you seen pictures of his home, his home in [the] North London suburb of Hendon?

REHMAN: Later on I saw in the newspaper.

KLINGEMAN: So you realize it’s a modest suburban single family home?

REHMAN: Yes, sir.

KLINGEMAN: And when he met with you the very first time … you brought him the very expensive scotch, right?

REHMAN: Yes, sir.

KLINGEMAN: That’s right. Johnny Walker Blue?

REHMAN: Yes, sir.

KLINGEMAN: Did Mr. Lakhani ever reciprocate with any gifts of his own to you?

REHMAN: Yes, sir.

KLINGEMAN: That is right. Sweets?

REHMAN: Yes, sir.

KLINGEMAN: Homemade treats?

REHMAN: Yes, sir.

Lakhani’s lawyer had begun the cross-examination by asking the FBI informant whether, at any time during the nearly twenty-two months that he had known Lakhani, the latter had delivered any missiles, nuclear material, armored vehicles, bullets, or anything that related to military hardware. The answer was no. But, quite apart from this mode of legal inquiry, like the government’s lawyer before him, Klingeman was interested in presenting to the members of the jury a portrait of a person. He asked Rehman whether he had observed how Lakhani used to dress. Hadn’t Lakhani told him that he was in the clothing trade all his life? Did he dress well? Had Rehman noticed the torn sleeves, the stains, the frayed cuffs?

The FBI agents who had guided the investigation were sitting in the gallery. The question was in reality addressed to them. Why had they believed the informant’s report that Lakhani had deep pockets? The FBI had given Lakhani an initial $30,000 through the informant; an additional $55,000 was needed to purchase the missile. When Rehman said to Lakhani that the latter could put some of his own money into the deal, Lakhani had replied, “I can’t arrange that kind of money.” But Rehman was insistent. And Lakhani had pleaded with him, “No, I can’t. Believe me. I am telling the truth. Now you see, it is all paper transaction. You see in my shop you will find only small amount of cash and nothing else.” Even if this didn’t arouse the government’s suspicion about Lakhani, we’re still left with the question of why they had gone on believing the defendant’s claims when he had said that everything was readily available and yet delivered nothing. Had they been taken in by his boasting? Did they want to be taken in by his boasting?

The house in London that Lakhani had owned at the time of his arrest was soon put up for sale. It is now owned by a Jewish couple who run a small gas supply company. When the police arrived at the house after Lakhani’s arrest, they found a fifteen-year-old BMW parked in the driveway; now, a black van with a gas cylinder painted on it stands in front of the garage. The new owners have painted the gray walls of the house white and they have installed a modish wooden door in the front. The elegant new door looks almost out of place. The house is close to the Hendon Central tube station and the neighborhood is a fairly mixed one, with a solid presence of immigrants from Eastern Europe and South Asia. It is difficult to stand in front of the house and believe, as Lakhani had claimed in his conversations with Rehman, that he was a friend of the Libyan dictator, Moammar Ghaddafi. Ditto the royal family in Dubai, the former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the Nigerian president Olesegun Obasanjo, and the Angolan president Jos Eduardo dos Santos. Lakhani had told Rehman that he had lunched with Tony Blair. “In all of the time that you spent with him at these meetings,” Klingeman asked Rehman, “did he ever take a phone call from any of those folks?” Rehman replied, “I don’t recall.” Klingeman, deadpanning, “You don’t recall whether he’d got a call from Tony Blair in the middle of talking to you?” And Rehman, “I don’t think so.”

Lakhani met Rehman for the first time at the Hilton in downtown Newark on January 22, 2002. Rehman was wearing a wire and the meeting was secretly being videotaped. During this conversation, Lakhani was cheerful and optimistic. He told Rehman that arms trading allowed for a lot of profit. He said, “In this business you can make 300 percent.” Lakhani was carrying a brochure of an arms-seller in Ukraine, and because there was a picture of a submarine among the weapons shown in the brochure, Rehman asked whether the company manufactured them. Lakhani said that the company had expertise in making submarines and that he could arrange a sale if Rehman needed them. At that time Rehman was working as an informant in another case where he had heard talk of anti-aircraft guns and missiles, and so, instead of submarines, he asked for a missile, adding “something sinister, just like Stinger.” But unlike what he had told Lakhani earlier, it wasn’t twenty to fifty missiles that Rehman needed; in court, one would do just fine as evidence and that is what the FBI paid for, giving Lakhani over $86,000, both through a bank transfer and through the informal system of brokerage called hawala.

More than a year passed, and there was no missile. Lakhani was unable to find a seller. It was not until mid-January 2003, that the Russian Federation’s Federal Security Services, formerly the KGB, got wind that Lakhani was looking to buy an Igla missile. According to the Russians, Lakhani had contacted a dubious company in Cyprus named Laberia, which was owned by a Russian and an Israeli. When the FBI got in touch with the Russians about what Lakhani was trying to do on their soil, they sent two undercover officers to him posing as illegal arms dealers named Aleksey and Vladimir. The Russians were cooperating with the FBI, but Vladimir complained to his supervisor on tape, saying Lakhani “fucking drove me nuts, the bitch.” (The supervisor was assisting in the removal of the wire from Vladimir’s body when this conversation took place and it became a part of the government’s transcript. Vladimir says that Lakhani was “such a tedious guy overall, much of this has become incomprehensible to me even more.” When asked about this statement in court, the supervisor said that what Vladimir was really saying was that Lakhani was “an impulsive and aggressive individual, not more, not less. That meant that it was a very dangerous individual who was trying to obtain a missile in a way that should never be done.”) On July 14, 2003, the Russians arranged for Lakhani and Rehman to inspect the missile in St. Petersburg. The trip had been paid for by Rehman. The missile that the two men saw had been filled with sand instead of explosives, but when Lakhani picked up the launcher by the wrong end and swung it around, the Russian agents stuck to their roles and ducked for cover. The missile container was shipped to the United States without the dud weapon in it. And later, it was not Lakhani but the FBI that brought the dummy missile to the United States and displayed it in the New Jersey courtroom on the first day of the trial.

(Continues…)

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