Best evidence in Blind Sheik trial, 1995: videotape taken by the

Sudanese leader of the so-called “Day of Terror” plot as he and a

companion — thankfully, a government informant — cruised through the

Lincoln Tunnel to Jersey and back to NYC by the Holland Tunnel.

Videotape was to conduct surveillance of the tunnels, study the optimal

location for placing car bombs (so the tunnels would “break like straws”

while they were “full of infidels” — I believe that was the phrasing),

and figure out how much time it would take to abandon a bomb-laden car

and get out of the tunnels in an escape car, so as not to set the bombs

to detonate while the bombers were still inside the tunnels. (My

defendants talked a good game but were decided more the

live-to-fight-another-day type than the

let’s-get-those-virgins-going-insha-Allah variety, as homicidal maniacs

go.) Most eerie moment: there was a sign on the Jersey side

instructing certain motorists transporting “hazardous materials” to pull

over for inspection; the defendant read it and laughed. . . . Jury found

it less funny.