AWOL QAEDA

Terror trial jurors see only perp’s pic

AN AL QAEDA member with big ambitions was hellbent on slaughtering Americans, Brooklyn federal prosecutors told a jury Monday.

Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun “is an Al Qaeda terrorist whose mission was to kill Americans,” prosecutor Matthew Jacobs told jurors in opening statements, holding up a picture of Harun because the defendant has repeatedly refused to appear at his trial.

Harun, 46, who was born in Saudi Arabia but considers himself a citizen of Niger, has insisted he should be tried in an international or military court.

Harun is accused of crimes including conspiring to murder U.S. nationals, a charge that can be filed in any American court. The feds opted to bring the case to Brooklyn, where the U.S. attorney’s office has extensive terrorism experience, a law-enforcement source said.

Jacobs told jurors Harun (photo) was part of a 2003 ambush in Afghanistan that left two U.S. servicemen dead and wounded another three. Harun hurled grenades and sprayed machine-gun fire at the soldiers. Prosecutors have a Koran with Harun’s fingerprints on it, which he left on the battlefield, Jacobs said.

Tactical Air Coordinator Raymond Losano, 24, and Pvt. Jerod Dennis, 19, were killed in the firefight. A bullet “practically ripped off” Losano’s jaw and Dennis “slowly bled to death” from a shot to the leg, said Jacobs, as members of Dennis’ family watched in the packed courtroom.

After the attack, Harun got the blessing from Osama Bin Laden’s inner circle to carry out a mass murder, Jacobs said. Harun had his eyes on the American Embassy in Nigeria, but the plan fell apart.

Harun ended up in Libya, where he was held for six years and put on a refugee ship bound for Italy, where he admitted he was an Al Qaeda member.

One of Harun’s appointed lawyers, Susan Kellman, urged the jury to keep an open mind, stressing that the prosecutors’ use of words like “Al Qaeda,” and “9/11” could block a jury’s ability to weigh the evidence.