Residents of the compound, mostly black Muslims, will say little beyond proclaiming their innocence and complaining that they are victims of religious and racil prejudice.
Pierre said in court that al-Fuqra was a "phantom, nonexistent organization."
Prosecutors decline to say what kind of terrorist activity they suspect. Instead they cite al-Fuqra's history and warn that some of the compound's residents are dangerous.
Al-Fuqra, which means "the impoverished" in Arabic, was founded in New York City 20 years ago by a Pakistani cleric, Shaykh Mubarik Ali Gilani. The group "seeks to purify Islam through violence," according to a 1998 State Department report. Its members are suspected in at least 17 bombings and 12 murders, Gallagher said.
In 1992, Colorado's attorney general charged Al-Fuqra members in Buena Vista, CO, with firebombing a Hare Krishna temple in 1984 and conspiracy to murder a Muslim cleric in 1990. The cleric, Sheik Rashad Khalifa of Tucson, AZ, was killed after receiving death threats over his interpretation of the Quran.
"I considered them very dangerous," said Douglas Wamsley, who prosecuted the case for the attorney general. "They had concocted a plan to kill a man, and he was indeed killed."
Members of the group also bilked the state of more than $355,000 through false workers compensation claims, and used that money to by a 100-acre mountain compound in Buena Vista, Wamsley said.
One al-Fuqra member was convicted on charges related to the temple bombing case. Three were convicted and two pleaded guilty in the Khalifa case. Afterward, other al-Fuqra members cleared out of the compound, leaving a case of Ak-47s and other weapons.
Pierre also belonged to the al-Fuqra group in Colorado. "But frankly, he was the least involved member of the group," Wamsley said. He was charged with workers' compensation fraud, pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to two years' probation.