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LOS ANGELES — The conspiracy case against an Algerian accused of smuggling explosives into the country went to the jury Thursday after prosecutors accused him of being a determined terrorist and the defense suggested he was an unwitting courier. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Hamilton told jurors to look at Ahmed Ressam’s behavior after his arrest, efforts he went to in buying bomb timer components and the dozens of fingerprints he left everywhere. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Ressam’s actions in this case were not spontaneous. They were the result of careful planning by a number of individuals and that’s what a conspiracy is,” Hamilton said. 

Ressam was arrested on Dec. 14, 1999, by U.S. Customs inspectors at Port Angeles, Wash., when he arrived by ferry from Canada. The government alleged that bomb-making materials found in his rental car were intended for attacks on West Coast sites, possibly during millennium celebrations. 

Ressam faces a sentence of up to 130 years in prison if convicted. The jury spent three hours behind closed doors before concluding its first day of deliberations. 

In his closing statement, Hamilton said law enforcement stopped a terrorist attack which could have destroyed buildings and injured many people. 

“The evidence has established that Ahmed Ressam is a trained terrorist,” Hamilton said. “His plan was to tear down the very fabric of our society. He must be held accountable for his actions.” 

But federal public defender JoAnn Oliver argued that Ressam was incapable of carrying out sophisticated plots and was the victim of co-defendant Abdelmajid Dahoumane, who “shadowed him every step of the way.” 

“This is somebody who is not a smooth, planned-out operator,” she said of the slender, 33-year-old Ressam. 

“When he’s left alone to cross the border, with Mr. Dahoumane not shadowing him, he’s not able to do anything right,” she said. 

Algerian authorities say they have Dahoumane in custody and he will be tried there on charges of participating in terrorist groups. 

Oliver did not deny that Ressam’s car was filled with explosives but she suggested he was not part of a conspiracy, even if one existed. 

“You do not have any evidence, concrete, of what that was about and whether Ahmed Ressam knew anything about it,” Oliver said. 

“The government has appealed to emotion, sensationalism and fear to allow you, the jury, to take the facts that are provided and jump to other speculative conclusions.” 

Oliver said there was considerable reasonable doubt on many of the issues. She pointed to the fact that a Los Angeles map found in Ressam’s Montreal apartment was entered in evidence although forensic experts differed on whether there were markings on it when it was discovered. 

During testimony, an FBI agent insisted there were circles drawn around specific locations including Los Angeles International Airport. 

Oliver noted there were no traces of explosives found in a motel room occupied by Ressam and Dahoumane in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the government claimed the explosives were made, and she said Ressam’s association with Algerians listed in an address book proved nothing. 

“A person does not become a conspirator merely by associating with members of a conspiracy,” she said. 

Hamilton dismissed the mystery surrounding the Los Angeles map. 

“We don’t know what Mr. Ressam’s targets were, but that’s why terrorism is so frightening,” he said. “Anything could have been a target.” 

Oliver attacked the government for using as its key witness Abdel Ghani Meskini, an Algerian who was seized in New York after Ressam’s arrest, pleaded guilty to conspiracy last month and agreed to cooperate. 

Oliver called Meskini a liar, cheat, thief and opportunist. 

Hamilton countered that jurors should consider that “terrorists don’t hang out with choir boys and Boy Scouts.” 

During testimony the prosecution had difficulty drawing connections to an international conspiracy and was barred from mentioning alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden on grounds it would be prejudicial without sufficient proof. 

However, prosecutors were able to introduce plane tickets showing that Ressam went to Pakistan in 1998. Meskini’s testimony suggested that was a route to Afghanistan and training camps there. 

The prosecution’s trial brief, which the jury did not see, said Ressam went to Afghanistan via Pakistan in March 1998 and learned how to create homemade explosives in a jihad training camp. 

Hamilton told the jury that Ressam had a return trip ferry ticket and airplane tickets to both London and Paris when he was arrested. 

“Mr. Ressam had more escape options built into this plan than James Bond,” Hamilton said. “He had the option to flee from the United States before the bombs went off.”