Tangled U.S. Objectives Bring Down Spy Firm

Noorzai flatly denied that he had ever supported al-Qaeda or dealt drugs. "I have never dealt in narcotics," he said, according to transcripts labeled as work product for Motley Rice, a law firm underwriting part of the Rosetta intelligence project. The firm was hoping to use intelligence gathered by Rosetta in its uphill battle attempting to link the Saudi royal family to the Sept. 11 hijackers.

Mike A. was reassuring, telling the translator: "Look, I want Haji Bashir to understand, this project that we're working on is not a counter-narcotics project."

"The goal of this project is not to arrest anybody," Mike A. went on. "It's to gather information that's correct, good information, and develop the kinds of relationships that allow us to successfully confront this problem."

Noorzai agreed to assist the Americans, and said he would travel to the United States if he got a guarantee of safe passage, court documents show. At one point he posed for pictures with his new American friends, giving the thumbs-up sign.

But when the Rosetta operatives arranged for Noorzai to meet with officials from the FBI and the Defense Department, the CIA and the U.S. ambassador in the United Arab Emirates blocked the plans, according to Rosetta e-mails. (A State Department spokesman declined to comment.)

By this time those who had put up money for Rosetta were growing impatient. The lawyers at Motley Rice were looking for some return on their money.

In October, Mike A. assured Motley Rice in an e-mail that government contracts were forthcoming and the FBI would no longer be getting information "for free."

At some point that fall, Rosetta's contacts in the FBI tipped off their counterparts at the DEA that the company had a line in to Noorzai. Ivan Fisher, Noorzai's attorney, said then-DEA Administrator Karen Tandy was eager to bag Noorzai; landing him would reflect well on the Bush administration's anti-drug and anti-terrorism campaigns.

"It was Tandy who changed everything," Fisher said. (Tandy, who left government work last year, declined to comment.)

In January 2005, the Justice Department informed Rosetta that Noorzai was under secret indictment in New York. A debate ensued: Betraying Noorzai to the feds could endanger Rosetta operatives and compromise their informant network. But there was an upside. Rosetta might finally get government contracts. And it could secure some cash by collecting a big reward for Noorzai -- as much as $2 million, Rosetta documents indicate.

Despite misgivings, the company cut a deal with the Justice Department and the DEA to persuade Noorzai to fly to New York, according to court filings. That April, the drug lord was accompanied on his flight from Dubai by Mike A., Brian M. and two Afghan men he presumed to be his confidants, both "in the pay of Rosetta," Fisher said.

When Noorzai got off the plane, he was met by DEA agents, who drove him to his hotel, kept him well fed and talking, and made sure he knew he had a right to an attorney. But Noorzai declined the offer every day, evidently figuring that he had no reason for one: He was there to help his American hosts.