A deadlocked Manhattan federal jury yesterday asked the judge for clarification of his instructions in the case of an accused al Qaeda bomber.

Jurors passed Judge Lewis Kaplan a note asking if they could convict alleged terror scouter and bomb-maker Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa based on the legal theory called “conscious advoidance.”

Under that theory, a person might suspect there is wrongdoing afoot but choose not to ask any further questions. So Ghailani, 36, could still be found guilty if he willfully chose to be ignorant of the aims of the conspiracy that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.