Posted on 08/20/2004 9:59:26 AM PDT by TexKat
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two suspected members of Hamas have been arrested in the United States and charged with supporting a foreign terrorist organization, money laundering and racketeering, US Attorney General John Ashcroft announced.
The authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect facing the same charges, identified as the deputy chief of the political bureau of Hamas, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, who currently resides in Syria.
Ashcroft said the trio allegedly ran a US-based terrorist recruiting and financing cell linked with Hamas, a Palestinian militant group which has publicly admitted to many killings, primarily of Israelis but also of Americans.
"This cell allegedly financed the activities of a terrorist organization that was murdering innocent victims abroad, including American citizens," Ashcroft told a news conference.
He said Muhammad Hamid Khalil Salah, 51, of Chicago, and Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar, 46, of Washington, were arrested on Thursday night.
The three were said to have participated in a 15-year racketeering conspiracy to illegally finance terrorist activities in Israel and the disputed West Bank and Gaza Strip territories, including providing money for the purchase of weapons.
The authorities have sought the forfeiture of 2.7 million dollars, all funds in four bank accounts and Salah's residence in Bridgeview, Illinois.
Ashcroft said that Marzook at one time lived in Louisiana and near Washington and is now thought to live in Damascus.
He said the trio had joined with 20 co-conspirators to commit the alleged crimes, which date back to 1998.
The US State Department named Hamas a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
Congress has made it illegal to provide any material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations, even if the donor intended to fund benign activities, Ashcroft said.
He pointed out that "once there is a designated terrorism determination made, that makes providing funds to those organizations a very serious act."
If convicted for racketeering, the three face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Last month, a banned Muslim charity and seven men were charged in the United States with conspiring to support Hamas, and with tax fraud and money laundering.
The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and its chairman, executive director, lead fundraiser and four other officials were charged with 42 counts of illegal financial transactions, conspiracy, money laundering and tax fraud.
An indictment sought 12.4 million dollars from the group and the seven men, which it said is the amount they funneled to Hamas between 1995 and 2001.
The Texas-based foundation, which had billed itself as the largest US-based Muslim charity until it was banned, was also accused of financial connections with Hamas since its creation in 1989, funding Hamas and families of Hamas martyrs and prisoners, and acting as a fundraiser for Hamas in the United States.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announces that three men associated with the foreign organization Hamas were indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago for allegedly participating in a racketeering conspiracy to illegally finance terrorist activities in the Middle East region, during a press conference at the State Department in Washington, August 20, 2004. REUTERS/Larry Downing
And the democrats want us to believe there are no terrorists in Iraq. Kerry said Al Qaida and other terrorist are operating in 60 countries. But not in Iraq.
Well, it MUST be POLITICAL...Right....:-)
Related Story:
SANTA ANA, Calif. July 30, 2004 — Muslims in Southern California have rallied around a former employee of an indicted Islamic charity, asserting at a protest Friday that he has been inappropriately jailed and threatened with deportation by federal authorities.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040730_1967.html
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=Santa+ana+cair+protest
Did we get them before they voted for Kerry?
"I question the timing. YEEEAGGH!"
LMAO.
I have to question the timing of this, coming only 3 or 4 weeks after the Democrat National Convention while John Kerry is enjoying his big bump.
Penny
A handcuffed Mohammed Salah, an Arab-American from the Chicago, Ill., area, makes a V-sign as he is taken by Israeli border police to a meeting with a judge at the Ramalah military court in the occupied West Bank, in this May 24, 1993 file photo. Salah is one of three Palestinian activists indicted by U.S. officials Friday, Aug. 20, 2004, on charges they participated in a lengthy racketeering conspiracy to provide money for terrorist acts in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Arzt)
Can't be true. John F'n Kerry said this terror thing we're in is overblown by the Bush Administration..
" a 15 year racketeering conspiricy"
I have asked for years why so many male Arab men have been coming to the USA. Just didn't make sense to me when I knew they didn't like America or what it stands for. All my distrust and doubts are coming to fruition.
he has been inappropriately jailed and threatened with deportation by federal authorities.
WHY would we deport him to get a fresh start and do more damage to the USA? Keep him in the bowels of the deepest prison we have.
They appear to own all the furniture stores in northern Virginia, DC and Maryland. It creeps me out.
in a ghostly (the thing ending voice)
look to the 7 11s look to the 7 11s.
Wellll, the 7-11s, the 7-11s, I know. But some of them are Apu, so its not quite so creepy. I really never go to 7-11, except in dire straits. But when it comes to the furniture stores, I hate to think that when I redecorate, I'm actually enriching Al Queda.
if its any consolation at 7 11 at least you can get a
SQUISHIE!!!!!!!!
There are hundreds of mosques and probably as many terrorist sleeper cells in those areas. I have 3 FBI & ICE agents and their wives as landscape customers, and some of the stories they tell me sends chills up my spine.
Right ON! A victory for the good guys.
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