Saudi student indicted for terror

WorldNetDaily ^ | January 10, 2004 | WorldNetDaily

[joesnuffy]

GLOBAL JIHAD Saudi student indicted for terror From Idaho school set up website to recruit holy warriors

Posted: January 10, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

A Saudi graduate student in the U.S. believed to have ties to close associates of Osama bin Laden was indicted yesterday on charges he provided material support to terrorists.

The University of Idaho student, Sami Omar al-Hussayen, 33, created websites to recruit members for terrorist groups and raise money for their activities, prosecutors charge.

Al-Hussayen, who studied computer science, also is scheduled to go on trial in two weeks on visa fraud charges. He has been in jail since charges were brought against him last February.

U.S. Attorney Tom Moss said al-Hussayen knew computer work would be used "to recruit and to raise funds for violent holy war, or jihad, in Israel, Chechnya and elsewhere, which have involved destruction of property, kidnapping, maiming and murder."

The student's defense attorney, David Nevin, insists his client is innocent.

"I don't see anything that wasn't available to them long ago," he said, according to the Associated Press. "I think they have stalled this off to avoid going ahead with their trial."

Last February, a federal criminal justice source told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer al-Hussayen is a terrorist bagman.

"He's in touch with people who could pick up the phone, call [bin Laden], and he would take the call," the source said.

Investigators said at the time they believed al-Hussayen played a central role in the flow of al-Qaida cash.

Al-Hussayen was in the U.S. on an expired visa at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

His arrest is linked to another indictment returned in February that charged four Arab men living near Syracuse with conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions against Iraq by allegedly funneling $2.7 million to unnamed persons in Baghdad through a charity group called Help the Needy.

Federal officials said the defendants in both cases are connected by their association with the Islamic Assembly of North America, or IANA, the parent group of Help the Needy.

Al-Hussayen traveled to Saudi Arabia for a time in 2000, then again in early 2002, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review. Last year, the university helped him apply for a visa extension "for continued attendance at this school."

He denounced the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks according to the University of Idaho newspaper, calling them "immoral attacks" on "innocent civilians."

Probing al-Qaida network

Special-Agent-in-Charge Chip Burrus of the FBI's Salt Lake City field office said the investigation began as an intelligence inquiry into al-Qaida's financial network. Criminal justice sources said, according to the Seattle P-I, the FBI used many of the means of electronic surveillance at its disposal including wiretaps and intercepts of e-mails.

The paper reported its August 2002 story on the use of Islamic charities as a conduit to finance terrorism changed the course of the investigation by alerting al-Hussayen and his colleagues. At that time, a Post-Intelligencer reporter unsuccessfully attempted to interview him.

Al-Hussayen is at the nexus of millions of dollars flowing from Saudi Arabia to the United States and from al-Hussayen to individuals and Islamic organizations in the United States as well as Egypt, Canada, Jordan and Pakistan, the Post-Intelligencer said, citing sources, court documents and public statements.

"The story of this case was a man welcomed to the state of Idaho to study at one of the best computer science programs anywhere," Moss said in February. "This is where our government sends people to train."

Previous stories:

Suspects linked to bin Laden, Iraq

Saudi in Idaho charged for terror ties

[luvbach1]

These two-faced jerks are all around us. They're the same ones who say 9/11 was terrible, but...and then go on to condemn US policy. They have no qualms about giving aid and comfort to the enemy: they just rationalize away their guilt for anything short of actual participation in a terrorist attack.

[Support Free Republic]

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
27	Missouri	316.00	11	28.73	331	0.95	198.00	14

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

[Principled]

Let's just make them legal... so we can keep better track, ya know

[sheik yerbouty]

Throw him in a dungeon.

[VOA]

Why can't liberals learn from these examples. The sweet talking attitude of "just be nice
and they'll want to be like us" is insanity.

Plus, here's yet another counter-example of the left's insistence that it's
"poverty and oppression" that incites the Muslim world to hate the USA...
Here is some well-funded slacker who has absorbed the "Hate The Great Satan First"
message from his Wahhabists buddies in Saudi Arabia...and probably from
his university professors here in the USA.

[petercooper]

Kick 'em all out