Posted on 08/26/2004 12:27:10 PM PDT by gattaca
More Alleged Hamas Operatives Linked to DC-Area Think Tank By Scott Wheeler CNSNews.com Staff Writer August 26, 2004
(CNSNews.com) - The Virginia man recently detained after his wife was seen videotaping Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Bridge has ties to a Springfield, Va., Muslim think tank that is an alleged front for the terrorist organization Hamas.
The think tank, the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), is located just fourteen miles from the U.S. Capitol. Counter terrorism analyst Peter M. Leitner has described UASR as one of the "phony organizations that are really terrorist cells [and] part of the international terrorist network." UASR has been the subject of a CNSNews.com investigation since March.
Ismael Selim Elbarasse and his wife were spotted in their SUV by two Baltimore County, Md., police officers on Aug. 20. Elbarasse's wife was reportedly videotaping the 4.3 mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the main span that connects Maryland's Eastern Shore to the Baltimore, Washington D.C., metropolitan area.
"At the toll plaza, the Baltimore County officers reported what they had seen to Maryland Transportation Authority Police. Its officers stopped the SUV west of the bridge and confiscated the camera," the Baltimore Sun reported. The Elbarasses, accompanied by two children, had reportedly been seen trying to hide the camera, before it was taken by police. The camera showed that close-up images, "atypical for a tourist," had been videotaped, according to the Sun.
It's unclear whether the incident was a so-called "probing attack," efforts by potential terrorists to conduct surveillance and compile information about vulnerable American targets. Hundreds, if not thousands of probing attacks have taken place all over the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist strikes on New York City and the Pentagon, according to counter terrorism experts.
Following the confiscation of his camera, Elbarasse was reportedly taken into custody as a material witness for a case involving the federal indictments of three men allegedly linked to Hamas.
The indictments were unsealed in Chicago on the same day Elbarasse was detained and list Elbarasse as a "high ranking Hamas leader" and an un-indicted co-conspirator in an operation that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft described as a U.S. based, "terrorist recruiting and financing cell" for Hamas.
CNSNews.com previously reported on the connections that two of the men indicted -- Mousa Abu Marzook and Mohammad Salah -- have to UASR. Internal documents obtained also link the third man indicted -- Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar - and Elbarasse to UASR.
Ashqar worked at the UASR office in Springfield, Va., as a "research associate" in 1998, according to a source who did not want to be identified. A June 1999 document making direct reference to Ashqar at the UASR office in Springfield was also obtained by CNSNews.com .
Elbarasse, who served eight months in a New York prison in 1998 for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating terrorism, was seen on a regular basis and photographed by CNSNews.com at UASR's Springfield, Va., office between April and early August when UASR moved files to an undisclosed location and appeared to be shutting down its identifiable operations. UASR records that included Elbarasse's contact information while he was in prison in New York State were also obtained by CNSNews.com .
Leitner, managing director for Criterion Strategies, a New York City based counter terrorism and emergency response company, said the videotaping incident involving Elbarasse is disturbing.
"When the U.S. invaded Iraq, both Hezbollah and Hamas avowed to bring terrorism to the United States, as a reprisal for the invasion of Iraq. Then we have (Jamal) Akal, (subject of a July 23 CNSNews.com report) the guy who was arrested in Israel, saying he was part of a new Hamas organization that was specially designed to target in North America," Leitner said.
"Now we have Elbarasse, engaged in operational activities in North America, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a very big strategic choke point, a spectacular target. And he is part of UASR, which shows the quickness and the ease with which a support cell, the fundraising, propaganda and recruitment cell of Hamas, can become an operational cell," Leitner added.
"There is no real demarcation between support cells and operational cells. When they get the call, they become operational," Leitner said.
Stanley Cohen, an attorney for Elbarasse, told CNSNews.com that the videotaping of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was a benign activity and that Elbarasee's wife had also videotaped the Grand Canyon and Ft. Lauderdale Beach in the past..
"She is an inveterate video taper," Cohen said. If Elbarasse's wife "had blonde hair and blue eyes and her name was Rosie, it would have been no problem," Cohen added. However, "it became a crisis," he said, because Elbarasee's wife "had a hajib on and they are Palistinian or Muslim."
Cohen initially said Elbarasse's links to UASR amounted to "nothing," then added that his client stored "about thirty boxes of books" in his garage when UASR ran out of room during its "downsizing."
Cohen also said he could not rule out the possibility that Elbarasse had performed accounting services for UASR.
Tuesday, CNSNews.com sought comment directly from Elbarasse at his home in Annandale, Va. Elbarasse's wife said the family would have nothing to say and referred the news organization to Cohen.
According to a Justice Department press release regarding the federal grand jury indictments in Chicago, "Abu Marzook and Ashqar, together with Elbarasse and other unnamed co-conspirators, allegedly used various accounts at banks in such places as Cleveland, Milwaukee, New York, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia, to transfer amounts ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time into the United States from various sources abroad, including Saudi Arabia and Switzerland and then between banks in the United States before transferring funds out of the country" to finance Hamas activities in Israel.
Marzook founded the UASR and later left the U.S. to become a leader of Hamas. He is currently believed to be in Syria and the Justice Department now considers him a fugitive.
The last known executive director of UASR is Ahmed Yousef, who has repeatedly refused to return telephone calls seeking comment for articles related to the CNSNews.com investigation.
The UASR office telephone number in Springfield, Va., was recently disconnected. Yousef, according to sources close to UASR, has been out of the country for several months and is believed to be in Algeria.
Muhammad Salah, another of the men indicted on Aug. 20 and a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Israel in 1993 for helping to organize terrorist attacks for Hamas. Salah reportedly told Israeli interrogators that the Hamas operation in the U.S. was based at UASR and that Ahmed Yousef was its leader
very interesting stuff. Ill be suprised if the lefty Judges even let us detain these terrorists until the trial.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.