| Friday August 27, 10:15 PM
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Posted on 08/31/2004 1:00:33 PM PDT by show me state
The Virginia man picked up after his wife was seen suspiciously videotaping Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Bridge was released from custody Monday after a $1 million bond was posted.
Although he was originally questioned Aug. 20 about the bridge videotaping, Ismael Selim Elbarasse was detained until Monday because federal prosecutors have named him as a material witness and an un-indicted co-conspirator in their investigation of Hamas-related terrorist financing operations in the United States. Elbarasse is due to appear before a grand jury in Chicago that has already indicted three individuals for participating in a terrorist recruiting and financing cell.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Hope he shows up.
Who the hell posted the bond?
Hope they're tailing him.
Awesome tagline.
ty
People who video tape bridges seem to have friends with an awful lot of $MONEY... /s
I hope the Feds are tailing whoever put up the bond.
He'll quietly disappear!
Well last time they let him go was in 1998. Don't know why they aren't keeping his butt in jail.
I can't believe they let him go.
We WILL be destroyed from within!
| Friday August 27, 10:15 PM
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Annandale Detainee in Hamas Probe Free Potential Witness Picked Up Over Video of Bridge
An Annandale accountant jailed for 10 days as a witness in an investigation of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, was released on $1 million bond Tuesday after a closed proceeding at U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
Ismael Selim Elbarasse was freed after he and others posted their homes as collateral to ensure his appearance before a grand jury in Chicago, where Elbarasse is sought for questioning, his attorneys said.
Elbarasse, who was born in Gaza and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was detained Aug. 20 after police said they saw his wife videotaping the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. He has not been charged with a crime.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62552-2004Sep4.html
Hamas Bail Bonds and Visas
by GREGORY T. SIMMONS
The state's homeland security director agreed to meet with Hagerstown Regional Airport officials after it came to light Wednesday that the statewide office was not aware of local security efforts related to presidential visits to Camp David.
Dennis Schrader, director of the Governor's Office of Homeland Security, spoke Wednesday morning at a Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Plaza Hotel in Hagerstown, and took questions after the talk.
<snip>
Schrader cited the recent detention of a Northern Virginia man with Middle Eastern ties as an example of strides made in providing better security.
According to news reports, Ismael Selim Elbarasse was taken into police custody last month after someone inside the family sport utility vehicle was seen taking videotape on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
While the videotape showed what appeared to be vacation footage, Elbarasse was held as a material witness in Baltimore in connection with an unrelated case in Chicago. Elbarasse was released this week on $1 million bond.
Schrader said a Baltimore County police officer saw the vehicle and believed it to be a suspicious situation. That officer contacted transportation police, and it turned out that Elbarasse was on a federal watch list.
"That could not have happened three years ago," Schrader said. "Intelligence and prevention are the key to winning the war on terrorism."
CopyrightThe Herald-Mail ONLINE
Bail set at $1 million for alleged Hamas operative
BALTIMORE (AP) — A man described as a high-ranking Hamas operative was freed Monday on a $1 million bond, but must appear before a federal grand jury in Chicago probing the Palestinian militant group's financing.
Ismael Selim Elbarasse was released during a closed-door detention hearing in federal court in Baltimore, said Vickie LeDuc, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office. His attorney said he was traveling to his home in Annandale, Va.
Elbarasse had been arrested after officers pulled him over Aug. 20 just west of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge after spotting his wife filming the structure with a video camera.
Neither Elbarasse nor his wife was charged with any wrongdoing. However, Maryland authorities held him after discovering a material witness warrant had been issued for him in Illinois the same day.
Federal officials in Chicago want Elbarasse to appear before a grand jury probing the financing of Hamas, which the government has designated a terrorist organization.
"He's going home, and I suspect what he and his family will do is stop keeping photo albums of their vacations," said Elbarasse's attorney, Stanley Cohen. A phone call to Elbarasse's home was unanswered Monday afternoon.
Cohen said Elbarasse's friends put up property to post the bond.
No date has been announced for Elbarasse to appear.
Court documents allege Elbarasse and defendant Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook — considered one of the highest-ranking leaders internationally of the Palestinian extremist group — shared a Virginia bank account used to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hamas.
Elbarasse is described in Marzook's indictment as an unindicted coconspirator.
The detention hearing, initially scheduled for Friday, was delayed when newspapers filed motions to keep it open.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm said the critical need to protect the secrecy of the grand jury proceedings in Chicago was the "overriding" interest in his decision to close the detention hearing.
Elbarasse, an accountant, was jailed for eight months in 1998 after failing to testify before a federal grand jury that was investigating Hamas fund-raising.
© Copyright 2004 Sauk Valley Newspapers. All rights reserved.
You can read this story online at http://www.saukvalley.com//281340127470996.bsp
Ping
Thank you for those updates.
Yep and the names of his friends who posted bond have been sealed. Those names are not available to the public.
You're kidding me! How can public info be sealed?
The judge ordered it sealed. A FOIA request has been made but so far nothing.
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