Posted on 05/06/2002 6:09:52 PM PDT by kattracks
WASHINGTON, May 06, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Israeli authorities have arrested two Americans affiliated with relief organizations, including a Muslim commentator who recently described by telephone and in e-mails the destruction he saw in Jenin, a supporter said Monday.
Riad Abdelkarim, a physician from the Los Angeles area, was detained Sunday at Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport while trying to return to the United States, said Khalid Turaani of the Washington-based American Muslims for Jerusalem. Israeli authorities called his wife in California on Sunday and urged her to hire an attorney, Turaani said.
Abdelkarim, who has written opinion pieces on Muslim issues for major U.S. newspapers, serves on the board of American Muslims for Jerusalem and chairman of a new charity, Kinder-USA, organized to provide aid to Palestinian children. Abdelkarim also is the Western region communications director for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The other person arrested during the weekend was Dallal Muhammad of Dallas, Texas, Turaani said. Ms. Muhammad is president of the Kinder-USA organization, he said.
The U.S. State Department could not confirm the arrests, an official said. But a U.S. diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrests and said consular officials in Israel were being given proper access.
Abdelkarim's family released a statement calling for his release. He has a wife and four children living in Orange, Calif.
"The past 36 hours have been an extremely difficult time for our family," the statement said. "Our greatest fear right now is for Riad's safety, given Israel's acknowledged policy of using "physical pressure" in questioning suspects, including American citizens. We urge U.S. government officials and human rights organizations to actively become engaged in this case in securing Riad's safe and immediate release."
Turaani said Abdelkarim was touring damaged areas in Jenin with International Medical Corps, a relief organization based in Los Angeles. Abdelkarim's family traces its history to a village near Ramallah, where Israeli troops kept Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in isolation for weeks during their incursion into Palestinian areas.
Abdelkarim was in the Palestinians' territory for the past 10 days, Turaani said. Abdelkarim called colleagues April 28 at a fund-raising dinner to describe the destruction he saw while visiting areas of Jenin. He e-mailed similar descriptions.
"He reported basically the destruction and smell of death under the rubble," said Turaani, who was at the dinner. "I remember him saying that, 'Words cannot describe the atmosphere. You can smell death wherever you walk.' He was very emotional."
Abdelkarim wrote a widely distributed opinion piece Sept. 25 about his questioning by the FBI in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks about his political views and affiliations with Muslim advocacy groups.
"What I do not appreciate is being singled out for questioning merely because of my faith, my ethnicity or my legitimate political activism," he wrote. He wrote that he believed the FBI was "groping wildly for straws in the dark."
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
A biased reporter reporter reporting in a "war" zone should be a crime. Do you have a problem with that...
Is this cynical sarcasm or bigoted sickness
Officials say the Holy Land Foundation, which raises funds to provide medical and other humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees, has suspected ties to Hamas, the militant Islamic organization. Spokeswoman Dalell Mohamed says the Holy Land Foundation "is a humanitarian organization, not a political organization." Riad Abdelkarim, a board member and California physician of Palestinian heritage, says FBI agents questioned him on Tuesday about his ties to the charity. He says he cooperated but felt the session was a "fishing expedition."
USAToday: Feds Probe Whether Islamic Charities Were Involved
Feds Criticized in Charity Probe
By DAVID KOENIG
.c The Associated Press
RICHARDSON, Texas (AP) - The FBI spent eight years eavesdropping on the Holy Land Foundation, monitoring the Muslim charity's leaders as they met with Palestinian militants and raiding a computer company with strong ties to the group. But it wasn't until last week that federal officials shut down the group and froze $5 million in assets, claiming the money was being funneled to terrorists.
Why did authorities move so slowly? Political considerations, restrictions on investigations of religious groups and even oversights by immigration officials may have hindered the probe, according to experts on domestic terror investigations.
Holy Land officials accuse the government of mounting a crusade against Muslims. The group, which raised $13 million last year, denies helping the militant Palestinian group Hamas and says it builds schools and provides aid to needy Palestinians and others in the Muslim world. ``This was the Muslims' largest charity, so they are very upset,'' said Dalall Mohammed, a spokeswoman for Holy Land. She said the raid had left Muslims fearful of donating to any Islamic charity.
After FBI abuses in the 1960s and '70s, the Justice Department adopted limits on investigating religious groups, and the restrictions no doubt slowed the probe into Holy Land, said Fred Moss, a former federal prosecutor and now a law professor at Southern Methodist University. ``Religion stands in a special place in our society, so it's sensitive,'' Moss said. ``If they had found nothing, that could blow up in any administration's face, embarrass the FBI and raise the specter that we're back to the J. Edgar Hoover days.''
Mark Briskman, Texas regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the Clinton administration feared that shutting down Holy Land would undermine the nation's stature among Arab nations and prevent it from leading Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. ``Clearly, it would have had a negative effect on relations with Yemen, Saudi Arabia and some of the Gulf states,'' Briskman said.
But political considerations turned against Holy Land after a wave of terror bombings in Israel this month, Briskman said. He said the Bush administration used the raid to show support for Israel.
The FBI took no particular interest in Holy Land until 1993, according to Oliver ``Buck'' Revell, who headed the Dallas FBI office in the early 1990s when Holy Land moved from Southern California to this Dallas suburb. That's when three top officials of Holy Land were recorded meeting in Philadelphia with Hamas representatives to discuss helping suicide bombers, according to an FBI memo first reported by the Dallas Morning News and obtained by The Associated Press. ``The target of the investigation was Hamas, and the Holy Land Foundation came up in conjunction with Hamas,'' Revell said. ``There was no indication they were engaged in illegal action at the time.'' Revell said the government should have moved to shut down Holy Land as soon as it determined that its money was going to Hamas.
The 49-page FBI report also hinted at FBI frustration with information from immigration authorities about Holy Land leaders. According to the memo, Holy Land executive director Haitham Maghawri had told the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1990 that he had been arrested several times in Lebanon, once for placing a car bomb. But the report indicated INS made no detailed notes about the arrests. Maghawri was denied asylum in the United States, but he gained permanent resident status by marrying a U.S. citizen.
Tim Counts, an INS spokesman in Dallas, said the agency usually investigates arrest reports to determine if an asylum-seeker was persecuted or forced into making a false confession. He said Dallas INS officials did not recall Maghawri's case and would not comment on it anyway.
The FBI report relies heavily on Israeli intelligence and FBI informants to conclude that Holy Land president Shukri Abu Baker and other leaders were members of Hamas and raised money for terrorists. Holy Land officials denied the FBI charges and called the report a fabrication.
``Ninety-seven percent of what I read in that document was from the government of Israel. I'm shocked that our government is closing our offices based on (reports from) a foreign government,'' said Mohammed, the Holy Land spokeswoman.
The shutdown of Holy Land came three months after FBI agents raided an Internet company across the street whose officers are involved in the charity.
The freezing of funds is a civil action, and it's unclear whether criminal charges are being considered against Holy Land or its leaders. An FBI spokesman in Washington declined to comment on the investigation, and a Justice Department spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment.
AP-NY-12-12-01 0150EST
I guess when the feds shut down your charity for funding terrorism, you can always go start a new one, that way you can still milk the public since the new name doesn't have a bad track record. I reckon it can't be shut down unless it gets caught doing the same thing the earlier one was caught doing, and that'll take another seven years or so before it can be investigated all over again.
I bet it does provide aid to Palestinian children... an esuicide bombers' belt around every midriff, an explosives factory in every playroom...
Your God may have told you that Jacob's descendants were better than everyone else. My God rather suggested we all were equal in his eyes.
I ran into this attitude in Germany as well.
Some (liberal) Americans seem to think the laws of the United States apply all over the world.
They Don't.
When You are in Germany (or Israel) You are liable to the laws of Germany (or Israel) and NOT the United States.
i.e., "You do NOT 'Have Rights'."
When in Rome, ( or Israel) do as the Romans (or Israelis) do.
Or Else.
I hope the Israelis apply Israeli Law to every one of those Liberal, International Rights, Left Wing, Whining little Pukes.
I hope they intern their leftist little commie derrieres for a couple of Years for Each Offense Israel feels was committed against the Nation and people of Israel.
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