Judge orders activist freed - Terrorist funding suspect; InfoCom, Holy Land Foundation

Two days after U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft described four employees of a Richardson Internet services company as "terrorist money men" for Hamas, a Dallas federal magistrate ruled Friday that the most prominent defendant is not a flight risk and may be released from custody without having to post bond.

But Judge Irma Ramirez granted a request by prosecutors to delay the release of Ghassan Elashi until Monday to allow U.S. District Jerry Buchmeyer to hear an appeal by the government to keep the longtime Palestinian activist in detention.

Two other Elashi brothers, Bayan and Hazim, were ordered held because they were deemed flight risks. The fourth brother, Basman Elashi, was granted release on a $15,000 bond but will remain in detention because of immigration charges.

Ghassan Elashi, 49, is a vice president of InfoCom Corp. and chairman of the board of Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Richardson charity closed by the Bush administration last December as an alleged financial front for Hamas.

Mr. Ashcroft named Ghassan Elashi at a news conference Wednesday when he announced that he and his brothers and InfoCom had been indicted for attempting to hide financial dealings with Mousa Abu Marzook, a senior Hamas political leader.

Mr. Marzook and his wife, Nadia, a cousin of the Elashis, were indicted by a Dallas federal grand jury and accused of violating laws that ban financial transactions between individuals or firms in the United States and government-designated terrorists.

The Marzooks, who previously lived in Colorado, Louisiana and Virginia for more than a decade, are thought to be in Syria or Jordan, federal agents said.

Earlier this week, Mr. Marzook denounced the criminal charges against himself, his wife and the Elashi brothers, saying they were without merit and politically motivated.

Judge Ramirez issued her order despite testimony from two agents and arguments from prosecutors that the Elashis had taken $500,000 from Mr. Marzook and sold as much as $20,000 in computer equipment to Libya and Syria, two terrorist nations.

Prosecutors contended that all the Elashi brothers except Ghassan were in the United States illegally and that their company was in financial straits. Hazim Elashi, they said, talked during his arrest about going to Egypt because he no longer wanted to be in America.

"They have no reason to stay," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Garrett contended. "They have nothing working for them except legal and financial troubles."

Mike Gibson, defense attorney for all four brothers, told the judge that the charges against the Elashis were based on legitimate business deals. The Elashis have strong ties to the community, he said, and needed to work to support their large families.

Of Mr. Marzook, the attorney said: "I don't like some of my cousins, but I sure wouldn't want to be held in jail because one of them is a terrorist."

"These are good people of America," Mr. Gibson said of his clients. "They're just trying to be good citizens here."

After the three-hour hearing, Mr. Gibson praised Judge Ramirez for showing courage in the face of what he characterized as political pressure and exaggerations of danger by the government. He predicted Judge Buchmeyer would uphold the ruling.

Mr. Garrett and fellow prosecutors Mark Jebson and Jim Jacks declined outside the courtroom to comment on the judge's decision.

The government based its request to keep the Elashi brothers in custody on the testimony of two members of the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force, which has been investigating InfoCom for more than three years.

Last September, less than a week before the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the task force conducted a search of InfoCom's offices and confiscated truckloads of documents and computerized data.

The reason for the search was not disclosed, but federal agents advised the Elashis that they were freezing about $70,000 of the company's cash assets because of a $250,000 investment made by Mrs. Marzook in 1993.

The Elashis have said repeatedly that the investment had nothing to do with Hamas. An attorney for Mr. Marzook said modest amounts earned in interest on the account paid for living expenses and was not sent outside the United States.

FBI Special Agent Jim Lewis testified that the $250,000 cited in the indictment and an equal amount transferred to InfoCom came from Mr. Marzook during a period in the early 1990s when he was the top leader of Hamas.

The U.S. government designated Mr. Marzook a terrorist in August 1995, about three years after his initial $150,000 investment in InfoCom. Federal agents learned of the investment after they detained Mr. Marzook in New York in July 1995.

Agent Lewis said Mr. Marzook also contributed about $200,000 to Holy Land Foundation about the same time he made his initial investment in InfoCom.

InfoCom was incorporated in Texas in March 1992, about four months before Mr. Marzook's investment. The money donated by Mr. Marzook to Holy Land Foundation was sent shortly after the foundation moved to Richardson from Los Angeles.

Mr. Ashcroft referred to the donated funds from Mr. Marzook at his news conference as "seed money" for the foundation and InfoCom, which ran the foundation's Web site, shared some employees and leased space for a TV studio.

An analysis of the computer company's funding shows their revenue peaked at $5 million in 1995 and declined to $750,000 last year, Agent Lewis said. Neither the company nor the Elashis now appear to have significant assets, he said, and have many creditors, including the government for nonpayment of $100,000 in payroll taxes.

The government also produced testimony that the Elashi brothers shipped computer equipment directly to Syria and used deception to ship other components indirectly to Libya in violation of a ban on exports to those nations.

Agent Lewis said there were a total of four shipments to Libya and three to Syria. He placed the value of the shipped products at a maximum of $40,000.

The U.S. Commerce Department cited those alleged violations in September 2001 as a reason for suspending InfoCom's export license.

A fifth Elashi brother, Ihsan, is in federal prison in Seagoville after pleading guilty last summer to exporting goods to Saudi Arabia on behalf of his computer company in violation of a similar suspension of his license.

Prosecutors disclosed that Bayan and Hazim Elashi were secretly indicted on export law charges along with Ihsan last February but were not arrested because the government wanted to continue to build its case against them.

Agent Lewis disclosed that e-mail messages recovered from InfoCom's computer system during the search last year showed the Elashis had attempted in 1999 to make business contacts in Iraq, another terrorist nation.

The company's customers included Ziyad Khaleel, whom Agent Lewis described as operator of an official Hamas Web site based in Tampa, Fla., and the purchaser of a satellite telephone that ended up with Osama Bin Laden.

The indictments against the Elashis do not mention the Iraqi contact and Ziyad Khaleel, and Mr. Gibson dismissed the testimony as an attempt by prosecutors to make the four brothers appear even more notorious.

Two days after U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft described four employees of a Richardson Internet services company as "terrorist money men" for Hamas, a Dallas federal magistrate ruled Friday that the most prominent defendant is not a flight risk and may be released from custody without having to post bond.

Fine, judge Ramirez. If the guy skips the country, then you can be detained without bail, under President Bush's "either you're with us or you're with the terrorists" doctrine.

"Judge Ramirez issued her order despite testimony from two agents and arguments from prosecutors that the Elashis had taken $500,000 from Mr. Marzook and sold as much as $20,000 in computer equipment to Libya and Syria, two terrorist nations. "

There is no end to the proof of the hatered of the left toward the "White Male Power Establisment in this Country". And let's face it, that is what they truely hate. It's not America for America is only the land. They hate the people that started it.

Dec 24, 2002

Suspect linked to alleged Iraq money laundering ordered held

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) _ A man accused of helping to funnel money into Iraq was ordered Monday to remain in jail until he stands trial.
U.S. Magistrate Glen Conrad said, however, he might consider releasing Malik Almaliki on bond if those charged with running the money-wiring operation are released.
Almaliki, an Iraqi native who washes cars for an auto dealership, was indicted Thursday along with 11 others on charges of sending about $12 million to Iraq.
The 12 defendants are the latest targets in a federal crackdown on the illegal flow of U.S. dollars to the Middle East.
According to a federal indictment handed up in Seattle on Thursday, Almaliki, 34, collected money for a company outside Seattle called Alshafei Family Connect Inc.
The U.S. Customs Service maintains that Alshafei gathered money from Middle East refugees in the United States and sent $28 million out of the country in the past 2 1/2 years, with more than $12 million ending up in Iraq.
Almaliki, a former Iraqi soldier who has lived in Roanoke since 1997, sent more than $133,000 to Alshafei since April 2000, according to the indictment. Alshafei allowed Almaliki to keep $2 for every $100 he collected.
In the courtroom where Almaliki's detention hearing was held Monday, about 30 members of Roanoke's tiny Iraqi community gathered to support Almaliki. Several said Almaliki, like them, fled Iraq to escape Hussein, and Almaliki helped them send money to their families in Iraq.
RTD

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