SEATTLE PI.com (AP): "FOUR CHARGED IN SENDING MILLIONS TO IRAQ" (ARTICLE SNIPPETS: "The four men are accused of using the charity to solicit contributions from people in the United States, depositing money in central New York banks and laundering much of it through the Jordan Islamic Bank in Amman. Charged were oncologist Dr. Rafil Dhafir, 55, of Fayetteville, N.Y., a U.S. citizen born in Iraq; Maher Zagha, 34, a Jordanian who attended college locally; Ayman Jarwan, 33, of Syracuse, a Jordanian citizen born in Saudi Arabia who worked as the executive director of Help the Needy; Osameh Al Wahaidy, 41, of Fayetteville, a Jordanian citizen employed as a spiritual leader at the Auburn Correctional Facility and a math instructor at the State University of New York at Oswego." ... "The separate indictment involves Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, a citizen of Saudi Arabia who is a graduate student at the University of Idaho. He was arrested Wednesday in Moscow, Idaho, and charged with supporting the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America. Al-Hussayen allegedly supplied money from overseas sources and computer expertise. He is charged with failing to disclose his relationship with the group, which, if revealed, would have resulted in the government rejecting his visa application, prosecutors said. Web sites operated by the Islamic Assembly praise suicide bombings and tout the use of airplanes as terror weapons, the government said.") (February 26, 2003)
US DOJ.gov Press Release: "INDICTMENTS ALLEGE ILLEGAL FINANCIAL TRANSFER TO IRAQ; VISA FRAUD INVOLVING ASSISTANCE TO GROUPS THAT ADVOCATE VIOLENCE" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Al-Hussayen was arrested this morning in Moscow, Idaho. According to the 11-count indictment, Al-Hussayen received and renewed student visas to pursue computer studies at the University of Idaho, certifying in the applications that his requested U.S. entry and presence was solely for the purpose of pursuing graduate studies. The indictment alleges that from October 1998 through the present, Al-Hussayen routed thousands of dollars he received from overseas sources to the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), and provided computer expertise and website services to IANA. The indictment alleges some of these websites promoted terrorism through suicide bombings and using airplanes as weapons. In one example, the website www.alasr.ws, registered by Al-Hussayen posted an article which read in part: The second part is the rule that the Mujahid (warrior) must kill himself if he knows that this will lead to killing a great number of the enemies, and that he will not be able to kill them without killing himself first, or demolishing a center vital to the enemy or its military force, and so on. This is not possible except by involving the human element in the operation. In this new era, this can be accomplished with the modern means of bombing or bringing down an airplane on an important location that will cause the enemy great losses.") (February 26, 2003)
SEATTLE PI.com - SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER: "ANTI-TERROR FORCES ARREST IDAHO STUDENT" (ARTICLE SNIPPETS: "The investigation of Al-Hussayen began around Sept. 11, said Burrus. It began not as a criminal investigation, but an intelligence inquiry. Its objective was nothing less than to remove the veil of secrecy on al-Qaida's complex financial network. And, sources say, that the FBI used many of the means of electronic surveillance at its disposal including wiretaps and intercepts of e-mails." ... "The investigation is far from over. "We are not at the end of the trail, we are at the beginning of the trail," Burrus said to a packed news conference yesterday in Moscow's 100-year-old City Council chambers. "You can't imagine the flow charts" depicting the flow of so-called charitable funds, he said. In the center box of a flow chart is Al-Hussayen, 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, according to sources, court documents and public statements made yesterday.") (February 27, 2003)