Posted on 04/06/2003 6:43:35 AM PDT by sarcasm
Even as war rages in Iraq, federal agents have begun to unlock the secrets of an unlicensed, unregistered Islamic charity in upstate New York that allegedly pumped millions of dollars into Baghdad.
Flouting U.S. economic sanctions, the group shipped cash out of Syracuse, laundered it in banks in Jordan and then illegally funneled it into Iraq, according to an unsealed federal indictment.
Operating under the name Help the Needy, the organization described itself as a tax-exempt nonprofit that provided food and humanitarian assistance to the "starving children and suffering Muslims of Iraq."
But it lacked charitable status, misrepresented itself in appeals to donors, never got a license to send aid to Iraq, as required by federal law - and, more ominously, had ties to groups accused of supporting Al Qaeda, investigators say.
"There are only one or two degrees of separation between groups like Help the Needy and groups that back terrorism," said Steven Emerson, a Washington-based terrorism analyst and author. "The case shows the convergence of ideological interests arrayed against the United States."
Since Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. intelligence agencies and Justice Department prosecutors have scoured the globe for the elusive links they say exist between the secular Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and the Islamic jihadists of terror chief Osama Bin Laden.
Intriguing clues
The hunt has produced few smoking guns. But it has led the feds to the middle of Onondaga County - 5,980 miles from Baghdad, 215 miles from Ground Zero - where an outfit run by four Arab men left a paper trail allegedly tying it to three other charities suspected of funding terrorism.
Among the clues tantalizing government probers:
Friend of terror cells
"Help the Needy is not a sleeper cell, and it won't carry out murderous attacks on the United States," said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, a counterterrorism think tank in Washington. "But its friends are capable of mounting such attacks. The group illegally funnels money to the enemies of America in Iraq, and from there it can be passed without notice to the enemies of America in Al Qaeda."
In a 14-count federal indictment, unsealed Feb. 26 in U.S. District Court in Syracuse, three Jordanians and a Iraqi-born U.S. citizen were accused of fronting for Iraqi interests by illegally defying the sanctions that have been in place against Saddam's regime since 1990.
To all outward appearances, the four men, who prosecutors say controlled Help the Needy's finances, embody the professional, middle-class immigrant culture that thrives in gritty Syracuse:
Conspiracy charges
The four were accused of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions against Iraq by transferring cash to unidentified people in Baghdad without a license. Dhafir and Zagha also were charged with 13 counts of money laundering, as were Help the Needy and a related charity, Help the Needy Endowment.
The charity allegedly diverted at least $4 million to Iraq, out of $5.6 million that passed through its accounts since 1995. Prosecutors said that only a small portion of the funds they've tracked were used to feed Iraqis.
But the indictment provides no evidence of links to terror and no suggestion the money went to Saddam or his regime. Prosecutors said they don't know what the money was used for, or where in Iraq it ended up.
Dhafir, Al Wahaidy and Jarwan pleaded innocent. Zagha is in Jordan and hasn't been arrested. A tentative April 27 trial date was set.
"It's ludicrous to consider my client involved in anything other than humanitarian efforts," said Jim McGraw, attorney for Jarwan, the charity's executive director. "At most, it's a technical violation in not applying for a license."
"Is this guilt by association? Far too many people from the Mideast have been placed under suspicion," said Edward Menkin, lawyer for Dhafir.
Where did cash go?
But the fact that millions of dollars seem to have vanished into Baghdad with nary a trace troubles investigators anxious to discover the scheme's end point.
"It's not a particularly significant amount of money if it's going to the government of Saddam Hussein, but it's a very significant amount of money if it's going to a terror cell in Iraq," said Jonathan Levin, an analyst at the Investigative Project, a Washington-based anti-terrorism think tank.
Probers exploring a possible terror connection have focused on Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, a 34-year-old computer scientist and doctoral candidate who was researching cyber-intrusion techniques at the University of Idaho in Moscow.
Saudi-born Al-Hussayen ran two of Help the Needy's Web sites and is listed as having registered Web addresses for a dozen sites linked to or belonging to the Islamic Assembly of North America, according to court documents and the Internet Council of Registrars in Geneva.
The Islamic assembly sites were the ones that allegedly posted fatwas in Arabic from two radical Saudi clerics allied with Bin Laden - Salman Al-Awdah and Safar Al-Hawali - that advocated suicide attacks against the U.S. The sites also provided religious justification for Al Qaeda's "martyrdom operations."
Chilling pre-9/11 words
The Web sites Al-Hussayen ran for Help the Needy posted no such materials. But a site he operated for the assembly posted an article, "Provision of Suicide Operations," on June 19, 2001, that included this chilling excerpt, which the government quoted in court filings:
"The mujahid [or warrior] must kill himself if he knows this will lead to killing a great number of the enemies ... or demolishing a center vital to the enemy or its military forces. ...
"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."
In the predawn hours of Feb. 26, in several coordinated raids, Al-Hussayen was arrested by FBI agents in Idaho and agents in and around Syracuse pounced on three of the four suspects in the Help the Needy case.
Al-Hussayen was charged with visa fraud and making false statements in an 11-count indictment that says he covertly disbursed $300,000 in money from overseas to the assembly - and provided his expertise to Web sites that "advocate violence against the United States."
When the feds searched Al-Hussayen's University of Idaho office and home, they found a cache of damning computer evidence that is still being evaluated:
A photo of President Bush with a bull's-eye on his head; thousands of pictures of the World Trade Center, before and after Sept. 11; an aerial image of the Pentagon; hundreds of photos of the destroyer Cole and other terrorist targets, and dozens of images of Bin Laden and the two Saudi sheiks whose fatwas he had posted online.
Al-Hussayen pleaded innocent, and a tentative trial date was set for April 15.
Meanwhile, officials said, the joint investigations of Al-Hussayen in Idaho, the Islamic Assembly of North America in Michigan and Help the Needy in Syracuse continue to move forward.
I'm sure that they were just feeding the hungry.
How many more are there?
Most of those nabbed have a connection with a tax-payer-supported university or college, usually as professors.
They use our colleges as cover for their activities, contaminate our childrens' minds, support their homelands' terror cells, all the while concealing their subversive roles by appearing to be jolly, upstanding citizens of the community and respectable tutors of our young boys and girls.
These collegiate fifth columnists appear to be rife in our citadels of higher learning where they operate with varying degrees of impunity and immunity under the eyes of navel-gazing administrators and trustee boards who are so delighted and enamored with "cultural diversity" on their professorial staffs and campuses that they remain oblivious to the dangers right under their ivoried noses.
If we don't get a grip on our colleges and universities soon, our educational system will continue to be the breeding ground, not just of student radicalism, but of subversive, ivy-covered "cells" of the worst kind seeking to destroy our country and way of life.
Leni
Come to the US to educate themselves and then staying here just seems odd to me. Why not take their new found education back to Saudia Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, or Eygpt and become much better off than the locals?
Because their religious leaders are telling them to stay here and make money to send home to support anti American groups? That's my answer, predjudiced or not.
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