Well, there's a surprise.
Only one solution... more do-nothing laws that inconvenience US citizens.
Posted on 06/27/2002 7:38:54 PM PDT by glorygirl
WASHINGTON — The recent arrest of a Palestinian man from Florida has convinced U.S. officials that a network of al Qaeda operatives exists in the United States, CBS reported on Thursday.
It said Adham Hassoun, arrested earlier this month, was an "important link" to accused al Qaeda member American Jose Padilla, as well as other groups based in the United States who may be awaiting orders for future attacks.
"A number of people are under surveillance. None is believed to have had a supporting role in the Sept. 11 attacks. Some may have been slated to assist Zacarias Moussaoui," it said.
Moussaoui has been charged in connection with the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks. He has been referred to as the suspected 20th hijacker.
But the CBS report said senior officials, whom it did not name, now believe Moussaoui was, in fact, not scheduled to be part of the Sept. 11 attacks but was to have carried out a separate, unknown mission.
"U.S. officials have collected intelligence that appears to confirm what they have feared most since Sept. 11, that al Qaeda is still active in the United States," CBS said.
It reported that Padilla was apparently expecting help from such a network when he returned to the United States last month on an alleged target-scouting mission.
U.S. officials said Padilla was apparently enroute to meet Hassoun when the latter man was arrested, the network said. Hassoun was arrested after his communication with Padilla was monitored.
Hassoun, a 13-year U.S. resident, is now being held on an immigration charge at an Immigration and Naturalization Service facility.
The al Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden is blamed by Washington for the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in New York, Washington ad Pennsylvania.
I can't say for sure it was an AA flight, but if anyone from DFW can recall an early flight to SFO that was delayed because of a problem with the cargo net before it was ultimately grounded, we'll know which flight they were on.
Of course, two are already in custody, so the FBI should already have this information.
Naturally the Wahhabi Lobby was quick to spring to Hassoun's aid. From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Muslim case raises civil-rights concerns
| Muslim leaders and civil libertarians on Monday condemned the government's secretive detention of a computer programmer from Sunrise, while the FBI explored his ties to accused "dirty bomber" José Padilla. The federal agencies investigating Adham Hassoun, 40, a Palestinian from Lebanon, have refused to comment publicly on their investigation, underscoring post-Sept. 11 profiling concerns among Muslims and civil rights advocates. Hassoun, who was arrested Wednesday, is being held at the Fort Lauderdale city jail on Immigration and Naturalization Service charges that he failed to maintain his immigration status. After speaking with Hassoun by phone Sunday, Muslim community activist Sofian Abdelaziz said Hassoun's civil rights "have been broken." Abdelaziz, director of the Miami-based American Muslim Association of North America, and other Muslim leaders expressed concern that undisclosed investigations such as Hassoun's create a sense that Muslims are being targeted. "After Sept. 11 we have been very cooperative with the authorities and we are working hard at healing the community," said Abdelaziz, who says these efforts have gone mostly unrecognized. "They keep making us feel you do good or bad and we're still against you, and you're under the microscope." Hassoun, known for his outspoken and passionate support of the Palestinian cause, has been associated at one time or another with at least two charities, Benevolence International Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation, that the United States is now accusing of supporting terrorism. But it is the government's curiosity about Padilla, now being held as an "enemy combatant'' on suspicion that he was dispatched by al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive bomb, that led them to Hassoun. Padilla, who lived in South Florida for much of the 1990s, and Hassoun worshipped at the Masjid Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale, but little else is known about their relationship. A senior federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators think Hassoun had a relationship with Padilla outside of the Masjid Al-Iman mosque. "We think they have interacted,'' said the official. "We're trying to figure out how far it goes and what's the nature of it.'' The federal official said Hassoun was detained administratively by the INS while the FBI continues its investigation. That includes what connection Hassoun and Padilla might have to charity groups such as the Benevolence International Foundation. Hassoun worked for Benevolence briefly when it opened an office in Plantation in 1993. That office closed in 1994. The foundation, which serves Islamic communities in places such as Bosnia, Pakistan and China, faces charges in federal court in Chicago that it served as a financing mechanism for Osama bin Laden. Hassoun also contributed $11,000 to Global Relief, which is facing similar accusations of funding terrorism. Members of Hassoun's family were reluctant to speak to the media Monday, but denied that Hassoun was more than an acquaintance of Padilla. "He just saw him. He wasn't friends," said Hassoun's nephew. The nephew, who lives across the street from Hassoun in Sunrise, did not want his name used. Hassoun's attorney, George DeFabio, declined to comment Monday beyond providing the following factual background: Hassoun came to the United States on a visitor's visa in 1989, then received a student visa in 1990. In 1996 he applied to adjust his status to permanent resident and has been waiting for the immigration service to finish processing his application ever since, according to DeFabio. During that time, Hassoun has received regular work authorization from the government. The INS has charged him with failing to maintain legal immigration status, DeFabio said. INS spokesman Rodney Germain would say only that Hassoun is in violation of the Immigration and Naturalization Act. But the INS should not be detaining Hassoun unless he is a danger to the community or a flight risk, said Jamie Fellner, U.S. director for New York-based Human Rights Watch. "The U.S. wants to be able to question people, and it wants them to be `encouraged' to answer questions,'' she said. "We believe this desire for detention is a way to facilitate questions and it exceeds INS powers.'' The USA Patriot Act of 2001 authorizes the government to detain non-citizens when the Attorney General suspects that the person is "engaged in any ... activity that endangers the national security of the United States.'' The government has detained hundreds of immigrants on visa violations since Sept. 11. Fellner said the INS should either deport Hassoun, or let him go on a reasonable bond unless he is a danger or he would flee. Hassoun has three children and owns two houses in a middle-class neighborhood in Sunrise. Fellner said Hassoun's incarceration fits the government's pattern since Sept. 11: holding someone, often in local jails alongside common criminals, "until the administration learns about him or from him what they were seeking.'' On Friday, FBI agents visited the current religious leader of Al-Iman, where Hassoun has preached and Padilla prayed and studied before leaving the country in 1998. Imam Rafiq Mahdi said agents asked him general questions about Padilla and Hassoun. "I think their intention was to get information, not give it,'' said Mahdi, who never met Padilla but knew Hassoun through the mosque. "I think that it's an attempt to cover all their bases." Khurrum Wahid, civil rights director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, would like the government's case against Adham Hassoun to receive a public hearing in court. "I'm not saying let everybody out," Wahid said. "I'm just saying bring it to a hearing. Let a jury decide the facts. Guilt or innocence is not for the government to decide. It's for a jury to decide." Jeff Shields can be reached at jshields@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4531. |
Task force arrests man tied to group in al-Qaida inquiry
By Christy McKerney, Jeff Shields and Tanya Weinberg
Sun-Sentinel
Posted June 15 2002
| SUNRISE -- Counterterrorism agents have arrested a Palestinian man who helped found the Florida branch of a group charged with financing Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network. Adham A. Hassoun, 40, a Sunrise man who is listed as the registered Florida agent for the Benevolence Foundation International, was arrested Wednesday night during a traffic stop on Nob Hill Road, his family said. Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman Patricia Mancha confirmed Hassoun is in INS custody but would not say where. She said only he was arrested in an investigation by the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force. The task force includes law enforcement agencies at all levels, including the FBI and the INS. In April, Chicago-based Benevolence International Foundation, which describes itself as an international charity organization benefiting refugees and children, was charged in federal court in Chicago with funding al-Qaida terrorists. The foundation is no longer active in Florida. Hassoun, who was born in Lebanon, worked for the foundation for a short time in the early 1990s, said his sister, who also lives in Sunrise but asked that her name not be used. She said the family doesn’t even know where Hassoun is or why he was taken. “No one will tell us anything,” she said. “This is not right.” His wife, Nahed, reached at home Friday, would not comment, only saying, “He’s not here.” Benevolence International rented office space at 150 S. University Drive in Plantation in February 1993, according to Jim Inklebarger, president of Brinwo Development, which manages the building. Hassoun signed the lease. Inklebarger said the men who ran the foundation told him it was a nonprofit group raising money for refugees and orphans, mostly in Palestine. Hassoun and the foundation disappeared after several months, failing to fulfill their yearly lease, he said. Hassoun’s sister said her brother worked for the foundation for only a few months in 1993, then went to work as a computer programmer. Matthew Piers, who represents Benevolence International in the criminal case in Chicago, said the organization was founded in 1993 by Adel Batterjee, scion of a wealthy Saudi family, but that Batterjee did little with the group. Foundation director Enaam Arnaout, who is also charged in the Chicago case, took over the organization from Batterjee in 1993, dismissed its one employee in Florida, and moved it to Chicago, Piers said. It now has offices in 12 countries, including Pakistan, Bosnia and Yemen, according to the federal government. That employee, who never had any connection again with Benevolence International, apparently was Hassoun, Piers said. In its April 29 complaint against Arnaout, the FBI alleges the Syrian-born Arnaout has a “relationship” with Osama bin Laden going back more than 10 years and has funded his al-Qaida organization. The complaint also states that Benevolence International officers and personnel have had contact with “various persons…trying to obtain chemical and nuclear weapons on behalf of al-Qaida.” Piers has denied any terrorist activity by the foundation. He said that the federal government has used a “heavy hand” with anyone with flaws in their immigration status who also has connections with Benevolence International or similarly targeted groups. “It’s arrest first, ask questions later,” Piers said. Hassoun’s sister said her brother, who has been in the United States for 13 years, is here legally. Charitable contribution records on file with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office show Hassoun has given $11,070 since 1997 to the Global Relief Foundation, another Muslim charitable organization under scrutiny by federal authorities. “The case is done. I have nothing whatsoever to do with them,” he told the Orlando Sentinel in fall when questioned about his past links to the Florida chapter of Benevolence International. Hassoun’s sister said he had been visited several times by the FBI after Sept. 11. Hassoun has been an active part of the local Muslim community for many years, said Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah, principal at the School of Islamic Studies in Sunrise. “I’m astonished,” Shah said of the arrest and of other recent arrests tied to federal investigations of possible terrorist activities in South Florida. On Monday, federal prosecutors announced they had arrested José Padilla, who was convicted of a road rage shooting in Sunrise before he converted to Islam in the mid-1990s. Padilla, who friends say attended the same mosque as Hassoun, is being held in a South Carolina brig as an “enemy combatant,” accused of working with al-Qaida to unleash a “dirty bomb” on the United States. Sofian Abdelaziz, director of the American Muslim Association of North America, described Hassoun as generous with those in need. “If anybody calls him and he needs money for food, anybody, I mean Christians too, he will put his hand in his pocket,” Abdelaziz said. Hassoun attended the Islamic Center of South Florida in Pompano Beach and the School of Islamic Studies of Broward in Sunrise. At the Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale, he often led prayers when former imam Raed Awad was not available, Abdelaziz said. Awad, who left Al-Iman about two years ago, was also the chief Florida fund-raiser for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which the government shut down in December, charging that the group was a major financial supporter of the militant Palestinian group Hamas. The organization and Awad deny the charges. Awad, reached Friday, said his friend Hassoun was passionate about the Palestinian cause. He said Hassoun had apparently attracted attention because of his “in your face” rhetoric about Palestine. Hassoun was known to be an emotional speaker, who talked about the Palestinian situation when he delivered sermons. “I don’t think in any statement he was trying to encourage violence,” Abdelaziz said. The Orlando Sentinel and Staff Researchers Kathryn Pease and John Maines contributed to this report. |
FBI probes Sydney terror link
08nov01
AN extremist Australian Islamic group has been linked to an FBI probe into fundraising activities for terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden's network.
FBI agents have questioned a computer programmer who was the North American representative for Nida'ul Islam, a bi-monthly magazine published by the Sydney-based Islamic Youth Movement (IYM).
Florida-based "Brother Adham Hassoun", 39, was listed as the controversial publication's subscription officer in early editions.
Mr Hassoun, who lives in Sunrise – a short drive from where some of the September 11 terrorists lived and carried out their pilot training – yesterday confirmed FBI agents had questioned him over links to the IYM.
Speaking from his Sunrise home last night, Mr Hassoun confirmed that he worked for the IYM for a short time but said he had no further ties with the group and was never an active member.
"I called these people and told them, 'Take my name off there'," he said.
In other developments:
• President George W. Bush warned all nations yesterday they faced possible nuclear, biological and chemical attacks from Osama bin Laden and his followers. Report
• US federal officials admitted they were no closer to identifying the architect of the deadly anthrax-by-mail campaign which has killed four people and infected 13.
An investigation by The Courier-Mail and The Miami Herald has learned that Mr Hassoun started a charity, which is under scrutiny for alleged links to terrorist fundraising.
Mr Hassoun registered the Benevolence International Foundation Inc (BIF) in Plantation, Florida, in 1992 and opened an office in 1993, according to Florida State records.
Yesterday Mr Hassoun said he had severed ties with BIF when it moved in May 1993 to Palos Hills, a suburb of Chicago.
"They were looking to open here and some guy recommended me and I helped them out. But then it didn't work out."
It was revealed last week that members of the IYM had been linked to a remote NSW property where spent cartridges and crude home-made bombs were found.
Yesterday an IYM spokesman in Sydney said Australian law enforcement agencies had again raided properties associated with their group in the past few days, seizing passports, freezing bank accounts and questioning them at length over their alleged links with terrorist groups.
The IYM, which claims to promote sports and education for Muslim youth, publishes the anti-Semitic Nida'ul Islam magazine which glorifies jihad or holy war, calls for the destruction of Israel and lauds "martyrdom operations".
Mr Hassoun was listed in an April 1996 edition as a contact for US and Canadian subscribers.
The association with the IYM, however, has been enough to trigger an inquiry by the FBI.
Well, there's a surprise.
Only one solution... more do-nothing laws that inconvenience US citizens.
Actually, I don't think passenger manifests (or even passenger info) is given out to the public. The FBI would get it though.
It seems half the Muslims in America are illegal aliens and/or like this clown "out of status", meaning he got in here legally with a visa but is now an illegal alien since his visa has expired. Or he came on tourist visa and decided to squat here.
Is blamed by Washington? Interesting journalistic bias for an attack that Bin Laden himself claimed credit for on one of is little cave videos.
Yes. They were on their way to Houston TX but the plane was forced to land in St. Louis by FAA's nationwide order. As I recall the five walked away, got on a bus and disappeared for awhile. But they were later found in San Antonio. When searched they had hair dye and box cutters among their possessions. They had to be let go because you cannot hold people on "suspicion" alone, and no crime appeared to have been committed by them. I hope someone else can add to the story.
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