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September 10th, 2003 will forever be remembered as a grim day for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). On that day, the eve of the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, CAIR faced up to its own terrorist connections. It ran away from testifying before an influential Senate panel that heard a barrage of incriminating evidence about the group and its connections. It saw one of its former officials plead guilty to terrorist-related crimes in Federal Court. And, it was stood up by two Department of Justice officials at an immigration symposium in Florida. CAIR should find it hard...

Al-Hussayen may be deported 06/04/2003 Associated Press An immigration judge ruled that a University of Idaho graduate student suspected of terrorist links lied to gain entry to the United States and can be deported. But Sami Omar Al-Hussayen will remain in the Canyon County Jail as the eleven criminal counts against him move toward trial. Al-Hussayen is a Saudi Arabian national. He refused to answer questions about the matter, invoking his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. The bearded Al-Hussayen appeared in an orange prison jumpsuit, handcuffs and shackles. He occasionally smiled at two friends in the audience...

<p>SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- A former University of Idaho football player has been arrested as a material witness in an investigation of Islamic charities with possible links to terrorism, FBI agents said Tuesday.</p> <p>Abdullah Al-Kidd, 30, was arrested Sunday at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., according to two FBI agents who separately spoke on condition of anonymity. He was carrying a one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia, court documents show.</p>

BELLEVUE -- A former University of Idaho football player said he is not tied to terrorists and is shocked at the way he's been treated by federal agents the past two weeks. Abdullah Al-Kidd was arrested as he prepared to board a jetliner at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. He is jailed in Boise, Idaho, as a material witness in an investigation of an alleged terrorist group with links to the university. "Basically, don't believe the hype," Al-Kidd told the King County Journal during a jailhouse interview on Sunday night. "I'm not a terrorist. I'm as American as apple...

Judge rules Saudi student could be deported 04/25/2003 Associated Press BOISE - An immigration judge in Boise decided today that University of Idaho graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen could be deported. But the Saudi Arabian national allegedly linked to Islamic radicals will remain in the Canyon County Jail as his case moves along two legal tracks. Immigration Court Judge Anna Ho decided Al-Hussayen was "removable," meaning he could be deported for violating the terms of his student visa into the United States by being paid for creating Internet pages for groups including the Islamic Assembly of North America. But...

<p>In the days after Sept. 11, 2001, Sami Omar al-Hussayen led fellow Muslims as they joined an emotion-charged candlelight march remembering the dead. The Saudi graduate student in computer science at the University of Idaho helped organize a blood drive for victims. He issued a press release on behalf of the Muslim Students Association, stating that the small town of Moscow's Muslims "condemn in the strongest terms possible what are apparently vicious acts of terrorism against innocent citizens."</p>

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The leader of Portland's biggest mosque sits on the board of an Islamic charity that's being investigated for terrorist links, federal tax records show. The Oregonian reported Tuesday that Alaa M. Abunijem has served on a three-person board in charge of the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America since at least 1999, according to federal documents reviewed by the Portland newspaper. An FBI agent testified in an Idaho federal court last week that the bureau's evidence "clearly points" to the Islamic Assembly's role in promoting terrorism. Abunijem and other directors of the Islamic Assembly have not...

A second man with ties to the University of Idaho has been arrested by federal agents in a widening investigation of a suspected terrorist-related web in the Moscow, Idaho-Pullman, Wash., area, an FBI source confirmed today. Former Idaho student Bassem K. Khafagi was arrested in January at the Marriott Hotel near New York City’s LaGuardia Airport and was returned to Michigan to face bank fraud charges, court documents show. A total of four men with ties to the Moscow-Pullman area and the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America have been implicated in the investigation. They include current University of Idaho...

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - MOSCOW, Idaho - This was supposed to be the safe place, the Idaho town that fought the state's stereotype as a haven for white- supremacist and anti-government groups. For sure, that's how Marwan Mossaad felt about Moscow, home to the University of Idaho, where the 25-year-old Egyptian national is majoring in economics and architecture. It's hard to imagine the disconnect between the chaotic streets of Cairo, a city of 16 million people, and Moscow, where the grain elevator at the south end of Main Street is the tallest building in town.Until now, said Mossaad, head...

The Saudi man arrested by the Joint Terrorism Task Force yesterday in Idaho has ties to close associates of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and to four Arab men charged at the same time with channeling funds to Iraq. Sami Omar Al-Hussayen – a University of Idaho doctoral candidate supported by the Saudi government – was a terrorist bagman, according to a federal criminal justice source quoted by a Seattle newspaper. Saudi student Sami Omar al-Hussayen "He's in touch with people who could pick up the phone, call [bin Laden], and he would take the call," the source told the...

The FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested a Saudi Arabian man studying computer security at the University of Idaho who is charged with channeling funds and helping set up a website for an Islamic group that urges violence against the United States. The Justice Department also announced that a U.S. charity in upstate New York and four people associated with it were charged with illegally sending millions of dollars to Iraq. Idaho graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, 34, was taken into custody at 4 a.m. at his apartment on the university's campus in Moscow, Idaho, according to a...

MOSCOW, Idaho -- Agents with a federal anti-terrorism task force yesterday arrested a University of Idaho student who they say provides a window on how al-Qaida, the group responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, raises money.Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, a doctoral candidate studying computer security here, was a terrorist bagman, according to one federal criminal justice source. "He's in touch with people who could pick up the phone, call UBL (the law enforcement acronym for Osama bin Laden), and he would take the call."Few in this region's small Muslim community would talk about Al-Hussayen yesterday. Some praised him as a...

MOSCOW - Agents with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force have raided several locations in Moscow, Idaho. A University of Idaho student of Saudi Arabian descent has been arrested for investigation of visa fraud. Spokane TV reports identified the student as 35-year-old Semi Al-Huyassen and says he was arrested on seven counts of visa fraud and four counts of making false statements The man is linked to the Islamic Assembly of North America, according to Spokane TV station KHQ. Federal agents have scheduled news conferences today in Moscow and Boise to release details. Dozens of agents are serving search warrants...