The United States has indicted eight people on charges
of using a major university in Florida as a base to plan and fund terrorist
attacks in the Middle East.
A federal district court indictment identified the leader of Islamic
Jihad in North America and charged him and seven others with providing
funding and logistics for the Damascus-based organization, termed by the
State Department as a terrorist group.
Sami Al Arian and seven co-conspirators were the target of a 50-count
indictment that accused them of organizing and funding Islamic Jihad since
1984. A Kuwaiti native, Al Arian was a professor at University of South
Florida until his dismissal last year, Middle East Newsline reported.
"In his capacity as a leader in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, he [Al
Arian] directed the audit of all monies and property of the Palestinian
Islamic Jihad throughout the world," the federal indictment read.
The indictment said the defendants used the University of South Florida
and organizations they established as a base to plan terrorist attacks and
fund-raising. The suspects were said to have engaged in extortion, perjury
and immigration fraud. Jihad is said to have killed more than 100 people in
Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"The Tampa-based defendants established a [Palestinian Islamic Jihad]
PIJ cell using the structure and facilities of the University of South
Florida and two other entities, WISE and ICP, as a cover to conceal their
terrorist activities," a Justice Department statement said. "The defendants
then managed the affairs of the PIJ organization by, among others things:
administering the financial affairs of the PIJ, including the acquisition
and spending of
funds; acting as communications facilitators to relay messages for PIJ
members located in various countries, relating such things as announcement
of PIJ terrorist attacks; acquiring secure communications equipment; and
making false statements to the INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service]
to assist terrorists and other PIJ members to enter and remain in the United
States."
The charges against Al Arian, 45, are not new. In 1994, researcher
Steven Emerson, the author of several books on Islamic terrorist groups in
the United States, asserted that Al Arian had established fronts for Jihad.
But officials said wiretaps and other measures could not be taken
against Al Arian and his accomplices until last year in the wake of the
so-called Patriot Act that eased restrictions on law enforcement agencies
and allowed the introduction of intelligence information as evidence.
"A very substantial and important aspect of this case is the
facilitation that comes between the intelligence effort and the law
enforcement effort, which previously had been forbidden, and which was
previously something we simply didn't get done and couldn't get done because
we had those impairments," Attorney General John Ashcroft told a news
conference on Thursday. "And this is a step forward in that direction."
So far, FBI agents have arrested Al Arian and three defendants located
in the area of Tampa, Fla. and Illinois. Federal authorities are searching
for others indicted believed to have fled the United States. Officials said
that if convicted the defendants could receive a life sentence.
Al Arian arrived in the United States as a university student more than
25 years ago. He was said to have been a colleague of Ramadan Shallah, who
left Florida for Damascus and now heads Jihad. For years, the two men ran
the World Islam and Studies Enterprise [WISE].
"We make no distinction between those who carry out terrorist attacks
and those who knowingly finance, manage or supervise terrorist
organizations," Ashcroft said.
The fugitives named in the indictment are Shalah, Mohammed Tasir Hassan
Al Khatib, the treasurer of Jihad and a member of the Shura Council; Abd Al
Aziz Awda, a founder and spiritual leader of Jihad qnd Bashir Nafi, the head
of Jihad in Britain who now lives in that country. In addition to Al Arian,
those arrested include Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatim Naji Fariz and Ghassan Zayed
Ballut.
