8 US-Palestinian terrorists indicted by DOJ

[Timber Loftis]

Federal Indictment Charges 8 With Operating Terrorist Network
By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN

The Justice Department today accused eight men, including a college professor in Florida, of financing and supporting Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an alleged terrorist cell said to be responsible for the murders of more than 100 people in the Middle East.

Four of the eight men are residents of the United States and were arrested today in Florida and Illinois. The authorities said that the college professor— Sami Amin Al-Arian, 45, who was born in Kuwait but now lives in of Temple Terrace, Fla., was "a leader in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad" and directed the "audit of all monies and property of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad throughout the world." Mr. Al-Arian is a computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida.

News services reports quoted Mr. Al-Arian as saying his arrest is "all about politics" as he was taken in handcuffs to F.B.I. headquarters in Tampa. Muslim and civil liberties groups have said in the past that Mr. Al-Arian, under investigation by federal officials since 1995, is the victim of a political witchhunt stemming from his advocacy of Palestinian rights. Mr. Al-Arian has previously denied any connection to terrorists.

The 50-count indictment, relying on declassified national security wiretaps, paints a different portrait of Mr. Al-Arian, saying that he and his seven co-defendants ran a racketeering enterprise from 1984 until the present. In addition to abetting murder, the group is accused of engaging in extortion, money laundering, perjury, and immigration fraud.

All of the men, if found guilty, face the possibility of life in prison.

"We make no distinction between those who carry out terrorist attacks and those who knowingly finance, manage or supervise terrorist organizations," said Attorney General John Ashcroft said at a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington. "We will bring justice to the full network of terror."

The indictment offers a litany of terrorist acts and murders linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad stretching as far back as 1994. The most recent terrorist act in the indictment is a June 5, 2002, suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 20 people the injury of 50 more.

Others charged in the indictment include Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatim Naji Fariz, and Ghassan Zayed Ballut, all residents of the United States and they are now under arrest. The other four individuals named in the indictment are charged as "top worldwide leaders" of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and remain at-large overseas.

One of them, Ramadan Shallah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad's secretary-general, who is said to be in Damascus, Syria, is said in the indictment to be a previous resident of Florida where he once was the executive director of the World Islam and Studies Enterprise, or WISE, a research group founded by Mr. Al-Arian.

The other three individuals at-large overseas are Mohammed Tasir Hassan Al-Khatib, said to be the treasurer of Palestinian Islamic Jihad; Abd Al-Aziz Awda, described in the indictment as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad founder and spiritual leader; and Bashir Nafi, also described as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad founder and as leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Al-Arian has lived in the United States since first arriving in the country as a college student over 25 years ago, according to the indictment.

Mr. Al-Arian was placed on forced leave and banned from the University of South Florida's campus after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The university has been trying to fire Mr. Al-Arian since then. A spokesman for the university said that the school's president will meet with the school's attorneys to review the implications of Mr. Al-Arian's arrest.

Although Mr. Al-Arian once ran an Islamic charity in Tampa with his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, that reportedly promoted violence against Israel, Mr. Al-Arian has told reporters that he never supported the use of violence. His brother-in-law was recently deported to Lebanon after spending five years in jail in the United States, accused of being a security threat. No criminal charges were ever filed against Mr. Al-Najjar.