A man described as a high-ranking Hamas operative was arrested after he drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge while his wife videotaped close-up shots of the structure, authorities said Tuesday.
| Note that he's a Hamas op, not al-Qaeda... |
| I also note he's one of the US Hamas bigs, who normally wouldn't be out doing cannon fodder jobs like taking pix of bridge bolts. Dare we hope this means their "sleeper cell" bench is not very deep? |
Ismael Selim Elbarasse, long suspected by authorities of having financial ties to the Palestinian extremist group, was taken into custody last week and held as a material witness in an unrelated terrorism case in Chicago. Neither he nor his wife was charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the videotaping.
| Just a simple family video, after all. You should see their video of New York. |
Gov. Robert Ehrlich said the arrest "shouldn't be a generator of fear. It should serve as a reminder that there is a war going on around the world."
| Yeah. And it wants to come here. Where I used to like to fish... |
| And where I still like to sail. |
A federal grand jury in Chicago last week described Elbarasse as an unindicted co-conspirator in a 15-year scheme to finance terrorist activities in Israel. Hamas has carried out suicide bombings and other attacks in Israel. Court documents allege he and defendant Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook — considered one of the highest-ranking Hamas leaders internationally — shared a Virginia bank account that was used to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hamas. Federal public defender Franklin W. Draper, who represented Elbarasse in court Monday, did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.
| I'd guess he was speechless... |
| ... wondering how he'd managed to lose the court clerk's lottery yet again. |
Elbarasse's private attorney, Stanley L. Cohen, did not return calls either. A woman reached by phone at Elbarasse's home identified herself as his wife but declined to give her name or to comment. Elbarasse was spotted Friday — the same day the Chicago indictment was made public — by police officers on the 4.3-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Authorities said Elbarasse was in an sport utility vehicle with his wife and their three children, ages 14, 19 and 21. He allegedly said they had gone to the beach but could not specify what beach they had visited. According to the FBI, the tape in the camera shows the cables and upper supports of the main section of the bridge and zooms in on bridge joints. The tape also shows the Elbarasse family packing for vacation and on vacation. Authorities said officers saw the wife try to hide the camera as officers approached. Elbarasse is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday for a hearing on whether to turn him over to federal officials in Chicago. Elbarasse was jailed for eight months in 1998, after failing to testify before a federal grand jury that was investigating Hamas fund-raising. |