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| Subpoenas Issued in Terror-Finance Probe Spark Secret Battle in Fed.Court |
| 2007-03-22 |
| Hat tip Instapundit. What's been going on with the investigation of Muslim charities in Virginia, including the Sami al Arian hunger strike. Hint: lots! Dozens of grand jury subpoenas issued in recent months in a terrorism financing investigation of Muslim charities in northern Virginia have spawned a largely secret legal battle before a federal appeals court, according to court records and a person close to the investigation. One of the appeals involves former Florida college professor, Sami Al-Arian, who pleaded guilty last year to a terrorism-support charge and is currently on a hunger strike to protest a judge's order jailing him for refusing to testify before a Virginia-based grand jury. Court filings indicate that the inquiry into terrorism financing and possible embargo violations began soon after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In March 2002, federal agents served search warrants at more than a dozen locations in northern Virginia, including the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT) think tank. A similar operation Al-Arian ran in Florida, the World Islam & Studies Enterprise, received $55,000 from IIIT in the early 1990s, and an IIIT leader once described the two groups as intertwined. The Virginia investigation has focused primarily on alleged links with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, though the government has alleged that Al-Arian's Florida operation was an arm of a rival terrorist organization, Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In 2004, a prominent Muslim leader whose Virginia home was searched in the 2002 raids, Abdurahman Alamoudi, pleaded guilty to repeated violations of the trade embargo with Libya and admitted to involvement in a plot to kill Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Alamoudi, who founded the American Muslim Council and once had entrée at the top levels of the Bush and Clinton administrations, was sentenced to 23 years in prison. In addition, an Egyptian banker, Soliman Biheiri, was convicted on immigration charges and a charge that he lied to investigators about his ties to a Hamas leader, Mousa abu Marzook. Biheiri got two sentences of about a year each and was released in 2005. Since those cases concluded, however, there have been few signs of where the investigation is headed. The New York Sun has learned that one grand jury subpoena issued last year went to a Maryland-based group that espouses political and free-market reforms in the Islamic world, the Minaret of Freedom Institute. The group's president, Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, said immigration agents visited his home in November 2006, seeking notes about a panel discussion he moderated in 1999 that was broadcast on C-SPAN. The session, titled "The United States and Iran: It's Time to Talk," took place at the American Muslim Council's annual conference. Another reason for prosecutors' interest could be that the Minaret Web site says the panel was organized by a Springfield, Va. think tank, United Associates for Studies and Research. That operation was founded by Mr. abu Marzook, who issued a forceful statement deploring Israel's killing of a Hamas spiritual leader in 2004, and, according to the New York Times, was identified by a Palestinian activist as Hamas's American base of operations. The U.S. attorney in Alexandria, Chuck Rosenberg, declined to comment yesterday about Mr. Ahmad's complaint that the investigation was due to religious bias. However, the prosecutor told the Washington Post last year: "We do not prosecute people because they are Muslims or Catholics or Jews. We prosecute them because they have committed criminal acts that warrant prosecution." Last week, Mr. Rosenberg was named to replace the recently resigned chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Al-Arian's attorneys also have complained of bias, alleging that the government lawyer directing the Virginia charities probe, Mr. Kromberg, exhibited an anti-Muslim attitude in rejecting Al-Arian's request to delay his appearance until after Ramadan. "If they can kill each other during Ramadan, they can appear before the grand jury; all they can't do is eat before sunset … I am not going to put off Dr. Al-Arian's grand jury appearance just to assist in what is becoming the Islamization of America," Mr. Kromberg said, according to a defense court filing. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |