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8/28/2002 (16:09) |
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U.S. Charges 5 With Terror Support
Wed Aug 28, 3:48 PM ET
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government on Wednesday charged five men in
Detroit with conspiring to provide 'material support and resources' to terrorists
for a series of attacks in the United States and overseas.
In an indictment handed up in Detroit, the men were charged with conspiring to
provide services and tangible items to individuals in the United States and
abroad to assist them in engaging and promoting violent attacks in Jordan,
Turkey, the United States.
The men have been in custody for months since a raid on their apartment
uncovered documents suggesting plots to attacks a military base overseas and
possible former Defense Secretary William Cohen.
Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan, Youssef Hmimssa, Farouk Ali-Haimoud and a
man only known by the first name Abdella were charged with conspiracy to
provide material support or resources to terrorists and charges involving
conspiracy to engage in fraud and misuse of visas and identification
documents.
The indictment alleges the men 'operated as a covert underground support unit
for terrorist attacks within and outside the United States, as well as a 'sleeper'
operational combat cell.
'The object of the conspiracy was, among other things, to cause economic
harm to U.S. businesses, to provide personnel, indoctrination, recruitment and
training, safe houses, mail drops, intelligence target data collection, weapons,
false documentation and identification, and assistance and other covert support
for the purpose of engaging in violent attacks against persons and buildings
within the territory of Jordan, Turkey, and the United States,' the court
document said.
The indictment is expected to the first of a string accusing Americans of
providing support from within the United States to foreign terrorists groups that
range from al-Qaida to Hezbollah — the fruits of months of investigation by the
FBI ( news - web sites), Customs Service, Secret Service, Internal Revenue
Service ( news - web sites) and other federal agencies.
Federal agents believe they have uncovered a broad effort by American citizens,
many of them immigrants, to use credit card thefts, illegal cigarette sales,
diverted charitable funds and cash smuggled in airline luggage to enrich
anti-American and anti-Israeli terror groups with money that originated in the
United States, officials said.
'The evidence that is being developed suggests that America has been a piggy
bank for certain terror organizations to the tune of tens of millions of dollars,'
said a senior law enforcement official directly involved in the investigation.
Because many of the cases are still being developed before grand juries,
officials would only discuss their evidence on condition of anonymity.
Just a few miles from the nation's capital in northern Virginia, federal agents
have been investigating whether a network of businesses and charities has
been diverting money to Hamas and al-Qaida, according to court documents
reviewed by The Associated Press.
The government has evidence the businesses were engaged in providing
'material support to foreign terrorists organizations, conspiracy to defraud the
United States by impeding functions of the Internal Revenue Service and
conspiracy to engage in international transfers of money to promote offenses
against foreign nations involving murder or destruction of property by means of
explosives,' according to a search warrant signed by a federal magistrate
earlier this year.
The search warrant gave agents permission to look for records of no fewer than
21 entities — from an Islamic graduate school to a poultry company — and any
evidence of contacts with the pro-Palestinian group Hamas, al-Qaida, Osama
bin Laden ( news - web sites) and other terror groups.
Federal agents are examining recent evidence that criminal organizations in the
United States have been moving illegal drug proceeds to the Middle East for
possible evidence of terrorist financing, officials said.
And they are using powerful supercomputers to analyze global trade in gold,
diamonds, tanzanite and honey for evidence of terrorist financing scheme.
Already three Yemeni honey businesses have been identified by U.S. officials
as possible fronts for terrorist money, and several other investigations are under
way, officials said.
Pakistani-run jewelry kiosks in several states also were raided recently by
federal agents.
Nearly all of the Americans, businesses and charities under investigation deny
connections to terrorism, and officials say some leads have not panned out.
Recently the Treasury Department ( news - web sites) has removed the names
of several people or companies associated with the al-Barakaat network who
were placed on a list of suspected terrorist supporters.
American Muslim activists have questioned whether the efforts amount to
harassment of Arab-Americans or racial profiling.
One of the biggest efforts to stop Americans from supporting overseas terrorists
is called Operation Green Quest, a joint effort of the Customs Service, several
Treasury Department agencies and the FBI that was begun last fall after the
Sept. 11 attacks.
According to documents and interviews, the operation has seized more than
$23 million from suspected terrorist supporters, executed 78 search warrants,
and resulted in 42 arrests and 27 indictments.
Officials said there are ongoing investigations into more than 400 leads about
potential terrorist finance networks.
But some cases have already become public:
_In Detroit, an Arab-American has been charged with smuggling $12 million in
bogus cashiers checks into the United States. Federal agents say the
defendant has told them he could provide them information on terrorism and
may have evidence the man named on the checks may belong to al-Qaida, the
group headed by bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
_Two months ago, two Lebanese brothers were convicted in North Carolina of
smuggling and reselling millions of dollars in cigarettes in a scheme to help
fund Hezbollah.
_In Boston, a fitness trainer of Algerian descent has been accused of providing
the names, Social Security ( news - web sites) cards and credit cards of
members from his fitness club to a man convicted of plotting to blow up the Los
Angeles airport during the millennium celebrations.
_In June, a dozen shopkeepers in New York were arrested and charged with
smuggling money to their native country of Yemen — a hotbed of support for bin
Laden and site of the 2000 al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole ( news - web
sites). Unsealed court papers say the men moved more than $100,000 out of
the United States in the past year.
_In July, an Islamic cleric from Jersey City, N.J., was arrested on charges he
tried to smuggle $659,000 to Egypt by hiding it in Ritz cracker boxes and baby
wipes stuffed into his parents' luggage.
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