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Houston Chronicle - July 24, 2007
Trial begins for leaders of Muslim charity
By DAVID KOENIG
DALLAS — A group that was once the nation's largest Muslim charity went on trial on terrorism-support charges Tuesday. Federal prosecutors say its purpose was to destroy Israel, but the defense claims its leaders sought advice from U.S. officials to stay true to its humanitarian mission.
The trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development is expected to last several months and caps an FBI investigation that lasted more than a decade. The organization and five of its top officials are charged with aiding terrorists, conspiracy and money laundering.
Prosecutor James T. Jacks said in his opening statement that the foundation was created to raise money for the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The charity's leaders lied about their purpose "because to tell the truth is to reveal what they were all about — the destruction of the state of Israel and replacing it with a Palestinian Islamic state," he said.
Some of the money went to support the families of suicide bombers, according to authorities.
Defense attorneys say Holy Land supported humanitarian efforts in Palestinian neighborhoods and did not knowingly aid Hamas.
"Holy Land had nothing to do with politics. Its focus was on children in need," Nancy Hollander, lawyer for Holy Land chief executive Shukri Abu Baker, said in her opening statement.
Defense lawyers said Holy Land approached U.S. officials, including prosecutor Jacks, asking how to stay on the right side of the law while working in the Middle East.
"They were never told to stop working with anyone," Hollander said.
Defense lawyers also said that the government's U.S. Agency for International Development worked with some of the same Middle Eastern charity groups that Holy Land did, and that none appeared on terrorism watch lists.
Contact with Hamas has been illegal since 1995, when President Clinton designated it a terrorist group.
Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections last year and took control of Gaza earlier this year. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' rival Fatah movement heads a moderate government in the West Bank.
Testimony is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
Outside the courthouse, Holy Land supporters charged that the case is an effort to intimidate U.S. Muslims. In court papers, prosecutors listed about 300 Muslim individuals and groups as unindicted co-conspirators, ranging from the founder of Hamas to people who raised money for Holy Land.
"We're all being lumped into one main aggregate of supporting terrorists," said Mahdi Bray, an official with the Muslim American Society. "A sizable portion of the American Muslim community is concerned the government has overreached."
The five men on trial aren't accused of being terrorists. Rather, they are charged with funneling $36 million to individuals and groups tied to Hamas, including $12.4 million sent after Clinton's designation.
Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped six of the 42 counts in the 2004 indictment against the men related to specific financial transactions…..
The personal involvement of Bush and the then-Attorney General John Ashcroft made the Holy Land case one of the highest-profile anti-terrorism prosecutions since the 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/4995607.html
Detroit Free Press - July 25, 2007
Agents raid two Muslim charities in Michigan
Niraj Warikoo and Jennifer Dixon
Federal agents raided two Muslim charities Tuesday (7/24/2007) in Dearborn, one of which the government said funneled money raised in the United States to Iran-backed terrorist groups in the Middle East.
The agents hauled away documents and files from charities that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from metro Detroit Muslims, some of whom were upset by the government's moves and spoke against a rush to judgment.
In a news release, the U.S. Treasury Department said that the Goodwill Charitable Organization is a Hizballah front group that solicits money from Hizballah members who live in the United States. Based in Lebanon, Hizballah has killed more Americans than any other terrorist group besides Al Qaeda, according to the U.S. government.
"We will not allow organizations that support terrorism to raise money in the United States," said Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
The other charity that was raided, Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization, often holds fund-raisers in metro Detroit and enjoys support from many in the area. Federal officials maintain its founder, Hussein Fadlallah, is the spiritual leader of Hizballah and a terrorist. But the Treasury Department did not designate Al-Mabarrat as a terrorist group, which means it technically can still operate.
According to tax records, Goodwill Charitable received $167,628 in contributions in 2005 and $202,500 in 2004. Al-Mabarrat raised $954,027 in 2004, according to its tax records.
No arrests were made at either office Tuesday.
Tarek Baydoun of Dearborn, who raises money for Al-Mabarrat, said that the charity is an American group that has absolutely no ties to any terrorist organization. Baydoun said he was concerned that the group was raided even though it was not placed on any terrorism list.
"The doors of Al-Mabarrat are open, and the finances are completely transparent," Baydoun said. Al-Mabarrat still plans to hold a community fund-raiser in October, he said.
Additional searches took place Tuesday in Michigan that were related to the Dearborn raids, said FBI Detroit Special Agent Dawn Clenney, but those warrants were sealed and she would not comment on them.
Some in metro Detroit's Muslim and Arab-American communities were concerned about the raids, calling them another government action that would hamper their ability to raise money for needy Muslims. In September, the FBI and other federal agencies raided the office of LIFE for Relief and Development, a Muslim charity based in Southfield. No arrests were made.
To address any possible concerns, Special Agent Andrew Arena, head of the FBI Detroit office, held a meeting Tuesday at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, a Shi'ite Muslim mosque.
"People are scared to donate" to charities or mosques, Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said of concerns raised at the meeting. Islamic law requires Muslims to donate a certain percentage of their income for needy people.
The Treasury Department, however, placed the Goodwill Charitable Organization and its parent group, the Iran-based Martyrs Foundation, on its list of terrorist groups. The move freezes the groups' assets and prohibits any person in the United States from conducting transactions with them.
According to the Treasury Department, the Martyrs Foundation also backs Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, two other groups the U.S. government considers to be terrorist outfits.
Goodwill Charitable "provided financial support directly to Hizballah in Lebanon," Clenney said...
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070725/NEWS02/707250400/1001/NEWS
Detroit Free Press - July 26, 2007
Muslims upset by FBI raid of charity
Congressman Dingell contributed $ 100 to the chairty
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
For $500 a year, you could sponsor a needy orphan in Lebanon through the Dearborn office of the Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization. And many metro Detroiters did -- through fund-raisers in mosques and boxes at Dearborn restaurants that read "Orphan's happiness depends on your donation."
Even some politicians gave money, including U.S. Rep. John Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat. His chief of staff said Wednesday that the congressman cut a check of about $100 to the group during a Ramadan dinner in October 2004.
And so the raid of Al-Mabarrat has unnerved many in metro Detroit's Muslim communities, some of whom met Wednesday to discuss how to deal with it.
Al-Mabarrat and another Shi'ite Muslim group, Goodwill Charitable Organization, were raided by the FBI and other federal agencies Tuesday, the same day the U.S. Treasury Department declared Goodwill Charitable to be a front for Hizballah and froze its assets.
But the Treasury Department did not name Al-Mabarrat as a terrorist group, leaving many Muslims confused about the government's actions. Al-Mabarrat is still allowed to operate, though agents hauled away its documents and computers, making it difficult to function, Muslim leaders said.
"This is a clean, lawful group with the utmost integrity," said Tarek Baydoun of Dearborn, who has helped raise money for it. "They're not going to find anything."
Al-Mabarrat officials have decided not to comment on the case for now because they're afraid of saying the wrong thing, said Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Walid said the group would like to have its computers and documents back.
"If they're not being closed, they should be allowed to operate at full capacity," Walid said.
Al-Mabarrat's plight is similar to what happened to another Muslim charity, Life for Relief and Development. Its Southfield headquarters was raided in September, but the group was not placed on any terrorism list.
The raid "made it much harder for us to raise money," said Ihsan Alkhatib, an attorney with the charity. "It required us to do more work."
He and other Muslims said raids hamper their ability to donate, as Islamic law requires.
"The religion is being singled out," said Akil Fahd, 37, of Detroit. "We're fearful."
The FBI did not comment on what was behind the Al-Mabarrat raid. But the government alleged in previous cases that the charity had ties to terrorism.
Last year, federal prosecutors said that Talal Chahine, owner of the La Shish restaurants, met with Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a cleric in Lebanon who heads Al-Mabarrat, and gave money to his group. Chahine was never charged with any terrorism crimes but was accused of tax fraud. He is believed to be in Lebanon.
The U.S. government claims that Fadlallah is the spiritual leader of Hizballah and designates him as a terrorist…..
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070726/NEWS02/707260415
Reuters - 20 July 2007
U.S. Islamic charities feel post 9/11 heat
By Ed Stoddard
DALLAS, July 20 - Islamic charities in the United States complain they are being unfairly scrutinized and persecuted as part of a broader backlash against Muslims since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The issue has come under renewed focus as a major trial gets under way in Dallas in which the U.S. Department of Justice is trying to prove the Holy Land Foundation charity illegally sent money to the militant Palestinian group Hamas.
"We feel our faith and charity which are very important to us are under attack in this trial," said Khalil Meek, spokesman for Hungry for Justice, a coalition of civil rights groups offering support to the defendants in the trial -- the charity and seven men linked to it.
U.S. law enforcement officials maintain some Islamic charities have been used as fronts to channel cash to groups Washington has deemed terrorist.
Holy Land was one of the largest Islamic charity groups in the United States and one of six in the country that have been shut in recent years, according to OMB Watch, a government transparency watchdog. Estimates vary but there are thought to be about a dozen still operating in the United States.
Islamic activists say charities that donate to Palestinian causes have been singled out.
"Any charity that decides to provide aid to Palestine is either shut down or intensely scrutinized," said Meek, who is also president of the Muslim Legal Fund of America.
Other Islamic charities also find it tough.
"It is very difficult right now for American Muslim charities to operate and at the same time American Muslims themselves are finding it difficult to donate to these charities," said Nidal Ibrahim, executive director of the Arab American Institute.
He said the institute has asked the Bush administration to issue a "seal of approval" for those charities that have been examined closely and found to be operating lawfully.
"At the end of the day, American Muslims give to these charities out of a sense of goodwill and to fulfill a religious obligation," Ibrahim said…..
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N17254139.htm
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