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The Associated Press - August 14, 2007
Judge in trial of Muslim charity
leaders bars some evidence
DALLAS: Lawyers for Muslim charity leaders accused of aiding Middle East terrorists scored a rare win in court Tuesday when a federal judge blocked some evidence seized by Israeli soldiers during raids of Palestinian organizations.
The evidence included memos indicating that the governing Palestinian Authority believed the militant group Hamas controlled Muslim social agencies supported by the Texas charity, according to a court filing by prosecutors.
Defense lawyers had objected that some of the documents were not signed or dated, and they cast doubt on Israel's handling of the evidence.
Five former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development are charged with funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, which the U.S. government designated a terrorist organization in 1995. The trial is in its fourth week of testimony.
Federal District Judge A. Joe Fish has ruled in the prosecution's favor on a wide range of issues, from allowing the government to call Israeli secret agents as witnesses to denying defense requests for a mistrial.
On Tuesday, however, Fish ruled against prosecutors and blocked the jury from seeing 12 documents that prosecutors contended linked Hamas to charities called zakat committees that were funded partly by the Holy Land Foundation, or HLF.
Prosecutors had said in a court filing that many of the disputed documents were seized from offices of the Palestinian Authority and "reflect the PA's understanding that the committees supported by HLF — and HLF itself — were controlled by Hamas."
The precise significance of the judge's ruling was difficult to gauge. The judge did not explain his ruling, and lawyers have been barred from talking to reporters about the case.
Also, the judge allowed some evidence from the Israeli raids of zakat committees, including posters and key chains of suicide bombers and Hamas leaders that could bolster in jurors' minds a link between Hamas and Holy Land Foundation.
Holy Land was the largest U.S. Muslim charity when government agents shut it down in December 2001. Leaders of the group said they provided humanitarian aid to Palestinian children, victims of the Oklahoma City bombing and others.
But prosecutors have portrayed the charity as part of a broader campaign to support suicide bombings and other attacks by Hamas in Israel…..
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/14/america/NA-GEN-US-Muslim-Charity-Trial.php
The Dallas Morning News - August 15, 2007
More anonymity in terror-linked Holy Land case
Second Israeli secret agent testifies under pseudonym
By JASON TRAHAN
The testimony of an anonymous agent as an expert witness could be a first in the U.S. legal system. It also could end up being a point of appeal in the event of convictions in the case involving the former Richardson charity and its organizers.
The agent, a lawyer in the counterterrorism section of the Israeli Security Agency, also known as Shin Bet, said that most of Hamas' money "is coming from outside the territories [the West Bank and Gaza], from nongovernmental organizations overseas," particularly the U.S., Europe, the Gulf countries and North Africa.
"When I'm talking about a network, a global network that would serve Hamas goals in the financial aspect, this ... structure was by design," said the agent, who testified under the name "Avi." "Someone wanted to create it. It wasn't created just like this, out of the blue."
He then testified that money collected by this network ended up in the coffers of several Palestinian zakat, or charity, committees that are run by known Hamas activists.
Prosecutors have charged the Holy Land Foundation and five of its organizers with violating a 1995 presidential order outlawing support of Hamas by sending at least $12 million to these committees.
Defense attorneys have said that their clients merely provided humanitarian aid to needy Palestinian orphans and families and did not support Hamas. They also have objected to Avi and another Israeli secret agent who testified last week under the moniker "Major Lior," on the grounds that their anonymous testimony violates their clients' constitutional right to confront their accusers.
Holy Land supporters, who listened to Avi's testimony from an overflow room after the judge cleared the courtroom of spectators for security reasons, say the agent is not credible because his government is bent on defeating Hamas.
Hamas was formed in the late 1980s to seek the destruction of the Israeli government through jihad, or holy war. It has sponsored hundreds of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians in recent years.
The Holy Land trial is only the second in U.S. history in which Israeli government agents have been allowed by judges to testify anonymously.
What makes Avi's testimony potentially groundbreaking is that he may be the first person in the U.S. legal system allowed to testify as an expert witness under an assumed name.
"I've never heard of an expert witness being granted anonymity from the defense," said Southern Methodist University assistant law professor Jeffrey Kahn.
"The way you assess an expert's reliability and relevance is through his reputation, his writings, his professional experiences," he said. "How could you possibly impeach this witness, let alone test whether jurors should trust his opinions, without knowing basic facts about who he really is?"…..
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/081607dnmetholyland.2efd673.html
Los Angeles Times - August 16, 2007
Israeli agent ties charity to terrorists
By Greg Krikorian
Amid extraordinary secrecy and security, the Israeli government took a key role Wednesday in helping the U.S. Justice Department prosecute American citizens accused of supporting anti-Israeli terrorists.
An Israeli intelligence official testifying under an assumed name in a closed courtroom told a federal jury here that a now-defunct Islamic charity in the United States was part of a global fundraising network that helped finance terrorism by the Palestinian group Hamas.
The assertions by an Israeli Security Agency officer, identified as "Avi," are pivotal to U.S. government claims that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and five of its former officers knowingly funded extremists in the guise of charity. The allegation is denied by the defendants, all but one of whom is a U.S. citizen.
During his first day on the witness stand, Avi testified that Holy Land and other fundraising groups surreptitiously raised vast sums of money abroad that were funneled to Hamas through a network of local charities in the West Bank and Gaza.
He said that those charities, known as zakat committees, provided not only the lifeblood of Hamas' social work but helped support families of suicide bombers, Israeli prisoners and others.
"This network was formed by design; it wasn't created out of the blue," he said under questioning by Assistant U.S. Atty. Elizabeth J. Shapiro.
The intelligence agent testified that Israel had seized evidence from overseas charities and gathered other information supporting his claims, including interviews with Hamas officials.
In its 2004 indictment, the government alleged that Holy Land, originally located in Los Angeles, effectively supported terrorist attacks overseas by contributing millions of dollars to nine zakat committees or other facilities controlled by Hamas.
On Wednesday, the Israeli agent was questioned about four of those charities including the Jenin Zakat Committee. He said that it was run by at least eight Hamas activists, four of whom were members of its military wing. One was convicted in Israel of a 2002 suicide attack that killed eight.
Holy Land officials have long argued through their attorneys that they rejected terrorism and provided only charitable funding.
They said the were the targets of harassment by the Israeli government and Jewish groups that predated the indictment and were angered by U.S. government orders that closed the foundation shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Foundation officials have specifically denied providing financial or political support to Hamas and have said in court filings and interviews that they were unaware of any alleged zakat committee connections to Hamas.
During the trial, now in its fourth week, Islamic groups and Holy Land supporters have criticized the government's case, taking particular exception to prosecutors listing about 300 Islamic groups and individuals as unindicted co-conspirators. Some include mainstream organizations.
One of them, the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations, has filed a motion to toss out the list on grounds that it violates the 1st and 5th amendments and unfairly smears organizations and individuals that are not accused of any crimes.
Foundation supporters also have taken issue with U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish's handling of the case. Much of that criticism centers on his decision to allow the Israeli intelligence officer and an Israeli military official, who testified last week, to appear before the jury using pseudonyms and in a courtroom open only to attorneys, government agents and the immediate families of the defendants…..
Outside the federal courthouse, demonstrators held signs protesting the case, including one that read: "Secret evidence + secret witness = reasonable doubt."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-holyland16aug16,1,284321.story
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