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Justice Department "Witch-hunt" Against American Muslims Continues
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U.S.
Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announces arrest of Arnaout
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WASHINGTON,
May 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - American Muslims remain
visibly concerned as Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents
arrested the head of a U.S.-based Muslim charity Tuesday, April 30, on
charges he lied about his foundation's support for Al-Qaeda and other
groups accused of terrorism.
Enaam
Arnaout, executive director of Benevolence International Foundation,
was detained at his home in suburban Chicago early Tuesday, and
appeared briefly in U.S. federal court there.
The
Syrian-born U.S. citizen, considered a flight risk by U.S.
authorities, was ordered held on two counts of perjury until a May 7
hearing.
Lawyers
for the Palos Hills, Illinois-based foundation will also answer two
counts of perjury at that hearing.
Authorities
claim Arnaout, whose charity has been under official U.S. surveillance
since 1999, lied in court papers about his charity's support for
Al-Qaeda, the Chechen mujahidin [fighters] and an Afghan-based group
called Hezb-e-Islami.
The
39-year-old claimed the foundation "never provided meaningful
support for organizations engaged in violence, terrorist activities or
military operations of any nature," in a sworn affidavit filed as
part of a civil suit the charity has brought against U.S. authorities.
The
foundation insists it has nothing to do with so-called
"terrorism."
The
suit seeks to overturn a U.S. Treasury Department order freezing the
foundation's assets issued in December 2001 as part of a
post-September 11 crackdown on U.S.-based Muslim charities suspected
of funneling aid to terrorists.
However,
in a 35-page affidavit supporting the perjury charges, the U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed that not only did
Arnaout have a personal relationship with Saudi-born dissident Osama
bin Laden, but that the foundation skimmed off some of its charitable
income to support Al-Qaeda and other "militant Islamist
groups".
The
affidavit made no mention of figures, but a former Al-Qaeda
operative-turned-informant described how the charity sent funds to
supposed charitable organizations in countries with Al-Qaeda
operatives.
He
claimed the groups would withdraw the money, and hand over some of it
to Al-Qaeda, blamed for September 11 attacks which killed 3,000 people
in the United States. Once withdrawn, the funds "would be
virtually untraceable," and the relief groups would say they were
used to build mosques or schools, or to buy food and clothing for the
poor, the informant told the FBI.
The
affidavit claims the foundation in 1995 provided the Chechen
independence fighters with an X-ray machine and sought to supply it
with money and anti-mine boots among other things.
And
in 2000, the affidavit says, the foundation was used as a conduit to
channel more than half a million dollars to the same Chechen fighters.
The
document also outlines Arnaout's relationship with Bin Laden,
including one incident in 1989 when he briefly hosted one of Bin
Laden's wives at his home in Islamabad, Pakistan.
It
also cited contacts between Arnaout and Bin Laden associates, one of
whom, Mamdouh Salim, is in prison in New York awaiting trial on
charges of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals.
Patrick
Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Illinois, said
the indictments of Arnaout and the foundation signaled the U.S.
government's determination "to vigorously investigate anyone who
raises money for violence here or overseas."
"This
prosecution is aimed against fraud and perjury, it is not aimed
against charities and it is certainly not aimed against the Muslim
community."
Arnaout
faces a total of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum $500,000 fine
if convicted on both counts of perjury. The foundation faces up to a
one-million-dollar fine and 10 years' probation if convicted.
Repeated
attempts by IslamOnline to contact the foundation's lawyers in Chicago
yielded no results.
However,
American Muslim leaders are concerned over the thousands of blanket
arrests of Muslims, only one of which has yielded any leads - but was
subsequently thrown out of court.
"This
is definitely another witch-hunt," Shaker Al Sayed of the Muslim
American Society (MAS) told IslamOnline.
"The
established facts are that in the past several months the U.S.
Department of Justice [DOJ] has arrested or detained thousands of
Muslims, and in the end charged no one with any crimes.
"The
maximum was charging one person with knowing one of the hijackers of
September 11. And even that charge was thrown out of court by the
judge for government misconduct," El Sayed continued, referring
to Judge Shira A. Scheindlin's ruling Tuesday that the Justice
Department has "overreached in imprisoning as 'material
witnesses' men the authorities believe might have information for
grand juries investigating terrorism."
She
dismissed perjury charges against a Jordanian student Osama Awadallah,
21, concluding that the information the government collected in its
investigation must be suppressed because the suspect had been
"unlawfully detained," the U.S. daily newspaper, The New
York Times reported.
"If
the government has probable cause to believe a person has committed a
crime, it may arrest that person," Scheindlin wrote in litigation
proceeding. "But since 1789, no Congress has granted the
government the authority to imprison an innocent person in order to
guarantee that he will testify before a grand jury conducting a
criminal investigation."
El
Sayed went on to criticize the intimidation tactics of the DOJ, saying
they were unconstitutional.
"This
shows it is a wide dragnet that carries no respect for civil rights or
for the Constitution,” he said, commenting, "I have little
reason to believe that the Justice Department dragnet on individuals
is different from the tactics they use on organizations."
El
Sayed also went on to question the U.S. government's attempt to
validate its practices by "giving the American public a false
sense of security."
"The
government is giving us the assumption that it is catching terrorists,
when in fact they are catching none, but what they are doing
[detentions and arrests of people without charge] is being done at the
expense of our civil liberties," he concluded.
With additional reporting by Neveen A. Salem, IOL Washington Staff
Writer
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