WASHINGTON,
February 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S. authorities
arrested Thursday, February 20, four people, including a Palestinian
university professor, on charges of ties with the Palestinian
resistance Jihad movement.
U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the men were accused of
"operating a criminal racketeering enterprise since 1984 that
supported Palestinian Islamic Jihad and with conspiracy to kill and
maim people abroad, conspiracy to provide material support to the
group, extortion, perjury and other charges".
"FBI
agents have arrested the four defendants who are located in the United
States, including the North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic
Jihad, Sami Al-Arian," alleged Ashcroft.
The
50-count indictment charges the eight as "material supporters of
a foreign terrorist organization. They financed, extolled and assisted
acts of terror," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted him as saying.
The
four others indicted are outside the United States, but belong Islamic
Jihad's leadership, Ashcroft said.
University
of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian had been the object of a
decade-long FBI probe into whether he channeled money through an
on-campus think-tank to the Islamic Jihad.
The
U.S. government has designated Islamic Jihad as a foreign terrorist
organization, which along with the resistance movement Hamas battle
the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Al-Arian,
who has been under investigation since 1995, Sameeh Hamoudeh, 42, and
Hatim Najifariz, 30, were indicted in Tampa, CNN quoted FBI
spokeswoman Sara Oates as saying.
Agents
in Chicago arrested Ghassan Zeyed Ballut, 41, who will be transferred
to Florida for prosecution, Oates said.
Television
reports showed authorities leading Al-Arian in handcuffs to the
federal courthouse in Tampa after the arrest.
Al-Arian
has been under investigation since the mid-1990s when he and Abdullah
Shallah founded an Islamic think tank -- the World and Islam Studies
Enterprise -- at the University of South Florida.
About
a year later, Shallah returned to the Middle East as the new head of
the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The
U.S. Justice Department has characterized Al-Arian and Shallah's World
and Islam Studies Enterprise as a front organization that has raised
money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The
tenured computer engineering professor was placed on forced leave and
banned from campus shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks and a subsequent TV appearance.
He
has been in an ongoing battle with the university since December 2001
when the school's board of trustees voted to fire him because of what
it called "activities ... outside the scope of his
employment."
The
university said that he hurt the school's fund-raising efforts and
resulted in threats being made against the school.
The
school alleged the professor raised money for terrorist groups,
brought terrorists into the country and founded organizations that
support terrorism.
Al-Arian
also was put on paid leave in 1996 after Shallah returned to the
Middle East. Al-Arian returned to the school two years later.
He
said his involvement with World and Islam Studies Enterprise, which he
founded, and the Islamic Committee for Palestine was only "to
support the just cause of the Palestinian people."
"I
don't support suicide bombings," he has said. "I don't
support the targeting of civilians of any nationality, background or
religion. I am deeply against it."
Al-Arian's
brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, was deported in August after being
detained two months after the September 11 attacks on a visa
violation.
Al-Najjar
previously was arrested in 1997 and held without charges for 3 1/2
years.
The
government said it had secret evidence, showing it only in court and
never revealing the source or the details to Al-Najjar or the public.
In
2000, an immigration judge said that he saw no evidence to support the
allegations and freed Al-Najjar on the grounds that his right to due
process was violated.
Jihad
Repudiates Charges
 |
|
Shallah
challenged the U.S. to prove Al-Arian’s alleged ties with Jihad
|
In
an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite channel, Shallah, Jihad
Secretary General, denied that Al-Arian is a member of the Palestinian
resistance group.
"How
can Jihad be run from Washington?" Shallah wondered.
He
ridiculed the charges announced by Ashcroft whom he dubbed as "a
minister of injustice".
He
challenged the United States to produce any evidence substantiating
its claim of a link between Al-Arian and Jihad.
The
man is a university professor who is interested in the Palestinian
cause just like all Arabs and Muslims, Shallah averred.
He
asserted that the move came only under pressures from the powerful
Zionist lobby in the United States.
The
Jihad leader denied Ashcroft allegation about an international Jihad
movement, asserting that his group is a Palestinian resistance
movement that restricts its activities to fighting the Israeli
occupation forces.
He
described the arrests as part of an American campaign to terrorize
residents of Arab and Islamic origins before unleashing war on Iraq.
Shallah
called on the Arab and Islamic communities in the United States to
stand up to this terror campaign.
