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| Four Arrested in Texas Anti-Terror Probe |
| 2002-12-18 |
| Chuck e-mailed me the headzup and followup on this one, since his browser wouldn't let him post it... Four men connected to a computer company that did business in the Middle East were arrested by federal anti-terrorism agents early Wednesday on money-laundering charges. Authorities were seeking a fifth man believed to be an official in Hamas. The four men worked at Infocom, a suburban Richardson computer company that federal agents raided in September 2001. This is interesting. There's a punchline here. See below... Company Vice President Ghassan Elashi, identified as one of the four arrested Wednesday, was also a director of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was shut down in December 2001 after the Treasury Department accused the self-described charity of being a Hamas front and seized its assets. Infocom and Holy Land Foundation officials have steadfastly denied raising money for Hamas and claimed they were victims of a campaign by Israel to silence them because they aided Palestinians. "Hamas is chock full of Paleostinians..." The four men arrested were identified as Elashi, 48, and his brothers, Bayan Elashi, 47, Basman Elashi and Hazim Elashi, 41. A fifth brother, Ihsan Elashi, is already in custody on charges of illegally exporting computer goods to the Middle East. The government's case against the Holy Land Foundation was based in part on a 49-page FBI report that said Hamas members met with Ghassan Elsashi and other Holy Land officials in 1993 to discuss raising money for the families of suicide bombers. The report also noted a previously disclosed $210,000 donation from Mousa Abu Marzook, a Hamas political leader whose wife is a cousin of the Elashis by marriage. He's a member of Hamas' politburo, in fact... Holy Land Foundation raised $13 million in 2000 and claimed to be the largest U.S. Muslim charity, supporting schools and social programs for Palestinians and in predominantly Muslim nations. Maybe not the rest of the story, but more of the story: The Guardian (UK)So they raided these goobers a week before the 9-11 attack. The coaltion of American Muslim groups immediately shut the hell up, at least for a few days. It's worthwhile to read the (rather long) followup article in its entirety, though... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 The raids prior to 9/11/01 are evidence that the FBI was doing something about terrorism in the States. We can quarrel about how much, but this looks like a good raid. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-12-18 15:32:24 |
| #1 infocom? I hope my zork cd's havent contributed to terrorism... |
| Posted by: flash91 2002-12-18 15:02:29 |