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| Second man with ties to University of Idaho arrested |
| 2003-03-16 |
| A second man with ties to the University of Idaho has been arrested by federal agents in a widening investigation of a suspected terrorist-related web in the Moscow, Idaho and Pullman area. Former Idaho student Bassem K. Khafagi was arrested in January in a hotel near New York City's LaGuardia Airport and was returned to Michigan to face bank fraud charges. Khafagi and current University of Idaho student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen both are affiliated with the Islamic Assembly of North America, an FBI agent said. Al-Hussayen was arrested in late February, about a month after Khafagi, in the same investigation and is in custody in Boise, Idaho. I'm sure we'll be told by the usual suspects that they're both pure as the driven snow, kind to puppies and kittens, and that it's all Ashcroft's fault... Federal investigators allege the nonprofit IANA, which says it was formed to promote Islam, funneled money to activities supporting terrorism. "There is a very strong University of Idaho tie to that organization (IANA)," the FBI agent said. A former Washington State University student, Ismail Diab, who lived in the area as recently as last August, is being held as a material witness in the investigation. Washington State University officials could not confirm that Diab was a student at the Pullman school, which is eight miles from the University of Idaho campus. IANA is affiliated with Help the Needy, another nonprofit organization based in New York, also under investigation by the FBI. Four Arab men are accused of raising $2.7 million for unnamed individuals in Iraq through Help the Needy. Khafagi and Al-Hussayen are being held for investigation of violating U.S. immigration laws while awaiting separate trials on federal fraud charges. Al-Hussayen, a Saudi national, is being held in Boise on charges of visa fraud and lying to federal agents. Naturally he's a Soddy national... His attorneys and friends in Moscow dispute the government's contention that Al-Hussayen has led a life on the fringes of terrorism. But federal investigators contend Al-Hussayen and IANA provided Web sites for two radical Saudi sheiks, Salman Al-Awdah and Safar al-Hawali, who have direct contact with Osama bin Laden. IANA operated more than a dozen Internet sites, many of them managed by Al-Hussayen. Many of them seem to be down at the moment, or haven't been updated in a couple weeks... At the time of his arrest, Khafagi, an Egyptian national, was community affairs director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Washington, D.C. Khafagi was a founding member of the Islamic Assembly of North America, which was incorporated in 1993, public records show. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 a CAIR official involved with terrorism??? Say it ain't so, Mo! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-03-16 16:11:35 |