A federal grand jury has indicted a Dallas-based Muslim charity, once the largest in the United States, and seven of its top officers on charges of providing financial aid to the terrorist organization Hamas and raising illicit cash for other extremist groups who espoused an “Islamic fundamentalist agenda.”
The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which U.S. intelligence officials have called Hamas’ North American fund-raiser, was named in a 42-count indictment unsealed yesterday. It is accused of conspiracy, providing support to terrorists, money laundering and income tax evasion.
“Today, a U.S.-based charity that claims to do good works is charged with funding the works of evil,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said when detailing the indictment, which culminated a multi-agency, 2-year investigation.
“To those who exploit good hearts to fund secretly violence and murder, this prosecution sends a clear message: There is no distinction between those who carry out terrorist attacks and those who knowingly finance terrorist attacks,” Mr. Ashcroft said.
The indictment said the Holy Land foundation was created to provide financial and material support to Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group that has called for the killing of all Jews. It said that from 1995 to 2001, the foundation raised $12.4 million for persons and organizations linked to Hamas.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Michael J. Garcia, who heads U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said although the Holy Land foundation claimed it was collecting money for orphanages, schools, refugee camps and needy Palestinians, it instead used the cash to support Hamas’ terrorist activities.
Mr. Garcia said the foundation took advantage of U.S. tax laws to bankroll terrorism, adding that the indictment “illustrates how law-enforcement agencies can work together to fight terrorist fund-raising operations here in the United States.”
According to the indictment, the foundation and its top officers provided financial support to the families of Hamas suicide bombers, detainees and activists to support its terrorist infrastructure and that it targeted specifically for financial aid families of well-known Hamas terrorists killed or jailed by the Israelis.
The officials charged were Shukri Abu Baker, the foundation’s former chief executive; Holy Land Chairman Ghassan Elashi; and five directors and fund-raisers, Mohammad El-Mezain, Haitham Maghawri, Akram Mishal, Mufid Abdul Qader and Abdul Raham Odeh.
Five have been arrested. Two others, Mr. Maghawri and Mr. Mishal, are not in the United States and are considered fugitives.
The Holy Land foundation has denied any wrongdoing. On Monday, it filed a complaint with the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, claiming the FBI’s case was based on faulty translations of Israeli intelligence documents.
John Pistole, the FBI’s executive assistant director for counterterrorism, said the indictment is part of a national strategy seeking to disrupt terrorist activities by going after its financial base.
Mr. Pistole said the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, working with Homeland Security and other federal agencies, would continue to “follow every lead, employ all the intelligence and law enforcement tools at our disposal … to stop those who would facilitate the terrorists’ deadly plans.”
The Holy Land foundation was shut down in December 2001 after the Treasury Department ruled it a terrorist group, seizing more than $4 million in assets. Hamas, named in dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, was designated a terrorist organization by the State Department in 1995.
Law-enforcement authorities said the Holy Land foundation is part of a nationwide conspiracy by Islamist extremists to divert cash to international terrorists through “front companies” and “phantom organizations” — many located in Northern Virginia.
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