ISCA - The Islamic Supreme Council of America

Federal Agents Raid 15 Sites Tied to Al-Arian's Think Tank

Michael Fechter
Tampa Tribune Friday, March 22, 2002

John Loftus' lawsuit claims Sami Al-Arian's charities laundered money and violated consumer protection laws, funneling money to terrorists.

Federal agents raided 15 homes and offices in northern Virginia and Georgia on Wednesday as part of an investigation into a controversial but now-defunct think tank that worked with the University of South Florida. The think tank - the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, or WISE - was founded by USF Professor Sami Al-Arian. Al-Arian, the subject of a long-running federal investigation, has been suspended with pay from the school since September.

The raids were aimed at obtaining information about possible terrorist financing networks, a spokesman said.

The targets included the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Herndon, Va., which WISE leaders have publicly identified as the principal source of WISE's funding.

Al-Arian incorporated WISE in 1991 and a charity called the Islamic Committee for Palestine in 1988. Federal investigators here long have suspected they were fronts for the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks against Israelis. The organization's leader, Ramadan Shallah, worked with both Tampa entities while in the United States from 1991-95.

Though no charges have been filed against anyone affiliated with WISE, outgoing U.S. Attorney Mac Cauley issued a rare statement last month saying Al-Arian remains the focus of an ``active and ongoing'' investigation. He did not elaborate.

Terrorist Financing Targeted

The U.S. Customs Service said Wednesday's raids were part of Operation Green Quest, a multiagency task force designed to disrupt terrorist financing.

``Operation Green Quest is actively investigating all sources of suspected terrorist financing regardless of where these leads take us,'' a Customs spokesman said.

The searches occurred without incident. No arrests were made, a statement said. It was not clear what agents seized. But The Washington Post reported in Wednesday's editions that Customs agents were seen hauling boxes of material from two establishments, the institute, also known as the IIIT, and MarJac Investments, a global consulting firm.

At another site, the Post said, agents confined employees to the lobby and searched computer and financial records. Employees also were questioned individually about their jobs, the Post said.

``We are very, very sorry that this has happened, but we will cooperate 100 percent with everything that the authorities want,'' IIIT Vice President Ahmad Totonji said in Herndon.

The IIIT's Web site describes the institute as a ``nonprofit, academic and cultural institution concerned with general issues of Islamic thought.'' Although based in Herndon, it lists 12 international offices in such places as Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, France and England.

Totonji also is among the founders of the SAAR Foundation, another Middle East organization based in Herndon. It, too, was believed to have been a target of the searches.

Al-Arian Sued

The raids came as a St. Petersburg man filed a lawsuit against Al-Arian in Hillsborough Circuit Court on Wednesday. John Loftus, president of the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, claims Al-Arian's charities were part of a vast Saudi Arabian money-laundering scheme that violated state consumer protection laws by funneling money to terrorists.

Investigations like the one into Al- Arian's activities, which was begun six years ago, sometimes fail to generate indictments because of foreign policy considerations, Loftus said. In this case, Loftus said, the United Stateshasn't wanted to embarrass Saudi Arabia.

Loftus claims to represent ``federal whistleblowers within the U.S. intelligence community.'' He also claims a high-level security clearance borne of his work at the U.S. Justice Department during the 1980s .

Loftus claims to have seen intelligence reports cited in his lawsuit that quote Al-Arian complaining to Islamic Jihad leaders about the aftermath of a Middle East terrorist attack.

The militant organization Hamas claimed credit for the attack, the lawsuit said. That angered Al-Arian, the lawsuit said, because he allegedly had raised the money to finance it.

``Hamas' taking credit for the killings in Israel was impairing his fund-raising efforts in America,'' the lawsuit said.

Al-Arian denies providing support for terrorism and mocked the suit as devoid of truth.

``Whoever wrote this is a lunatic who belongs in an asylum,'' Al-Arian told WFLA, News Channel 8.

Loftus also relies in the lawsuit on evidence made public by federal officials, including a videotape showing Al-Arian being introduced at a 1991 rally in Cleveland as the ICP president. The ICP ``is the active arm of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, and we like to call it the Islamic Committee for Palestine here for security reasons,'' the person introducing Al- Arian said. Al-Arian did not correct him or address the reference.

Fletcher Baldwin, a University of Florida money-laundering expert, questioned the suit's validity.

``I would be very surprised if any court in Hillsborough County would accept any case like this unless they go [behind closed doors] and find out [Loftus is] a deep source'' in intelligence, Baldwin said.

USF suspended Al-Arian after an uproar that included death threats aimed at him after he appeared on national television. USF trustees later recommended his dismissal.