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Jury Finds Jose Padilla, 2 Co-Defendants, Guilty

2007-08-16

Jose Padilla was convicted of federal terrorism support charges Thursday after being held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration's campaign to stop homegrown terror. He was once accused of being part of an Al Qaeda plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S., but those allegations were not part of his trial. Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi face life in prison because they were convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas. All three were also convicted of two terrorism material support counts that carry potential 15-year sentences each. The judge set a Dec. 5 sentencing date for all three defendants. Click here to read the indictment (FindLaw pdf). Estela Lebron, Padilla's mother, said she felt "a little bit sad" at the verdict but expected her son's lawyers would appeal. "I don't know how they found Jose guilty. There was no evidence he was speaking in code," she said, referring to FBI wiretap intercepts in which Padilla was overheard talking to Hassoun. The three were accused of being part of a North American support cell that provided supplies, money and recruits to groups of Islamic extremists. The three were accused of being part of a North American support cell that provided supplies, money and recruits to groups of Islamic extremists. The defense contended they were trying to help persecuted Muslims in war zones with relief and humanitarian aid. On account of a Muslim is de facto persecuted if not supplied with money for arms and new recruits? Is that what you're saying, chico? The White House thanked the jury for a "just" verdict. "We commend the jury for its work in this trial and thank it for upholding a core American principle of impartial justice for all," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House. "Jose Padilla received a fair trial and a just verdict." Attorneys for Hassoun and Jayyousi said they would appeal. There was no immediate comment from Padilla's lawyers. "We're very disappointed," said Hassoun attorney Kenneth Swartz. "We were hoping for a different verdict." There was no reaction from any of the defendants when the verdict was read. Padilla, wearing a dark suit and glasses, stared straight ahead and leaned forward slightly. One person in the family section started to sob when Padilla's verdict was read. Members of the jury declined interview requests from the media and were escorted out of the courthouse through a side exit by U.S. marshals. Padilla was first detained in 2002 because of much more sensational accusations. The Bush administration portrayed Padilla, a U.S. citizen and Muslim convert, as a committed terrorist who was part of an Al Qaeda plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S. The administration called his detention an important victory in the war against terrorism, not long after the Sept. 11 attacks. The charges brought in civilian court in Miami, however, were a pale shadow of those initial claims in part because Padilla, 36, was interrogated about the plot when he was held as an enemy combatant for 3 1/2 years in military custody with no lawyer present and was not read his Miranda rights. Padilla's attorneys fought for years to get his case into federal court, and he was finally added to the Miami terrorism support indictment in late 2005 just as the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to consider President George W. Bush's authority to continue detaining him. Padilla had lived in South Florida in the 1990s and was supposedly recruited by Hassoun at a mosque to become a mujahedeen fighter. The key piece of physical evidence was a five-page form Padilla supposedly filled out in July 2000 to attend an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, which would link the other two defendants as well to Usama bin Laden's terrorist organization. The form, recovered by the CIA in 2001 in Afghanistan, contains seven of Padilla's fingerprints and several other personal identifiers, such as his birthdate and his ability to speak Spanish, English and Arabic. "He provided himself to Al Qaeda for training to learn to murder, kidnap and maim," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier in closing arguments. Padilla's lawyers insisted the form was far from conclusive and denied that he was a "star recruit," as prosecutors claimed, of the North American support cell intending to become a terrorist. Padilla's attorneys said he traveled to Egypt in September 1998 to learn Islam more deeply and become fluent in Arabic. "His intent was to study, not to murder," said Padilla attorney Michael Caruso. Central to the investigation were some 300,000 FBI wiretap intercepts collected from 1993 to 2001, mainly involving Padilla's co-defendants Hassoun and Jayyousi and others. Most of the conversations were in Arabic and purportedly used code such as "tourism" and "football" for violent jihad or "zucchini" and "eggplant" instead of military weapons or ammunition. The bulk of these conversations and other evidence concerned efforts in the 1990s by Hassoun and Jayyousi, both 45, to assist Muslims in conflict zones such as Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan and Lebanon. Hassoun is a computer programmer of Palestinian descent who was born in Lebanon. Jayyousi is a civil engineer and public schools administrator who is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Jordan. Jayyousi also ran an organization called American Worldwide Relief and published a newsletter called the Islam Report that provided details of battles and political issues in the Muslim world. "It wasn't a terrorist operation. It was a relief operation," said Jayyousi

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Padilla guilty on all counts

2007-08-16

MIAMI (AP) - Jose Padilla was convicted of federal terrorism support charges Thursday after being held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration's zeal to stop homegrown terror. Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi face possible sentences of life in prison if convicted of all three charges in the case. The three are accused of being part of a North American support cell that provided supplies, money and recruits to groups of Islamic extremists. The defense contended they were trying to help widows persecuted Muslims in war zones buy ammunition with relief and humanitarian aid. The key piece of physical evidence was a five-page form Padilla supposedly filled out in July 2000 to attend an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan, which would link the other two defendants as well to Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization. The form, recovered by the CIA in 2001 in Afghanistan, contains seven of Padilla's fingerprints and several other personal identifiers, such as his birthdate and his ability to speak Spanish, English and Arabic. "He provided himself to al-Qaida for training to learn to murder, kidnap and maim," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier in closing arguments. Padilla's lawyers insisted the form was far from conclusive and denied that he was a "star recruit," as prosecutors claimed, of the North American support cell intending to become a terrorist. "Lies! All lies!" Padilla's attorneys said he traveled to Egypt in September 1998 to learn Islam more deeply and become fluent in Arabic. "His intent was to study, not to murder," said Padilla attorney Michael Caruso. "He was gonna study murder, not commit it, yer Honorship!" Central to the investigation were some 300,000 FBI wiretap intercepts collected from 1993 to 2001, mainly involving Padilla's co-defendants Hassoun and Jayyousi and others. Most of the conversations were in Arabic and purportedly used code such as "tourism" and "football" for violent jihad or "zucchini" and "eggplant" instead of military weapons or ammunition. The bulk of these conversations and other evidence concerned efforts in the 1990s by Hassoun and Jayyousi, both 45, to assist Muslims in conflict zones such as Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan and Lebanon. Sure is a lot of conflict zones, huh. Hassoun is a computer programmer of Palestinian descent who was born in Lebanon. Jayyousi is a civil engineer and public schools administrator who is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Jordan. Jayyousi also ran an organization called American Worldwide Relief and published a newsletter called the Islam Report that provided details of battles and political issues in the Muslim world. "It wasn't a terrorist operation. It was a relief operation," said Jayyousi attorney William Swor. Just some relief for the Widows Ammunition Fund!

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FBI probe that nabbed Padilla began in 1993

2006-04-09

12:15 pm CDT: title corrected. AoS. The FBI investigation that yielded criminal charges against former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla began more than a dozen years ago, after the arrest of a charismatic blind sheik in New York revealed the existence of a North American network supporting Islamic extremists worldwide. Although Padilla is by far the most famous, his co-defendants in a trial set for Miami this fall were allegedly more active for a much longer period in recruiting would-be terrorists and advocating radical Muslim causes, according to court documents. In fact, the original FBI terrorism probe began a few months after Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, was released from a Florida prison in 1992 after serving a year on a firearms violation. Over the next decade, the investigation would lead from New York to San Diego to Detroit to Sunrise, Fla., where Padilla's alleged terror recruiter was operating. A potential obstacle to trial in the Miami case was removed Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected an attempt by Padilla's lawyers to use his case to challenge President Bush's wartime powers to detain people indefinitely without charge. After the al-Qaida terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the investigation would lead to terror support indictments against two alleged leaders of the network - Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi - and later against Padilla, who was held by the U.S. military without charge for 3 1/2 years as an "enemy combatant." Padilla was arrested May 8, 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and later accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a major U.S. city. The Miami indictment, however, does not mention that alleged plot. The FBI probe began in 1993, the same year that al-Qaida first attempted to topple the World Trade Center towers with bombs in an underground garage. It was also the year radical Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman was arrested on charges of plotting to bomb New York landmarks and assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He was later convicted. Thousands of telephone calls between those charged in the Miami case were monitored by the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies over more than a decade, but no one was arrested in the case until June 2002 and no terror-related charges were brought until October 2004. One reason for that was a legal "wall" that existed for years at the FBI to separate intelligence and criminal investigations. Passage of the Patriot Act by Congress a few weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks removed that wall, allowing criminal investigators access to a vast trove of intelligence intercepts, wiretaps and informants. The early focus of the alleged terror support operatives charged in the Miami case were the violent Muslim movements in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Eritrea and Somalia. Jayyousi, a Jordanian national and naturalized U.S. citizen, was a "supporter and follower" of Rahman, frequently talking with the jailed sheik by telephone in 1994 and 1995, according to the FBI. Shortly after Rahman's arrest, Jayyousi had founded the American Islamic Group, which published the Islam Report. This newsletter carried news about the sheik and details glorifying the exploits of jihadists around the world. "Jayyousi would update the sheik with jihad news, many times reading accounts and statements issued directly by terrorist organizations" in Jordan and Egypt, FBI agent John T. Kavanaugh said in an affidavit. Jayyousi, who lived in San Diego, Detroit, Baltimore and Egypt during the probe, also allegedly used the Islam Report to raise money for Muslim extremists through nonprofit organizations used as cover: Save Bosnia Now, later changed to American Worldwide Relief. This purported charity had offices around the world, including San Diego, Bosnia, Germany and Croatia. According to his lawyer, Jayyousi was interviewed by FBI agents eight times between 1995 and 2003 about his activities but wasn't charged until April 2005. He has a wife and five children in Detroit and was recently released on bail - the only defendant in the Miami case to win pretrial release. Jayyousi, who has a doctorate degree in civil engineering and served in the U.S. Navy, said in court papers that he never advocated terrorism and that his words in the Islam Report are protected by the Constitution's free speech guarantees. "Dr. Jayyousi has not been accused of personally participating in any violent activity," said his lawyer, William Swor. Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, worked during much of the 1990s as a computer programmer in the Broward County suburb of Sunrise. He was also an associate of Jayyousi, helping distribute the Islam Report in South Florida and looking for young recruits willing to become mujahideen to fight overseas for extremist Muslim causes, according to the FBI. Hassoun was originally arrested on an immigration violation in 2002 and later indicted in the terrorism case. But he had been under FBI investigation since a January 1993 telephone call between Hassoun and Rahman, the blind sheik, according to court papers. One of his recruits allegedly was Padilla, otherwise known as "Ibrahim" and "Abu Abdullah the Puerto Rican," court documents say. Padilla had begun the conversion to Islam after his 1992 prison release. Maulana Shafayat Mohamed, leader of the Dar Uloom Islamic Institute in Pembroke Pines, said in an interview that he taught Padilla both Arabic and the Koran. He said Hassoun in the late 1990s attempted to speak at his mosque - Hassoun was affiliated with a Sunrise mosque - but that he was refused permission, partly because Hassoun was known to harbor extremist views. As for Padilla, Mohamed said he was "a quiet guy" who never demonstrated any radical tendencies. "I never heard him say or do anything that would give me the slightest idea he would think like that," Mohamed said. "Somebody must have seen his good nature and brainwashed him and turned him into that." After they hooked up, Hassoun in 1996 told Padilla to get ready to move to Egypt, which he finally did on Sept. 5, 1998, according to intercepted conversations. Padilla would eventually find his way to Afghanistan, where he allegedly attending an al-Qaida training camp and was eventually given the "dirty bomb" assignment by top al-Qaida leaders. Hassoun has also denied being an advocate of terrorism or that he recruited jihad fighters. A fellow Hassoun recruit named in the Padilla indictment is Mohamed Hesham Youssef, who had left the United States in 1996, the court documents say. Youssef, who is believed in custody n Egypt, provided assistance to Padilla in Egypt and frequently provided reports about their welfare to Hassoun, according to transcripts of intercepted conversations. The final Padilla co-defendant is Kassem Daher, another follower of Sheik Rahman who lived in Le Duc, Canada, and helped distribute Jayyousi's Islam Report in Canada. Daher left Canada for Lebanon in May 1998 and is still there, according to the FBI.

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Padilla indictment provides some scope for US terror cells

2005-11-24

Jose Padilla was recruited into an Islamic terrorist support cell that sought money and fighters for violent struggles abroad, the government says in its indictment. However, over nine years the group raised less than $100,000 and recruited just a handful of people, including Padilla, according to federal prosecutors. Held as a suspect in a "dirty bomb" plot for more than three years without charges, Padilla at one point in 2000 apparently was headed to Chechnya, where rebels in the mostly Muslim region have been fighting the Russian government, the prosecutors say. Padilla was one of at least two American converts to Islam who agreed to fight overseas, they say. Those details come from an FBI agent's affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint against two other men who have been charged in the same indictment: Kassem Daher, a Lebanese who has lived in Canada, and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, a Jordanian and U.S. citizen who was a former public school official in Detroit and Washington. Five people in all have been charged in the alleged conspiracy to kill, kidnap and injure people abroad and provide material support to terrorists. The others purportedly in the cell are Adham Amin Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian who lived in Broward County, Fla., and Mohammed Hesham Youssef, an Egyptian who also lived in Broward County. Hassoun and Jayyousi have denied the charges. Daher is believed to be in Lebanon and Youssef is in an Egyptian prison for an unrelated terrorism conviction. The indictment was unsealed Tuesday in Miami and makes no reference to any specific terrorist act or killing. Top Justice Department officials have publicly described Padilla as an al-Qaeda-trained terrorist who plotted terror attacks in the United States. He remained in a Navy brig in South Carolina on Wednesday, awaiting transfer to Justice Department custody and a trip to a federal jail in Miami. But the alleged plots and al-Qaeda ties are not part of the indictment. In fact, despite the description of the group as a North American support cell, its achievements were rather modest, according to the government. Hassoun, who worked as a computer programmer, wrote checks totaling $53,000 between 1994 and May 2002 to charities and individuals with ties to terrorism, the indictment says. While the indictment gives no precise figure, it mentions promises and discussions of another $20,000. The term "cell" wasn't used in earlier versions of the indictment, including one returned in April that is identical in its charges and scope but identifies Padilla and Daher only as unidentified coconspirators. The inclusion of the word "cell" in the latest indictment is inflammatory and inaccurate, Hassoun's lawyers said in interviews Wednesday. "All of a sudden this word has surfaced to try to describe the appearance of some subversive terrorist activities. It certainly is not factually based," said Ken Swartz, one of the lawyers representing Hassoun. The money raised was sent to Muslim charities doing humanitarian work in war-torn regions with significant Muslim populations, including Bosnia, Chechnya and Kosovo, Swartz said. Some of those organizations, including the Global Relief Foundation, have since been designated by the government as terrorism financiers. Hassoun and Jayyousi each recruited at least two people, according to the affidavit by FBI Special Agent John T. Kavanaugh Jr. Padilla was recruited by Hassoun and trained at a camp in Afghanistan "in preparation for fighting in Chechnya," Kavanaugh said, calling Padilla by one of his aliases, Ibrahim. Prosecutors have previously said Padilla attended an al-Qaeda camp but the only mention of al-Qaeda in the indictment is as part of a list of violent groups. Another Hassoun recruit, who is not named, also was preparing to fight in Chechnya, he said. One of Jayyousi's recruits delivered satellite phones to Chechen commanders and the other, like Padilla an American convert to Islam, fought in Bosnia and Chechnya, Kavanaugh said. In the mid-1990s, Jayyousi was the publisher of Islam Report, an electronic newsletter that said supporting jihad is a religious obligation and appealed for donations for mujahedeen, or Muslim "freedom fighters," in several countries and legal costs for blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. He was on trial for plotting to blow up New York landmarks, for which he is now serving a life prison sentence. The indictment describes the men as followers and supporters of Abdel-Rahman, who also conspired to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The indictment also links the men to Mohamed Zaky, who prosecutors say created three Islamic organizations — the Islamic Center of the Americas, Save Bosnia Now and the American Worldwide Relief Organization — to "promote violent jihad." Zaky was killed in fighting against Russian troops in Chechnya in 1995.

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Padilla Support Network Included Washington DC Public Schools Building Manager

2005-04-02

A widening federal probe into a radical Islamic support network that allegedly assisted "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla has netted its most surprising catch: the former top building manager for the Washington D.C. public schools. Kifah Wael Jayyousi, who served as "chief of facilities" for the Washington D.C. school system between 1999 and April 2001, was arrested by U.S. Customs agents at Detroit airport last Sunday while returning to the country from Qatar where he has been working for the past two years. In a criminal complaint unsealed this week and in a court hearing today, Jayyousi, 43, was described as a key player in a U.S.-based network of extremist Muslims who raised funds and recruited soldiers to wage "violent jihad" in Chechnya, Bosnia and Afghanistan. He is charged with providing material support to terrorists. Jayyousi and two associates were "primary participants in a triangulated North American support cell," said federal prosecutor Russell Killinger in a detention hearing in Detroit today. "They were supporters of every single violent terrorist organization that was active [during the 1990s]. I can't tell you how many thousands of people were killed" by these terror groups. But the hearing today also revealed potential holes in the government's case. While saying that the government had tapes of thousands of hours of intercepted Jayyousi telephone conversations that were obtained with secret national-security wiretaps in the 1990s, Killinger acknowledged that the Justice Department—for reasons that remain unclear—dropped surveillance of him around 2000. Moreover, a federal magistrate said that much of the government's evidence appeared to be "protected speech" under the Constitution and did not involve allegations that he personally engaged in any violent activity. While ultimately deciding to hold Jayyousi without bond, U.S. magistrate Stephen Whelan said of the evidence presented against Jayyousi: "This is somewhat of a close case for me." Still, regardless of how it is ultimately resolved, one significant question likely to emerge from the unfolding case is how Jayyousi, who had been under investigation by the U.S. government for years for his suspected links to terrorists, could have managed to land a sensitive $114,534 a year job that placed him in charge of maintenance—including the air conditioning, water and heating systems—of Washington D.C.'s public schools. The Jordanian-born Jayyoussi, a naturalized American citizen with a doctorate in engineering, worked as the assistant superintendent of the Detroit public schools before being hired by the District of Columbia. He was later fired from his D.C. position five months before the September 11 terror attacks for matters that had nothing to do with terrorism. He was accused by the schools superintendent of "shoddy management" and financial irregularities—allegations that he vigorously denied. Roxanne Evans, a spokeswoman for the Washington school system, said today that the terrorist charges against Jayyousi—and the fact that he had even been under federal investigation while overseeing the city's school buildings—came as a complete surprise to school officials there. "I haven't found anybody who knew anything about this," she said. One possible explanation for the fact that Washington school officials would have known nothing about the probe was indirectly cited by Killinger, the lead prosecutor in his case. He noted today that the surveillance of Jayoussi was a secret "intelligence" investigation—authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—and not a criminal case. Prior to 9/11, he noted, there was a "wall" that prevented FISA wiretaps from being shared with criminal investigators. (As a result, FBI agents, who might have been expected to review Jayyousi's status under a standard background check required by the Washington public schools for its top officials, would not have known Jayyousi was under investigation.) The tearing down of the "wall"—and the sharing of intelligence evidence with criminal investigators—was one of the major effects of the Patriot Act passed after 9/11 and has allowed the Justice Department to bring cases like the one against Jayyousi. According to the criminal complaint, Jayyousi and two associates—Kassem Daher (a Canadian resident who has since fled to Lebanon) and Adham Amin Hassoun (a south Florida man now in custody awaiting trial on terror-related charges in Miami)—had been the prime targets of a FISA investigation into terrorist-support activity since 1993. The three men set up a web of nonprofit charities—with names like the American Islamic Group and American Worldwide Relief—that operated under the guise of humanitarian relief while actually raising money and recruiting fighters for jihadi groups closely linked to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization, according to the government's charges. "I am a Muslim citizen of the great upcoming Islamic State," Jayyousi wrote in a February 1994 e-mail obtained by federal prosecutors. The e-mail goes on to refer to those opposing the radical vision of a resurgent Muslim state as "bloodsuckers ... who are enslaving Muslims in Asia and Africa and around the World." Another reason Jayyousi came under government scrutiny was his apparent relationship with the Egyptian Omar Abdel Rahman, the "blind sheikh," who was arrested in 1993 and later convicted of plotting to blow up major New York City landmarks. An FBI agent's affidavit unsealed this week describes Jayyousi as a "supporter and follower" of the radical sheikh, helping to relay a message from an overseas supporter and updating him on "jihad news" in telephone conversations placed to his prison cell. Jayyousi's newsletter raised funds for the blind sheikh's defense and called his trial "The Greatest Conspiracy Against Islam." The criminal charges against Jayyousi make no mention of Padilla, the former Chicago gang member and presidentially decreed "enemy combatant" who sources say is another central figure in the sprawling, if little-noticed, FBI investigation that roped in Jayyousi. But the criminal complaint against Jayyousi describes in some detail his close relationship with his alleged confederate Hassoun, a Palestinian-American computer engineer who is described as the "East Coast representative" of Jayyousi's American Islamic Group and who allegedly recruited Padilla. The complaint and other evidence in the case suggests that the activities of Padilla may have been one reason that the Justice Department renewed its interest in Jayyousi after essentially dropping its probe of him in 2000. According to the FBI agent's affidavit laying out the case against Jayyousi, the former schools official worked closely with Hassoun in the United States to recruit jihad fighters in the States to go abroad. One such fighter allegedly enlisted by Hassoun seems to fit the description of Padilla. Although Padilla's name is not mentioned in the affidavit, it describes how the FBI found the mujahedin application form "for one of Hassoun's jihad recruits" dated July 24, 2000—the same day federal officials have said Padilla filled out his application form. In a monitored September 2000 international telephone call to another associate, Hassoun is quoted in the case as asking about the whereabouts of "Ibrahim"—described by a source close to the case as Padilla. "Ibrahim is a little further south 
 he is supposed to be there by Usama [bin Laden] and then he could be able to go to Kh ... little further south," the affidavit states Hassoun's associate told him. This refers to "Ibrahim's" plans to leave the training camp in Afghanistan and fight in Chechnya under the command of the Saudi-born jihadi fighter known as Ibn Omar al-Khattab. Ever since he was declared an enemy combatant and thrown into a military brig without any criminal charges against him, the Justice Department has been fighting a stiff battle in the courts over claims by Padilla's lawyers that the government's actions were unconstitutional. A federal judge in South Carolina last month ordered that Padilla be either charged or released—a decision that Justice is appealing. One way out of their box, law-enforcement officials tell NEWSWEEK, is to somehow get Hassoun, or now possibly even Jayyousi, to plead guilty and then use their testimony as grounds to finally bring criminal charges against Padilla. But judging from today's courtroom developments, the feds have a long way to go. William Swor, Jayyousi's lawyer, described the government's case as a "unwarranted confabulation of the facts." He argued, for example, that at the time that Jayyousi was raising funds to support Muslim fighters in Bosnia, he was taking the same position as the U.S. government, which had denounced Serbian aggression against that country. Jayyousi, who was returning to the United States to see his elderly father—who recently suffered a heart attack—has every intention of staying to "clear his name," said Swor.

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Ex-school official tied to terror

2005-03-29

Why Johnny can't read... A former Detroit schools official has been charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. A criminal complaint unsealed Monday in Miami said Kifah Wael Jayyousi, 43, formerly of Detroit, conspired with Kassem Daher of Broward County, Fla., in the mid- and late 1990s to raise money and recruit Muslim extremists to fight in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Somalia. The complaint was issued in December. Authorities said Jayyousi, a former assistant superintendent, was arrested around 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Detroit Metro Airport after stepping off a flight from Amsterdam. U.S. Customs agents detained him after conducting a routine computer check that showed Jayyousi was wanted on a federal terrorism warrant out of Miami. It's unclear whether he was traveling alone. Authorities said he had flown to Amsterdam from Qatar. Jayyousi made a brief appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, where the U.S. Attorney's Office requested that he be sent to Miami to answer to the charges. U.S. Magistrate Steven Whelan ordered him held until a detention hearing Wednesday, when his lawyer, Jon Posner, could be present. Posner is in the hospital, according to his law firm. Jayyousi and Daher are charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources for terrorism and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people or damage property in a foreign country. The first charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The second carries a maximum penalty of 35 years to life in prison. Daher, a former resident of Leduc, Canada, is a fugitive living in Lebanon. A court affidavit signed by FBI agent John Kavanaugh Jr. said an investigation that began in late 1993 found that Jayyousi, Daher and two other men -- Mohamed Zaky and Adham Amin Hassoun -- were involved in a North American network to raise money and recruit fighters to wage violent jihad around the globe. Money initially was raised through charitable organizations known as Save Bosnia Now and American Worldwide Relief, the affidavit said. They were founded by Zaky of San Diego, who was killed in Afghanistan while fighting Russians in May 1995. Hassoun, a Palestinian national who was born in Lebanon, came to the United States in 1989 and has been in U.S. custody since June 2002, is awaiting trial in Miami on similar terrorism charges. He lived in Broward County, Fla. The affidavit said Jayyousi is a Jordanian national and naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in San Diego, Los Angeles, Detroit and Baltimore. It said he moved to Egypt in 2003. After Zaky's death, Jayyousi allegedly took over American Worldwide Relief. He also founded the American Islamic Group. Although that group touted itself as a nonprofit, religious service to protect the rights of Muslims and provide economic aid to needy people, it actually promoted terrorism, the affidavit said. The affidavit said Jayyousi used the group's monthly newsletter, Islam Report, to raise money and recruit fighters for jihad and to disseminate the accomplishments of terrorists worldwide. The affidavit said the newsletter described murders, executions and massacres committed by terrorists. The affidavit said all four men were followers of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric who was sentenced to prison in 1995 for plotting to blow up New York landmarks. From 1994 through late 1995, Jayyousi allegedly called Rahman in prison to update him about terrorist developments. Much of the information contained in the complaint came from court-authorized electronic surveillance. Jayyousi worked as a senior engineer at the University of California-Irvine before he was hired in 1997 as assistant superintendent for physical facilities and capital improvement at Detroit Public Schools. In Detroit, he was responsible for overseeing the early stages of spending of the $1.5-billion school bond. During his tenure, the bond program was mired in two controversies: skepticism about the costs associated with a construction program led by then-Wayne County prosecutor candidate Mike Duggan and the firing of a minority company that managed the bond program, which led to a lawsuit against the district.

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