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Home Front: WoT

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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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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