Author: Scott Wheeler
Publication: CNSNews.com
Date: July 12, 2004
URL: http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=\SpecialReports\archive\200407\SPE20040712a.html
Fourteen miles from the U.S. Capitol,
a basement-run organization with alleged ties to Hamas and al Qaeda is
a crucial link in the planning of any future terrorist attacks against
the United States, according to several terrorism experts who analyzed
documents and other information obtained in a CNSNews.com investigation.
The United Association for Studies
and Research (UASR), based in Springfield, Va., is publicly identified
as a Muslim think tank but has multiple ties to the terrorism underworld,
according to the CNSNews.com sources, who are both inside and outside government.
"UASR is a front organization for
a terrorist group," said Peter Leitner, president of the Higgins Counterterrorism
Research Center. Leitner, who is also a professor at the National Center
for Biodefense at George Mason University, said UASR is "part of a shell
game of international terrorism - phony organizations that are really terrorist
cells [and] part of the international terrorist network."
Since the early 1990s, UASR has
conducted business from a townhouse in an office park of condominiums in
the Washington, D.C. suburb of Springfield, Va. Late last year, according
to sources and documents, the group sold the upper two floors of the townhouse,
moved out what one source described as "a lot of boxes" and then located
itself in the basement.
The windows are covered with a false
brick contact paper that matches the facade of the building blocking the
view from the outside. CNSNews.com's investigation found meetings convening
at the midnight hour on many occasions. From time to time, day or night,
the occupants emerge from the office to make cell phone calls in the parking
lot. Government investigators say that is for privacy in the likely event
that a government counter-terrorism unit has placed listening devices inside
the building.
Government investigators also say
the use of pre-paid disposable cell phones make it virtually impossible
for them to obtain a wiretap. It all adds up, investigators say, to indications
that the group may be taking a more active role in terrorist activities.
UASR, Hamas and al Qaeda
Hamas, which the U.S. government
has designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), has claimed responsibility
for bombings that have killed scores of civilians throughout Israel, including
American citizens. Historically Hamas has limited its deadly acts of terrorism
to Israel. But now, according to a senior government terrorism official,
who spoke with CNSNews.com on condition of anonymity, Hamas is merging
with elements of Osama bin Laden's "all inclusive military arm ... that
will carry out military strikes" against the U.S.
Bin Laden's military arm, widely
known as al Qaeda, may have philosophical differences with Hamas and other
terrorist organizations, but the groups are cooperating tactically in a
kind of global holy war, operating under the banner, "International Islamic
Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders," according to the government
official who also warned of more deadly attacks on U.S. soil.
"They have operations planned for
here, they have the capabilities to strike at will and when the time is
right they will do it," the anonymous source said.
Brian Fairchild, a former CIA operative,
told CNSNews.com that "evidence indicates that there is networking between
the terrorist organizations."
"At the very minimum, organizations
like UASR can act as a political lobby group on American foreign policy,"
but also further the global terrorist agenda by "recruiting new members,
raising funds to support international terrorism and can actually support
a terrorist attack in the U.S.," Fairchild said.
The complicated trail of terror
The nexus between international
terrorist suspects, terrorism financiers and the UASR runs deep, according
to government documents obtained by CNSNews.com .
UASR was incorporated in Illinois
in 1989 by Mousa Abu-Marzook. Six years later, the U.S. government asserted
that Marzook constituted a threat and included him on its "Specially Designated
Terrorist" list. Later, while in U.S. custody, Marzook "expressly acknowledged
his position as the leader of the political branch of HAMAS," according
to documents filed in 1995 by the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern
District of New York.
Also in 1995, during an attempt
by the Israeli government to get the U.S. to extradite Marzook back to
the Middle East so he could face charges of plotting terrorist attacks
in Israel, U.S. District Court Judge Kevin T. Duffy found that "Marzook
knew about the terrorist activities and promoted them."
Further documentation, filed this
past March by the U.S. attorney's office in Cleveland, alleged a link between
UASR and another terrorist.
Mohammad Salah, whom the U.S. also
later dubbed a specially designated terrorist, "was employed at UASR when
it was still located in Oak Forest, Illinois, in the early 1990s," according
to U.S. Attorney Gregory White. Israeli authorities apprehended Salah in
1993, White stated, because they suspected him of being a military operative
for Hamas. "[I]n January of 1995, Salah pled guilty in an Israeli military
court to belonging to HAMAS and illegally channeling funds to the outlawed
HAMAS organization," the documents stated.
A 1993 New York Times article reported
that Salah was cooperating with Israeli prosecutors and providing information
on Hamas operations in the U.S. The article quoted from Israeli transcripts
of their interviews: "Mr. Salah said the political command of Hamas in
the United States is at the United Association for Studies and Research,
in Springfield, Va. He identified the Hamas leader in the United States
as the head of the institute, Ahmed Yousef, a writer whose code name he
said was Abu Ahmed."
Yousef is listed on some recent
documents as the director of UASR. According to sources familiar with the
organization's operations, Yousef is also in charge of day-to-day activities
at UASR.
Salah's laptop computer also allegedly
contained the information necessary for Israeli and American investigators
to form a financial link and other operational connections between al Qaeda
and Hamas, according to government documents filed in August of 2003 by
the U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia.
The computer included contact information
for Yousef Nada and Ghaleb Himmat, both of whom the U.S. State Department
had included on its list of specially designated global terrorists in November
of 2001 for their roles with the Al Taqwa Bank. Because the Al Taqwa group
had "long acted as financial advisors to al Qaeda," according to the U.S.
Treasury Department and Salah had the names of the two operatives on his
laptop, investigators believe there is a distinctive link between al Qaeda,
Hamas and UASR.
Marzook, UASR's founder, is also
allegedly tied to al Qaeda.
The Wall Street Journal reported
in June of this year that Marzook "was a major investor" in a New Jersey
corporation called BMI Inc. Documents filed in August 2003 by the U.S.
attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia addressed an alleged
money laundering/global terrorism operation being conducted by BMI.
"[A] BMI accountant contacted an
FBI Agent and stated that 'funds the accountant was transferring overseas
on behalf of the company may have been used to finance the embassy bombings
in Africa,'" the documents stated, a reference to the 1998 al Qaeda bombings
of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 220 people.
If investigators are correct, that would link the founder of UASR, Marzook,
to a major al Qaeda attack against the U.S.
According to documents filed with
the State of Virginia Corporation Commission, UASR's board of directors
also includes Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was indicted last October for alleged
illegal dealings with Libya.
Court documents filed in Virginia
and obtained by CNSNews.com indicate that a government investigation of
Alamoudi has uncovered evidence linking him to al Qaeda through a non-profit
called the Taibah International Aid Association (TIAA), based in Falls
Church, Va.
"According to TIAA's 2000 IRS Form
990, Abdurahman Alamoudi is the Vice President of TIAA," the court documents
stated. TIAA, founded in 1991, also "lists Abdullah A. bin Laden, as founding
officer." He is the nephew of Osama bin Laden, according to the U.S. Justice
Department.
The court documents filed by the
U.S. attorney's office in Virginia stated that Mohammed El-Nagmy, an employee
of TIAA and its sister organization Taibah in Sarajevo, Bosnia, served
simultaneously as the Bosnian representative for the Global Relief Foundation
(GRF).
GRF is also on the State Department's
list of specially designated global terrorist groups.
"GRF ... personnel had multiple
contacts with Wadih El-Hage, UBL's [Osama bin Laden] personal secretary
when UBL was in Sudan," according to the U.S. Treasury Department. El-Hage
was convicted in May 2001 for his role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.
The convoluted trails of personal
associates and organizations add layers of deniability for key individuals
involved in terrorist planning, Leitner told CNSNews.com , and make tracking
the flow of money and assistance difficult for investigators.
"When you have compartmented organizations
where audit trails are to be intentionally broken as part of their normal
operations, you can't follow individuals, you have to look at the organizational
structure," Leitner said.
Marzook, now believed to be in Syria,
could not be reached for comment. Neither Yousef nor anyone else at the
UASR office in Springfield, Va., would speak with CNSNews.com in person
or return repeated phone calls seeking an interview.