NYTimes Intl

December 6, 2001

THE MONEY TRAIL

F.B.I. Traces Hamas's Plan to Finance Attacks to '93

By DAVID FIRESTONE

ight years ago, after the F.B.I. tracked a group of senior leaders of the radical Islamic group Hamas to a hotel room in Philadelphia, electronic eavesdropping provided the first clear indication that the group planned to raise money in the United States for terrorism in Israel.

The results of that surveillance, recently declassified, show that Hamas leaders and their supporters in the United States were even then planning to use violence to defeat the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians.

The surveillance results, contained in a recent F.B.I. memo along with other evidence of domestic links to Hamas, is at the heart of the government's case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a charity based in Texas whose assets were seized on Tuesday by the government.

Among those gathered at the hotel, the Marriott Courtyard, over two days in October 1993, according to the memo, were five men who the bureau said were Hamas leaders and money couriers in the West Bank and Gaza, and three leaders of the Holy Land Foundation: Shukri Abu Baker, the chief executive; Haitham Ma ghawri, the executive director; and Ghassan Elashi, the chairman.

"It was decided that most or almost all of the funds collected in the future should be directed to enhance the Islamic Resistance Movement and to weaken the self-rule government" that later became the Palestinian Authority, the F.B.I. memo said. "Holy War efforts should be supported by increasing spending on the injured, the prisoners and their families, and the martyrs and their families."

Those present decided that the democratic environment of the United States provided the perfect legal atmosphere in which to generate financial and political support for Hamas, the memo said. (During the meeting, the men referred to the group as samah, which is Hamas spelled backward.)

"In the United States, they could raise funds, propagate their political goals, affect public opinion and influence decision-making of the U.S. government," the memo said, summarizing what was picked up on the recording devices.

Elsewhere in the memo, excerpts of which were published today in The Dallas Morning News, the F.B.I. for the first time tallies recent acts of terrorism committed by Hamas in Israel, saying the group carried out 20 bombings, 2 shootings, a kidnapping and a mortar attack between Oct. 1, 2000, and Sept. 10, 2001. Those actions killed 77 people, including 3 Americans, and wounded 547.

The memo, dated Nov. 9, was sent by the F.B.I. to the Treasury Department to urge the department to seize the charity's assets.

At a news conference yesterday near the Holy Land Foundation's headquarters in Richardson, Tex., the chairman, Mr. Elashi, said he had never been to Philadelphia and accused the F.B.I. of fabricating the evidence in the memo. He said his group, the nation's largest Muslim charity, had no connection to Hamas.

Before the foundation became well known in the United States, Hamas provided it with large infusions of cash to get it started, the memo said. It cited bank records showing that Mousa Abu Marzook, the head of Hamas's political bureau, had given the Holy Land group checks for $200,000 in 1992.

But once the foundation became established as the charity of choice for many American Muslims, it began funneling money back to the West Bank and Gaza, and in particular to the families of Hamas suicide bombers, according to the memo, which was written by Dale L. Watson, the assistant director in charge of counterterrorism at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

One F.B.I. informant inside the foundation quoted Mr. Abu Baker as saying the group's primary mission was to support the families of the martyrs.

The foundation sent the money through direct transfers to its offices in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as to Islamic charity committees there controlled by Hamas, the memo said. By 1994 the group was sending $1 million a year to the West Bank, some of which was spent on social services that helped gain popular support among Palestinians.

One source said that at a 1994 meeting in Los Angeles attended by Mr. Abu Baker, the Muslim Arab Youth Association was addressed by Sheik Muhammad Siyam, who was introduced as the head of the Hamas military wing in Gaza.

According to the source, Mr. Siyam told the group: "I'm going to speak the truth to you. It's simple. Finish off the Israelis! Kill them all! Exterminate them! No peace ever!"

After the speech, the F.B.I. reported, the foundation collected $207,000 from those present.

-- Anonymous, December 06, 2001