Posted on 07/12/2004 5:52:04 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - 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.
E-mail a news tip to Scott Wheeler.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
I'm going to talk with a first floor resident who observed the same things (and more - he picked up the beer cans and pizza boxes they just threw over their balcony. Yup, "good" observant, non-drinking, non-pork eating Muslims. Yup, yup.) and compare recent notes with him.
Based on what he says, I'm going to call the FBI. Even if he hasn't noticed what I have, I'll call anyway but I'm curious if he's seen what I've seen.
June of 2001, these MI idiots were IN this apartment.
Yes, I'm calling the FBI.
I expect that they'll grill me, make me feel like an idiot and do nothing.
They didn't seem to think that it was suspiscious that there was a fire in this particular apartment, even though they questioned everyone in the building. Isn't that the strangest thing?
Then, a week after te FBI was around, BOOM - fire!
Destroying the anthrax was exactly what I assumed but no one would listen to me.
The fact that MI's are back in this apartment can't be "coincidence."
D.C. is bad news. It's impossible to get out of in any sort of emergency. There just aren't enough ways out 'cause of the Potomac river.
Sigh.
One guy is smart and carries a bicycle with him to work in his pickup truck. Better than nothing.
>>>>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.
Ping - Pay to play.
Jeez...they sound like real pieces of work. Let me know how things go with the FBI, Truthy. Praying here......... <><
>>>>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.
Ping - Pay to play.
bttt
Global Relief, al Taqwa, Abdurahman alAmoudi, Libya, bin Laden's nephew, you name it.
When TSHTF, the Rednecks love to fight.
Scott Wheeler's articles are brilliant and this articles comes with a cast of interesting characters.
THANKS for the memory jogger piasa.
This article has more names in it than most. And that area is a hotbed of activity. Let's just hope the feds are smart enough to have these people under investigation.
Thanks for the Alamoudi pings! Might also be worth checking if there's any overlap with Cannistraro's security consulting business, given some of the clients he's handled.
I will tell you that when I superimposed Wilson's timeline over that of the 1998 Africa US Embassy bombings case that things start looking real ... peculiar.
Piasa - I hope you send some of that information about the timeline to The Weekly Standard and FrontPage magazine.
Some day these rats are going to come out of their holes and in a very coordinated way attack us all over the country.
I wonder how Americans will react.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.