Posted on 08/24/2004 6:19:42 PM PDT by yonif
senior Hamas member, Ismael Selim Elbarasse of Annandale, Virginia, was arrested in the US on Friday as he videotaped the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, US officials said.
The man has long been suspected by authorities of having financial ties to the Hamas, the US attorney's office in Maryland said.
On Friday two police officers on the Bay Bridge spotted Elbarasse, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, in a sport utility vehicle videotaping the bridge, authorities said.
Once Police apprehended the suspect, they discovered that Elbarasse was on an FBI terrorist watch list. He was also wanted as a material witness in connection with a case currently in Chicago courts, in which three men were charged with a 15-year racketeering conspiracy to finance terrorist activities in Israel.
One of the men is Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, who is considered one of the highest-ranking Hamas leaders internationally.
Elbarasse, who was with a woman and two children when he was arrested, said that they were returning from the beach, but no one in the family could say which beach they had visited.
Police viewed the footage recorded on the camera and described it as "atypical for a tourist," consisting of particularly close-up images of the bridge and obscure shots.
Elbarasse was not charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the videotaping since it is not an illegal offence, but Maryland police are holding him in custody as a material witness in the Chicago case.
"He is being held only on the material witness charge," said Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Maryland US attorney's office.
A federal grand jury in Chicago, in an indictment unsealed Friday, stated their suspicions against Elbarasse as a co-conspirator with Marzook in coordinating and financing Hamas terror activities in Israel. Elbarasse shared a Virginia bank account with Marzook that was used to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hamas.
Among the Hamas attacks cited in the indictment against the three men in the Chicago case are the April 1994 car bombing of a bus in Afula, the October 1994 suicide bombing on a Tel Aviv bus, a February 1996 bus bombing in Jerusalem, which killed 24 Israelis and two Americans, a March 1996 suicide bombing in Jerusalem, and the May 1996 drive-by shooting of students waiting at a bus stop in Beit El, in which 16-year-old American student David Boim was killed.
The defendants were charged with providing money and personnel to Hamas when Hamas was engaging in those terrorist attacks, but they were not charged with direct participation in the violence.
Much of the indictment concerns activities carried out by the defendants before President Bill Clinton designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1995, making funding of the group illegal.
"The individuals named in this indictment are alleged to have played a substantial role in financing and supporting international terrorism," US ATTORNEY General John Ashcroft said.
A lawyer for the Boim family was quoted as saying: "This is one step closer to justice for the Boim family."
Also Monday, a Pakistani man who was spotted a month ago videotaping the skyline of Charlotte, North Carolina, was indicted on charges of lying to the police and an immigration violation. Kamran Akhtar, 35, of New York City, was charged with six counts in the indictment, but none of them involved terrorism.
How could he enter the country if he was on that list? I wonder how many more terrorists are able to get around it.
It only takes one....
Spies should be summarily shot. That's how it's done in wartime.
Gitmo bound, hopefully.
Any minute now someone should be posting the latest whine from CAIR about how Ashcroft is trampling all over the civil rights of innocent Muslim men who just happen to have video cameras and ties to terrorist groups, spreading fear and hate and bigotry just to help his master George Bush get elected.
However, the author gets it wrong -- it's not in Baltimore -- it runs from Annapolis to Stevensville on Kent Island.
Grrrrrrrr....he's here with his wife and kids. Deport the family immediately. Bet his kids are in school getting a far better education than in Islamoland.
I've long suspected that bridges are going to be a real target. Remember Osama's quote that they would "strike at the joints"? IMO, they better be keeping a close eye on the Mississippi River bridges too.
ping.
Makes sense. Think of the economic damage, with low probability of getting caught, as there are usually only whinos hanging aroung the footings of bridges. They could concievably do dozens at the same time accross the country. This jives with bizarre reports of explosives, people found around bridges in recent months.
Why do I suspect an eventual hand slap and a stern warning as they release him with his camera?
A major difficulty that these terrorist operations within the U.S. are causing is how to deal with them effectively while still preserving our civil rights.
Fortunately they already had the financing thing in Chicago to pin on the guy. Otherwise, how do you detain someone for taking pics of a bridge?
The terrorists are hoping that their activities will impel us into making our country into a police state. If they can also get us to make life miserable for people who only look like terrorists but are law-abiding, that's all the better.
They would like to arouse the civilians to go overboard to increase tension. Remember when some knuckleheads were attacking Sikhs after 9/11.
We cannot trust the likes of John Kerry to handle this. He would be more inclined to put PC above security. This is a delicate balance.
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/sns-ap-hamas-bay-bridge,0,4102792.story
Man Arrested After Videotaping Md. Bridge
By GRETCHEN PARKER
Associated Press Writer
August 24, 2004, 8:59 PM EDT
BALTIMORE -- A man described as a high-ranking Hamas operative was arrested after he drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge while his wife videotaped close-up shots of the structure, authorities said Tuesday.
Ismael Selim Elbarasse, long suspected by authorities of having financial ties to the Palestinian extremist group, was taken into custody last week and held as a material witness in an unrelated terrorism case in Chicago.
Neither he nor his wife was charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the videotaping.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich said the arrest "shouldn't be a generator of fear. It should serve as a reminder that there is a war going on around the world."
A federal grand jury in Chicago last week described Elbarasse as an unindicted co-conspirator in a 15-year scheme to finance terrorist activities in Israel. Hamas has carried out suicide bombings and other attacks in Israel.
Court documents allege he and defendant Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook -- considered one of the highest-ranking Hamas leaders internationally -- shared a Virginia bank account that was used to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hamas.
Federal public defender Franklin W. Draper, who represented Elbarasse in court Monday, did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.
Elbarasse's private attorney, Stanley L. Cohen, did not return calls either. A woman reached by phone at Elbarasse's home identified herself as his wife but declined to give her name or to comment.
Elbarasse was spotted Friday -- the same day the Chicago indictment was made public -- by police officers on the 4.3-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Authorities said Elbarasse was in an sport utility vehicle with his wife and their three children, ages 14, 19 and 21. He allegedly said they had gone to the beach but could not specify what beach they had visited.
According to the FBI, the tape in the camera shows the cables and upper supports of the main section of the bridge and zooms in on bridge joints. The tape also shows the Elbarasse family packing for vacation and on vacation.
Authorities said officers saw the wife try to hide the camera as officers approached.
Elbarasse is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday for a hearing on whether to turn him over to federal officials in Chicago.
Elbarasse was jailed for eight months in 1998, after failing to testify before a federal grand jury that was investigating Hamas fund-raising.
* __
Associated Press writers Stephen Manning in Silver Spring, Md., and Tom Stuckey in Annapolis, Md., contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
GOOD LORD, THAT'S MY BRIDGE!!!! I live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but work in D.C. I cross that bloody bridge twice a day.
Madrasa is the arabic word for school --- any school.
So he went to a school school. Literally "madrasa" translates to "place of books".
Just like Omar,the tent maker. Omar is the arabic word for
"Tent Maker". Tent maker the tent maker.
As for the distrust you have for the Islamic Community,
your distrust is well founded! The Islamics are out to convert the world to Islam either by teaching or the sword.
Look at the flag of Saudi Arabia --- crossed swords!!
Can someone please explain to me how groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad are considered enemies by our government, yet the same government insists on an "even-handed approach" with respect to Israel and these same enemies?
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