Exploiting the Koran to Terrorize

Counterterrorism efforts got a major boost last week when an American district court found three Muslim organizations and one individual, mostly based in the Chicago area, guilty of funding Hamas and fined them an astonishing US$156 million.

The four were found liable for their roles in the murder of an American teenager, David Boim, on May 13, 1996, when he was shot by Hamas operatives as he waited for a bus near Jerusalem. This case is important in itself, providing some measure of justice and relief for the Boim family. Beyond that, it helps fight terrorism in four ways.

First, it validates and operationalizes a 1992 U.S. law that prohibits sending any money to terrorist organizations, not just money specifically tied to violence. Even funds used for medical care or education, the logic correctly goes, ultimately forward violence.

Arlander Keys, the judge in this case, established that "the Boims need only show that the defendants were involved in an agreement to accomplish an unlawful act and that the attack that killed David Boim was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the conspiracy." This ruling places other civil cases, most notably the one linking Saudi royals to September 11, 2001, on much firmer legal ground.

Second, this marks the first decision by a jury penalizing Americans who support terrorism abroad and making them liable to pay civil damages.

Third, as the Boims' lawyer, Stephen J. Landes explains, it shows that "the American court system is prepared to bankrupt the Islamist terror network," just as it earlier destroyed the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations, two extremist and violent organizations, "by bringing unpayably large judgments against them."

Finally, the case confirms a pattern of culpability among even the most innocent-appearing of Islamic institutions. Two of the three liable groups have known ties to Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group; Holy Land Foundation serves as its fundraising arm, Islamic Association for Palestine as its political front. But the Quranic Literacy Institute appeared wholly unconnected to Hamas. It is a religious group based in a Chicago suburb that since 1991 has engaged in the pious work of translating Islamic sacred texts from Arabic, then publishing them in English

But appearances can deceive. In June 1998, Federal authorities charged QLI with having for nine years supported "a conspiracy involving international terrorist activities and domestic recruitment and training in support of such activities" and seized $1 million of its cash and assets.

The FBI found that a Saudi-based financier linked to Osama bin Laden, Yassin Kadi, loaned $820,000 to the QLI in 1991, which the QLI then laundered through a series of real estate transactions. In what the Chicago Tribune calls "extraordinarily complex" deals, QLI cleared nearly $1.4 million and investigators suspect it planned to use this money in 1993 to fund the rebuilding of Hamas.

QLI's complicity in terrorism has great significance, for it is no rogue outfit but a stalwart of the Saudi-backed "Wahhabi lobby" in America. QLI's founding president, Ahmad Zaki Hammad, is a scholar of Islam boasting advanced degrees from Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar University and the University of Chicago. He has served as president of the lobby's largest organization, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and sat on the board of the North American Islamic Trust, its mechanism for taking over mosques and other Islamic properties.

When the QLI's assets were impounded in 1998, leading organizations of the Wahhabi lobby – ISNA, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Students' Association – leapt to its defense, declaring themselves "shocked at this unprecedented action taken against members of the Muslim community." Nearly a thousand supporters rallied on QLI's behalf, chanting "Allahu Akbar."

And yet, we now know that this innocuous-appearing organization did have a key role funneling money to Hamas.

The lesson is clear: Wahhabi organizations like the QLI cannot be taken at face value but must be scrutinized for extremist, criminal, and terrorist connections. Extensive research, including undercover operations, is needed to find out the possibly sordid reality behind a seemingly benign exterior.

So many great posts so far on this thread. Well... I'm... I'm... I'm nearly speechless. You guys are so great. I swear, it is a real comfort to know you are out there. I have read the "holy" Koran and am studying Arabic, as are several of my friends, because of this article I shared with them from the FR:

Montana Judge, 6 Others Use Web to Snare Terrorists
July 12, 2004 - Evan Moore reporting

CONRAD, MT. - By day, she’s the municipal judge of this tiny town, a wife and mother of three, but by moonlight Shannen Rossmiller is a spy. Then, Rossmiller — petite, blond and 34 — assumes one of several unlikely false identities, all angry, violent, Muslim men, nurturing hatred of the United States. In that guise, she combs the Internet through the late evening and early morning and sifts through the messages and declarations on extremist Islamic Web sites.

During those hours, Rossmiller is on a quest that consumes hours of each day, days of each week. It’s one that will place her on the stand Thursday as the government’s primary witness against a National Guardsman accused of offering information to help Muslim extremists kill U.S. troops.

It’s a quest that has already placed her in danger.

Rossmiller works with an exclusive group, a coalition of seven civilians, international "cyber spies" who chase terrorists on the Internet.

They call themselves the "7-Seas."

Until recently they were a largely unknown, almost clandestine bunch. Named for its global scope, the group consists of Rossmiller; a nuclear physicist/software designer in Canada; a corporate security consultant in Houston; a former private detective in Singapore; an Australian; and two other Americans.

They might have remained unknown. That is, if some of Rossmiller’s efforts hadn’t paid off, if she hadn’t run across Ryan Anderson, a National Guardsman accused of attempting to defect to al-Qaida and offering information on troop strength and vulnerable points on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

Rossmiller never planned to be a witness. But then, she’d never planned to become a spy. She had grown up, married and pursued her career in the little town of 2,750.

Broke pelvis on 9/11

It’s a quiet community, in the northwestern quadrant of Montana in the shadow of Glacier National Park, home to wheat farmers, ranchers and a group of Hutterites, a traditional Christian sect related to the Amish.

There, Rossmiller was perfectly happy as municipal judge and might have remained so if she hadn’t broken her pelvis.

"It happened on the evening of 9/11," said Rossmiller. "We’d put in a new shower, I was just stepping into it and there I went. I was incapacitated for the next six weeks and all I heard was the news.

"I couldn’t avoid it, and I couldn’t help but feel that I had to do something."

Her first thought was to join the National Guard, a plan her husband, emphatically opposed. Rossmiller, however, describes herself as passionate in all her pursuits, and it wasn’t long before she found a new avenue.

"I began fishing around on the Internet and I found these groups," she said.

The "groups" included both the violent fringe of Islamic extremists and those who tracked them. Soon, Rossmiller was conversing with Brent Astley, the Canadian member, and others in the 7-Seas, and found herself drawn into their efforts.

"We’re not a bunch of alarmists, and we’re not politically motivated," said Dave, the Houston member who agreed to speak if not identified. "We’re probably the only group of our kind. Most of us have never met the others in person, but we’re all joined by the desire to stop terrorism in any form.

"I guess we’re like a parody of a spy novel, but we’re real."

Rossmiller’s role, however, was circumventing reality. Once she joined 7-Seas, she began creating various personae of violent, Islamic men.

"I’d never be taken seriously at those Web sites as a woman," she said.

Paying attention to detail The ruse requires careful preparation. Rossmiller, with her husband’s help, creates false "proxies" to indicate her e-mails originated from the Middle East. She uses a commercial translation tool to decipher messages and to change her text to Arabic. She studies the Koran and searches out actual addresses and names of Mosques and clerics to refer to. She keeps a world clock and makes sure she never sends a message during the hours she would be praying.

An early riser, she makes most of her communications between the hours of 4 a.m. and 7 a.m., when it is afternoon in the Middle East.

Her efforts soon paid off. Within a few months of searching, she began communicating with a person who claimed to be an arms dealer. She calls him "Rocket Man."

"This character said he had missiles and missile parts for sale," said Rossmiller. "I went about it pretty slowly, said I didn’t believe him.

"I really didn’t believe it when he sent me a picture of himself and his address."

Rossmiller turned the dealer in to the FBI. She’s never learned what was done with the information.

Then, last October, she came across a man who called himself "Amir Abdul Rashid, a brother fighting on the wrong side." In reality, "Rashid" allegedly was Anderson, a 26-year-old tank driver with the 81st Armor Brigade at Fort Lewis.

Rossmiller will not discuss her upcoming testimony in Anderson’s court-martial. Her testimony in the May hearing, however, made it clear that she had extensive communication with the guardsman.

"This is like a second job for all of us," she said. "I probably devote as much time to it as I do to being a judge."

After exchanging 27 e-mails with "Rashid," Rossmiller called the FBI. Undercover agents then met with Anderson in a secretly videotaped session, during which he designated vulnerable points on a tank and offered other information.

Rossmiller netted an arrest. "Shannen’s the only member of the group who makes contact with terrorists," said Astley, the longest tenured of the 7-Seas.

"I guess we could be likened to a militia and have been. For the most part we visit terrorist Web sites. We analyze the data and we try to inform the appropriate authorities.

"But the word ’militia’ has some unpleasant connotations. We believe in what we’re doing and we try to bring terrorists to justice, but we’re not vigilantes. ... "

Often, said Astley, the group has no idea what is done with the warnings they pass on to authorities.

Her identity aired in court The organization also has been obscure. Few among government agencies will acknowledge their existence, and few among the intelligence community are aware of them.

Within the latter group however, 7-Seas has drawn some small praise.

"We applaud their efforts, what little we know of them," said Elizabeth Bancroft, executive director of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in Washington, D.C.

That service has a price, however. When Rossmiller was called to testify in Anderson’s preliminary hearing in May, her identity and her membership in 7-Seas were revealed. Days after she appeared in court, phone threats were called in to Rossmiller’s office in Conrad, and she has been under police protection since.

The experience was sobering for Rossmiller and other members of her group.

"I think about it, but I don’t worry about it constantly. One of the good things about living in a town the size of Conrad is that it would be pretty difficult for a stranger to be here for any length of time and not be noticed."

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