Behind Al-Arian's facade (founded the World and Islam Studies Enterprise at USF a decade ago)

St. Petersburg Times ^ | November 1, 2001 | staff

[Cincinatus' Wife]

NBC News: USF Professor Sami Al-Arian Arrested!

[Flashback] The prime-time smearing of Sami Al-Arian

[Cincinatus' Wife]

10/19/03 Charities accused of aiding terrorists AP [Full Text] WASHINGTON -- A Virginia-based network of charities and businesses is accused by the government of bankrolling groups considered by the United States as terror organizations and laundering millions of dollars.

An affidavit and supporting court papers by a Customs Service special agent were used to justify warrants for searches of 11 residences and businesses in northern Virginia and a chicken processing plant in Georgia.

The agent, David Kane, contends targets of the requested searches moved huge sums through multilayered financial transactions and to accounts in banks on the Isle of Man, a tax haven in the English Channel.

From there, he surmised, the money must have been moved, but the island's tight bank secrecy laws had thwarted investigators.

He said he had probable cause to believe the reason that SAFA Charities existed was to hide the distribution of money to terror groups, principally Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement.

The affidavit was filed in March 2002.

Prominent in it was former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian, accused by the government of being the North American head of Islamic Jihad.

He was indicted this year with seven others on charges they set up a terrorist cell at the university and funneled support to Islamic Jihad.

Kane described one series of transactions that had occurred in fall 2001, which he said was typical.

Based on records of First Union Bank, he said, the Sterling Charitable Gift Fund in northern Virginia deposited on Oct. 26, 2001, a check for $250,000 received from Mar-Jac Poultry of Gainesville, Ga.

Sterling transferred $100,000, from the same account, to SAAR Foundation, an affiliated Saudi organization, on Nov. 2, 2001. Sterling transferred another $150,000 by wire to SAAR Foundation on Nov. 29, 2001, he wrote.

This, Kane said, was "an example of an intra-SAFA Group money transfer and apparent `pass through' activity that I believe is conducted for the purpose of layering financial transactions and confusing any ostensible investigation."***