Posted on 08/24/2004 9:47:02 AM PDT by Cinnamon Girl
A man described as a high-ranking operative of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was arrested last week as he videotaped the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Virginia, and he then was held as a material witness in an unrelated case, authorities said.
Ismael Selim Elbarasse of Annandale, Virginia, long suspected by authorities of having financial ties to the Palestinian extremist group, was taken into custody Friday, the U.S. attorney's office in Maryland said Monday. He was held as a material witness in a Chicago terrorism case.
Elbarasse made an initial appearance in Baltimore's federal courthouse Monday before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm.
A federal grand jury in Chicago, in an indictment unsealed Friday, described Elbarasse as an unindicted co-conspirator in a 15-year racketeering conspiracy in the United States and abroad to illegally finance terrorist activities in the Palestinian territories.
Court documents allege that 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.
"He is being held only on the material witness charge," said Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Maryland U.S. attorney's office.
Elbarasse was spotted Friday - the same day the Chicago indictment was made public - by two police officers on the Bay Bridge, authorities said. The officers noticed a man in a sport utility vehicle who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent videotaping the bridge, authorities said.
Authorities said the man, who was with a woman and two children, said they had gone to the beach but could not specify what beach they had visited. They also said the camera used had recorded close-up images that seemed atypical for a tourist.
Police learned that Elbarasse was wanted as a material witness in connection with the Chicago case, and was on an FBI terrorist watch list, authorities said. But he was not charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the videotaping.
Since Elbarasse's arrest Friday, authorities have searched his Virginia house, federal officials said. Murphy said she did not know what was found.
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.
That is one long bridge!
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/fbim.htm
Ismail Selim Elbarasse, 51, an accountant from Falls Church, is in prison in New York for refusing to appear before a grand jury investigating money-laundering. Agents are reviewing the funds handled by Elbarasse, including bank accounts he shared with Marzook. Before he was jailed, Elbarasse worked as comptroller of the Islamic Saudi Academy, a Saudi-financed school under construction in Loudoun County. Elbarasse's lawyer, Stanley Cohen, said his client is "a freedom fighter without a gun," and accused the FBI of running a "witch hunt" to discourage Muslims from sending money to areas under Palestinian control.
http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/121598/new_natbriefs.html
"Second man held on contempt charges is ordered released
NEW YORK -- A second man jailed for failing to testify before a grand jury probing U.S. fund raising by the militant Islamic group Hamas was ordered released on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Michael B. Mukasey said it "appears likely that further coercive imprisonment" of Ismaeil Elbarasse would not lead him to cooperate with the investigation even though he has been granted immunity. It was unclear exactly when Elbarasse would be released."
Welcome to GITMO bucko.I hope you like sleeping on concrete!
Let's get the Islamic terminology straight, once and for all:
Mosque = Terrorist Barracks
Red Crescent Ambulance = Munitions Supply Truck
Radical Muslim = REAL Muslim who follows the Koran
Moderate Muslim = A Trojan horse who quietly smiles and nods his head at the terrorists
Koran = a call to terror, murder, oppression, slavery, misogyny and backward culture
Infidel = all non Muslims and Muslims who are not on jihad (all doomed to die)
Holy Lands = all lands unfortunate enough to be or ever have been under the heavy yoke of Muslim terror, murder, oppression, slavery, misogyny
Islamic Pride = an insanely jealous hatred for every other culture that has left Islam groveling in its own seventh-century dust.
CAIR = Crying Arabic Islamic Retrogrades
Minaret = Satan's Jukebox - or - Howling Hell Tower
Burkha = Misogynistic Mobile Women's Prison
Muslim Chaplin (U.S. Armed Forces) = Turncoat Brigade Recruiter
Rape = something the guys get to do, especially to those hottie infidel chicks! (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
Modern Technology = "Huh? Oh yes, that stuff the evil infidels make and maintain for us to use for to kill them."
Allah = the Moon God, whose most important representative here on earth is that meteorite worshiped in Mecca
Little Boys = a man's pleasure machines
Paradise = a giant rape orgy for you - if you die while ruthlessly murdering innocent unsuspecting infidel women and children
U.S. Armed Forces = things to run away from or kill with booby-traps, unless you can take a cheap shot at them and then hide behind women and children or hide in a Mosque.
Christian Church = firewood
Synagogue = firewood
Buddhist Temple = firewood
Hindu Temple = firewood
Confucian Church = firewood
Jewish Restaurant = Bomb Demolition Depot
Holy Site = anything Muslim, unlike those giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan that were precious to Buddhists. "We blew those up real good! Heh, heh!"
Truce = a chance to regroup and kill more infidels later
Liberalism = the societal AIDS virus that stops the infidels from fighting Islam off
President John Kerry = The Islamonazi’s great white hope!
Did you make that up? Another one: Israeli Ambulance in palestinian neighborhood to help injured palestinians = target for palestinian gunmen and "rock throwers."
That's the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. The suspect was videotaping the all-above-water 4.4 mile long Bay Bridge that connects "mainland" Maryland to the Eastern Shore, just north of Annapolis.
I happened to make a wrong turn coming back from Virginia Beach to Newport News and almost ended up on that toll bridge by mistake.
The Bay Bridge/Tunnel is on Long Bridge, and the "other side of the bay" is known as the Eastern Shore.
"the bridge you were just on" ping.
Suspected Hamas Operative Spotted Taping Md. Bridge
POSTED: 1:47 pm EDT August 24, 2004 UPDATED: 2:29 pm EDT August 24, 2004
BALTIMORE -- Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich says the arrest of a suspected high-ranking Hamas operative has prompted him to order more police stationed around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.The suspect, Ismael Selim Elbarasse of Virginia, was arrested last week as he videotaped the bridge. He is currently being held as a material witness in a Chicago terrorism case. He's long been suspected of having financial ties to Palestinian extremists.
Ehrlich says the tightened security now in place should be a reminder that "there is a war going on around the world."
The terror level around the bridge site is "yellow," the third highest.
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