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Copyright 2003 Alert Global Media, Inc.
Money Laundering Alert

April, 2003

SECTION: Vol. 14, No. 6; Pg. 16

LENGTH: 880 words

HEADLINE: Terrorist financing case: A decade of unnoticed funds transfers

BODY:
THE INDICTMENT OF A KUWAIT-BORN computer science professor and seven others for allegedly
providing material support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad offers a look at how the men spent a decade,
and used half a dozen U.S. banks, to fund the purported terrorist organization.

The indictment also shows that the money moved beneath the radar of financial institutions and even
now, though banks are subject to enhanced scrutiny since Sept. 11, 2001 and the regulations the USA
Patriot Act spawned 45 days later, would probably not arouse suspicion.

Intelligence wiretaps

Most of the financial information contained in the indictment appears to have come not from bank anti-
money laundering efforts, but from U.S. intelligence wire taps, apparently authorized by a semi-secret
U.S. court that oversees sensitive surveillance.

The indictment alleges that as U.S. leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Sami Al-Arian, a
professor at the University of South Florida, "directed the audit of all moneys and property of the PIJ
throughout the world." Amongst the charges Al-Arian and the other men face are "providing material
support to a terrorist organization" (Title 18, USC Sec. 2339B) and conspiracy (Title 18, USC Sec. 371).
Despite its global scope, Thomas Ness, president of the University of South Florida Credit Union, which
the conspirators allegedly used, said, "The dollar value of the transactions even in an institution our size
would not raise any red flags. There's that much money going back and forth all the time, especially in
buying and selling a house. People retiring move money like that all the time, too. And if it's by check,
there's no requirements for reports."

The secret court

The indictment's financial details originated with wiretaps authorized by the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court, a secret tribunal of 11 U.S. district judges created in 1978, according to March 11
congressional testimony by terrorism expert Steven Emerson.

The 2001 USA Patriot Act allowed the court to share its findings, which had been confined to the
intelligence community, with federal prosecutors.

The indictment leaves no doubt that those powers were freely used. It describes about 150 telephone
conversations between 1994 and 2000.

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