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Jewish World Review Feb. 25, 2003 / 23 Adar I, 5763
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
The indictment of the
Islamic Jihad terrorist leadership operating out of the
United States since 1984 was unprecedented in scope and
magnitude. With 50 counts (166 pages), it revealed in
fascinating detail the internal conversations, discussions,
planning and covert financing of one of the most murderous
terrorist enterprises in the world. It uncovered a world we
never get to see: how a terrorist enterprise was created,
maintained, financed, and coordinated from the safety of
the United States.
From issuing communiques on behalf of suicide operations
to arguing how their monies were being spent by factions in
the Islamic Jihad, the indictment - spanning 19 years -
shows a key to Islamic terrorists' success in planting
themselves in the heart of the West: the ability to deceive
the public, media and government in portraying themselves
as part of America's pluralist ethnic mosaic.
Islamic Jihad has been officially headquartered in
Damascus, Syria, but the indictment makes clear that its
CEO was a professor at the University of South Florida in
Tampa, Sami Al-Arian - who ran the terror apparatus
under the guise of externally operating three seemingly
innocent entities: a Muslim academic institute, a Palestinian
humanitarian-aid group and an Islamic religious center. As
yesterday's evidence makes staggeringly clear, Al-Arian &
Co. used these entities as a perfect cover to operate a
violent terrorist group that has killed more than 100
civilians, including two Americans.
The indictment contains conversation after conversation of
Al-Arian conspiring with Islamic Jihad leaders outside the
United States to coordinate and finance the Islamic Jihad
group. Count 42 states: "The enterprise members, while
concealing their association with PIJ [Palestine Islamic
Jihad], would and did seek to obtain support from
influential individuals in the United States under the guise of
promoting and protecting Arab rights. The enterprise
members would and did make false statements and
misrepresent facts to representatives of the media to
promote the goals of PIJ."
Back in 1994, I produced and reported "Jihad in America,"
a PBS documentary that exposed the secret Islamic Jihad
cell that Al-Arian ran from Tampa. I interviewed Al-Arian -
who, of course, denied any terrorist affiliation. But the
documentary also revealed statements by Al-Arian
championing terrorism, the existence of Islamic Jihad
publications distributed from his office, the use of his
academic institute as a cover for Islamic Jihad and actual
videos of Islamic Jihad terrorist conferences he organized in
the United States.
Virtually every national Islamic "civil rights" group - created
with the same guile that fostered the success of Al-Arian's
organization - responded by claiming that we were
"attacking Islam" and that we were stereotyping all
Muslims. That pattern of obeisance to terrorism was
repeated yesterday following issuance of the indictment.
Hiding under the patina of promoting Arab and Muslim
rights, these groups gathered impressive supporters in the
media, Congress and intelligentsia who jumped on to the
"Al-Arian is the victim" refrain, further emboldening him to
literally get away with murder.
The list of scoundrels who assiduously and systematically
protected Al-Arian's terrorist enterprise included then-Rep.
David Bonior, Martin Merzer of the Miami Herald, The St.
Petersburg Times' Sue Aschoff and countless others.
Al-Arian was so successful in his deception that he was
invited to the White House four times, meeting with both
President Clinton and President Bush.
In the end, Al-Arian succeeded in his deception via the
same exact formula that constrained the FBI - deterred by
the fear of being accused of "racial profiling" - from
investigating Islamic militants training in U.S. flight
academies in the months before 9/11. This formula lies at
the heart of Western vulnerability to terrorist groups
implanted in our midst. Al Qaeda and Hamas used it in
setting up Islamic "civil rights" groups and charities
throughout the '90s - designed to tar with the broad epithet
of "racism" anyone who would have exposed their secret
terrorist connection.
The Justice Department demonstrated that the
United States was not going to sit quietly and allow this
murderous deception to continue. Democracies only act, a
British politician once said, when there is blood in the
streets. For the last 10 years, rivers of blood have flooded
Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, New York and Washington.
Unfortunately, the terrorist facade, while damaged by the
indictment yesterday and the series of post-9/11 effective
one-two counter-terrorist punches by the Bush
administration, is still vibrant in the United States.
The terrorists had a good 10 years on us. Whether we are
able to truly dissipate their infrastructure in the future will
depend on the response that is forthcoming.
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How a terrorist enterprise was created, maintained, financed, and coordinated from the safety of the United States
By Steven Emerson
JWR contributor Steven Emerson is the author of "American Jihad: The
Terrorists Living Among Us". and executive director of
the Investigative Project, the nation's largest archival
intelligence center on Islamic terrorist activities.
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