A man indicted Wednesday as part of the government’s investigation of terrorist fund raising is charged with supporting an Islamic charity that has been tied to a Pittsburgh mosque. The Saudi graduate student at the University of Idaho was arrested in Moscow, Idaho, for failing to say on a visa application that he was involved with an Islamic charity that — prior to 9/11 — published statements endorsing suicide attacks, including crashing planes into targets. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review first reported the charity’s endorsement of such attacks in an Aug. 4, 2002, special report . Sami Omar Al-Hussayen was arrested Wednesday in Moscow, Idaho, and charged with supporting the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America. Four Arab men were indicted separately of illegally sending at least $4 million to Iraq through a Syracuse, N.Y.-area charity called Help the Needy — a former partner with the Islamic Assembly, or IANA, of Ypsilanti, Mich. Al-Hussayen allegedly supplied money from overseas sources and computer expertise to IANA. He is charged with failing to disclose his relationship with the group, which, if revealed, would have resulted in the government rejecting his visa application, prosecutors said. Web sites operated by IANA have contained statements praising suicide bombings and touting the use of airplanes as terror weapons, the government said. Prosecutors quoted one of the same fatwa, or religious opinions, that Trib reporters found in IANA’s Arabic online magazine, Al Asr (The Era). According to the government’s translation, the fatwa read: “The mujahid (holy warrior) must kill himself if he knows that this will lead to killing a great number of the enemies. In the new era, this can be accomplished with the modern means of bombing or bringing down an airplane on an important location that will cause the enemy great losses.” The article, written by Sheik Hamid Al-Ali, was published four months before 9/11. In another fatwa at that time, Sheik Salman Al Awdeh wrote that “martyrdom” is permissible under certain conditions. A suicide attack should “harm the enemy, through the killing and wounding … or demoralize the enemy when they see that only one Muslim could do such damage,” he wrote. Experts say extremists bent on jihad , or holy war, need religious leaders’ approval of violence against a designated enemy to feel they are still following the Quran, which strictly details when followers are allowed to fight. Mary-Jane Deeb, an Arab specialist at the Library of Congress and a prolific writer on Middle East topics, says such articles constitute a significant threat. Her views are her own. “Of course, this is something that is unacceptable,” Deeb said. “The idea of supporting the use of any form of violence against civilians in the name of religion or in the name of nationalism or in the name of whatever is not something that should be allowed, because it incites the violence, it incites the crimes, it incites the terrorism.” IANA has been tied to Attawheed Mosque in Pittsburgh. The mosque is a collection of 50 or so mostly Saudi graduate students and their families living in the Green Tree area. The name means “The Oneness of God.” When Attawheed Foundation was founded in 1995, IANA was listed as a beneficiary of its assets. IANA has encouraged donors to contribute to Attawheed. An IANA employee told the Trib last year that IANA acted like “a father” to Attawheed and that the relationship was “financial.” Attawheed Foundation, which runs the mosque, has denied any active involvement with IANA, saying “no special relationship” exists. Attempts to reach its officers for comment yesterday were unsuccessful. Key founding officers of the Attawheed Foundation also formed Assirat Al-Mustaqeem, (The Straight Path), an Arabic magazine published for nearly a decade in Pittsburgh that several Islamic experts say called for holy war against Americans. The magazine ceased publication in July 2000, but during its run published interviews with mujahideen , or holy warriors, who are well known to counterterrorism experts. When the magazine closed, two of its writers moved from Pittsburgh to Ypsilanti to join IANA’s magazine. An Assirat editor moved from Pittsburgh to Chicago to join the Global Relief Foundation, another charity under FBI scrutiny. He has since fled the country, fearing he is wanted by the FBI. The government has been cracking down on Islamic charities since the Sept. 11 attacks, charging that at least some of the money they raise funds terrorist activities. At least three Islamic charities have been shut down: Global Relief and the Benevolence International Foundation in the Chicago area and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in suburban Dallas. Enaam Arnaout, head of the Benevolence International Foundation, pleaded guilty earlier this month to illegally paying for supplies for Muslim rebels in Chechnya and troops in Bosnia. In exchange, the government dropped a charge accusing him of supporting al-Qaida. But federal prosecutors insist that there were ties between the charity and the terrorist network. The FBI has named the Holy Land Foundation as the primary U.S. fund-raising organ for the terrorist group Hamas. The four New York men arrested yesterday are accused of using Help the Needy to solicit contributions from people in the United States, depositing money in central New York banks and laundering much of it through the Jordan Islamic Bank in Amman. Charged were oncologist Dr. Rafil Dhafir, 55, of Fayetteville, N.Y., a U.S. citizen born in Iraq; Maher Zagha, 34, a Jordanian who attended college in Syracuse; Ayman Jarwan, 33, of Syracuse, a Jordanian citizen born in Saudi Arabia who worked as the executive director of Help the Needy; Osameh Al Wahaidy, 41, of Fayetteville, a Jordanian citizen employed as a spiritual leader at the Auburn Correctional Facility and a math instructor at the State University of New York at Oswego. Dhafir, Jarwan and Al Wahaidy were arrested in the Syracuse area; Zagha’s whereabouts were not immediately disclosed. The four men and the charity were charged with conspiring to transfer funds to Iraq in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Dhafir, Zagha and the charity were charged with 12 counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Dhafir and Jarwan appeared in court yesterday and were ordered held without bail for another hearing Friday. “I’m short on details,” said Edward Menkin, Dhafir’s attorney. “But Dr. Dhafir told me he was fully, deeply and openly involved in providing what he believed was food aid to Iraq.” Help The Needy used a postal address in DeWitt, a Syracuse suburb. The group’s Web site said it raises money to help poor children in Iraq, which has been subject to economic sanctions since the Gulf War in 1991. The charity failed to obtain the required license to provide humanitarian aid to Iraq, prosecutors said. “As President Bush leads an international coalition to end Saddam Hussein’s tyranny and support for terror, the Justice Department will see that individuals within our borders cannot undermine these efforts,” said Attorney General John Ashcroft. “Those who covertly seek to channel money into Iraq under the guise of charitable work will be caught and prosecuted.” The prosecution resulted from a three-year investigation. If convicted, Dhafir and Zagha face up to 265 years in prison and fines of more than $14 million. Jarwan and Al Wahaidy each face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charity could be fined $14 million. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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