Terror Ties? The government claims that a former Washington school official recruited fighters for Al Qaeda. The case raises questions about how the defendant got a sensitive job in the capital-and whether the government will now finally charge 'enemy combatant' Jose Padilla.
WEB EXCLUSIVE By Michael Isikoff <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4863599/site/newsweek/> and Mark <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4901246/site/newsweek/> Hosenball Newsweek Updated: 7:40 p.m. ET March 30, 2005 March 30 - A widening federal probe into a radical Islamic support network that allegedly assisted "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla has netted its most surprising catch: the former top building manager for the Washington D.C. public schools. Kifah Wael Jayyousi, who served as "chief of facilities" for the Washington D.C. school system between 1999 and April 2001, was arrested by U.S. Customs agents at Detroit airport last Sunday while returning to the country from Qatar where he has been working for the past two years. In a criminal complaint unsealed this week and in a court hearing today, Jayyousi, 43, was described as a key player in a U.S.-based network of extremist Muslims who raised funds and recruited soldiers to wage "violent jihad" in Chechnya, Bosnia and Afghanistan. He is charged with providing material support to terrorists. Jayyousi and two associates were "primary participants in a triangulated North American support cell," said federal prosecutor Russell Killinger in a detention hearing in Detroit today. "They were supporters of every single violent terrorist organization that was active [during the 1990s]. I can't tell you how many thousands of people were killed" by these terror groups. But the hearing today also revealed potential holes in the government's case. While saying that the government had tapes of thousands of hours of intercepted Jayyousi telephone conversations that were obtained with secret national-security wiretaps in the 1990s, Killinger acknowledged that the Justice Department-for reasons that remain unclear-dropped surveillance of him around 2000. Moreover, a federal magistrate said that much of the government's evidence appeared to be "protected speech" under the Constitution and did not involve allegations that he personally engaged in any violent activity. While ultimately deciding to hold Jayyousi without bond, U.S. magistrate Stephen Whelan said of the evidence presented against Jayyousi: "This is somewhat of a close case for me." Still, regardless of how it is ultimately resolved, one significant question likely to emerge from the unfolding case is how Jayyousi, who had been under investigation by the U.S. government for years for his suspected links to terrorists, could have managed to land a sensitive $114,534 a year job that placed him in charge of maintenance-including the air conditioning, water and heating systems-of Washington D.C.'s public schools. The Jordanian-born Jayyoussi, a naturalized American citizen with a doctorate in engineering, worked as the assistant superintendent of the Detroit public schools before being hired by the District of Columbia. He was later fired from his D.C. position five months before the September 11 terror attacks for matters that had nothing to do with terrorism. He was accused by the schools superintendent of "shoddy management" and financial irregularities-allegations that he vigorously denied. Roxanne Evans, a spokeswoman for the Washington school system, said today that the terrorist charges against Jayyousi-and the fact that he had even been under federal investigation while overseeing the city's school buildings-came as a complete surprise to school officials there. "I haven't found anybody who knew anything about this," she said. One possible explanation for the fact that Washington school officials would have known nothing about the probe was indirectly cited by Killinger, the lead prosecutor in his case. He noted today that the surveillance of Jayoussi was a secret "intelligence" investigation-authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)-and not a criminal case. Prior to 9/11, he noted, there was a "wall" that prevented FISA wiretaps from being shared with criminal investigators. (As a result, FBI agents, who might have been expected to review Jayyousi's status under a standard background check required by the Washington public schools for its top officials, would not have known Jayyousi was under investigation.) The tearing down of the "wall"-and the sharing of intelligence evidence with criminal investigators-was one of the major effects of the Patriot Act passed after 9/11 and has allowed the Justice Department to bring cases like the one against Jayyousi. According to the criminal complaint, Jayyousi and two associates-Kassem Daher (a Canadian resident who has since fled to Lebanon) and Adham Amin Hassoun (a south Florida man now in custody awaiting trial on terror-related charges in Miami)-had been the prime targets of a FISA investigation into terrorist-support activity since 1993. The three men set up a web of nonprofit charities-with names like the American Islamic Group and American Worldwide Relief-that operated under the guise of humanitarian relief while actually raising money and recruiting fighters for jihadi groups closely linked to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization, according to the government's charges. "I am a Muslim citizen of the great upcoming Islamic State," Jayyousi wrote in a February 1994 e-mail obtained by federal prosecutors. The e-mail goes on to refer to those opposing the radical vision of a resurgent Muslim state as "bloodsuckers ... who are enslaving Muslims in Asia and Africa and around the World." Another reason Jayyousi came under government scrutiny was his apparent relationship with the Egyptian Omar Abdel Rahman, the "blind sheikh," who was arrested in 1993 and later convicted of plotting to blow up major New York City landmarks. An FBI agent's affidavit unsealed this week describes Jayyousi as a "supporter and follower" of the radical sheikh, helping to relay a message from an overseas supporter and updating him on "jihad news" in telephone conversations placed to his prison cell. Jayyousi's newsletter raised funds for the blind sheikh's defense and called his trial "The Greatest Conspiracy Against Islam." The criminal charges against Jayyousi make no mention of Padilla, the former Chicago gang member and presidentially decreed "enemy combatant" who sources say is another central figure in the sprawling, if little-noticed, FBI investigation that roped in Jayyousi. But the criminal complaint against Jayyousi describes in some detail his close relationship with his alleged confederate Hassoun, a Palestinian-American computer engineer who is described as the "East Coast representative" of Jayyousi's American Islamic Group and who allegedly recruited Padilla. The complaint and other evidence in the case suggests that the activities of Padilla may have been one reason that the Justice Department renewed its interest in Jayyousi after essentially dropping its probe of him in 2000. According to the FBI agent's affidavit laying out the case against Jayyousi, the former schools official worked closely with Hassoun in the United States to recruit jihad fighters in the States to go abroad. One such fighter allegedly enlisted by Hassoun seems to fit the description of Padilla. Although Padilla's name is not mentioned in the affidavit, it describes how the FBI found the mujahedin application form "for one of Hassoun's jihad recruits" dated July 24, 2000-the same day federal officials have said Padilla filled out his application form. In a monitored September 2000 international telephone call to another associate, Hassoun is quoted in the case as asking about the whereabouts of "Ibrahim"-described by a source close to the case as Padilla. "Ibrahim is a little further south . he is supposed to be there by Usama [bin Laden] and then he could be able to go to Kh ... little further south," the affidavit states Hassoun's associate told him. This refers to "Ibrahim's" plans to leave the training camp in Afghanistan and fight in Chechnya under the command of the Saudi-born jihadi fighter known as Ibn Omar al-Khattab. Ever since he was declared an enemy combatant and thrown into a military brig without any criminal charges against him, the Justice Department has been fighting a stiff battle in the courts over claims by Padilla's lawyers that the government's actions were unconstitutional. A federal judge in South Carolina last month ordered that Padilla be either charged or released-a decision that Justice is appealing. One way out of their box, law-enforcement officials tell NEWSWEEK, is to somehow get Hassoun, or now possibly even Jayyousi, to plead guilty and then use their testimony as grounds to finally bring criminal charges against Padilla. But judging from today's courtroom developments, the feds have a long way to go. William Swor, Jayyousi's lawyer, described the government's case as a "unwarranted confabulation of the facts." He argued, for example, that at the time that Jayyousi was raising funds to support Muslim fighters in Bosnia, he was taking the same position as the U.S. government, which had denounced Serbian aggression against that country. Jayyousi, who was returning to the United States to see his elderly father-who recently suffered a heart attack-has every intention of staying to "clear his name," said Swor. C 2005 Newsweek, Inc. URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7340464/site/newsweek/?rf=nwnewsletter [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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