http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/116824883 439720.xml <http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/11682488 3439720.xml&coll=2> &coll=2
Damra not heard from since his deportation Monday, January 08, 2007 Leila Atassi Plain Dealer Reporter Four days after Imam Fawaz Damra was deported to the Middle East, family and friends still have not heard from the former leader of Ohio's largest mosque. And today, friends fear Damra might have been detained some time between 4 and 5 a.m. Thursday, when the imam likely faced officials at an Israeli checkpoint while crossing the border to his Palestinian homeland. "This is a complete mystery," said Isam Zaiem, chairman of the Cleveland Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Normally it takes about 24 hours to hear from someone after they've been de ported. But it's as if the imam has van ished off the face of the Earth." Bureau of Immi gration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Tim Counts said deportation officials typically ensure the deportee makes it safely to the final destination. But he could offer no certainties in Damra's case. "The plan was to escort him across the bridge to the Palestinian territories," Counts said. "I have no further information beyond that." Damra, 46, had agreed to be deported after a trial and conviction linking him to terrorist groups. The former leader of Ohio's largest mosque, the Islamic Center of Cleveland, had been in a jail in Michigan for more than a year as officials worked to find a country willing to take him. He was convicted in June 2004 of lying on his citizenship application because he did not disclose his links to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups. At his trial in U.S. District Court, prosecutors played a 1991 video that showed Damra at a Muslim gathering in Cleveland disparaging Jews in Arabic. His arrest and the videotape images shocked many locally because Damra was seen as a voice of moderate, mainstream Islam. Damra was born in the West Bank town of Nablus. He came to the United States in 1988 and in 1991 was hired as imam, or spiritual leader, of the Islamic Center of Cleveland in Parma. Plain Dealer reporters Mike Tobin and Robert L. Smith contributed to this story. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
