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Terror Indictments
Much of the federal indictment against Sami Al-Arian focuses on early 1994 when, it says, he was trying to reform Islamic Jihad's finances.
By GRAHAM BRINK and MARY JACOBY
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 22, 2003
TAMPA -- The Palestinian Islamic Jihad stood at a crossroads in January 1994.
The terrorist organization's finances were troubled, a federal indictment says, and its political future was uncertain. The leaders were bickering and defections seemed imminent.
With a flurry of phone calls and faxes, University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian hustled to push through financial reforms to settle the turmoil, according to the indictment.
What Al-Arian didn't know, the government says, was that intelligence officers had just begun listening in. The following eight years of electronic surveillance would lead to Al-Arian's arrest Thursday, along with seven others, on charges that he was a top official in a terrorist group that murdered more than 100 people.
Al-Arian, a tenured computer engineering professor, has denied in the past any involvement with Islamic Jihad, and his lawyer called the indictment "a work of fiction." Al-Arian remains in jail without bail.
The indictment, which spans from the 1980s to 2002, focuses more attention on PIJ activities during the first two months of 1994 than it does on some entire years. The mundane budget crises, and the resulting bickering and power struggle, contrasts starkly with the organization's more nefarious activities: bombings buses and killing Israelis.
During January and February 1994, Al-Arian had more than 20 conversations with top Islamic Jihad officials, according to the indictment, and appeared to be a chief problem solver who wielded considerable influence within the group.
The drama of those months played out in the wake of the 1993 Oslo peace accords, a historic Israeli/Palestinian agreement that established a framework for autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian Islamic Jihad publicly denounced the accords and vowed to disrupt any future agreements.
"This was a very, very sensitive time," said Matthew Levitt, a terrorism expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The indictment does not detail how the officials intercepted the telephone calls and faxes. And very few of the conversations outlined in the indictment include direct quotes.
The electronic surveillance in the indictment began Jan. 9, 1994, with a conversation between Al-Arian and an unidentified man. They spoke about a suicide attack near Gaza City a month earlier that injured two soldiers, the indictment says.
Soon after, faxes and calls reveal that Al-Arian was working on a new set of financial rules, the indictment states. He sent a faxed memo to Islamic Jihad leader, Fathi Shikaki, in Syria, asking him to allow the group's leadership council to meet regularly by phone.
On Jan. 16, Al-Arian sent a fax to PIJ members that suggested the organization create an offshoot not dedicated to terror but that "would work covertly with the PIJ in the Occupied Territory," the indictment states. The next day, Al-Arian agreed that Islamic Jihad did not need such a group, the government says.
The financial problems had some members considering a merger with Hamas, a better-funded terrorist organization, to maximize resources within the radical Islamist fundamentalist movement.
Al-Arian and co-defendant Ramadan Abdullah Shallah even discussed borrowing $250,000 to $500,000 from Hamas, the indictment says.
But at the time, Hamas indicated that it might join the peace negotiations, which concerned many Islamic Jihad members who vehemently opposed the talks. According to the indictment, Al-Arian "expressed concern about a PIJ split because he . . . had many years invested in the (group)."
"(This), to me, is so telling," Levitt said. "Here's this feeling of 'it's all about me.' This is not about the cause. Because if it were best for the cause, they'd have probably joined up with Hamas."
A conversation recorded Jan. 22 has Al-Arian and co-defendant Abd Al Aziz Awda agreeing that Palestinian Islamic Jihad could afford to pay 400 martyrs' families $120 a month (or $48,000), the indictment states.
The next day, Al-Arian outlines his new financial plan in a fax to England. Among other things, the government says, he wanted to create a three-person committee that would include himself to disburse all PIJ funds and conduct an accounting of the group's assets.
As January wound down, several PIJ members balked at Al-Arian's plan. Others argued about who should be on the PIJ's leadership council. One member, who didn't support Al-Arian's plan, wanted to put $10 million into Shikaki's care. Upset, Al-Arian told the member not to use names and numbers on the telephone, the indictment says.
In the first days of February, Al-Arian received a fax that said his financial plan was approved by a vote of 8 to 2, the indictment states. The fax, the government alleges, said that Al-Arian would open accounts for PIJ funds and arrange for biweekly telephone conferences for the Shura Council, the group's central advisory committee. He was allegedly secretary of the council.
At the time, Islamic Jihad's financial benefactors in Iran were upset that the group was squandering money, Levitt said.
"There was internal bickering over people possibly pocketing money," Levitt said.
During this period of squabbling within Islamic Jihad, an Israeli taxi driver went missing Heletz, an Israeli town northwest of the Gaza Strip. Ilan Sudri, 23, had called his dispatcher after dropping off a fare. He was never heard from again.
A soldier found his bullet-riddled body two days later. Islamic Jihad took credit for the killing.
As February wore on, PIJ members discussed the transfer of money and the location of assets. Al-Arian sent faxes prodding balky members to accept the new plan, the indictment says. Some were signed "The Secretary," the government alleges.
The indictment goes on through the next eight years outlining some of the inner workings and brutal attacks carried out by Islamic Jihad. The group has about 75 to 100 operatives worldwide and has had offices in Beirut, Damascus, Tehran and Khartoum.
Al-Arian's role appeared to dissipate as the years went on, as others became more visible links between the United States and PIJ cells in the Middle East. The indictment describes a terrorist group that is still active and raising money.
"The only group that continues to this day to say absolutely under no circumstance (will they endorse peace) is PIJ," Levitt said. "PIJ is much more doctrinaire because it is owned by Iran, and so it is much more hard line in its ideology."
-- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.