The significance of the investigation into a former Spring Hill resident remains unclear.
By ROBERT KING
Published February 20, 2004
SPRING HILL - A year ago today, FBI agents entered the Spring Hill home of Hatem Fariz and arrested him on charges he raised financial support for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization.
That same day, agents perused Fariz's files and computers at the two medical offices - one in Spring Hill and another closer to Brooksville - where Fariz worked as a manager.
Meanwhile, in Tampa, federal agents arrested University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian, whom they accused of being the ringleader of the terrorist fundraising effort.
Agents seized records from Al-Arian's Islamic Academy of Florida - a Tampa school with four board members from Hernando County. Prosecutors alleged Al-Arian was using the school as a front for his terrorist fundraising.
The surreal scene - with FBI agents searching medical offices and Attorney General John Ashcroft accusing a Spring Hill man of supporting terrorists - brought the war on terror right into Hernando County's backyard.
A year later, the echoes of Feb. 20, 2003, remain. But it isn't clear what the long-term significance of the events of that day will be.
The trial for Fariz, Al-Arian and two other defendants isn't scheduled to start until January. But the case against Fariz appears weaker now than it was a year ago.
Federal prosecutors have acknowledged they were mistaken about the identity of a person Fariz spoke to in phone conversations agents caught on tape. It was not a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as was alleged, but someone else.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark A. Pizzo said the correction meant some of Fariz's phone calls could be construed as legitimate fundraising for charities and not the Islamic Jihad.
The judge characterized the case against Fariz as "not substantial" and set bail for Fariz. After his family members in Illinois and New Jersey agreed to forfeit property and cash worth $1.1-million if he didn't show up for court, Fariz was released. He would only describe his two-month stay in jail as "very unpleasant."
Fariz, now 31, still faces some strong allegations. He is alleged to have spoken twice with a Jihad leader about donor lists and with others regarding specific terrorists acts in Israel.
Although Fariz and the others are not accused of carrying out violence, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is blamed for more than 100 deaths in Israel and its occupied territories. The charges against Fariz range from racketeering to conspiracy to commit murder outside the United States.
Fariz attorney Fletcher Peacock, a federal public defender, said he is confident Fariz will be acquitted. The legality of using wiretaps under the guise of the Patriot Act will be contested during the case, he said. Al-Arian's attorneys have raised the question of whether there is anything illegal about supporting charitable work done by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
"We deny the charges as they are in the indictment. We don't think the indictment is accurate," Peacock said. "I think if I had to sum it up, I would have to say Hatem is a third-generation American and is trying to raise his children and live his own life as a good citizen. We expect when this is done he will be fully vindicated and return as a good citizen."
Although Fariz declined an interview, he responded via e-mail to a written list of questions.
Fariz said he expects to be exonerated "because I am not guilty."
At the time of his arrest, Fariz was living with his wife and two children in a home on Farley Avenue in Spring Hill. He said he was asleep when the FBI agents appeared at his door.
Fariz said he has been told his home was searched for more than eight hours. His wife learned what was happening from the agents. "I didn't have a chance to see my children before I was taken from the house so I don't know what they did," he said.
After the arrest, Fariz's family moved to Tampa. Fariz joined them after being released on bail. His wife recently had a baby. And he has been helping his lawyers by translating the FBI phone tapes from Arabic to English.
Fariz has been described as being passionate about the Palestinian cause. But he declined to answer questions on the subject.
He did say his grandfather is of Palestinian descent, leaving in the mid-1940s and moving to Colombia. Eventually, his grandfather moved to Puerto Rico and became an American citizen.
Fariz, who was born an American citizen in Puerto Rico, eventually moved with his family to Chicago. He says he graduated from high school with honors and earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Northeastern Illinois University.
As a teen, Fariz said, he prayed at the Chicago Islamic Center, a mosque in southwestern Chicago that he later led.
Fariz said he visited Florida on several occasions. He enjoyed it so much he began reading Florida want ads, eventually coming across one placed in the Times by Dr. Ayman Osman.
Although Osman and Fariz lived in Chicago at the same time, they say they didn't know each other until Fariz answered the ad and took the job.
Fariz had been living and working in Spring Hill for a little more than a year at the time of his arrest. FBI agents searched both of Osman's offices - at the Pinebrook Medical Center and his Abbey PrimeCare clinic on Northcliffe Boulevard.
Osman fired Fariz the day of the arrest. "I'm sorry for any difficulties this may have caused Dr. Osman," Fariz said. "I consider him a friend."
Osman, who said the FBI hasn't contacted him in the past year, was never charged in the investigation. Since February 2003, Osman closed his Pinebrook office, consolidating his practice to the Northcliffe office. He has become the acting chief of staff at the Brooksville and Spring Hill regional hospitals.
Before his arrest, Fariz had been a regular visitor to the mosque on Barclay Avenue. Although his face was familiar to local Muslims, they say they didn't know Fariz well.
While visiting Hernando County in July to retrieve some of his personal medical records, Fariz stopped by the mosque and was greeted warmly. Several local Muslims say Fariz seemed like a gentle person unlikely to be capable of involving himself in terrorist activities.
Meanwhile, the events of February 2003 have sharply affected the involvement of local Muslims in Al-Arian's Islamic Academy. Four Hernando County Muslims who were members of the school's board - Dr. Allam Reheem, Samar Shakfeh, Nuha Armashi and Osman - have stepped aside. Still, they maintain that money given to the school was used only for the school and not diverted for nefarious purposes.
The few local families who sent their children to the academy have enrolled them in school elsewhere. Shakfeh, who had been the PTA president, said the school cut its van pickup service for Hernando students after the school lost $350,000 in state funding for a program that pays private school tuition for poor children - a severance prompted by the criminal case.
Ahmed Bedier, a Tampa-area spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said many local Muslims are eager for the trial of Fariz, Al-Arian and the others to begin in hopes of finally putting an end to the negative attention focused on their community.
Bedier said some think Fariz and the other defendants were arrested merely to boost the case against Al-Arian. "We're really excited to see the actual case come to court," Bedier said. "A lot of this information will come to light."
For his part, Fariz has a simple message to the people he knew and left behind in Hernando: "I would like to thank them for their support and their wonderful kindnesses they have shown my family and me."
- Robert King covers Spring Hill and can be reached at 848-1432. Send e-mail to rking@sptimes.com
