Case Against Islamic Charity Opens

Mahdi Bray, of the Muslim American Society, spoke in support of the Holy Land Foundation outside of the Texas court where it is on trial. (By Donna Mcwilliam -- Associated Press)

"It's an extremely important case for the government to win," said Dennis M. Lormel, a former Justice Department official who created the FBI's Terrorist Financing Operations Section. But he added that it is also "a very complex case, and a difficult case to bring."

The government has had mixed success in such prosecutions. A jury in Illinois acquitted a defendant accused of funneling money to militants overseas, and a Florida college professor who had long been a target of federal prosecutors was found not guilty of terrorism-related charges.

But a Georgia imam pleaded guilty last fall to supporting Hamas with donations passed through the Holy Land Foundation; Mohamed Shorbagi is on the witness list in the Dallas case. And one of the Holy Land defendants has already been convicted on separate charges of supplying computers to Syria and Libya.

Even without convictions, Lormel said, the government's actions have had a "chilling effect" on the kind of contributions that he believes are going to aid Hamas and others. "In the long run, the government has taken major steps in stopping the flow of money to terrorists," he said.

Lormel said he could not speculate on prosecutors' reasons for the list of unindicted co-conspirators and acknowledged that it has resulted in accusations that "the Islamic community is being picked on." But he said Muslim leaders do a "disservice" to their community to not acknowledge the Holy Land Foundation's ties to Hamas.

Muneer Fareed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America, said his organization's inclusion on the list of 300 unindicted co-conspirators is "perplexing and somewhat disappointing" and said it harms the goal of ensuring that charitable giving goes to the right organizations.

"How do we build trust and work with law enforcement when there is this cloud hanging over our heads?" he asked.

CAIR's Ahmed added, "What is the crime?" He said the foundation's contributions "went to charities -- all approved charities -- and at least one of them has received aid from the U.S. government."

The ACLU and some nonprofit organizations have objected to what they called in a June letter "the Department of Treasury's continued unfounded allegation that charities are a 'significant source of alleged terrorist activities.' "

But the Bush administration moved yesterday against two other charities -- the Martyrs Foundation and Goodwill Charitable Organization of Dearborn, Mich. -- for allegedly providing support to the terrorist group Hezbollah.

"We will not allow organizations that support terrorism to raise money in the United States," said Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.