http://www.telegram.com/article/20071213/NEWS/712130579
Dec 13, 2007
Muslim charity said to wage economic jihad
Care International lawyer's mistrial request denied
By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
BOSTON- A government witness yesterday testified that Care International
falls into the pattern of Muslim charities that engage in economic jihad.
Matthew Levitt, former Deputy Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary for
Intelligence and Analysis, said economic jihad is practiced by groups who
encourage those who cannot fight holy wars themselves to instead make
donations enabling others to engage in jihad. He said that Care
International's solicitations aimed at women and children, as well as the
organization's support programs for widows and orphans, do just that.
Mr. Levitt, a former intelligence analyst for the FBI, also told the jury in
U.S. District Court that Al-Kifah Refugee Center is another name for Makhtab
Al-Khidamat, Arabic for Human Services Office. He testified that MAK was
founded by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam "and another person" and provided financing
and support to those fighting jihad.
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He complied with Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV's ruling and did not name the
other person, who is Osama bin Ladin. The government has been building a
case that Care International is an outgrowth or successor organization to
Al-Kifah Refugee Center, a contention that the defense says is untrue.
It was damaging testimony from the government's last witness before resting
its case yesterday. Later in the day, in a hearing without the jury, Charles
P. McGinty, lawyer for Samir Al-Monla, called for a mistrial to be declared.
He said that with Mr. Levitt's testimony tying Al-Kifah to Makhtab
Al-Khidamat and MAK to fighting jihad the defense's case had "unraveled."
Mr. McGinty said the testimony violated the judge's orders on what can be
said to the jury.
Judge Saylor, who overruled numerous defense objections to Mr. Levitt's
testimony, denied the motion for a mistrial.
Norman S. Zalkind, a lawyer for Emadeddin Z. Muntasser, questioned Mr.
Levitt's employment at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which
was founded by a former official of AIPAC, a lobbying organization of
Israel. He also noted that Mr. Levitt spent time living with his father in
Israel and speaks Hebrew, but only now is learning Arabic.
When he questioned whether Mr. Levitt, who did undergraduate work at Yeshiva
University, studied the Torah, Judge Saylor interrupted to ask why he was
asking. Mr. Zalkind said he was questioning Mr. Levitt's biases and
prejudices.
After the prosecution rested its case, Susan Estrich, another lawyer for Mr.
Muntasser, asked for a judgment of acquittal.
Ms. Estrich, who managed the 1988 presidential campaign for Michael S.
Dukakis, said the government had not proven any conspiracy among the three
defendants, and it had shown no evidence that they ever spoke of a
conspiracy. She said the six-year statute of limitations had certainly run
out on her client by the time of the 2005 indictment, as there was no
evidence that he was connected to Care International after 1996.
The government argued that there was plenty of such evidence.
Ms. Estrich said that Care International did not provide fighters or aid,
weapons or money to fighters. She also contended that the defendants had
answered the Internal Revenue Service forms truthfully, or at worst, made
immaterial mistakes in filing them out.
The defendants told the IRS they were going to publish a newsletter and
carefully and correctly noted the amounts spent on the newsletter, she said,
even if they listed the newsletter as a fund-raising expense instead of a
program activity.
Judge Saylor took her motion under advisement and said he will rule this
morning, before the defense begins presenting its case.
Special Agent Lauren Youngquist of the Internal Revenue Service testified
that Care International and Al-Kifah had sent more than $130,000 to the
"Human Services Office" or "Services Office" between 1993 and 1995. She said
some of those checks and wire transfers went to Bosnia, where mujahedeen
were fighting Serbs.
She also told prosecutor B. Stephanie Siegmann that $21,000 was transferred
in 1993 from Al-Kifah Refugee Center accounts to Care International
Accounts. Agent Youngquist said that an Al-Kifah solicitation flyer said
that donations were tax deductible but that in fact the IRS has never listed
Al-Kifah as a tax-exempt organization.
She said that the tax identification number on Bay Bank's records actually
is Mr. Muntasser's social security number.
She conceded that Care's newsletter, Al-Hussam, said that all "zakat," or
charitable donations, are spent according to the dictates of the Quran.
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