Grand jury looking into charity-terrorist ties

By · March 22, 2007

A federal grand jury in Virginia investigating funding for Hamas and other terrorist groups has subpoenaed dozens of Muslim charities in the past few months. In a report Thursday, the New York Sun found several Muslim associations were being investigated, including the International Institute for Islamic Thought, a Virginia think tank and the American Muslim Council, whose founder, Abdurahman Alamoudi, pleaded guilty to several violations of a trade embargo with Libya and personal involvement in a plot to kill Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Several of the organizations hail from northern Virginia, and at least four related appeals are pending before the 4th Circuit Court in Richmond. Among the appeals is the case of a former professor from Florida, Sami Al-Arian, who pleaded guilty last year on a terrorism support charge and now is on a hunger strike to protest his incarceration for not testifying before the Virginia-based grand jury. Al-Arian claims that the probe of Muslim charities, conducted by government lawyer Gordon Kromberg, has been biased, particularly when Kromberg refused Al-Arian’s request not to testify during Ramadan."I am not going to put off Dr. Al-Arian’s grand jury appearance just to assist in what is becoming the Islamization of America,” Kromberg said, according to a court filing by the defense.