Task force arrests man tied to group in al-Qaida inquiry

By Christy McKerney, Jeff Shields and Tanya Weinberg
Sun-Sentinel, June 15, 2002, SUNRISE —

Counterterrorism agents have arrested a Palestinian man who helped found the Florida branch of a group charged with financing Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network. Adham A. Hassoun, 40, a Sunrise man who is listed as the registered Florida agent for the Benevolence Foundation International, was arrested Wednesday night during a traffic stop on Nob Hill Road, his family said. Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman Patricia Mancha confirmed Hassoun is in INS custody but would not say where. She said only he was arrested in an investigation by the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force. The task force includes law enforcement agencies at all levels, including the FBI and the INS. In April, Chicago-based Benevolence International Foundation, which describes itself as an international charity organization benefiting refugees and children, was charged in federal court in Chicago with funding al-Qaida terrorists. The foundation is no longer active in Florida. Hassoun, who was born in Lebanon, worked for the foundation for a short time in the early 1990s, said his sister, who also lives in Sunrise but asked that her name not be used. She said the family doesn’t even know where Hassoun is or why he was taken.“No one will tell us anything,” she said. “This is not right. ”His wife, Nahed, reached at home Friday, would not comment, only saying, “He’s not here. ”Benevolence International rented office space at 150 S. University Drive in

Plantation in February 1993, according to Jim Inklebarger, president of Brinwo Development, which manages the building. Hassoun signed the lease. Inklebarger said the men who ran the foundation told him it was a nonprofit group raising money for refugees and orphans, mostly in Palestine. Hassoun and the foundation disappeared after several months, failing to fulfill their yearly lease, he said. Hassoun’s sister said her brother worked for the foundation for only a few months in 1993, then went to work as a computer programmer. Matthew Piers, who represents Benevolence International in the criminal case in Chicago, said the organization was founded in 1993 by Adel Batterjee, scion of a wealthy Saudi family, but that Batterjee did little with the group. Foundation director Enaam Arnaout, who is also charged in the Chicago case, took over the organization from Batterjee in 1993, dismissed its one employee in Florida, and moved it to Chicago, Piers said. It now has offices in 12 countries, including Pakistan, Bosnia and Yemen, according to the federal government.That employee, who never had any connection again with Benevolence International, apparently was Hassoun, Piers said.In its April 29 complaint against Arnaout, the FBI alleges the Syrian-born Arnaout has a “relationship” with Osama bin Laden going back more than 10 years and has funded his al-Qaida organization. The complaint also states that Benevolence International officers and personnel have had contact with “various persons…trying to obtain chemical and nuclear weapons on behalf of al-Qaida.
Piers has denied any terrorist activity by the foundation. He said that the federal government has used a “heavy hand” with anyone with flaws in their immigration status who also has connections with Benevolence International or similarly targeted groups. “It’s arrest first, ask questions later,” Piers said. Hassoun’s sister said her brother, who has been in the United States for 13 years, is here legally. Charitable contribution records on file with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office show Hassoun has given $11,070 since 1997 to the Global Relief Foundation, another Muslim charitable organization under scrutiny by federal authorities. “The case is done. I have nothing whatsoever to do with them,” he told the Orlando Sentinel in fall when questioned about his past links to the Florida chapter of Benevolence International. Hassoun’s sister said he had been visited several times by the FBI after Sept. 11.Hassoun has been an active part of the local Muslim community for many years, said Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah, principal at the School of Islamic Studies in Sunrise. “I’m astonished,” Shah said of the arrest and of other recent arrests tied to federal investigations of possible terrorist activities in South Florida. On Monday, federal prosecutors announced they had arrested José Padilla, who was convicted of a road rage shooting in Sunrise before he converted to Islam in the mid-1990s.Padilla, who friends say attended the same mosque as Hassoun, is being held in a South Carolina brig as an “enemy combatant,” accused of working with al-Qaida to unleash a “dirty bomb” on the United States. Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, director of the American Muslim Association of North America, described Hassoun as generous with those in need.“If anybody calls him and he needs money for food, anybody, I mean Christians too, he will put his hand in his pocket,” Abdelaziz said. Hassoun attended the Islamic Center of South Florida in Pompano Beach and the School of Islamic Studies of Broward in Sunrise. At the Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale, he often led prayers when former imam Raed Awad was not available, Abdelaziz said. Awad, who left Al-Iman about two years ago, was also the chief Florida fund-raiser for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which the government shut down in December, charging that the group was a major financial supporter of the militant Palestinian group Hamas. The organization and Awad deny the charges.Awad, reached Friday, said his friend Hassoun was passionate about the Palestinian cause. He said Hassoun had apparently attracted attention because of his “in your face” rhetoric about Palestine. Hassoun was known to be an emotional speaker, who talked about the Palestinian situation when he delivered sermons. “I don’t think in any statement he was trying to encourage violence,” Abdelaziz said.The Orlando Sentinel and Staff Researchers Kathryn Pease and John Maines contributed to this report. South Florida Sun-Sentinel