Militant Islam Monitor > Weblog > ' Humanitarian Terrorism' and the PCRF :Dr.Imad Tabry & Steve Sosebee :From Miami's Holy Cross Hospital to Hamas
' Humanitarian Terrorism' and the PCRF :Dr.Imad Tabry & Steve Sosebee :From Miami's Holy Cross Hospital to Hamas
July 18, 2004
The Palestine Children's Relief Funds aka The Palestinian Children's Suicide Funds
MIM:"Healing Hearts" cardiac program " as a front for healing Hamas terrorists ?
If all the newspaper articles lauding Miami doctor Imad Tabry, and Steve Sosebee's work at the Shifa hospital in Gaza for the Palestine Children's Relief fund were bundled together, they would probably fill the compartments of several suicide bomb belts .
In 2000 Dr. Tabry led a group of surgeons to Gaza whose mission was described by the PCRF as follows:
"In the first week of the Al Aqsa Intifada the PCRF sent a team of 8 surgeons from Fort Lauderdale went to the Gaza Strip to do open heart surgery on sick patients. For the first week they treated gunshot victims...The PCRF also sent $300,000 worth of medical supplies ... (the team was )led by Dr. Imad Tabry"... The PCRF will also send this group to Gaza again "... Tabry is also a member of the PCRF board of directors.
(for more details click on the URL or scroll down the page http://www.pcrf.net/healing/oct20.html
The Shifa hospital in Gaza is an example of "humanitarian terrorism" since it also serves as a Hamas headquarters.
It is no secret that the Palestinian Red Crescent and other so called health and humanitarian organisations are using their cover to assist terrorists and carry suicide bombers and weapons.
One of the first female suicide bombers, Wafa Idris was herself an ambulance worker for the Red Crescent and used the ambulance to gain entry into Israel disquised as a paramedic .
"And even though the Palestinians know full well that using ambulances as tools of terrorism will result in hardship to legitimate Palestinian patients, the terrorists have never hesitated to cause not only the death of innocent Israelis, but also the death and suffering of their own people.One such monsterous use of Palestinian ambulances was made by the female suicide bomber, Wafa Idris, who gained entrance to Israel in a Red Crescent ambulance. She entered into Israeli territory disguised as a paramedic, and proceeded to blow herself up in a crowded outside mall in Jerusalem, murdering an Israeli bystander and wounding more than 170 innocent Israeli shoppers.
On several other occasions, Israel has discovered Hamas and Fatah terrorists being transported to safety inside Palestinian ambulances.
Today, Israel anounced that it caught a bomb-filled palestinian ambulance, with a suicide bomber on his way to slaughter Israelis on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Still, the Arabs and their apologists try deperately to spread lies and disinformation about why Israel is harming the Palestinian's "rights" by daring to stop and inspect Palestinian ambulances. In reality, the only Palestinian rights being infringed upon are what they see their rights are to use ambulances as a tool to mass murder innocent Israelis."
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Gaza's Shifa hospital serves as a Hamas meeting place and media forum.
After the recent assassination of the terrorist Rantisi ":Ismail Abu Hanniyye, one of Hamas leading figures, affirmed at a press conference held at Shifa Hospital that the Movement would continue on the path of resistance which was the path of martyrs Sheikh Ahmad Yasin and Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi".
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Imad Tabry, Rantisi,and the new head of Hamas have a common profession. Rantisi was a pediatrician and Mahmoud Zahar is a surgeon who was Rantisi's personal physician.
After the first Israeli attempt to assassinate terrorist Rantisi failed Fox News reported that :
At Gaza's Shifa Hospital, after fellow Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, a surgeon, treated his wounds, Rantisi warned of bloody revenge.
"I swear we will not leave one Jew in Palestine," he said."We will fight them with all our might."
On Sept 10th 2003 physician and Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar was also on the receiving end of an Israeli missile .The Arab press described the terrorist as; "A physician by profession, active academician and writer, senior Hamas political leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar narrowly escaped an Israeli assassination attack Wednesday, September 10, that left two people dead, including his eldest son.
The Israeli F-16s dropped a several-ton bomb at Zahar's house in a densely-populated Gaza City neighborhood of Rimal leveling the building and sending huge plumes of smoke into the air.
The two bodies at the morgue were confirmed to be of Zahar's eldest son, Khaled, 29, and his bodyguard, Shehdeh al-Deiri.
Zahar, who witnesses said was in a garden beside the house at the time, was lightly hurt in the leg and taken to nearby Shifa Hospital, reported the Israeli Haaretz daily on its website.
Al-Shifa hospital spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Zahar was being treated there after being slightly injured."
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MIM: Dr. Tabry, a surgeon at the Holy Cross Hospital in Miami, has garnered publicity, accolades, funding, and free medical equipment for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund to bring to Shifa hospital in Gaza . He and PCRF director Steve Sosebee use his missions to Gaza to promote the Arab cause .Since Gaza is a Hamas stronghold any 'humanitarian' help ultimately goes to benefit Hamas members and their families.
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Tabry's was also in the news for negligence which resulted in the death of a patient:
The glowing stories of Tabry's devotion to his many Hamas related patients at the Shifa hospital in Gaza is in marked contrast to the conviction of negligence and $2.2 million dollar fine he and two fellow Holy Cross doctors Victor Shabanah and Evan Tow received in 2002 .Tabry was deemed "8% responsible", for the death of 19 year old Allen Owens, to whom he had given " a cursory exam and dressed the wounds" leaving Owens to wait 5 hours for adequate treatment during which time bled to death as a result of the stab wounds he had received during a heroic attempt to protect his girlfriend's mother from her knife wielding ex husband. http://www.schlesingerlaw.com/article_4.html
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Militant Islam Monitor has already published an article about the PCRF's ties to a suicide bomber website,run by it's spokeswoman Rosemary Davis and their present attempts vis the Muslim Public Affairs Council to reroute frozen Holyland Foundation terrorist funding to the Palestinian Children's Relief Funds, and prove that the PCRF actively aids and abets terrorism. (see complete article ). http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/196
The article also shows the virulently anti semitic and pro terrorist agenda of Steve Sosebee, documenting and debunking all of his claims that he is "not politically" motivated.
Sosebee, a convert to Islam, has repeatedly stated that he considers the Palestine Children's Relief Fund to be an extension of the armed struggle and that he will not rest "until Palestine is free."
Dr. Imad Tabry's sits on the board of directors of the PCRF and is helping Sosebee further his aim of promoting the PCRF as a legitimate children's charity.
In addition, Tabry has recruited doctors and nurses from his own hospital in Miami and brought them as volunteers to Gaza.
In an article written by Sosebee, one of a series entitled "With tears from Ramallah", he recounted the return of one such group to America, and lauded the fact that they had become radicalised in support of the Palestinian cause.
This PCRF goes to Gaza with free medical help for Hamas and returns with anti Israel propagandists.
The information below is intended to docunent that the PCRF promotes armed struggle and terrorist attacks against Israel. The PCRF is Saudi funded and gets money from the UAE and the notorious Zayed Foundation for Coordination and Followup . The Foundation's website was shut down last year after the US government protested their propagation of Holocaust denial, blood libel, and books claiming that 9/11 was a hoax.. The fact that the PCRF director Steve Sosebee spoke at the Foundation,where he decried "Zionist manipulation of the media" proves the groups true agenda.
Dr. Imad Tadry is cynically manipulating his position as 'expatriate Palestinian doctor' returning to his 'homeland' to garner press coverage showing Israel as attempting to hinder his "humanitarian mission".
The PCRF counts on donations of well meaning organizations and individuals fort free medical supplies and treatment .
Recently Tabry announced the formation of yet another 'Palestinian' aid group called the International Children's Relief Organisation .(see article below)
Militant Islam Monitor is advising any groups, hospitals ,and doctors to read the information on this website regarding the PCRF's political agenda and not be fooled by Sosebee's and Tadry's cynical use of injured children as a guise for promoting their anti Israel and terrorist supporting activities.
It's time the question was raised as to where the hundreds of millions of dollars in EU, United Nations, and international humanitarian aid for the terrorist chieftain of the PA Yasser Arafat,and to demand that Arafat and his criminal cohorts such as the 'Palestinian' Red Crescent be called into account. The PCRF is just one of scores of militant Islamist front groups currently using the words "Palestinian Children" as a synonym for terror funding.
c 2004 Militant Islam Monitor
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Imad Tabry states : "We are not politicians", and in the same breath says he and the PCRF are among millions of people "who are against our government's policy towards Palestine".
American Cardiac Surgeon in Gaza for the sixth time
On April 23rd, Dr. Imad Tabry, an adult cardiac surgeon from the Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida arrived in Gaza City for a week of open-heart surgery on patients with heart disease. Dr. Tabry is the only cardiac surgeon from outside who has been going to Gaza to do open-heart surgery on adult patients since the Intifada began. This is his sixth mission to Shifa since 2000, and he has saved the lives of over one hundred patients who otherwise would not get the care that they need. Dr. Tabry is on the governing board of the International Palestinian Cardiac Relief Organization, which is part of the PCRF. See the list of cases treated.
On their first visit, the team arrived on the very day the uprising erupted, and worked in Gaza for two weeks. Due to the high number of injury cases flooding the hospital and the intensive care unit (ICU) at the time, the team was able to perform only 10 cardiac procedures. Although the need for cardiac surgery in Gaza is paramount, Dr. Tabry operated on gunshot injuries as well during his initial visit.
We are not politicians, and there are millions of people like us who are against our government's policy toward Palestine," noted Dr. Tabry. "Everyone who comes here leaves loving Palestine and supporting peace, freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.I feel honored to be able to work here and help them, especially now."http://www.wrmea.com/archives/july01/0107008.html
"Others in Gaza sang the praises of the American team to anyone who would listen. "They are the bravest, kindest and most humane people I know," said Dr. Hani Alquin, an anesthetist recently sent by the PCRF to Holy Cross Hospital for training. "We hope to show the doctors and nurses who come here and work that the local population will support and welcome them as friends, even if their government blindly supports Israel."
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Hamas fighters and terrorist leaders are not only treated at Shifa hospital, they deliver political statements from their beds.
"After the first Israeli assassination attempt on Hamas leader Rantisi failed, he was operated on at Shifa hospital by fellow Hamas founder and surgeon Mahmoud Zahar. The ex pediatarician turned terrorist Rantisi vowed from his bed that "I swear we will not leave one Jew in Palestine." "We will fight them with all our might " http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,89092,00.html
MIM Note: About a month after he said this, Rantisi was killed by a well aimed IDF missile.
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In September 2003 physician terrorist Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar was also on the receiving end of an Israeli missile .
The caption beneath this picture of Zahar after an IDF assassination attempt, lauds the fact the he "joined in the creation of a Palestine Medical Society" and speaks volumes about the terrorist exploitation of the healing profession in the miltitant Islamist parallel universe.
"Zahar is an active union leader and
joined hands in the creation of the Palestine Medical Society.
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"Zahar, who witnesses said was in a garden beside the house at the time, was lightly hurt in the leg and taken to nearby Shifa Hospital, reported the Israeli Haaretz daily on its website.
Al-Shifa hospital spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Zahar was being treated there after being slightly injured. http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-09/10/article02.shtml
See related article at the bottom of this page : Hamas May Shift Terror Strategy to the U.S.
http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=\SpecialReports\archive\200407\SPE20040719a.html
http://www.pcrf.net/healing/surgeryteams.html
There have been several terrorists of note who are doctors and surgeons by profession.
One of them is Bin Laden's second in command Ayman Al Zawahiri .
Zawahiri was a trained surgeon who has travelled to Europe for medical training.
He is now one of the most wanted terrorists with a price of $25 million dollars for his capture http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?020916fa_fact2a
".According to officials in the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., Zawahiri has been responsible for much of the planning of the terrorist operations against the United States, from the assault on American soldiers in Somalia in 1993, and the bombings of the American embassies in East Africa in 1998 and of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen in 2000, to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th".
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Palestine Children's Relief Fund aka Palestine Children's Suicide Funds...
PCRF neo natal care nurse Lynn Grass, justifies suicide bombings:
Lynn Grass , an American nurse who went to Gaza, became an Arab supporter and atrocity story propagandist . Contrast the PCRF website account of her neo natal work with Arab babies and her own quotes defending suicide bombers who kill Jews and Israelis.
PCRF volunteer neo natal nurse Lynn Grass on her experiences in Gaza:
"I volunteered to go there. I did this out of my free will and now is the time I can be of use to tell others and provide an inside view of the situation," she said. "The world can't let things like this continue. We need to pay attention and reevaluate what terrorism is."
American Trains Nurses in Palestine, Lebanon
In March, Lynn Grass, a registered nurse from San Diego,arrived in Palestine to being a month long mission in which she will provide expert training in neonatal intensive care nursing to four Palestinian institutions in the Middle East. This is the second mission for the PCRF, as she went in 2000 to Lebanon to train nurses as Al-Hamshiry Hospital in Sidon. From March 11-17th, she worked at the new neonatal intensive care unit at Shifa Hospital in Gaza. http://www.pcrf.net/medical/misc.html
"Suicide bombing is not the worst thing going on, not that I condone it," she said. "The oppression of people is the problem and there's no way to show that because the press isn't allowed in or they are closed off to areas where things are happening".
"The only way to realize what's happening is to go. It's hard to imagine and it's hard to grapple and grasp what they've been going through for so long. It may not make sense but the only way these people can control a part of their life is to be able to control their death." http://hollandsentinel.com/stories/042302/loc_042302001.shtml
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MIM:The Palestine Chronicle, a Hamas affiliated online magazine edited by Ramzy Baroud, published this account by San Diego based doctor Edward Gallagher which included pictures of the injured.Note that Gallagher boasts that he lied about being a tourist to get into Nablus and sat down in the road until soldiers allowed him in , Gallagher also lied about his activities to Israeli airline security when he boarded a flight to return to the U.S.
Gallagher's account of how he was given a ride to the airport by unknown Arab in a van who pretended to be Jewish to facilitate checkpoint crossings could serves as a lesson for airport security and law enforcement agencies. Needless to say, the Arabs could have easily inserted an explosive device into his luggage and used his presence to justify their entry into Israel . By lying to Israeli security the 'humanitarian' minded doctor jeopardized the safety of the entire flight and that of everyone in the airport as well.
Like the nurse Lynn Grass,who expressed sympathy for suicide bombers, Dr.Gallagher shows great solicitude for Arab use of violence, since "they do not have Apache helicopters and tanks for their struggles." http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20031118173434690
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Excerpts :
"Reflections from an American Surgeon in Nablus"
by Dr.Edward Gallagher
"The soldier said, "Tourists are not allowed". This was my first experience in Palestine. In September of 2003, I was on a humanitarian mission sponsored by the Palestine Children Relief Fund (PCRF). I am a Facial, Plastic and Cosmetic surgeon in San Diego, California, and I had been invited by the Minister of Health for the Palestinian Authority to work in Rafidia Surgical Hospital in Nablus, Palestine.
"They had arranged for me to examine about 100 children with various facial injuries and deformities and gave me an operating room to use with nurses and anesthesiologists to help with the surgery. However, when I first arrived in a taxi from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport at the Israeli checkpoint before entering Nablus, the Israeli soldier would not let me pass. He said "Tourists are not allowed". I sat down on the highway and wouldn't move until they finally let me cross into Palestine"...
"Israel will not allow independent observers to document these atrocities and terror suffered by the Palestinian people and children. Israel considers anyone who shoots at the IDF or even throws a rock at a tank a terrorist, just like England probably considered any American a terrorist who shot at an English soldier in 1776. American's used unconventional battle techniques in our War of Independence just like the Palestinian's fight for independence. The Palestinian's do not have a conventional army with tanks, Apache helicopters and F-16 fighter jets for their struggles."
"My flight on Continental Airlines was leaving at 12 mid-night so I decided to get to the Tel Aviv airport at 9 PM to allow plenty of time. I met a young Palestinian man at his shop in Jerusalem and he offered to drive me to the airport. He picked me up in his brothers van and we started driving to the airport. I was a little concerned because I was in a van with a Palestinian driving to the airport and was worried about crossing the checkpoints. He told me not to worry because he would speak Hebrew and would pretend that he was Jewish".
The first checkpoint we did get though without being stopped but the second checkpoint just before the airport we were stopped and searched for several minutes. I finally arrived at the Ben Gurion Tel Aviv Airport and waited in line with the other passengers. An Israeli Security Officer interviewed me regarding my reason for visiting Israel and asking me where I had been. This time I did not tell her the truth because I didn't want to miss my fight. I had talked to other people who were detained by Israeli Security for several days because Israeli Security did not like the answers."
MIM::Gallagher then shows his true agenda by invoking the anti semite's favorite cliche' of "some of my best friends are Jewish'. The last paragraph of his article speaks for itself.
"This article about my trip to Palestine sounds like I am anti-Semetic , anti-Jewish or even anti-Israel, I apologize and assure you that I am not. Many of my best friends and colleagues are Jewish. "
.I am, however, strongly apposed to Israeli government's terrorist policy toward the Palestinian people with the killing of innocent children and the destruction of Palestinian's homes and homeland. I only hope that in my small way I could help to change America's policy toward Israel and Palestine. I would like this policy to be more evenhanded, fair and balanced. America's one-sided support for Israel has caused much of Americas problems in the world today. I would also hope that Americans would become more educated about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I feel that our two Senators from California represent the best interests of 3 million Israelis instead of the best interest of 24 million Californians and Americans.
Note: To review a set of photos by the author, CLICK HERE. Please use caution, some of the pictures may be too graphic for some readers
About the author: Dr. Edward W. Gallagher is a facial, plastic and cosmetic surgeon in San Diego, California
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MIM: From the PCRF newsletter comes a report of Dr.Kirstiaan De Baere of Belgium who was deported from Israel "without explanation" .The 'good doctor' PCRF activist then expresses cynical indignation at his plight stating : "I didn't do anything political and was coming here on a purely humanitarian mission".De Baere was not 'jailed' as the article implies but put into a holding room at Ben Gurion airport prior to being sent back to Belgium.
The "security reasons" which the Israelis cited are based on Israel's experience of 'peace activists' such as two Muslim British citizens who came in with the International Solidarity Movement, who went to Gaza and emerging on the Tel Aviv beachfront as suicide bombers .Not surprisingly, the pattern of peace activists and' humanitarian health workers', who are involved in terrorist activities is becoming commonplace.One only need look at the PCRF as an example of this dangerous MO. When the Israeli authorities attempt to crack down on this "humanitarian terrorism" the media criticises Israeli for being "inhumane".
The PCRF described De Baere's detention as an "ordeal" which is belied by the fact that the detained doctor was not only allowed to keep his cell phone, but to make calls with it as well!
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4] Belgian Doctor Denied Entry to Gaza, Deported
On June 15, Dr. Kristiaan de Baere, a cardiac intensivist and anesthesiologist from the University of Gent in Belgium, arrived at Ben Gurion airport to participate in the PCRF's most recent pediatric cardiac surgery mission to Shifa Hospital in Gaza. This was to be his second mission for the PCRF to Gaza. As soon as his Swiss Air flight landed, Dr. de Baere was pulled off the plane and detained in a prison cell for 12 hours, after which he was deported from the country without explanation. "I asked them several times why I was being treated like a criminal when I didn't do anything political and was coming here on a purely humanitarian medical mission," Dr. de Baere said from his cell in Ben Gurion by mobile phone. "They refused to answer and just said 'for security'." Dr. de Baere was to have led the Intensive Care Unit for the PCRF's multi-national pediatric cardiac surgery team working at Shifa Hospital. His ordeal underscores the tremendous risks that surgeons, nurses, and other medical personnel take in order to go to Palestine through PCRF and provide their crucial services at this time of crisis.
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MIM: Dr. Imad Tabry is welcomed at Shifa hospital in Gaza by the PA "Minister of Health'
Note that the interviewer found time to ask Tabry what 'obtacles' Israelis placed on him when he entered the country.
Tabry dutifully replied that he was "delayed" at checkpoints and complained of being searched "unnecessarily" due to the large amount of supplies he had brought with him, which belies the fact that such scrutiny is routine for anyone carrying medical equipment into any country .
http://www.pcrf.net/pcrfnews/expatriate.html
GAZA, Palestine, December 2, 2003 (IPC) - -
Welcomed by the Minister of Health and the administration of the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, a Palestinian expatriate heart surgeon currently visiting Gaza Strip held a press conference today to speak about the heart surgery in Palestine and the development achieved in that sensitive field among the Palestinian cadres.
Dr. Imad Tabry, an experienced heart surgeon who has been living and working in theUnited Statesfor 30 years, had arrived on Friday on his fifth visit to the Gaza Strip, and started performing delicate surgeries on Saturday at the Al Shifa hospital inGazaCity.
Dr. Tabry intends to perform 24 heart surgeries during his two-week visit to the hospital, as a way of training Palestinian surgeons on new operating methods and the latest techniques and equipment discovered in this field.
Dr. Jawad Al Tibi, the Minister of Health, welcomed Dr. Tabry and thanked him for being able to come to the Palestinian territories and offer his experience and new technologies in heart surgery to the Palestinian surgeons. Dr. Al Tibi added that this visit achieves the main objective of the Ministry in enhancing the capabilities and experience of local Palestinian medical cadres, so patients can be treated in Palestinian hospitals rather than depending on transfers to other hospitals abroad.
Supplementing Dr. Al Tibi, Dr. Ibrahim Al Habbash, director general of Al Shifa hospital, said that foreign heart surgeons used to bring in their entire staff of nurses and technicians when they perform heart surgeries in Gaza, but on this visit, Dr. Tabry discovered that the Palestinian cadre is well trained and has acquired the necessary experience to aid the surgeon instead of his own crew.
In an interview with IPC, Dr. Tabry said that on every visit to the Gaza Strip, he found major improvements among the Palestinian medical teams, and that on this visit, the Palestinian surgeons even performed some surgeries on their own.
Dr. Tabry also thanked the Palestinian Child Relief Fund (PCRF) and his president, Mr.Steve Sosebee, who informed him of the situation in the Palestinian territories and the dire need for medical expertise and training of local cadres.
Along with Dr. Tabry, a perfusionist (nurse responsible for operating the artificial heart pump) also arrived from theUnited Stateswith him just for training purposes of the Palestinian perfusionists.
Asked about the Israeli obstacles placed in front of his visit, Dr. Tabry pointed out that the main obstacles were the delays at Israeli airports and checkpoints, such as the "Erez" checkpoint, as well as thorough and unnecessary search he went through, as he brought large amounts of medical supplies with him during his current visit.
Dr. Tabry, who is on the advisory board of the PCRF, said that many Palestinian expatriate doctors as well as foreigners are becoming more and more involved in helping the Palestinian people, and have formed the International Palestinian Children Relief Organization (IPCRO), to help the Palestinians. He also added that some companies in theUnited Statesthat manufacture medical equipment have donated expensive equipment and other objects of the latest medical technology.
In order to keep the Palestinian doctors and surgeons up to date with the latest technologies, Dr. Tabry brought with him natural heart valves, which represent the latest development in heart surgery in the world, to replace the regular, plastic valves, as well as "bio glue" (medical glue made of human blood tissue and used in closing the gaps between stitches in cardiac tissue to prevent excessive bleeding). For training, he also brought an atrial flutter machine, which is used to eliminate the atrial flutter disease in the heart, as well as the latest techniques in off-pump surgeries.
On his part, Dr. Kamel Abu Qasem, head of the heart surgery department at Al Shifa hospital, said that the aim of the hospital (when receiving Palestinian expatriate doctors and foreign medical delegations) was to prepare a Palestinian cadre
of physicians in general and heart surgeons in particular, in order to be capable of dealing with every case without depending on abroad transfers, which cost the Ministry large amounts of money that could be spent in developing other health sectors.
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CHILDREN OF WAR FIND A FRIEND IN KENT
Fund helps heal Palestinians
Man opens home, gets medical treatment for smallest victims of Israeli conflict BY JIM CARNEY Beacon Journal staff writer
KENT: As he watches cartoons in the Kent home of Steve Sosebee, 4-year-old Ismail Sobeh is a long, long way from Bethlehem. But he has traveled halfway around the world because of Sosebee, who 10 years ago founded the Palestine Children's Relief Fund to help Palestinian and other Arab children get medical treatment.
Ismail, whose left eye was shot out on Nov. 2 during fighting between Palestinians and Israelis, is the latest of 140 children that the nonprofit organization has brought to the United States. During his stay in Northeast Ohio, Ismail will receive an artificial eye.
The 35-year-old Sosebee would seem to be an unlikely benefactor to the Palestinian people.
He grew up in a Roman Catholic home and in 1984 graduated from Kent Roosevelt High School. But while studying international relations at Kent State University, he became interested in the plight of the Palestinians.
"I was interested in human rights," he said, "and in supporting people who were oppressed and striving for their freedom."
In 1988, Sosebee visited the West Bank as part of a human rights delegation from the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee. The following year, after graduating from Kent State, he went back there, working as a journalist for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and other publications.
He heard about a Palestinian boy who had lost both legs, a hand and an eye after an Israeli soldier threw an anti-tank grenade while the boy was eating lunch outside his home in the West Bank.
Sosebee decided to try to bring the boy to Akron for medical care. He got doctors, hospitals and other health-care providers to donate their services to the boy and his sister, who also had been injured. In 1990, the children came to the United States for treatment.
Word spread about Sosebee's work, and before long he heard about another child in need. He brought that child, who had suffered burns, to be treated in Houston.
Then another child -- a bombing victim -- was given medical care in Los Angeles through Sosebee's efforts.
In 1991, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund was formed.
Sosebee, who learned to speak Arabic, met his wife Huda, a Palestinian social worker, in 1992 when she was with a YMCA group that worked with injured children on the West Bank in Jerusalem. The following year, he converted to Islam and married Huda.
For five years, the fledgling organization got help from the Saudi Arabian embassy, which provided about $4,000 a month. Today, the relief fund operates on a budget of $300,000 a year, with administrative costs of about $58,000 for five full-time employees, including Sosebee.
In addition to treating Palestinian and other Arab children in the United States and Europe, the organization has arranged to have medical teams visit the West Bank, Lebanon and even Iraq to provide surgery and other medical services to poor and needy patients. Sosebee himself has been to Iraq on humanitarian missions.
Gregg Sullivan, deputy director for public affairs in the Near Eastern Bureau of the U.S. Department of State, said an increasing number of groups have formed in recent years to help the Iraqis.
"As the plight of the Iraqi people has gotten more publicity, there has been increased interest in doing this, "Sullivan said. "We share the interests of groups like this. Bringing relief to the Iraqi people has always been part of our policy."
Ismail is typical of the children the relief fund has helped.
His grandmother, Naima Sobeh, who accompanied the boy to Northeast Ohio, says on Nov. 2 Ismail poked his head out the door of his home when fighting was going on and he was hit by a rubber bullet.
"He thought I was throwing stones," the little boy said, through his grandmother.
Last week, Ismail visited with doctors at the Cleveland Clinic and this week, an artificial eye was being made for him by a Cleveland ocularist who is donating his services.
Sosebee said the work he has chosen to do is very frustrating.
"People don't understand their (the Palestinians') motive for the uprising," he said.
Ismail's grandmother said she greatly appreciated the efforts made by Sosebee, area doctors and his organization.
"We hope we are going to be free someday soon," Sobeh said. "We are just asking for our human rights."
Dr. Phillip Nasrallah, chief of urology at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron, worked with Sosebee's group in June of last year. At that time, Nasrallah, other doctors, anesthesiologists and the hospital donated their services to care for a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who suffered from bladder-related birth defects.
"They are trying to help these children who are caught in the middle of unfortunate situations," Nasrallah said of Sosebee's group.
The Palestine Children's Relief Fund "was the bridge" that allowed the child to receive medical care, he said. "It gave us an opportunity to help out -- to give something back."
Sosebee said when he learned of the plight of the Palestinians years ago, "it became a personal issue."
He chose to take on their cause as a life's work.
"I wanted to do something with my life that was important," he said. "I didn't just want a job where I made money."
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According to the article above, the "children of war "may have found a friend in Kent,Ohio, but the writer neglected to mention that Hamas and other terrorists have also found a friend in Steve Sosebee and Dr. Imad Tabry. Their actions are openly aiding and abetting Hamas and the ongoing violence against Israel by enabling them to "fight another day" and perpetuate the violence.
The true face of the PCRF involves treating Hamas fighters in Gaza with money and supplies from well meaning donors in the United States under the guise of humanitarian aid.
This is nowhere more evident then in the fact that the PCRF team gave priority to treatement of gunshot victims in the first week and then moved on to do the heart surgery which was supposed to be the purpose of their mission,
In essence, the PCRF is treating the Hamas guerrillas in Gaza and sending their injured families and children to United States and abroad for treatment where their cases are highlighted in the media and used to propagandize against Israel.
There are no moderates in Gaza ...
Cardiac Surgery Team to Gaza
During the First Week of the Aqsa Intifada, the PCRF sent an 8-member team of adult cardiac surgeons from Fort Lauderdale went to the Gaza Strip to do open heart surgery on sick patients. For the first week, they treated gunshot victims, but the second week did many operations on patients with heart disease. The PCRF also shipped with the team $300,000 worth of donated medical supplies. Led by Dr. Imad Tabry (see Board of Directors), the PCRF will send this team again to Gaza.
http://www.pcrf.net/healing/oct20.html
| Name | Age | Residence | Surgery | Date of Surgery |
| Zaher Al Hasaynah | 20 | Gaza | Gunshot to chest | 3 October |
| Hussam Heriz | 21 | Gaza | Gunshot to Abdomen | 7 October |
| Ismail Nijem | 25 | Gaza | Gunshot to Leg, Femoral Artery | 8 October |
| Ibrahim Hussain | 72 | Shaikh Radwan | CABG | 10 October |
| Ahmad Abu Hilal | 64 | KY-Qarara | CABG | 10 October |
| Amera Shobaki | 62 | Gaza-Tufah | CABG | 11 October |
| Ibrahim Farajallah | 42 | Gaza-Nusairat | CABG | 11 October |
| Hussain Tubal | 60 | Gaza-Jabalia | CABG | 11 October |
| Dr. Salem AlAydi | 51 | Gaza-Zaytoun | CABG | 12 October |
| Mahmoud Al Amour | 36 | KY-Fakhari | MVR | 12 October |
| Mazouaz Shorafa | 57 | Gaza-Rimal | CABG | 13 October |
| Mahmad Abu Saman | 53 | Gaza-Nasser | CABG | 13 October |
| Raba Al Aqra' | 66 | Gaza-KY | CABG | 14 October |
|
Board Of Directors Medical Advisory Board Dr. Riyad Zannoun Legal Consul
Committee for Cardiology in the Middle East Dr. Ra-id Abdulla Administration Huda Al-Masri
Field-Workers: Nuha Al-Masry |
The PCRF board of directors lists Dr.Imad Tabry on the medical advisory board and Steve Sosebee's wife Huda Al Masri as the director of social work .Note the international participation and the large number of board members and advisors .There are five coordinators for the West Bank/ Gaza alone .
------------------------------
In 2002 Bishara Bahbah, secretary and the chairman of the PCRF board of trustees, was questioned by the FBI about a fundraiser he held at his home in Arizona and a picture of himself together with Yasser Arafat . Bahbah wrote an article about the experience.The article was reprinted on the website of the Arab American Institute.
FBI Anonymous 'Complaints' Spark Probe
http://www.aaiusa.org/news/must_read06_23a_02.htm
---------------------------------
Below Steve Sosebee's claims that the PCRF is a non political organisation is belied by the fact that his spokeswoman Rosemary Davis, who ran a suicide bomber website which showed the logo of her other organisation, the Palestine Children's Welfare fund, is actively involved in the Al Awda "Right to Return" coalition.
Sosebee also listed himself as representative of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund when he spoke at an "anti war" rally at Kent State University, and at a "Palestine Fair " event which was organised by groups such as the Islamic Association for Palestine and the Global Relief Foundation.
http://www.ourjerusalem.com/action/story/action20031028.html
What will be new this year is the focus on the "Right of Return" of Palestinian refugees (and their second, third or even fourth generation children who have never trod the streets of Israel). A look at this year's key organizers and fundraisers shows this will be a major part of this year's conference. Steve Sosebee of the Palestine Right To Return Coalition (PRRC), also known as Al Awda ("the return" in Arabic), is a key organizer.
Sosebee also heads another "charity" called the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF). Sosebee's "charity" used to run a website out of Texas that glorified suicide bombers. A tour of the Al Awda website repeats the Hamas position that there can be no valid negotiations regarding the "return" of every "Palestinian" to what is now Israel - even those from succeeding generations never born there - Israel must simply accept its national suicide.
-------------------------
The court case with the Holyland Foundation as plaintiff vs John Ashcroft details the HLF ties to Hamas.
The HLF filed suit against the US government decision to designate their 'charity' as a terrorist entity.
[PDF] UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
... Occupied Land Fund ("OLF"), and changed its corporate name to Holy Land Foundation
for ... 9, 1994, HLF paid for senior Hamas leaders Sheikh Jamil Hamami and Dr ...
www.dcd.uscourts.gov/02-442.pdf -
For more on Hamas founder Jamil Hamimi :
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/24
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Al Aqsa 'charity' shut down in several countries due to soliciting funds for suicide bombings.
Here is an advert on their site for an innoucously named "Palestine Fair" sponsored by the Islamic Association of Palestine/Hamas/ , and the Al Qaeda funding front Global Relief Foundation.
http://www.aqsa.org.uk/latest-news/jan01.html
Palestine Fair*
The Palestine Fair will feature a number of U.S. organizations (relief,
political, grassroots, etc) that work to support the Palestinian cause. The
Palestine Fair will expose conference participants to the kind of work that is
being done to support Palestine. It will also offer them the opportunity to
enlist in working with these organizations on areas that are of mutual
interest.
Dinner: The conference will conclude with "Dinner with the Speakers". This
will be a chance to interact with the speakers and trainers less formally and
to hear some concluding remark
Some of the Speakers Include:
- Steve Sosebee - founder of Palestine Children's Relief Fund
- David Sole - International Action Center
- Ibrahim Hooper - National Communications Director for CAIR
- Altaf Hussain - President of the Muslim Students' Association of the U.S.
and Canada
- Rachel Persico - former lieutenant in Israeli army, former videographer
for Israel Television Corp.
- Dr. Hatem Bazian - University of California, Berkely.
Sponsors: Global Relief Foundations, Arab Students' Association, Muslim
Students Association of the US and Canada, Islamic
Association for Palestine, Council on American Islamic
Relations, International Action Center, UM Palestine Committee, Michigan
Students' Assembly, LSA student government, Muslim Students' Association
of UM (and more soon)
http://www.pcrf.net/pcrfnews/expatriate.html
-------------------------------------------------------
Steve Sosebee spoke at this rally as a representative of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.
A letter was read from Abu Mumia Jumal aka H. Rap Brown, who is sitting on death row convicted of gunning down two police officers when they stopped him on a traffic violation.
http://www.fbirecords.com/ksawc/schedule.htm
Schedule for May 4th Protest
There will be a Rally at 2:45 PM and a March at 6:00 PM. There will also be an open participation Anti-War Organizing Conference on Sunday, May 5 at 10:00 AM. Details below. (Also see Other Events on May 4.)
2:45 PM: Permitted Rally at Manchester Field (note location change!)
DJ Visine and DJ Diddle will spin.
Welcome Speech by Kent State Anti-War Committee
Rita Lasar (sister of WTC victim)
Jeff Patterson (first GI to resist Gulf War)
Holly Severson (for upcoming Michigan summit against repression of immigrants)
Manal Badwan (President of Muslim Student Association KSU)
Music by Sue Jeffers
Tom Grace (shot by National Guard on May 4, 1970)
Janette Habashi and Steve Sosebee (Palestinian Children's Relief)
Staughton Lynd (long-time labor rights activist from Youngstown, OH)
Burning River Revolutionary Anarchist Collective
-------
SOLIDARITY SPEECHES FROM:
~Mitchell Cohen (Green Party)
~Kelli (Student Environmental Action Coalition)
~All-African People's Revolutionary Party
~Deb Calhoun
~Letter from Mumia Abu-Jamal (political prisoner on death row)
read by Jeff Johnson (vice president-elect of Black United Students)
~Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade
-------
Music by Little Neddy Goes to War
Chris Mahin (history columnist for the People's Tribune)
C. Clark Kissinger (former National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society)
Kent State Anti-War Committee Closing Speech
MARCH TO END THE WAR
March begins around 6:00 PM, starting from Manchester Field (directly after the rally), going through campus, stopping at historically significant sites, and ending at Front Campus.
SUNDAY, MAY 5
10:00 AM Open participation Anti-War Organizing Conference
Governance Chambers (in Student Center)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
HLF: Muslim Charity Asks U.S. for Frozen Funds
04/09/04, Ref. 1769
The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development filed a request to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to unfreeze $50,000 to be sent to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, which seeks to provide free medical care for Palestinian children in the Middle East.
The Bush administration in 2001 accused Holy Land, a Texas-based group, of financing the militant Islamic group Hamas and ordered U.S. banks to freeze its assets. Holy Land says it has never donated money or provided services to Hamas, a group the government says is a foreign terrorist organization. http://www.mcrcnet.org/Reports/042004/legalbriefs042004.htm
--------------------------------------------------------
The Hamas affiliated Media Monitors online advertises the PCRF contact information.
The three other 'charity' groups listed below have all had their assets frozen or are under investigation for ties to terrorist funding.
Note the Media Monitor's cynical disclaimer at the bottom that" all information will be published in good faith to serve humanity"
More "non politics" of 'humanitarian terrorism'.
http://www.mediamonitors.net/charity1.html
93-1057665
By wire:
i ;){kind=link}
Below Boca News editor Neil Heller objects to Sun Sentinel correspondent Tim Collie's Israel bashing "puff piece" lauding Imad Tabry and the Palestine Children Relief Fund "mission" in Gaza.
The Boca News editor rightly characterised Collie's article as "false, misleading, and downright deceitful" and accused him of spreading anti Israel propaganda What Neil Heller neglected to point out is that in the case of what he termed Imad Tadry's "good deeds" at Shifa hospital in Gaza , the terms he used to describe Collie's deception can be regarded as much more then an understandment.
http://www.bocanews.com/index.php?src=news&prid=8729&category=PUBLISHERS%20DESK
| Extra, extra, misread all about it! |
| Sun Sentinel's feel-good' Gaza stories do injustice to Israeli history |
| Published Sunday, June 20, 2004 |
What is it with the Sun Sentinel's obsession with going out of its way to portray the horrible conditions in Gaza and the West Bank as solely the fault of Israel?
Reporter Tim Collie has now followed up his bizarre front-page story of several months ago entitled, "From Boca To Gaza," with another masterpiece last Sunday entitled, "The Gaza Strip-Heart Saviors." In each piece, Collie writes of an individual do-gooder who has to overcome the horrific living conditions of Gaza, which, of course, are all due to Israel.
The last piece was sympathetic to none other than the Islamic Center of Boca Raton's religious leader, Imam Ibrahim Dremali. If you don't recall, Dremali and his family were building a house in Gaza.
This project was the centerpiece of a story which alluded to how Israel had made life unbearable for Palestinians living in Gaza. The reporter briefly mentions that Gaza is the home of Hamas and the area where the majority of terrorist attacks against Israel originate. That was very nice of him as he failed to mention that Dremali is far from just an innocent man of religion trying to build a home.
As reported in the Boca Raton News last year, the Islamic Center of Boca Raton has had ties to the Hamas Web site, and has also had alleged terrorists speak at fundraisers for the Islamic Center.
This time around, Collie has written about Dr. Imad Tabry, a South Florida heart surgeon who traveled to Gaza during the past four years to treat Palestinian heart patients under less than ideal conditions. While there is no doubt that the deeds of Tabry, if they are as reported by Collie, are to be commended, the background information contained in the story is far from accurate.
Whether subtle or in your face, Collie once again places all blame for the woes of Gaza residents at the feet of the Israelis. The caption on a front-page photograph reads, "HOMES LEVELED: Little remains of a neighborhood block after the Israeli Army moved in, razing houses and turning houses into bulldozed rubble."
Whether you read the story or not, one can only surmise that the Israeli Army acted without any provocation and simply destroyed the homes of innocent people. Yet, the article neglected to mention that this was part of an effort to clean out a Hamas stronghold.
This is not the first time the Sun Sentinel has put misleading photos with even more misleading captions pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on its front page. Collie's perspective gets even worse as you read the entire story.
While trying to bring worthwhile attention to Dr. Tabry's medical mission, he also rewrites history. He refers to the Gaza strip as an area that Israel has surrounded and occupied since 1967. He fails to mention that the reason Israel "surrounds" Gaza is because their borders are attached. He fails to mention that Gaza was once controlled by Egypt and is a small piece of land bordered by Egypt, Israel and the Mediterranean Sea. He also fails to mention that Egypt wanted no part of this territory and is happy to have Israel assume the headache that was once theirs.
Oh, and did he mention that Israel has already begun the process of leaving Gaza once and for all? Based on Collie's interpretation of geography, one could argue that the United States surrounds Mexico or Canada.
Collie tells us that during the 1948 war that resulted in Israel's creation, Tabry's family fled from areas that are now in Israel. Strange, but all the history books I have read make it very clear that a United Nations resolution created the state of Israel. The war he thinks resulted in the creation of Israel was actually a war perpetrated by every surrounding Arab country bent on destroying the state of Israel before it ever got a chance to exist.
The reason Arabs living inside Israel had to flee was based upon other Arab countries telling them to leave and return after Israel was destroyed. They were told that they would return as victors and the Jews would be driven from Israel.
Collie also fails to accurately portray the reasons Palestinians have such inferior healthcare. Mainly, it is because their own leadership, Hamas and Yassir Arafat, have squandered or stolen hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for healthcare and other basic needs to support their terrorist activities or to line their own pockets. Much of that money has come from Israel only to be diverted to a handful of Palestinians.
I can assure you that Arafat doesn't have to worry about medical care or other necessities. Israeli hospitals have treated thousands of Palestinians over the years and continue to do so at their own expense. Israeli surgeons routinely treat Palestinian patients.
Collie's misrepresentations fly in the face of history and the truth. He must be spending too much time in Arab territories as his stories are becoming as deceitful as those that originate with the Arab propaganda machines. He could have written about the good deeds of Dr. Tabry without laying false blame on the Israelis.
Instead, Collie is trying to rewrite the facts. If their so-called Arab brothers really cared about them, Palestinian refugees, whatever the reason for their plight, would have been taken in long ago by the numerous Arab countries that surround Israel.
Instead, Palestinians have been used by their own leaders and their so-called Arab brothers as a reason to try and destroy the Jewish state of Israel.
Collie's columns are false, misleading and downright deceitful. He uses feature writing to foster what looks like facts to portray Israel wrongly. His is the type of writing that is, perhaps, the most disturbing of all. He clouds his mistruths by making them part of a feel-good story. His bosses at the Sun Sentinel should put a stop to it lest we start believing that they too are part of an initiative to deceive readers about what is really going on in the Middle East.
Or maybe this is just another initiative to attract readers they don't already have. After all, hasn't a monopoly always been their goal?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Hamas May Shift Terror Strategy Toward US
By Scott Wheeler
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
July 19, 2004
(CNSNews.com) - Four months after the founder of the terrorist group Hamas was assassinated by Israeli-fired helicopter missiles, his followers may be planning for the first time to shift their target of attack from the Middle East to the United States, according to a Muslim think tank in a Washington, D.C., suburb.
Ahmad Rashad from the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), based in Springfield, Va., wrote about Hamas' strategy in the Internet magazine, The Palestine Chronicle. Rashad is identified at the end of the article as a "research associate" at UASR.
"In recent years, it has been increasingly difficult to convince, or be convinced, that restraint is the right strategy," Rashad stated in a Palestine Chronicle article on April 9.
Hamas, designated by the United States as a "foreign terrorist organization," has been linked to attacks in Israel that have killed hundreds of people, including American citizens.
But the March 21 assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin appears to have motivated the group's change in strategy. Hamas has labeled the U. S. "a collaborator in the killing of Yassin, and called upon Muslims across the world to join in acts of retaliation," according to U.S. government documents.
Yassin's death "will cause introspection. It will also cause a change in tactics," Rashad stated in The Palestine Chronicle .
The Internet article referred to the late Yassin and Musa Abu Marzook, the "former chief of Hamas' political wing and a key component of the movement," as "pragmatic elements."
But Marzook, the founder of UASR, has been on the U.S. government's list of "specially designated terrorists" since 1995. A recent CNSNews.com report showed links between UASR, Hamas and al Qaeda.
And "sixteen years after Hamas' establishment," Rashad warned in the Palestine Chronicle, "the world will probably see an attack on foreign soil for the first time."
Dr. Peter Leitner, president of the Higgins Counter Terrorism Research Center, told CNSNews.com that Rashad's predictions in The Palestine Chronicle should be taken seriously.
It appears to be "a veiled warning," he said, but could be "part of a disinformation campaign. We won't know for sure until something happens," Leitner added.
Hamas also has Israeli targets in sight, according to Rashad.
"Leaders of Hamas' military wing will now seek the expansion of their war against Israel. The Zionist state's interests -- embassies, consulates, cultural centers, diplomats -- across the globe are potential targets," Rashad wrote.
Political moderates in Hamas "are not only losing ground, but also re-thinking their positions," Rashad stated. "Radicals are taking more desperate, and violent, measures -- as has been the case in the past few years," he added.
Rashad also gave his readers a glimpse at what Hamas' new leadership might be like. "With the execution of pragmatists like Shekih Yassin, far less experienced, and more militant, leaders are taking over."
Following Yassin's death, the UASR immediately sent out word that it was planning an "interfaith dialogue between orthodox Jewish rabbis and Muslim imams" at its office in Springfield, Va.
Among those receiving the notice was Imam Fawaz Damra of Parma, Ohio. Damra is noted for extremist views as evidenced by a televised interview in the 1990s in which he referred to Jews as "the sons of pigs and monkeys." The invitation of Damra to the event billed as an "interfaith dialogue" raised questions among counter-terrorism experts about whether the meeting in fact was intended to be a response to the Yassin killing.
At the time, Damra was constrained by a travel restriction because he was under indictment for failing to disclose on his immigration application his connections to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups the U.S. considers purveyors of terrorism. Due to the travel restriction placed on Damra by a federal judge, he was unable to attend the meeting at the UASR office. In June, Damra was convicted of those charges.
Neither Ahmad Rashad, nor any member of UASR would return telephone calls for comment.
The Palestine Chronicle, which published Rashad's comments, is "an independent [I]nternet magazine, dedicated to addressing issues and offering perspectives rarely seen in mainstream western media," according to the magazine's website.
http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=\SpecialReports\archive\200407\SPE20040719a.html
----------------------------------------
"Muslim Charity Indicted on Terrorism Charges "
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,127164,00.html
WASHINGTON A major American Muslim charity and seven of its officers were charged Tuesday with providing millions of dollars in support to Hamas (search), a Palestinian terrorist organization blamed for dozens of homicide bomber attacks in Israel.
The 42-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Dallas, alleges that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (search) provided more than $12.4 million to individuals and organizations linked to Hamas from 1995 to 2001. The U.S. government froze the charity's assets in December 2001.
Click here to read the charges against the Holy Land Foundation (pdf).
The indictment names the foundation along with its president, Shukri Abu Baker (search); chairman, Ghassan Elashi; executive director, Haitham Maghawri; and four others. The charges include conspiracy, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, tax evasion and money laundering.
Five of the seven defendants were arrested while two of them, Maghawri and Akram Mishal, are not in the United States and are considered to be fugitives, the attorney general said.
"To those who exploit good hearts to secretly fund violence and murder, this prosecution sends a clear message: There is no distinction between those who carry out terrorist attacks and those who knowingly finance terrorist attacks," Attorney General John Ashcroft (search) said at a news conference to announce charges.
Noting that a number of Americans have been Hamas victims, Ashcroft said, "Today, a U.S.-based charity that claims to do good works is charged with funding the works of evil."
The attorney general said the foundation gave money to the families of Hamas terrorists killed and jailed by Israel.
"In this manner, the defendants effectively rewarded past, and encouraged future suicide bombings and terrorist activities on behalf of Hamas."
Tim Evans, Elashi's attorney, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Tuesday.
On Monday, the foundation filed a complaint with the inspector general of the Justice Department and asked for an investigation because it claimed the FBI fabricated its case.
Holy Land, which claims to be the largest U.S. Muslim charity, has been shut down since about $4 million of its assets were frozen by the U.S. government in late 2001. Federal courts have repeatedly rejected Holy Land's appeals to get its assets unfrozen, concluding that the government has sufficient evidence linking the charity to terrorism.
The charity has insisted that its money went only for relief to refugees, orphans and disaster victims. In 2000, it raised about $13 million for what charity officials said were schools and social programs in Palestinian-controlled areas and other mainly Islamic nations.
The indictment charges that Holy Land provided financial aid to the militant group Hamas as far back as 1988.
John Boyd, a lawyer for the Holy Land Foundation, said he had not seen the indictment and could not comment in detail. However, he questioned the use of old transactions in the indictment.
"If these are related to transactions in '88 and '89, that is six years before Hamas committed its first terrorist acts and seven years before Hamas was declared a terrorist organization," Boyd said.
Israel banned Holy Land from operating within its borders in 1997 and said it funneled money to the families of homicide bombers. Israeli government officials hailed the U.S. move against the group.
Holy Land had close ties to a computer and Internet-hosting company in suburban Dallas that was raided a few days before the terror attacks in September 2001. Agents seized computer hard drives and boxes of documents from the offices of InfoCom Corp. directly across the street from Holy Land's offices.
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