[link|http://www.sptimes.com/2002/03/26/TampaBay/Transcript_quotes_Al_.shtml|link]
"In the mid 1990s, FBI agents suspected that an Islamic think tank Al-Arian operated at USF was a front for Middle Eastern terrorists. A former head of the think tank, Ramadan Abdulah Shallah, left Tampa in 1995 and soon resurfaced as the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group"
[link|http://tampatrib.com/nationworldnews/MGAZJ8QDS2D.html|smore]
"The investigation centers on whether money raised by Al- Arian in the United States was used to finance Jihad terrorism in Israel - in particular an April 1995 bombing attack on a bus that killed eight people in the Gaza Strip, the Israelis say. One of the victims was an American college student, Alisa Flatow, a 20-year-old from West Orange, N.J., who was in Israel studying at a seminary.
Flatow's father, Stephen, said he testified about Alisa's death before a federal grand jury in Tampa in December.
Among other things, racketeering statutes allow prosecutors more flexibility linking criminals acts together even when they're widely separated by time or geography, according to Tampa defense lawyer Todd Foster, who previously served as major crimes chief at the U.S. attorney's office."
[link|http://www.usf.edu/News/2001/arain/2001.12.19.ariantimeline.htm|smores]
"November 1994 - A PBS documentary, "Jihad in America" alleges Al-Arian is the head of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group's domestic support network. The documentary was created by Steve Emerson.
1994-95 - Ramadan Abdullah Shallah teach Arabic during the spring semesters.
May 1995 - A two-part series in The Tampa Tribune questions ties among USF, WISE and the Islamic Committee for Palestine charity.
May 1995 - USF's inspector general issues a report that finds irregularities with WISE graduate students and the hiring of an Arabic instructor.
1995 - A second report says USF violated its own policy.
1995-96 - Al-Arian takes a one-year sabbatical.
October 1995 - Shallah appears in Damascus and is named head of the Islamic Jihad."
[link|http://www.aim.org/publications/media_monitor/2002/06/27.html|lot smores]
"A group called Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the bus bombing in Israel in which 17 Israelis were killed. It is based in Syria and is headed by Ramadan Shallah, who lived several years in Florida and was a professor at the University of South Florida. But that\ufffds not all \ufffd his alleged former associate, another University of South Florida professor, is still here, defending the rights of Muslims accused of terrorist activities.
The media are preoccupied with the president\ufffds plan to create a new department of homeland security. But we still don\ufffdt have answers to the question of how terrorists or their alleged sympathizers got here in the first place. As detailed by Steven Emerson, Shallah\ufffds connections to Islamic Jihad go back to the 1970s in Egypt. He moved to London in 1986 before coming to the U.S. in the 1990s. While here, on two occasions he was invited to brief U.S. military officers at U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air force Base near Tampa. This is where the war against terrorism is being planned and coordinated today.
This strange story gets even more bizarre because one of Shallah\ufffds associates at the university, Professor, Sami "Osama" al-Arian, solicited funds for Islamic Jihad. A tenured professor, al-Arian was put on paid leave following an appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor," where he appeared evasive in response to questions from Bill O\ufffdReilly about his alleged ties to terrorists. He is a founder of two groups described by a federal agent as fronts for Islamic Jihad. His home and officer were raided by federal authorities in 1995, when they found the controversial fundraising letter."
either this guy is getting ratfucked by the best or he really is with the sleazeballs.
thanx,
bill