Lawsuit accuses Saudis of terror support

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Posted 3:59PM on Thursday, March 21, 2002

TAMPA, Fla. - A former U.S. Justice Department attorney sued a suspended university professor linked to terrorists Wednesday, saying the academic is part of a money laundering operation that has secret support from Saudi Arabia. The wide-ranging lawsuit filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court links the investigation of University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian to theories the Saudi government has hindered anti-terrorism investigations. It was filed by John Loftus, a retired St. Petersburg attorney who is suing as a taxpayer and as president of the Florida Holocaust Museum. The lawsuit -- based on Lofo shut (the operation) down," Loftus said. Robert McKee, Al-Arian's attorney called the lawsuit "wacky." "It reads like a pulp spy novel," said McKee said, adding Al-Arian denies all the allegations. Nail Al-Jubeir, a spokesman for Saudi Arabia's embassy in Washington called the lawsuit a "stretch of the imagination." "It's a free for all right now," Al-Jubeir said. Citing confidential sources and public documents, Loftus said Al-Arian's charity, the International Committee for Palestine, received funding from a Herndon, Va., charity raided by federal counterterrorism investigators Wednesday. Fourteen search warrants were served in unidentified locations in Virginia and Georgia in "Operation Green Quest, the ongoing investigation in terrorist financing in the United States, the U.S. Customs Service said. A Customs Service spokesman wod not confirm the location named in Loftus' lawsuit was one of those being searched. Al-Arian has been under investigation since 1995 after a think tank and a charity he founded were linked to terrorists. A former think-tank director brought to USF by Al-Arian, Ramadan Abdulah Shallah, abruptly left in 1995 and resurfaced as the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The think tank also sponsored gatherings across the United States that drew men who later were learned to be terrorists, including Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Muslim cleric convicted in a failed plot to bomb five New York City landmarks. Federal investigators allege money raised at those meetings went to support terrorist attacks. Al-Arian has never been charged with a crime, but may be fired from the university because officials consider him a security risk. The lawsuit said confidential sources told Loftus the investigation of Al-Arian was derailed once it was discovered the primary source of his funding was the Virginia charities. Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa, declined comment on the lawsuit, saying only Al-Arian remains under investigation. Loftus said among those who back his theory was John P. O'Neill, a former director of anti-terrorism for the F.B.I.'s New York office, who reportedly resigned in disgust over stonewalled investigations. O'Neill later became the World Trade Center's head of security and died in the Sept. 11 attacks. In the book "Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth," published after O'Neill's death, author Jean-Charles Brisard wrote O'Neill had complained the United States was unwilling to confront Saudi Arabia about Osama bin Laden because it would harm diplomatic relations.