Yesterday we reported that the imam of Cleveland, Fawaz Damra, was unnamed "co-conspirator one" in the federal indictment against University of South Florida engineering professor Sami Amin Al-Arian, and that at least one local supporter claimed the Palestinian community in Cleveland saw "nothing wrong" with the imam's calls to murder Jews, made back in 1991.

In an exceptional story in today's Plain Dealer, reporter Amanda Garrett reveals even more damning evidence against Damra:

Blood money for deadly bombings of buses and malls in Israel may have been paid for, in part, from a secret fund established in Cleveland, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week.

....Damra - who for years portrayed himself as a moderate who tried to bring local Muslims and Jews together - declined to comment Friday. He nearly lost his job shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when a grainy video emerged showing him with Al-Arian in Cleveland on April 7, 1991.

....In 1988, Al-Arian, a professor of computer engineering, began traveling around the country, meeting with like-minded pro-Palestinian supporters and establishing a way to help them raise money and recruit members for their cause.

At the same time, Al-Arian also started setting up corporations in Florida - Islamic think tanks and a school - that could accept and disburse money and serve as cover for radical members of The Movement, the indictment said.

Meanwhile, about 1,170 miles to the north, Fawaz Damra had launched his own radical Muslim fund-raising career in Brooklyn, N.Y., recruiting fighters for the Muslim holy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

However, when the Soviets withdrew, there was an international fight over what to do with the leftover money and power. Damra's mentor was killed. So was his fund-raising colleague in Brooklyn.

Damra ultimately left Brooklyn, and in 1991 he became imam in Cleveland. Three months later, Damra and Al-Arian would come together on a Cleveland stage. Damra, in front of video cameras, introduced Al-Arian at the April 7 fund-raiser.

By then, The Movement was shifting large sums of money around the world. The indictment said the group could afford to pay 400 families of "martyrs" - suicide bombers and those who died for the cause - $120 a month.

But it still wasn't enough. Al-Arian fretted that nearly $2 million of The Movement's money was missing and sent messages to members to surrender assets, the indictment said.

Money was soon flowing again, and on March 6, 1994, Al-Arian shared the news with Unindicted Co-Conspirator One. The indictment said Al-Arian said he raised $53,000 in Chicago, about $25,000 of it in cash.

Still, it wasn't enough. There were so many families to pay.

The indictment said Al-Arian and Unindicted Co-Conspirator One discussed a tax scheme to get more. If Al-Arian would send Unindicted Co-Conspirator One some of the money from Chicago, he would arrange for wealthy people to take it and then donate it back to Al-Arian's group. The wealthy people - all earned more than $200,000 - could then use the donation as a tax write-off and donate the tax savings back to Al-Arian's group.

page 1 | 2