I am not sure why the Damra case isn't a bigger story outside of Cleveland, but the feds sure are interested in this formerly respected imam of the largest mosque in Ohio. If you are not familiar with his case, here is some background from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which has done an excellent job of following the story:

Damra once was a respected member of the local religious community, credited with building bridges between local Muslims and Jews. But his reputation and his life began unraveling shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. First, a grainy videotape surfaced showing Damra preaching a decade earlier to a crowd and raising money for the murder of Jews in Israel.

Soon news reports linked him to the group that evolved into al-Qaida and to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

After his January arrest, some mosque members wanted Damra to step down, but his supporters rallied.

....Damra has long been involved in various fund-raising efforts with Muslim groups.

In New York in the late 1980s, he co-founded the Alkifah Refugee Center, a group that raised money and recruited Muslim fighters for the war in Afghanistan against the Soviets. At some point, the refugee center's focus changed and it became a U.S. base for al-Qaida.

During that time, Damra served as the imam of the attached al-Farooq mosque. He left after falling out over money with Mustafa Shalabi, who ran the Alkifah Refugee Center.

Damra was hired as imam of the Islamic Center of Greater Cleveland around 1990. After he arrived, the grainy videotape surfaced showing him raising money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which was not yet designated by the United States as a terrorist group. In the videotape, Damra urged people to give money to kills Jews.

The videotape was seized from University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian, who was indicted last year on racketeering charges and is accused of leading the North American chapter of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Damra is not named in Al-Arian's indictment, but details provided by federal authorities and other documents indicate that Damra is Unindicted Co-Conspirator One.

Among other things, Unindicted Co-Conspirator One discussed a tax scheme with Al-Arian in the mid-1990s. According the Al-Arian indictment, the co-conspirator said he could arrange for wealthy people to take money from Al-Arian fund-raisers and then donate the same money back to Al-Arian's nonprofit groups. [Cleveland.com]

Prosecutors said time constraints forced them to separate the immigration fraud from the larger financial probe. The statute of limitations on the immigration charge would have expired April 29, 10 years to the day Damra was granted naturalization, Moroney wrote in the court filing.
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