Yet Damra denied knowing anything but rumors about counterfeiting. He told the agent he didn't know Nosair or Abouhalima. As for the blind sheik, Damra described him as "a respected scholar in the Islamic community in New York."
Three weeks later, six people died and more than 1,000 were injured in the Trade Center bombing. Almost immediately, investigators suspected Nosair, Abouhalima, the blind sheik and their group of jihadists.
The FBI wasn't satisfied that Damra had told them all he knew. In October 1993, agents from the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force came to Cleveland to interview Damra themselves.
Damra, prosecutors wrote in their memorandum, again denied knowledge of counterfeiting at his former mosque. He told agents that he knew of Nosair - whom he described as the leader of jihad training at a New Jersey mosque - but again insisted that he didn't know him.
....Before traveling to New York, Damra submitted his naturalization forms for citizenship, omitting any reference to the Alkifah Center or to his repeated fund raising efforts on behalf of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad - omissions at the center of the immigration case.
On Nov. 15, 1993, the FBI questioned Damra for a third time. Now, under threat of a grand jury subpoena, his story changed.
He explained in more detail how he and Shalabi had raised money for the Alkifah center. Damra said he had been the "Emir of Palestine" and Shalabi was the "Emir" of the Alkifah movement.
Although court documents are unclear, the titles apparently meant that Damra was in charge of fund raising for Palestinians in Israel and Shalabi was in charge of money flowing into Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Damra, according to court records, also conceded that he had attended one of the Alkifah center's firearms training sessions, though he said he never fired a weapon there. He also said he knew a man who probably sold bulletproof vests to Shalabi.
During this third FBI interview, Damra also admitted to something agents already knew: that he knew both Nosair and Abouhalima. And he said a member of his Brooklyn congregation had told him about Shalabi's counterfeiting operation in the basement of the Brooklyn mosque. Damra even told the FBI the name of a man who showed him counterfeit $5 and $10 bills, according to court records.
Article comments
1 - Dawn
Israeli resolve is an admirable thing. They are not afraid to fight terrorists in their own backyard, streetcorner or local shops.
But they know who their enemy is and they don't confuse it with someone else, like say Iraq.
Now before you write me off as some Iraq war apologist, consider this: Had we only stayed the course and applied the Israeli defense policy of defending our borders and hunting down the terrorist networks and those colluding with them, we would have save thousands of lives in Iraq that have been needlessly lost for what? A war against a single man who has YET to be proven to have WMD OR ties to Al Quaida.
Wouldn't all that money and manpower been better spent tracking down Osama and his friends?
Maybe the long term strategy by going to war with Iraq will eventually be brought to fruition - and if so, count me as a humble person who will acquiesce to the wisdom of Bush, but from my perspective, we have spent so much (in lives and money) for something that may only fall apart in the near future.
You can NOT compare the Israeli war on terror to any other war on terror, most especially our own. Israel is protecting itself within its immediate borders - we are starting fights with a country under the premise that it may pay off EVENTUALLY.
Kind of like Vietnam, and we all know how well that went.
2 - Eric Olsen
Dawn, is this really you? Some of the phrases don't sound right.
3 - Hal Pawluk
Dawn got to the real lesson when she said that we would have done much better had we "applied the Israeli defense policy of defending our borders and hunting down the terrorist networks and those colluding with them."
4 - Hal Pawluk
Checking the IP address seems to indicate it is Dawn.
5 - Eric Olsen
I still don't think it sounds like her, we'll see.
But no argument with the need for "defending our borders and hunting down the terrorist networks and those colluding with them," but we also need to remain on the offense, and Iraq had to be dealt with sooner or later. Bush chose sooner.
6 - Dawn
Yes, it's me - I am not sure what phrases don't sound like me, but I can attest the the fact that I am unwilling to be convinced that going to Iraq, when we did, was the best move against terrorism that the U.S. could make.
I strongly agree that Iraq needed to be addressed, as does North Korea, Iran, Northern Africa and many other rogue nations across the globe. WITHOUT a doubt. But not too long ago, we considered Pakistan a rogue nation, yet here they are helping us more or less fight the war on terror. Why? Because we ASKED them, maybe we didn't ask them nicely, but we did ask them, and there is something to be said for using a little finesse.
Bush has the finesse of an elephant in a ballet tutu.
He did his part to start the war on terror, he made a major snafu - perhaps being kind we can even call it a "mis-estimate" - but to say that going to Iraq has helped reduce the number of terrorists around the globe - well all I have to do is read the headlines to know that is a complete fabrication of the truth.
7 - Eric Olsen
The bottom line in Iraq was removing Saddam, this has been accomplished. We need to do all we reasonably can to support the establishment of a secular democracy there but at least part 1 has been accomplished. And again, there have been many other - some unrecognizeable for now - benefits that have come from this action, Libya being one. If Iraq had to be dealt with sooner or later, sooner is better.
And as far as terror in the world: individual acts are going to happen, the key is to destroy the infrastructure and remove the sources of suppport, while trying to prevent individual attacks on an ongoing basis as best you can, and stay on the attack against the terrorists, just as Israel has done to Hamas, except we are dealing with al Qaeda, which is really a loose network of like-thinking assplugs spread all over the world, and the even broader pool of Islamist fanatics. This is not an easy or quick job, and in the big picture progress has been made, of which Iraq is a part.
8 - Eric Olsen
Oh, and we weren't just removing a person in Iraq, we were removing a regime.
9 - JR
Ironically, Israel had just buried 16 people...
I'm sorry, but that tells me all I need to know about Israel's "success" in fighting terror.
Yet the fact that it took Hamas almost half a year--and dozens of failed attempts--to make good on its threat to inflict immediate and massive punishment proves just how successful Israel's war against terrorism has been.
Yes. It proves that they've done absolutely nothing to deter terrorists from trying.
Hamas's ranks have become so depleted that the organization is now recruiting teenagers...
When haven't they recruited teenagers? This "news" tells us what, exactly? Seems like we should be more concerned that they've been so successful at recruiting teenagers.
Meanwhile, life inside Israel has returned to near normalcy.
Which seems to imply that they have normalized terror...
Everyone knows a terrorist attack can happen at any time.
Q.E.D.
At every phase of Israel's counteroffensive, skeptics have worried that attempts to suppress terrorism would only encourage more of it...They warned that, by reoccupying Palestinian cities and targeting terrorist leaders, Israel would only deepen Palestinian rage and despair.
Okay, I haven't been to Palestine, so I don't know. Is there any evidence to suggest Israel hasn't done exactly that?
This is the first lesson Sharon could teach democratic leaders facing a war against terrorism: Insure domestic consensus and the support of vital allies.
Sharon has domestic consensus?
Where does this article come from, an alternate universe? The "Road Map" is all but dead; what's there to be so optimistic about? And doesn't anybody get a little nervous about declaring "Mission Accomplished" just because tourism and the economy are up from a few years ago? I mean, how do the figures compare to 2000? Or 1980? Or 1960?
Israel has seen several periods of relative calm since it's founding, yet the terrorism always flared up again. Isn't the root cause of the most recent violence the same as that of all the previous episodes? Which means that Israel has never addressed the problem. Apparently they've just been swatting flies for 50 years.
I'm not about to take any advice from Israel. In fact, U.S. support for their policies is a major part of the reasons we were attacked.
10 - Dawn
And the assplugs are like cockroaches.
With each move we make, which distracts us from our true objective (detroying Al Qaida) for example the war in Iraq - they lay eggs behind our backs and in our midst.
More insurgents continue to flood Iraq daily - isn't it entirely possible that our objective has backfired and instead of exterminating them, we are in essence helping to breed them?
11 - Hal Pawluk
Removing the Saddam regime was the bottom line only for Israel, the neoconservatives and those that the neocons had managed to convince that it was a good thing with their decade-long campaign.
It was not the bottom line for most Americans.
The increase in worldwide terrorism cannot be dismissed with a simple "Shit happens."
The invasion of Iraq was a diversion from the war on terrorism. It increased the number of terrorists in the world, spreading terrorist further and faster than ever. And it increased the number of acts of terrorism worldwide.
Since 9/11 the number of terrorist attacks worldwide has increased every year. Since 9/11, there have been 3,000 deaths from terrorism. The attacks and deaths are accelerating - 58% of the 3,000 were this year, and the year is not over yet.
Invading Iraq had nothing to do with the fight against Muslim extremists, and has in fact increased their numbers and their attacks.
Bush is a reckless Commander-In-Chief who has proven himself incompetent to direct the war against terrorists, a danger rather than a protector.
12 - Tim Hall
You're all completely missing the point. The way between Israel and the Palestinians is a quite different war with different causes compared with America's war against Al-Queda.
The Israel/Palestine war is first and foremost a war over territory; both sides want to control as much of the Holy Land as they can manage. The ideological side is secondary, although Islamist psychotics have got in on the act.
The war between The West and Al-Queda is primarily a war of ideas; each side want their values and ideas to become prevalent across the middle east.
Tactics appropriate for one are not necessarily the same as for the other.