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Suit to Block U.S.-Based Charities from Funding Terrorists
(JTA) - John Loftus, a former federal Nazi war crimes prosecutor, has filed suit against alleged Islamic Jihad paymaster Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian professor at Tampa's University of South Florida. Loftus alleges that millions of dollars in funding for the terrorist activities of Al-Qaida, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas originates in Saudi Arabia, and is laundered through Swiss bank accounts and Islamic charities operating in Florida, in violation of that state's consumer fraud and deceptive practices laws. Much of the information on Al-Arian comes from a former Israeli agent operating at the headquarters of Islamic Jihad in Syria. The agent had even reported on a debate within the organization in which Al-Arian was considered for Islamic Jihad's top world leadership, "but he lost the vote and became No. 2 in the world." Loftus charges that millions of dollars raised by the charities - including funds from the Al-Rajhi family of Saudi Arabia - were used to support terrorist training, create safe houses, provide equipment, and host "terrorist conventions" in the United States.