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Corporate Pig · **FBI financing Hamas -** 10-07-03

Don't shoot the Messenger...

Quote:

AP: FBI Secretly Sent Money to Hamas

By JOHN SOLOMON
Associated Press Writer
Oct 7, 6:40 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In an undercover operation run in the shadow of Mideast peace talks, the FBI secretly sent money to suspected Hamas figures to see if the militant Palestinian group would divert it from charitable purposes to terrorist attacks, according to interviews and court documents.

The counterterrorism operation in 1998 and 1999 was run out of the FBI's Phoenix office in cooperation with Israeli intelligence and was approved by Attorney General Janet Reno, FBI officials told The Associated Press.

The money, usually just a couple of thousand dollars, was sent to suspected terror supporters during the operation as the FBI tried to track the flow of cash through terror organizations, the FBI said in a rare acknowledgment of an undercover sting.

"This was done in conjunction with permission from the attorney general for an ongoing operation, and Israeli authorities were aware of it," the bureau said.

The FBI said the money was given through one of its operative's charities to see if it would be diverted for terrorism and the amounts were kept small so it couldn't be used to fund a major attack. Court testimony indicates in one case a Hamas figure used the sting money to help orphans.

One of the FBI's key operatives, who had a falling out with the bureau, provided an account of the operation at a friend's closed immigration court proceeding. AP obtained and reviewed the court documents.

Arizona businessman Harry Ellen testified he permitted the FBI to bug his home, car and office, allowed his Muslim foundation's activities in the Gaza Strip to be monitored by agents, arranged a peace meeting between major Palestinian activists and gained personal access to Yasser Arafat during more than four years of cooperation with the FBI.

Ellen's FBI handler in the late 1990s was Kenneth Williams, an agent who later became famous for writing a pre-Sept. 11 memo to FBI headquarters warning there were Arab pilots training at U.S. flight schools. The warning went unheeded.

Ellen, a Muslim convert, testified he was taking a trip to the Gaza Strip to bring doctors to the region in summer 1998 when Williams asked him to provide money to a Hamas figure.

Williams wanted "the transfer of American funds to some of the terrorist groups for violent purposes," Ellen testified to the immigration court in a closed June 2001 session.

At the same time, President Clinton and his negotiators were trying to reinvigorate stalled Mideast peace talks, an effort that culminated in the Wye Accords in October 1998...

...He (Williams) said they (the dollars) would be for terrorist activities," Ellen testified. Abu Shanab distributed the money to Palestinian orphanages and health care facilities, he said.

Ellen testified that Williams told him he hoped the transfer would lead to more money exchanges through terror groups but Ellen refused to earmark money for terrorism. He testified he later learned another FBI operative had offered Hamas and Palestinian figures larger amounts for terrorist attacks.

The court testimony shows Ellen allowed his home, office and car in Arizona to be bugged so the FBI could listen, without a warrant, to visiting Palestinians or Americans if they discussed illegal activity.

The FBI said it commonly uses such recordings. "Consensual monitoring does not require a warrant. In cases where the FBI conducts consensual monitoring, the one party is aware he is being recorded," it said.

Refer: http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/sto...MPLATE=DEFAULT

Or for Documents, photos and court testimony;
Refer: http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/ext...oryhome1.shtml