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Indicting Hamas: By Disrupting Its Operations, Does the West Become a Target?

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Matthew Levitt- Last week, federal authorities in Chicago indicted three senior Hamas members - two of whom were arrested in the U.S., while the third remains at large in Syria - on charges of racketeering and (in the case of one defendant) providing material support to terrorists. The Chicago indictment lays bare the myth that Hamas activity in the U.S. has been limited to financing terrorism through charity. The indictment outlines in disturbing detail a fifteen-year conspiracy involving Hamas supporters in Louisiana, Illinois, and Virginia raising funds as well as playing proactive roles in all facets of Hamas decision-making and preparation for actual terrorist attacks, highlighting the operational role of U.S.-based members of the Hamas Political Bureau in recruiting and training new operatives, funding operational cells, and traveling to the Middle East to oversee their progress. The indictment also charges the defendants with racketeering, characterizing Hamas as a "criminal enterprise." In so doing, the government will be able to hold defendants accountable for illegal activities such as murder and kidnapping that predate the formal labeling of Hamas as a Specially Designated Terrorist entity (1995) and a Foreign Terrorist Organization (1997).
2004-08-27 00:00:00
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