Rabih Haddad, a founder of an Islamic charity based in suburban Bridgeview, held meetings outside the U.S. more than a decade ago with members of terror groups linked to Al Qaeda, according to federal prosecutors.
During his overseas trips, the Lebanese-born Haddad, who was arrested by immigration agents four months ago, was reportedly seen at facilities that housed and supported organizations tied to the terrorist network, government officials said.
The accusations were contained in the more than 1,000 pages of documents from immigration court transcripts released Friday by the government. Their release came after a federal appeals court in Cincinnati last week rejected the government’s effort to keep Haddad’s immigration proceeding secret.
Since Sept. 11, the government has applied such a secrecy policy in handling the more than 700 people detained as a result of its anti-terrorism efforts.
No details about what Haddad is alleged to have been doing with Osama bin Laden’s network emerged from the transcripts.
Noel Saleh, one of Haddad’s attorneys, discounted the alleged link between his client and the Al Qaeda network as “unsubstantiated innuendo.”
“Yes, he was involved with the Global Relief [Foundation]. Yes, he was in Pakistan and Kuwait in the late ’80s and early ’90s. But there were UN people over there too, probably distributing relief to the same needy people,” said the Detroit-based attorney.
A co-founder of the Bridgeview charity, Haddad, 41, was seized by immigration agents at his home in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Dec. 14. That was the same day the government froze the assets of Global Relief because of its alleged links to Al Qaeda.
Founded in 1992, Global Relief is the second-largest Islamic charity in the U.S., with a donor base of more than 20,000 people and $5.3 million in contributions in 2000, according to the transcripts.
An FBI document filed last month in U.S. District Court in Chicago as part of its case against the charity claimed that Global Relief had contacts in 1996 and 1997 with a top-ranked assistant to bin Laden.
The charity has fought the government’s action and denied allegations about its ties to terror organizations.
After first coming to the U.S. in 1980 as a student, Haddad has lived on and off in the U.S. for as long as 14 years, the hearing documents show.
But they also said–as U.S. Immigration Court Judge Elizabeth Hacker noted in a ruling in which she rejected releasing Haddad on bond–that he has not had any “visible means of support” while living in the U.S.
Under questioning, Haddad said he received between $5,000 and $10,000 a year from the family of his wife, Salma Al Rushaid, and other charitable donations. He also said numerous trips in the U.S. have been funded by Global Relief and Islamic centers where he raised funds.
“Sometimes I know the names of people, sometimes I don’t know the names, sometimes it is given to me, even anonymously,” Haddad said at one hearing about receiving money.
The transcripts detailed how Haddad, in order to move into a subsidized housing complex in Ann Arbor, provided a form from Global Relief showing that he received an annual salary of $29,500. But Haddad said that he submitted the form only because he wanted to show a salary and that the money really reflected donations he expected in the coming year.
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The transcripts also described his arrest in December by two immigration agents who said they noticed four to six bricks of cash, each from 2 to 3 inches thick, in his briefcase. He reportedly told the agent that “it was only singles” and the money was for the charity.
In January, Haddad was transferred to Chicago to await an appearance before a federal grand jury here. But he declined to testify, exercising his 5th Amendment rights.
The transcripts were released following a court battle waged by four Detroit-area publications and U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) to open the proceedings to the public and press. The government had argued that such a step would endanger national security.
But it withdrew that claim on Friday, saying the documents did not contain critical information. But at the same time, the government said it had filed more sensitive material regarding Haddad in federal court.
Haddad remains in “good spirits” at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, his wife said Saturday from their Ann Arbor home. After complaining about conditions and care at the center, Haddad was moved last month from solitary confinement, and his visiting hours and telephone privileges were expanded.
His faces another deportation hearing Wednesday in Detroit. So, too, does his wife and three of his four children. They are all charged with overstaying tourism visas. Their fourth child was born in Chicago and is a U.S. citizen.
“There’s no backup at all in the documents,” his wife said. “It’s really ridiculous to think they are holding him without specifying a link.”