Embarrassed USF officials initially said they had no confirmation that the soft-spoken, 38-year-old, British-trained economist they hired is in fact the same person as Islamic Jihad’s new leader. But he was, and he may have served as the organization’s No. 2 man the whole time he lived in the Tampa area. A senior Justice Department official calls Shallah “a post-er child” for the administra-tion’s antiterrorism bill, which Bill Clinton signed last week. Among other changes, the new law makes it easier to deport foreign nationals suspected of being members of terrorist groups, even based on classified evidence.
Shallah is now beyond the reach of United States law, but the investigation of Islamic Jihad activities in Tampa is getting stranger. Last week university officials were forced to virtually shut down the school’s main campus in response to a bomb threat demanding that the “biased, racist, liberal American press” apologize to Shallah. A week earlier authorities had revealed that one of Shallah’s colleagues, engineering professor Sami al-Arian, made many phone calls to two New York-area Arabs who figured in the World Trade Center bombing investigation. Al-Arian, now on sabbatical, has denied any connection to terrorism. But immigration officials are opposing his attempt to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.
The Feds are seeking to shut down suspected U.S.-support networks for other foreign terrorist groups as well. Mousa Muhammad Abu Marzook, an admitted “midlevel” political activist for the Palestinian radical group Hamas, has been held in a New York jail since agents nabbed him at Kennedy Airport last July. The Gaza-born businessman holds a green card allowing him U.S. residence and denies any involvement with terrorist activities. But U.S. officials are seeking to extradite him to Israel, based on Israeli allegations that he authorized the recruitment and training of terrorists and sent cash to the Middle East to finance arms deals. Sympathizers say Marzook is being singled out for harsh treatment because he is an Arab. The case could take years to resolve–but it is part of Washington’s new determination to deny safe haven to those who support terrorism overseas.
