Foundation Is Accused of Supporting Terror
Re “Feeling Like the Enemy Within,” Sept. 20: Riad Abdelkarim seems at first blush a sympathetic figure--a physician, a family man, a pleasant neighbor. His less sympathetic side--given short shrift in the article--is his role as a member of the board of directors of the Holy Land Foundation. Abdelkarim describes the foundation as the most successful American Muslim charity working to aid Palestinians and is affronted that FBI agents questioned him, within days of Sept. 11, about his role as a member of the foundation’s board.
He ought not have been affronted. The State Department put the foundation on an internal watch list because of its alleged ties to terrorist groups in the Middle East earlier this year. On Sept. 6 the foundation offices in Richardson, Texas, were raided by a federal terrorism task force because of possible ties to those same Middle East terror groups.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Oct. 3, 2001 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday October 3, 2001 Home Edition California Part B Page 12 Metro Desk 2 inches; 38 words Type of Material: Correction
Foundation--David Lehrer (letter, Sept. 28) said that the Texas offices of the Holy Land Foundation “were raided by a federal terrorism task force” on Sept. 6. In fact, the headquarters of InfoCom Corp., across the street, were searched by the task force on Sept. 5 and 6.
The Anti-Defamation League, as far back as 1998, asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that the foundation provided monthly stipends to the families of terrorist suicide bombers in the West Bank and Gaza. Abdelkarim thinks the charges against the foundation are “ridiculous.” The facts suggest otherwise.
David A. Lehrer
ADL Regional Director
Los Angeles
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