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June
26, 2002, 8:45 a.m.
Terrorist
State
Florida’s shadow
of terrorism.
By Josh Devon
and Evan Kohlmann
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n light of
recent events, it seems appropriate that the "Sunshine State"
should add another enticing attribute to its tourism literature: incubator
of terrorism.
With the stunning
arrests of Sunrise-resident and attempted "dirty bomber" Jose
Padilla (a.k.a. Abdullah al-Muhajir) and Broward County al Qaeda fundraiser
Adham Hassoun, Floridians should be increasingly aware that their state
has become fertile ground for terrorists and terrorist sympathizers. But
Padilla and Hassoun are only emblematic of a broader — and deeply
disturbing — legacy of terrorist activity in the Sunshine State.
Aside from the warm
weather, Florida offers several immediate benefits to would-be terrorists
looking for safe haven within the United States. In one al Qaeda terrorist
training manual — exhibited during recent 1998 East Africa Embassy
bombings trials — members of bin Laden's sleeper cells are specifically
instructed to rent apartments in target countries only in "newly
developed areas where people do not know one another." Florida, in
the midst of a major population boom, fits the bill. Florida also has
relatively easy access to international airports and seaports, not to
mention a significant and growing domestic Muslim population. The state
has also been inexplicably lax in closing loopholes traditionally used
by foreign terrorists, including sham marriages and license fraud.
No wonder, then,
that Florida has fit al Qaeda plans to a tee. Thirteen of the nineteen
September 11 hijackers, for example, had links to Florida. Those operatives
not only used South Florida banks to launder and receive funds to underwrite
the 9/11 attacks, but also frequented local flight schools, for which
Florida's weather provides over 300 days of great flying.
Ihab Ali, Osama bin
Laden's personal pilot, earned a living as a cab driver in Orlando before
his arrest in May 1999. Ali was eventually named as an unindicted co-conspirator
in the American Embassy bombings in Africa and convicted of perjury charges.
Orlando was also the preferred residence of Ziyad Khaleel, a longtime
Palestinian fundamentalist activist who served as a principle al Qaeda
"procurement agent" in the U.S. From Orlando, Khaleel purchased
advanced electronics for bin Laden including satellite telephones, computers,
and covert surveillance equipment.
But terrorists' disturbing
attraction to Florida stretches back even further. During the first half
of the 1990s, Palestinians Sami al-Arian, Mazen al-Najjar, and Ramadan
Abdullah Shallah used the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa as
a lucrative fundraising and recruitment base for the Palestinian Islamic
Jihad, establishing two alleged terrorist front groups, the World and
Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE) and the Islamic Concern Project (ICP).
Subsequently, in June 1995, Shallah returned from Tampa to the Middle
East, where he promptly took chief command of PIJ in October 1995. USF
had quickly become a focal point for two alleged terrorist front groups,
the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE) and the Islamic Concern
Project (ICP). Sami al-Arian remains to this day under investigation by
the federal government.
One of al-Arian and
Shallah's assistants at USF, Tarik Hamdi, later moved to Virginia where
he aided in Ziyad Khaleel's efforts to provide Osama bin Laden with advanced
technology to pursue terrorist activities. Hamdi himself was in direct
contact with bin Laden's top lieutenant in Western Europe at that time,
Khalid al-Fawwaz. Al-Fawwaz currently sits in jail in Britain awaiting
the fulfillment of an extradition request by the United States, which
wishes to prosecute him for his direct role in the 1998 Embassy bombings.
Florida's transformation
into a hotbed for terrorists is certainly disturbing, and merits much
closer scrutiny from both federal and state officials. But Floridians
themselves must also be alert, lest their state become tragically famous
as the home base for an American jihad.
—
Josh Devon and Evan Kohlmann are independent terrorism researchers based
in Washington, D.C.
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