USA: MOHAMMED ALI HASAN AL-MOAYAD AND MOHAMMED MOHSEN YAHYA ZAYED OF YEMEN ARRESTED IN NEW YORK FOR SUPPORTING AL QAEDA AND HAMAS TERRORISTS.
Record ID:
647810
USA: MOHAMMED ALI HASAN AL-MOAYAD AND MOHAMMED MOHSEN YAHYA ZAYED OF YEMEN ARRESTED IN NEW YORK FOR SUPPORTING AL QAEDA AND HAMAS TERRORISTS.
- Title: USA: MOHAMMED ALI HASAN AL-MOAYAD AND MOHAMMED MOHSEN YAHYA ZAYED OF YEMEN ARRESTED IN NEW YORK FOR SUPPORTING AL QAEDA AND HAMAS TERRORISTS.
- Date: 4th March 2003
- Summary: (W1) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 4, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. MLV: NEWS CONFERENCE AT U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE 0.06 2. MV: REPORTER TAKING NOTES. 0.09 3. SC: (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S ATTORNEY, ROSLYNN MAUSKOPF, SAYING: "Today, I am pleased to announce the arrests of terrorist financiers Mohammed Al Hasan Al-Moayed and Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed. These individuals were arrested in Frankfurt, Germany on January 10, 2003 for their roles in supporting the al-Qaeda and Hamas terrorist organizations." 0.36 4. CU: PHOTOGRAPHS OF AL-MOAYAD (LEFT) AND ZAYED. 0.43 5. CU: PHOTO OF AL-MOAYAD. 0.48 6. CU: PHOTO OF ZAYED. 0.54 7. WS: NEWS CONFERENCE. 0.59 8. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) MAUSKOPF SAYING: "Al-Moayad met with bin Laden and provided over 20 million dollars (US) to al-Qaeda with some of the money coming from contributors in the United States, including here in Brooklyn, New York. Al-Moayad describes himself as the spiritual leader of Osama bin Laden." 1.22 9. CU: INDICTMENTS AGAINST AL-MOAYAD AND ZAYED. (3 SHOTS) 1.40 10. MV: MEDIA AT NEWS CONFERENCE. 1.45 11. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S ATTORNEY ROSLYNN MAUSKOPF SAYING: "And, as this case shows, we will use all available resources and all lawful methods at our disposal, from human intelligence, advance electronic surveillance, deep undercover operations and others. We will use all of these means to disrupt terrorist organizations and prevent future terrorist attacks against innocent civilians." 2.12 12. CU: PHOTOGRAPHER. 2.16 13. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER RAYMOND KELLY SAYING: "They did their fundraising right here in our own backyard, in Brooklyn. But there is a problem with that, a problem for them, they ran afoul of New York City detectives and FBI agents. they ran afoul of the Joint Terrorist Task Force. So, there is a clear message here: stay out of Brooklyn, stay out of New York." 2.35 14. WS/CU: AL-FAROOQ MOSQUE IN BROOKLYN. (2 SHOTS) 2.47 15. MLV/ZOOM IN: PEOPLE ENTERING MOSQUE. 2.58 16. CU: (REPORTER ASKING ABDUL RACHMAN, MOSQUE MEMBER WHERE THE MONEY RAISED AT THE MOSQUE IS GOING. 3.00 17. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABDUL RACHMAN, MOSQUE MEMBER SAYING: "Money for needy people. That's what they raise money for to help people, poor people, orphan peoples. People they need clothes, food, that's it." 3.10 18. LAS/CRANE DOWN: AL-FAROOQ MOSQUE. 3.17 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 19th March 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA6LLEZCVTUQU5N0RL20YDP66GR
- Story Text: Two Yemeni citizens, including an Islamic cleric with
alleged links to Osama bin Laden, have been charged in New
York with supporting al Qaeda and Hamas, groups targeted by
the United States in its war on terrorism.
At a news conference on Tuesday (March 5) at the U.S.
Attorney's office in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. Attorney Roslynn
Mauskopf announced the indictment of two Yemeni men, "for
their roles in supporting the al-Qaeda and Hamas terrorist
organizations," Mauskopf said.
The two men, 54-year-old Mohammed Ali Hasan Al-Moayad of
Sanaa, Yemen, and 29-year-old Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed also
of Yemen, are accused of providing millions of dollars,
weapons, communications equipment and recruits to al Qaeda and
Hamas.
They were arrested in Germany on January 10 this year. The
United States has requested their immediate extradition,
according to documents unsealed in U.S. District Court in
Brooklyn.
"Today, I am pleased to announce the arrests of terrorist
financiers Mohammed Al Hasan Al-Moayed and Mohammed Mohsen
Yahya Zayed. These individuals were arrested in Frankfurt,
Germany on January 10, 2003 for their roles in supporting the
al-Qaeda and Hamas terrorist organizations," Mauskopf said.
The complaint said the charges were made against the two
men largely on the basis of two FBI informants who took part
in undercover operations in Yemen and Germany last year and
this year posing as people who wanted to give money to Islamic
extremists.
"Al-Moayad met with bin Laden and provided over 20 million
dollars (US) to al-Qaeda with some of the money coming from
contributors in the United States including here in Brooklyn,
New York. Al-Moayad describes himself as the spiritual leader
of Osama bin Laden," she told the news conference.
Yemen is the ancestral home of bin Laden, who is blamed by
the United States for masterminding the September 11, 2001
hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington and other
attacks on U.S. interests in the past decade. Germany was an
important base for the hijackers -- three of the four pilots
lived in the northern port of Hamburg in the 1990s.
Al-Moayad faces a possible prison sentence of up to 60
years, and Zayed faces up to 30 years if convicted of the
charges, officials said.
The unsealing of the charges was first announced in
Washington on Tuesday during testimony by U.S. Attorney
General John Ashcroft to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He
said the complaint alleges that some of the money was raised
from the al Farooq mosque in Brooklyn.
At Tuesday's news conference in New York, the city's
Police Commissioner, Raymond Kelly, confirmed that the pair
raised money from the al-Farooq mosque, but he said that was a
mistake.
"They did their fundraising right here in our own
backyard, in Brooklyn. But there is a problem with that, a
problem for them, they ran afoul of New York City detectives
and FBI agents. they ran afoul of the Joint Terrorist Task
Force. So, there is a clear message here: stay out of
Brooklyn, stay out of New York," said Kelly.
According to the court papers, in December 2001, one
informant reported to the FBI that Al-Moayad "was involved in
supplying money, arms and recruits to Mujahideen fighters,
i.e. men fighting for extremist Muslim groups such as al Qaeda
in Afghanistan and separatists in Chechnya and Kashmir."
The complaint said Al-Moayad was an official of the Islah
political party in Yemen and the Imam, or spiritual leader of
al-Ihsan mosque in Sanaa. The informant knew Al-Moayad for
more than six years and prayed at the mosque, the complaint
said.
Zayed was identified in the complaint as a secretary to
Al-Moayad who took part in several meetings January 7 to
January 9 in Frankfurt, Germany, between the cleric and the
two informants. They discussed who to contact in the United
States to transfer the money.
The complaint under the name of a FBI agent alleged that
during one conversation that was videotaped and recorded on
audiotape, Al-Moayad identified al Qaeda and Hamas as the
groups that would receive the money.
It said that when one informant asked Zayed if he could be
trusted to give money to the groups, "the defendant swore to
Allah that he would" and suggested to the informant "that
possibly arrangements could be made with members of Hamas to
allow (the informant) to send money directly to Hamas."
The militant Islamic group Hamas is behind a wave of
attacks in Israel during a 29-month-old Palestinian uprising.
Police cars were on patrol outside the al-Farooq mosque on
Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn on Tuesday. One mosque worshipper,
Abdul Rachman, denied that money raised inside was used to
fund terrorism.
"Money for needy people. That's what they raise money for
to help people, poor people, orphan peoples. People they need
clothes, food, that's it," said Rachman.
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