In his view, even the dancers who performed at fundraisers were supporting PFLP terrorism.
"They put on a show for you," Knight said of the dabka performers. "And it's the whole ambience that's generated in the thing that causes people to reach into their pockets and give money."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday July 01, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 64 words Type of Material: Correction
The L.A. 8 -- A time chart that accompanied an article in Wednesday's Section A about a long-running terrorism case known as that of the L.A. 8 made reference to a "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine fundraiser." Whether money raised at the 1986 event went to the Popular Front organization is a matter of dispute and the central issue in the case.
There was, however, a problem with Knight's theory.
His superiors in Washington were not buying it.
Three times he laid out the evidence he'd gathered and asked headquarters for permission to open an official investigation, a bureaucratic step paving the way for criminal prosecution. The responses were blunt.
"FBIHQ has again reviewed LA's request," one communique read, "
"The circumstances presented concerning his PFLP activities do not demonstrate preparation for terrorism, but rather, the exercise of his rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and its Amendments. Therefore, LA's request is again denied."
An FBI agent in New York who shared Knight's interest in the PFLP suggested he team up with immigration authorities. There was, the agent wrote Knight, a significant upside to this then-novel approach: "INS deportation hearings are not criminal trials, and the rules of evidence are less stringent, such as hearsay, disclosure of sources, etc."
Knight met with an attorney of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles. He was briefed on the McCarran-Walter Act and the provision dealing with the deportation of communists. He revisited the Marxist ideologies expressed in the PFLP magazines that Hamide and his associates distributed.
He also requested that an INS agent be loaned to his investigation. This was done, although the INS supervisor who authorized the assignment later would say he had been left somewhat in the dark about what kind of case Knight was attempting to build.
"I don't think we knew what the full deck of cards was," former INS District Director Ernest Gustafson recalled. "I'm not so sure we were completely in the loop." Nonetheless, the INS would authorize the arrests.
Knight informed the FBI of his plans: "This novel approach," he wrote, "would utilize information developed from FBI investigations with the INS deportation laws." He met in Washington with superiors and came away believing that the U.S. attorney general supported the effort.
