DALLAS — The Justice Department's criminal case against officials of the largest U.S.-based Islamic charity relies more heavily than previously known on Israeli intelligence, court records show.
President Bush ordered the charity shut down in December 2001, declaring from the Rose Garden that the Holy Land Foundation was raising money in the U.S. that "pays for murder abroad" by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
However, the pending criminal case will place a higher burden of proof on the claims than required for the president's executive action. And questions about the credibility of Israeli intelligence are raising fresh doubts about the Justice Department's case.
Disputes already have surfaced over assertions of political influence, interrogation methods and allegedly faulty translations.
Federal prosecutors, accusing charity officials of aiding terrorists, have disclosed receiving 21 binders of documents from the Israeli government, according to records originally sealed by the court. The binders contain an estimated 8,000 pages that, in sheer volume, dwarf earlier shared intelligence -- including Israeli military and police reports, translated interrogation transcripts and financial analyses.
Previous intelligence from Israel was a factor in 2001 when the White House, with great fanfare, froze assets of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, based in Richardson, Texas.
Those claims, however, were never subjected to the kind of rigorous legal challenge expected in a criminal trial.
Seven former Holy Land officials, six of them American citizens, are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, sending money, goods and services to terrorists through Palestinian organizations controlled by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group since 1995.
They have denied assisting Hamas.
The case figures to hinge on the government's ability to prove, largely with Israeli-provided information, that the defendants knowingly supported groups tied to Hamas. Israel's prominent investigative role appears to be unprecedented in post-Sept. 11 terrorism cases.
Defense lawyers already have argued that allegations against Holy Land are unwarranted and influenced by political pressure from Tel Aviv. Bush's presidential order closing down the charity came on the eve of a White House visit by then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
