In detailing connections between the Richardson, Texas-based Holy Land Foundation (HLF) and Hamas, Attorney General John Ashcroft cited longtime Hamas operative Musa Abu Marzuq's (Marzook) early involvement in the HLF.
Mr. Ashcroft noted that HLF, whose financial assets are being frozen by the U.S. government because of its support for Hamas, shared office space and employees with InfoCom, an Internet company raided by the FBI six days prior to the September 11 attacks. Both entities received early financing and support from Marzuq.
"InfoCom, like the Holy Land Foundation, received much of its early money from Mousa Abu Marzuq, a top Hamas official who, the U.S. courts have determined, was directly involved in terrorism," Mr. Ashcroft said at a news conference with President George W. Bush on December 4, 2001. "In addition to sharing Marzuq as an early sponsor, InfoCom and the Holy Land Foundation were both established in California and moved to Texas in the same period of time. They are currently located in the same business park and appear to share office space and personnel."
Musa Abu Marzuq: Key Hamas Official
Marzuq holds the post of Deputy Political Bureau Chief of Hamas. In this capacity, he is responsible for coordinating the international aspects of Hamas' terrorist activities, specifically the organization's funding and the training of the group's operatives. He is currently believed to be living in Damascus, Syria, where he heads the Hamas office.
Until late 1992, Abu Marzuq made his residence in the U.S. in Falls Church, Virginia. According to his lawyer's account, Abu Marzuq lived in the United States for a total of 14 years, and four of his children were born in this country. He then left the U.S. for the organization's offices in Damascus, Syria and then Jordan. In 1995, after being expelled from Jordan, Marzuq tried to enter the U.S. On July 25, 1995, Abu Marzuq, together with his wife and four of his children, were detained at Kennedy Airport in New York after returning from a trip to the Middle East. His family was released the following day. Marzuq was held by U.S. authorities. In January 1997, Israel declined to request his extradition from the U.S. and Marzuq joined his family in Jordan. Marzuq was expelled from Jordan in 1999 during a Jordanian government crackdown on Hamas operations in the country. Marzuq reportedly travels under a Yemeni passport, and is currently believed to operate out of Damascus.
While living in the U.S. in the 1980's and early 90's, Marzuq was reported to have lectured to a training session of Hamas recruits at a June 1990 conference in Kansas. The training session included instructions on the assembly of car bombs that was given by another lecturer who was described as an Arab-American originally from Libya.
Marzuq was also political director of the Springfield Virginia-based United Association for Studies and Research. In January 1993 the United Association for Studies and Research was linked to two Palestinian-Americans who were arrested and convicted in Israel for bringing funds into the country for the purpose of organizing Hamas terror activities. One of the men, Muhammad Salah, is a longtime fundraiser for Hamas, based in Bridgeview, IL.
Until his first expulsion from Jordan in 1995, both Marzuq and Imad Al-Alami, another member of the Hamas Political Bureau who formerly served as the Hamas representative in Teheran, were reported to have been involved in coordinating Hamas terrorist attacks within Israel, including the April 1994 bombings in Afula and Hadera.