Authorities suspect link to Muslim charity

The charity has denied any connections to terrorism.
TOLEDO (AP) -- Documents seized by federal agents suggest that two of three Muslim men accused of plotting to kill American and allied soldiers may have ties to a Muslim charity suspected of funneling money to the militant organization Hamas.
Federal agents seized an invoice from the charity, known as KindHearts, from a travel agency where defendant Mohammad Zaki Amawi worked.
Agents also took a KindHearts binder from an address where defendant Marwan Othman El-Hindi lived.
Lists of items seized were filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Toledo.
The three suspects -- El-Hindi, Amawi and Wassim I. Mazloum -- were arrested last weekend. All have pleaded innocent to charges including conspiring to kill Americans and conspiring to provide or conceal support to terrorists. They could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of the most serious offenses.
U.S. Attorney Greg White said the investigations of KindHearts and the possible terror plot are separate.
Denied connections
KindHearts has denied any terrorist connections and has said it is a humanitarian organization. But on Feb. 19, the Treasury Department ordered U.S. banks to freeze the assets of the Toledo-based charity.
Cleveland lawyer Jihad Smaili, who is also a KindHearts board member, said Saturday that items seized by federal agents during the terror arrests do not prove any link with his organization.
"There is no connection there," Smaili said. "Even if these men had KindHearts items in their possession, that does not mean that KindHearts supported them to do something illegal. That would be guilt by association."
Mazloum, 24, is Lebanese and came to the United States in 2000. He is a legal, permanent resident of the United States.
El-Hindi, 43, is a U.S. citizen born in Jordan. Amawi, 26, is a citizen of both the United States and Jordan.
Other items seized by federal agents during the arrests included bank and phone records, computers, cell phones, knives, travel records and battle dress uniforms.
At another of El-Hindi's addresses, agents also confiscated a subpoena from a federal grand jury in Syracuse, N.Y., and faxes from federal prosecutors there.
Doctor convicted
That is where a Muslim doctor was convicted last year of setting up an unlicensed charity and illegally sending money to Iraq.
Dr. Rafil Dhafir was convicted in federal court on 59 felony charges and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Dhafir served on the board of a Chicago travel agency that El-Hindi managed for about a year.
El-Hindi attended a community college near Syracuse when he moved to the United States from Jordan in 1984, according to his lawyer.
"He didn't know about the fund-raising activities or money going to Iraq," said attorney Stephen Hartman.