FBI ‘offered money to Hamas’
The FBI secretly funnelled thousands of dollars to Palestinian militant group Hamas during the Clinton era in a bid to track terror funds, it has emerged.
But the sting failed when the Americans’ key player, Arizona businessman and Muslim convert Harry Ellen, fell out with his handlers, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Admirers of Mr Ellen have accused the FBI of squandering a valuable chance to infiltrate Palestinian organisations.
As a charity worker, he had been able to meet senior Hamas figures and also had personal access to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Details of Mr Allen’s work emerged when he testified at a friend’s immigration court proceedings.
The FBI itself confirmed the aborted operation, according to the AP, saying it had acted with the permission of US Attorney General Janet Reno and had worked alongside Israeli intelligence.
However, President Bill Clinton’s National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger, has said the White House was not informed of the FBI’s activities.
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Whilst Mr Clinton was negotiating the Wye peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians in 1998, the FBI was asking Mr Ellen to provide money to Hamas during a trip to the Gaza Strip where he was due to convey doctors.
According to AP, Mr Ellen also allowed the FBI to monitor his Muslim foundation’s work in Gaza as well as bug his car, home and business back in Arizona.
The businessman, who was aiding the FBI as far back as 1994, said later that he had agreed to work for them “not as a snitch but as a good American”.
Love affair
During his 1998 trip to Gaza, Mr Ellen told the court that he had handed over between $3,000 and $5,000 in FBI funds to prominent Hamas figure Ismail Abu Shanab, killed in an Israeli air strike earlier this year.
Mr Ellen’s charity work was aimed at helping poor Palestinians
His handler had told him that the money would be used by Hamas for “terrorist activities” but, in the event, Mr Shanab distributed it to Palestinian orphanages and health care facilities.
Mr Ellen testified that he had heard later of another FBI operative who offered Hamas larger amounts for “terrorist attacks”.
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His co-operation with the FBI ended abruptly in 1999 after a series of disagreements which began when it criticised Mr Ellen for having an affair with a Chinese woman suspected of espionage.
One supporter of Mr Ellen, former attorney Melvin McDonald, said the FBI had thrown away a valuable source of intelligence.
“Harry had been a tremendous resource to the bureau,” he said.
“We did not have that many people like him with connections like that to the Middle East.”
The US declared Hamas a “terrorist organisation” in 1997.
FBI guilty? not guilty? you decide. 