Prosecutors outlined Friday their c...

Prosecutors outlined Friday their case against sum of two units men charged with aiding the Palestinian militant collection Hamas, saying they plotted to arm a terrorism campaign with fire-arms money and fresh recruits.

As early as 1990 Muhammad Salah bought airline tickets to Syria for pair recruits who received bomb-making training from a "Hamas military operative who had fought in Afghanistan," the 54-page document alleges.

It traces the story of the 53-year-old Salah, a soft-spoken resident of suburban Bridge-view, from his travel to the West Bank - - allegedly to deliver wealth to the Palestinian group's subterranean military organization -- to his 1993 arrest and the five years he exhausted in an Israeli prison before returning to the Chicago area.

"On the day of his arrest, Israeli authorities armed with a search warrant recruited approximately $97,000 in cash in Salah's east Jerusalem house of entertainment room," says the outline filed with federal arbiter Amy St. Eve.

1ST TO BE in succession TERROR LIST

Salah and Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 48 of Alexandria, Va., have pleaded not guilty to a racketeering indictment alleging that they conspired to furnish cash and organizational aid to the Hamas terrorism campaign.

Messages seeking explanation were left Friday for Salah attorney Michael E Deutsch and Ashqar attorney William Moffitt. Deutsch often has said the government is trying to convict Salah in succession the basis of statements he made after he was captured and tortured for days by way of Israeli security agents.

The outline filed with St border who is to preside from one side of to the other the trial, is designed to furnish enough evidence that a conspiracy was afoot that the connoisseur might be willing to lift the usual ban upon hearsay testimony.

forward a historical note, it says that when Salah left prison, he "return to the United States as the first United States citizen continually listed as a specially designated terrorist by way of the Treasury Department."

still many of the details have been aired in court filings for years.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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