Wayne E. Smith / The Detroit News
FBI agents on Tuesday raided and closed the offices of Goodwill Charitable Organization in Dearborn. Nobody was arrested.

Group accused of being a front for Hezbollah
Paul Egan / The Detroit News

DEARBORN -- The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday declared a Dearborn-based charity a front for the terrorist organization Hezbollah as FBI agents shut the group's offices and carted away boxes of records.
FBI agents raided the offices of Goodwill Charitable Organization Inc. on West Warren Avenue near Schaefer Road. They also raided the nearby offices of the Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization on Schaefer, though the Treasury Department did not designate Al-Mabarrat as a Hezbollah front, and the FBI allowed its offices to remain open.
Nobody was arrested or charged at either charity and area Muslim leaders urged the public not to rush to judgment.
The FBI in Detroit has used a strategy of fighting terrorism by attacking terrorists' suspected funding sources and Tuesday's move against Goodwill Charitable Organization is part of that effort.
In a 2005 filing with the Internal Revenue Service, the Goodwill Charitable Organization said it helps the poor, not specifying whether the help is given at home or abroad.
But the Treasury Department said the group -- which has no connection with Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit -- is the Dearborn arm of the Iranian Martyrs Foundation, a group with offices in Lebanon and elsewhere that the U.S. government said funds the designated terrorist groups Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad and aids Palestinian suicide bombers and their families.
Hezbollah and Hamas are active in Lebanon, while Islamic Jihad is based in Syria. All three are militant Islamic groups opposed to Israel with links to Iran.
Some area Arabs and Muslims consider Hezbollah and Hamas resistance fighters, not terrorists, though groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations recognize the terrorist designations and urge Muslims not to support the groups.
FBI has been studying group
William Kowalski, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in Detroit, said the Treasury Department made its determination about the Dearborn charity based largely on the results of an investigation conducted by a terrorism task force headed by the Detroit FBI and composed of about 25 local state and federal agencies.
Mike Safiedine, listed on tax and corporate filings at the president of Goodwill Charitable Organization, was in Lebanon on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment, said his son, also named Mike Safiedine.
"He's a good man," Mike Safiedine said of his father. "It's in our religion that we must help out the orphans."
Money given to Goodwill Charitable Organization, incorporated in 1995, is "for a good cause," he said.
The Treasury Department said in a statement the Goodwill Charitable Organization is a Hezbollah front "that reports directly to the leadership of the Martyrs Foundation in Lebanon," and that Hezbollah leaders direct its members in the United States to funnel their support for the Martyrs Foundation through the Dearborn charity.
Kowalski said the FBI also used warrants to search a small but unspecified number of businesses or homes connected with the Goodwill Charitable Organization, which he would not identify. He would not say the search of Al-Mabarrat was connected to the search of Goodwill and stressed that the FBI was not attempting to discourage donations to Muslim charities.
Imam Muhammad Ali Elahi hosted a hastily called meeting Tuesday at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights with top Detroit FBI officials and area leaders of various faiths. The FBI requested the meeting to talk about the raids and respond to concerns, he said.
"We expressed our concern that this pattern of dealing with Muslim charitable organizations may send a wrong message to the community and create some fear in the hearts of some people and discourage them from any kind of charity," the imam said.
Another charity raided in '06
Feelings are already raw over the FBI raid in September on the Southfield offices of Life for Relief and Development, a large and highly regarded Muslim charity under investigation in connection with its activities in Iraq. The raid happened on the eve of Ramadan, a holy month in which Muslims are required to give to worthy causes.
Life for Relief was not shut down and no charges have resulted, but the investigation continues. An Aug. 23 federal court hearing is scheduled over the charity's demands to have its seized property returned.
Al-Mabarrat, while smaller than Life for Relief, is larger and better-known than Goodwill Charitable Organization, with a stated budget of about $1 million compared with about $170,000 for Goodwill in 2005.
Dawud Walid, local director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said Al-Mabarrat is highly regarded, especially among Shia Muslims, and sends most of its support to southern Lebanon.
Fouad T. Beydoun, listed on tax and corporate records as president of Al-Mabarrat, could not be reached for comment.
Though no new terrorism prosecutions have been brought in Detroit since a botched case shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, federal officials say they believe they have used money-laundering and other financial laws to prosecute dozens of people they believe were funding terrorism, even though they never faced such charges.
In addition to the Goodwill Charitable Organization, the Treasury Department Tuesday froze the assets and banned transactions with the Martyrs Foundation, the finance firm Al-Qard al-Hassan, and two Hezbollah officials.
In Dallas, a trial began Tuesday for five top officials of another Muslim charity, the Holy Land Foundation, accused of funneling money to Hamas.
Kowalski said the timing of Tuesday's raids had no connection to the start of the trial.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...ETRO/707250395

Jag