Making a federal case out of an obscure leaf (3)

< Prev | 1 | 2 | 3

Terrorists profiting from khat?
Lawyers, defendants and some law enforcers argue that the reason behind the federal turnaround on khat was the belief that the khat profits are funding terrorist groups operating in the Horn of Africa.

After the indictments, FBI Assistant Director Mark Mershon said that the continuing probe would seek to determine the "ultimate destiny of the funds," which intelligence suggested was based in "countries in east Africa which are a hotbed for Sunni (Muslim) extremism and a wellspring for terrorists associated with al-Qaida."

Media coverage of Operation Somali Express amplified the alleged terrorism connection. ABC’s “Nightline” program, which was allowed by federal officials to cover the operation before it became public, broadcast a program on July 26, titled, “Drug of the Terror Lords.”

“What was at stake?” it asked rhetorically. “Stopping the spread of a new drug menace which could be helping fund terrorism.”

“East Africa is the home to several of the East African al-Qaida cell members,” John Demarest, an FBI agent working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, said in the report. “Somalia offers shelter, logistics, through various local jihadi group there, within Mogadishu and surrounding communities. They offer a training venue, funding, jobs and the like.”

Many Somali immigrants also see an anti-terrorism agenda behind the khat crackdown.

‘Part of the ongoing war on terror’
“It is clearly part of the ongoing war on terror,” said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center. “… The feds are looking for any excuse to lock people up and hopefully stumble across some connection to terror.”

In the more than two years since Operation Somalia Express got under way, no terrorism-related charges have been filed and no connections between the khat trade and terrorists has been revealed.

A DEA spokeswoman would not comment on whether any evidence has surfaced tying the khat trade to terrorism, saying that was the domain of the FBI. The FBI said it could not comment on an ongoing investigation.

Some experts remain confident the links will turn up. Among them is Harvey Kushner, a criminal justice professor at Long Island University, who has long argued that khat money is funding al-Qaida or associated terror organizations.

The tale of khat

usdoj.gov From farm to market   Horn of Africa: Producers and users Primary khat producers are highland areas in east Africa—mainly Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya. The cash crop has replaced coffee growing in parts of Ethiopia, and profits from khat exports have surpassed those from tea in Kenya. The biggest consumer market in the continent is Somalia, which produces some khat, but imports most from Kenya and Ethiopia. Somalia’s long tradition of chewing khat once was confined to adult men for socializing or praying, but it has become popular among other groups, especially teenaged boys. The plant is an economic mainstay for many in the region, from growers in the highlands to some 50,000 vendors in Somalia. The khat trade in war-torn Somalia is partly controlled by warlords who use the proceeds to fund their militias.   Legal khat trade Each day cargo flights carry freshly harvested khat from Yemen, Ethiopia and Kenya to a half-dozen Western European countries where khat is legal, including Great Britain. The main consumers in these countries are emigrants from the Horn of Africa, particularly Somalis. A bundle of khat, containing 30 to 40 leafy stems costs $5 to $10 at markets in London.   Smuggling to the United States From Western Europe, khat is relabeled and sent to users living in the United States where khat that contains cathinone is illegal. The U.S. lists the stimulant cathinone as a Schedule I controlled substance, along with drugs such as LSD and heroin. Shippers frequently use couriers or air express mail services to expedite khat deliveries to the U.S. because cathinone rapidly degrades, and essentially disappears after 48 hours. Shipments are generally small—mainly among friends and family--but recent busts suggest bigger players are getting involved. In U.S. cities, khat fetches 5-10 times what it costs in London.

Kushner, a TV pundit who has acted as a counterterror consultant for the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, devoted an entire chapter to the notion of a khat-terrorism link in his 2004 book “Holy War on the Home Front.”

“This has been my baby,” he said. “I’ve been lobbying for years to get cooperation between governments, especially United States and (Great Britain), on this. My hope is we’ll be able to show a money trail funneled back to terrorist activities including Somalia, East Africa and other places in the world where al-Qaida has a strong foothold.”

But many Somalis and Africa scholars question the logic of such a link. They point out that the Islamic Courts Union, the fundamentalist Islamic government that briefly took power in Somalia last year, tried to ban the use of khat.

Islamic government toppled
The government was subsequently toppled — in part because of its unpopular position on khat — and supplanted by an interim government with the assistance of U.S.-backed Ethiopian forces.

“I think the whole premise (of a khat-terror link) is really quite questionable,” said Ruth Iyob, professor of African politics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “The biggest crowd to profit from khat was the warlords who were supported by the U.S. government.”

Proving such a link, if one exists, is complicated by the way that khat arrives in the United States.

In the New York case, authorities allege that the tons of khat came in 20- to 30-pound bunches, usually carried by dozens of couriers before finally arriving in commercial air express packages from Europe. The challenge for prosecutors will be to create a paper trail linking the shipments to one another.

With the trials scheduled to begin next month in both the New York and Seattle cases, the pool of defendants is shrinking.

Of 18 original defendants in the Seattle case, only five are now headed for trial on June 19. Two were dismissed for mistaken identity and five others were freed after prosecutors decided they were peripheral to the case.

Two defendants who were described in the indictments as ringleaders of the khat-smuggling operation pleaded guilty to agricultural felonies — a crime punishable by 12 months probation and $1,000 fine. Four others have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance.

In a new indictment filed on April 5, the five remaining defendants are charged with conspiring to import and distribute cathinone. The charges could bring up to 40 years in prison, but given sentencing guidelines and other considerations, it would be surprising if they received a harsher punishment than the alleged ringleaders, observers say.

“They need to avoid disparity in sentencing,” said attorney Jeffrey Coopersmith, who represented a defendant in the Seattle case against whom all charges were dropped.

N.Y. prosecutors focus on eight
In New York, meanwhile, Judge Cotes ordered the prosecution to divide the defendants into smaller groups for trial. The prosecution selected eight defendants against whom it believes the evidence is most convincing for a trial scheduled to start on June 4, including the only four who have been held in prison since last year’s roundup. One of those major players — who had been indicted for a continuing criminal conspiracy, which carries a minimum 20 years — recently agreed to a plea deal that should substantially reduce his prison time.

The outcome of that trial will likely determine whether the other 36 defendants will stand trial or, if guilty verdicts are handed down, seek plea bargains.

Critics say common sense suggests there will be only one trial, but also indicates that common sense is not necessarily the driving force behind the khat cases.

"Hell hath no fury like a zealous federal prosecutor on a mission," said Tim Gresback, a Moscow, Idaho, defense attorney who has been following the federal cases. "If your ideology impels you to conclude that an expensive prosecution of Somalis for chewing on a shrub will somehow reduce terrorism, common-sense financial considerations become irrelevant. When obsessed with terrorism you see it everywhere, even hiding in a shrub."