Gary Fitleberg, May 25, 2004

According to a report in the Detroit News, an accused Hezbollah terrorist has returned and surrendered to the United States to face trial for terrorist activities pursuant to a 1996 anti-terrorist law.

The man who fled to Lebanon after being the first charged under the legislation fled to Lebanon in 1998 surrendered to authorities when he was taken into custody at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The suspected terrorist was accompanied by an FBI agent on his flight back to America.

Fawzi Mustapha Assi, 44, was arrested on July 13, 1998 after being stopped at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with night-vision goggles and other equipment that the FBI said was meant for the Lebanese-based Hezbollah guerrilla group.

FBI agents tapped Assi's work and home phone and discovered he was trying to export military goods to Hezbollah, a terrorist organization in Lebanon.

Federal agents followed Assi to the airport in July 1998 and stopped him just as he was about to board a plane to the Middle East, Local 4 reported.

One day after Assi was stopped at the airport, agents spotted him dumping several boxes of items into trash dumpsters in Dearborn. Customs Agents sifted through the dumpsters and discovered more night-vision devices, thermal imaging scopes and literature on Israeli Cabinet members with their locations.

Customs agents seized seven pairs of night-vision goggles, one infrared heat detection device and two global positioning satellite modules, each worth $25,000, according to officials.

He was charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization but denied the charge and fled to Lebanon after he was released on bond. Assi was released on $100,000 bond when his father put up his Dearborn home as collateral, vouching that his son would appear back in court. Unfortunately, Assi never returned to the courthouse, his father lost his home and federal agents lost a man with suspected ties to terror, Local 4 reported.

Assi was last seen at a federal court appearance in downtown Detroit. Prosecutors asked the judge to deny Assi's bond, saying he was a flight risk, but the judge disagreed.

"This offense is neither a crime of violence nor does it involve a narcotic drug. It is an offense that involves allegations of support for an international terrorist organization. However, the items that were alleged in the offense do not involve weapons or indications of a crime of violence," said the judge.

Assi was charged in a criminal complaint 10 days after being stopped and indicted the next month. When U.S. Magistrate Virginia Morgan released him on an electronic tether, federal prosecutors appealed to U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood. Assi disappeared on the second day of the hearing.

When he did not return for his trial originally, his former attorney David Steingold reported that he may have fled the country, committed suicide or was murdered by Hezbollah.

Assi, a native Arab from Lebanon came to America at age 18 and lived here for twenty years and was a U.S. citizen. He received a master's degree from Wayne State University. He was a former Ford Motor Co. engineer at the River Rouge plant in Dearborn. Assi was divorced but lived with his wife and three children on Middlepoint Street in Dearborn.

"His family lives here and he wants to return to a normal life and put this behind him as swiftly as possible," Mullkoff told The Detroit News for a news story. Apparently Assi had been negotiating for several months for his safe return to the U.S.

"Fawzi Assi is a U.S. citizen," Mullkoff said after Assi was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Tuesday. "He has been attempting for several months to arrange for a voluntary return to deal with this case -- to put it behind him and to get on with his life."

Assi was reportedly teaching physics while in Lebanon.

Assi, who emigrated from Lebanon when he was 18, has denied any links to Hezbollah, which was still fighting the Israel Defense Forces and its Lebanese allies in south Lebanon when Assi was arrested.

He was one of the first people arrested under a 1996 terrorism law that outlaws financial assistance or "material support" to organizations including Hezbollah that are classified as terrorist by the State Department.

Although his attorney would not comment on the substance of the charges or the reasons for why he fled or why he returned to stand trial it is reported that Assi was sympathetic to the terrorist group Hezbollah.

Assi told agents he was planning to deliver the equipment to Hezbollah, which has been designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist group. Assi allegedly told agents that the global positioning modules were to be used to navigate unmanned aircraft to spy on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

Agents said Assi told them he was sympathetic to Hezbollah's cause of removing Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and that two of his cousins were killed fighting for the group. He allegedly told agents that he had shipped bulletproof vests and videotapes and books about security and electronic surveillance to his Hezbollah connection in the previous 2 1/2 years.

Agents had been watching Assi for months and obtained a court order from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to tap his phone in Dearborn, according to testimony in 1998 from FBI Agent Michael Thomas.

Assi had an appearance before U.S. Magistrate Steven Whalen prior to standing trial.

Assi could face up to a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $750,000 fine if he is convicted.

Gary Fitleberg is a Political Analyst specializing in International Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs.

Copyright © 2004 Gary Fitleberg