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Excerpts from: Trial tests terror war law - N.C. alleges tax scheme was something bigger
                 Dan Chapman - Atlanta Constitution [05/20/02]
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: ajc.com: Trial tests terror war law

                 Charlotte --- Is Mohamad Youssef Hammoud simply a restaurateur, gas station
                 owner and family man? Or is he the ringleader of a North Carolina-based terrorist
                 cell linked to Hezbollah in Lebanon?

                 Depends whom you believe.

                 But one thing is certain: The Bush administration's war on domestic terrorism
                 will be on trial, beginning today in Charlotte, along with Hammoud.

                 USA v. Hammoud et al. is the first to be tried under a 1996 law that prohibits
                 supporting terrorist organizations. Attorney General John Ashcroft has deployed
                 an arsenal of terror-fighting measures against Hammoud and other supposed
                 terrorist sympathizers around the nation.

                 The U.S. Justice Department and its backers dismiss charges of racism and
                 claims that constitutional safeguards are being eroded. The war on terrorism,
                 they say, demands tough countermeasures.

                Hammoud, 28, had been in jail on money laundering, cigarette smuggling,
                 immigration fraud, racketeering and other charges before Sept. 11. So too had
                 Said Mohamad Harb, a childhood friend from Lebanon who faced the same
                 charges. But he also was accused, before Hammoud, of providing material
                 support to Hezbollah.