U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who called it a major step in the war on terrorism. He said Salah and co-defendant Abdelhaleem Ashqar operated «a U.S.-based terrorist recruiting and financing cell.» But a jury on Feb. 1 acquitted Salah and Ashqar of taking part in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at bankrolling the terrorist group Hamas. The same jury, however, did convict Salah of a single count of obstruction of justice for lying under oath on a written questionnaire involving the shooting death in Israel of an American teenager, David Boim. The Boim family sued Salah and a number of Islamic charities, claiming that they had funneled money to Hamas terrorists.
