ABSTRACT
On March 20, 2002, officers from the FBI, customs, immigration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), raided nineteen offices and residences in Virginia and Georgia in the largest action against suspected terrorism financing in American history. The Unus family responded to the raid by filing an implausible but important lawsuit two years later in the US district court for Eastern Virginia. David Kane the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent who signed the 106-page affidavit that justified the search. Kane's affidavit stated that several members of the Safa Group "maintained a financial and ideological relationship with persons and entities with known affiliations to the designated terrorist Groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Abu Marzook, Mousa Muhammed (HAMAS)". The Unus lawsuit, finally settled in 2009, warrants scrutiny because it fits a common pattern of what one call predatory exploitation of US courts by Islamists.
