Ex-D.C. School Official Charged In Terror Plots

A former high-level D.C. schools official has been charged with plotting global terrorist acts while also struggling to renovate classrooms and rid city schools of asbestos.

Kifah Waed Jayyousi, the former facilities director for D.C. public schools, was ordered held in Detroit yesterday after he was arrested for providing material support to terrorists and plotting acts of terrorism outside the United States.

Mr. Jayyousi was arrested Sunday at Detroit Metro Airport after flying into the U.S. from Amsterdam. A standard computer check showed that Mr. Jayyousi was wanted on a federal warrant issued in Miami.

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Mr. Jayyousi was hired as facilities director for D.C. public schools in July 1999 by Superintendent Arlene Ackerman. He held the position, which oversees capital improvements and maintenance, for more than two years until he was fired in April 2001 by Superintendent Paul L. Vance for “shoddy management.”

According to the criminal complaint unsealed Monday, Mr. Jayyousi was part of a small group of men who “formed a network across North America to fund-raise for and recruit mujahedeen to train and fight in various areas including but not limited to Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, and Somalia.”

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The affidavit says the federal investigation into Mr. Jayyousi began in late 1993. It accuses Mr. Jayyousi, a Jordanian-born naturalized American citizen, of being “active in fund raising for a violent jihad” through a San Diego, Calif.-based organization he founded called the American Islamic Group.

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