They are part of a government case against a Cleveland imam, or Muslim prayer leader, charged with naturalization fraud. The intercepts captured a number of conversations between the imam, Fawaz Damra, and Al-Arian during the 1990s, prosecutors say.

Al-Arian is awaiting trial in Tampa on federal terrorism charges. He was indicted in February 2003 after an eight- year investigation and has pleaded not guilty.

The Jihad, a shadowy organization headquartered in Syria, has claimed credit for scores of terror killings in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The intercepts, obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, were passed a few years ago to federal agents handling the Al-Arian investigation. Federal law generally prohibited such evidence in domestic criminal cases, but a court ruling and portions of the USA Patriot Act have made their use much easier.

U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin cleared the way last week for prosecutors to play the tapes in Damra's case by ruling the intercepts were gathered as part of legal surveillance.

The tapes constitute much of the evidence the government plans to use in Al-Arian's trial, which is scheduled to begin in January, and as such provide the first detailed preview of its case against Al-Arian. He stands accused of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering through two nonprofit organizations that he led during the early 1990s.

Prosecutors say Al-Arian helped organize the Jihad from his home in Tampa, then sat on its governing council and was one of its most powerful leaders.

Damra represents a key piece of evidence for this claim.

He is shown in a videotape of a 1991 fundraiser introducing Al-Arian as the head of ``the active arm of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine.'' That tape was seized during searches of Al-Arian's home and office in the 1990s when the criminal investigation began.

Damra told FBI agent Bradley Ross Beman that he didn't know if the ``active arm'' claim was true, Beman testified Tuesday as the government began presenting its case against Damra. He told Beman he said it just to work up the crowd, Beman said.

The fundraiser was successful. Damra told the agent that it netted between $10,000 and $15,000, and that Al-Arian took it all, Beman said.

In addition, the indictment alleges that Damra and Al-Arian discussed setting up a permanent fund in Cleveland for people wishing to donate to the Jihad.

Damra also told Beman that he regrets telling a separate rally in 1991 that the way to liberate Palestine is by ``directing all the rifles at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews,'' Beman said.

Prosecutors say this exhortation, along with other incendiary comments captured on video, constitutes an effort to persecute others based on their religion or nationality. The naturalization case against Damra turns on the government's assertion that Damra denied on his citizenship application that he ever persecuted anyone or incited persecution.

If convicted, he could lose his citizenship and be sentenced to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Reporter Michael Fechter can be reached at (813) 259-7621.