Recently in jihad charities Category

This report also details the ongoing use of so-called "charities" to fund jihad. "Extremist preachers now radicalising young Muslims in private homes, says senior Government security adviser," by Christopher Hope for the Telegraph, February 9:

Third world charities set up to raise money to help people in Pakistan and Bangladesh are also being used as front organisations to fund terrorism, according to the Home Office’s top anti-terrorism adviser.

Charles Farr, the Director General of the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism, also said that Al-Qaeda was now at “its weakest state” since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Mr Farr, who was once tipped as a future head of MI6, added that it was “possible to talk of the demise of parts of Al Qaeda” because the revolutions in the Middle East had weakened support for them.

The news came amid the continuing row over the European Court of Human Rights' refusal to allow Britain to extradite Abu Qatada - once described as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe” - to Jordan to face terror charges.

Mr Farr said extremist Muslim preachers could no longer radicalise young people at mosques and universities because of the increasingly effective activities of the Security Services on mainland Britain.

He said that increasingly "it takes place in private premises, simply because the people who are doing the radicalising are now much more aware of the activities that we are conducting.

“There has been a trend towards much greater use of private venues, simply because for obvious reasons they feel that they are much more secure.”

He said that radicalisation often “rapidly migrates into a private house where people are brought together, usually under the excuse of there being a faith-based meeting, and the discussion rapidly develops into something much more about terrorism and the legitimacy of violence.”

There was some radicalisation going on in Britain, but in “no more than one or two per cent” of the mosques in the UK, he said. Charities were also being used as fronts to raise money to fund terrorism.

Mr Farr said: “We can see some activity going on in charitable organisations, often with the pretext of raising funds to be sent overseas for good works, for example to Pakistan or indeed Bangladesh.”...

How is it that Shekau studied Islam at the feet of Islamic clerics and yet did not emerge with the idea that it was a beautiful Religion of Peace? Why is this exact same misunderstanding of Islam so prevalent among Muslims, including clerics, worldwide? Why does no one in the mainstream media ever care to ask such questions of Muslim spokesmen in the U.S.?

"Shekau leading Boko Haram from the shadows," from AFP, January 28 (thanks to Clark):

KANO (AFP) – Abubakar Muhammad Shekau was once thought to have been killed, but has re-emerged to lead Islamist group Boko Haram from the shadows as it carries out a bloody onslaught in northern Nigeria.

Very little is known about Shekau, but this week he appeared on YouTube, threatening more attacks and saying Boko Haram was responsible for the January 20 violence which killed 185 people in Kano in reprisal for the arrest and torture of its members.

Aged 43, he was born in a farming village also called Shekau in northeastern Yobe state.

He moved to the nearby city of Maiduguri, Boko Haram’s base, about a decade ago, according to sources familiar with the group.

Shekau studied theology under local clerics in the Mafoni area of Maiduguri and enrolled in a government-run school for Islamic studies.

He is often shown in photos wearing a keffiyeh and seated next to an AK-47, his face intense....

The voice said to be Shekau in the message posted on YouTube on Thursday said “we attacked the security formations because our members were arrested and tortured. Our women and children have also been arrested.

“They should know that they also have wives and children,” he said. “We can also abduct them. It is not beyond our powers.”

In another part of the message, he says, “I enjoy killing anyone that God commands me to kill the way I enjoy killing chickens and rams.”

John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said of the Islamic American Relief Agency: “An organization right here in the American heartland allegedly sent funds to Pakistan for the benefit of a specially designated global terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban…. The indictment also alleges that a former congressman engaged in money laundering and obstruction of a federal investigation in an effort to disguise IARA’s misuse of taxpayer money that the government had provided for humanitarian purposes.”

Siljander was a naive Useful Idiot who started out wanting to build bridges, and ended up being a tool for jihadists. Many people, including some notable Leftist journalists, are in the same position today. But note that Siljander was a Republican: useful idiocy is bipartisan. More background in my January 2008 article, "A Congressman for Jihad." "Ex-congressman sentenced in terror funding case," by Bill Draper for the Associated Press, January 11 (thanks to David):

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Michigan congressman and U.S. delegate to the United Nations has been sentenced to a year and one day in prison for lobbying for a Missouri-based Islamic charity that had been identified as a global terrorist organization.

Mark Deli Siljander, 60, a Republican who served in Congress from 1981-1987, pleaded guilty in July 2010 to obstructing justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent in connection with his work for the Islamic American Relief Agency, based in Columbia, Mo.

In his plea agreement, Siljander acknowledged that he lobbied between March and May 2004 on behalf of the IARA for the organization to be removed from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of charities suspected of funding international terrorism. The charity closed in October 2004 after being designated a global terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

IARA had lost its status as an approved government contractor in 1999, when the U.S. Agency for International Development terminated grants for two relief efforts in Mali, Africa. Prosecutors said $50,000 of the $75,000 Siljander received from the charity came from unused grant money that was supposed to have been returned to USAID after it terminated the Mali grants.

Siljander also acknowledged that he failed to register as an agent of a foreign entity and had lied to FBI agents and prosecutors acting on behalf of a federal grand jury....

Four co-defendants also were sentenced Wednesday. Among them were former IARA executive director Mubarak Hamed, who sent more than $1 million to Iraq through the charity in violation of U.S. sanctions. He pleaded guilty in June 2010 to illegally transferring the money and obstructing the administration of laws governing tax-exempt charities.

Hamed, whose attorney characterized him as a loving family man who devoted his life to charitable causes around the world, was sentenced to 58 months, or nearly five years, in prison.

"You painted yourself as a man devoted to charity," Laughrey said. "I find that not to be credible. When confronted by the government, you lied. You continued to do what was in your best interest, in the best interest of your organization."

The original indictment alleged the charity sent about $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated as a global terrorist. The money, sent to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2003 and 2004, was masked as donations to an orphanage located in buildings that Hekmatyar owned.

Authorities described Hekmatyar as an Afghan mujahedeen leader who has participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Prosecutors said Siljander, who now lives in Great Falls, Va., lied to the FBI about being hired to lobby for the charity. He told investigators that the money he received was a donation to help him write a book about Islam and Christianity.

Three others involved in the charity were sentenced Wednesday to probation.

Abdel Azim El-Siddig, of Chicago, Ill., a former fundraiser for the charity, was sentenced to two years of probation for conspiring to hire Siljander to lobby for the charity's removal from the list of those suspected of having terrorist ties, while concealing this advocacy and not registering with the proper authorities.

Ali Mohamed Bagegni, a native of Libya who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and former resident of Columbia, was sentenced to six months of probation for his role in the conspiracy. Bagegni was a member of the board of directors of IARA.

Ahmad Mustafa of Columbia, a citizen of Iraq and a lawful permanent resident alien of the United States, also was sentenced to six months of probation for illegally transferring funds in violation of federal sanctions.

This is the trial in which the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the smoothly deceptive Islamic apologist Jamal Badawi and so many other Muslim groups and individuals were named unindicted co-conspirators.

"Fifth Circuit: Holy Land Foundation convictions upheld on appeal," by Jason Trahan for the Dallas Morning News, December 7 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Today a Fifth Circuit judicial panel released a highly anticipated opinion affirming the convictions against the five organizers of the former Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation on charges that they conspired to funnel money to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

The first trial in 2007 ended in a hung jury, but the retrial the next year resulted in across-the-board convictions on charges of material support of terrorism.

Ghassan Elashi, of Richardson, a Holy Land Foundation founder, received 65 years for support of Hamas, money laundering and tax fraud. Shukri Abu Baker, of Garland, who was Holy Land's CEO, received 65 years for support of Hamas, money laundering and tax fraud. Mufid Abdulqader, of Richardson, was a top volunteer fundraiser and sang about Hamas in a Palestinian band that played at fundraising rallies, received 20 years for conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; conspiracy to provide funds, goods and services to a specially designated terrorist; and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Abdulrahman Odeh, who started Holy Land's office in New Jersey, received 15 years in prison for conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; conspiracy to provide funds, goods and services to a specially designated terrorist; and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Mohammad El-Mezain, an imam who ran Holy Land's office in California, received 15 years in prison for providing support to Hamas.

The HLF, once the largest Muslim charity in the United States, had been under investigation for years before it was shut down by the Bush administration months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In their appeals, defense attorneys argued that the government's use of anonymous Israeli witnesses and other issues resulted in an unfair outcome for their clients, two of whom are serving 65-year sentences....

Blaming the Jews. What a novel strategy for Islamic supremacists!

The FBI came under fire again Wednesday from hard-Left journalist Spencer Ackerman in Wired, who has been conducting a campaign for some time to get the bureau to purge its terrorism training seminars of any hint of the truth about the global jihad and Islamic supremacism.

Ackerman reported with breathless self-righteous indignation that “the FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that ‘main stream’ [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a ‘cult leader’; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a ‘funding mechanism for combat.’ At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more ‘devout’ a Muslim, the more likely he is to be ‘violent.’ Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: ‘Any war against non-believers is justified’ under Muslim law; a ‘moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.’”

Like virtually all Leftist and Islamic supremacist critiques of anti-jihad and anti-terror material, Ackerman’s piece takes for granted that such assertions are false, without bothering to explain how or why. Apparently Ackerman believes that their falsity is so self-evident as to require no demonstration; unfortunately for him, however, no one else has provided any proof of this, either. And there is considerable evidence that what this FBI training material asserts is true.

Are mainstream American Muslims “likely to be terrorist sympathizers”? Certainly all the mainstream Muslim organizations condemn al-Qaeda and 9/11; however, some of the foremost of those organizations, such as the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim American Society, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Muslim Students Association, and the Council of American-Islamic Relations, and others, have links of various kinds to the jihad terrorist group Hamas and its parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, which is dedicated to imposing Islamic law around the world. A mainstream Muslim spokesman in the U.S., the Ground Zero Mosque Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, refused to condemn Hamas until it became too politically damaging for him not to do so; another, CAIR’s Nihad Awad, openly declared his support for Hamas in 1994. Another mainstream Muslim spokesman in this country, Reza Aslan, has praised another jihad terrorist group, Hizballah, and called on the U.S. to negotiate with Hamas. Other mainstream Muslim spokesmen in the U.S. such as Obama’s ambassador to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Rashad Hussain, and media gadfly Hussein Ibish, have praised and defended the confessed leader of another jihad terror group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Sami al-Arian.

Do these men and organizations represent a tiny minority of extremists that actually does not express the opinions of the broad mainstream of Muslims in this country? Maybe, but if so, they simply do not have any counterparts of comparable size or influence who have not expressed sympathy for some form of Islamic terror.

Was Muhammad a “cult leader”? Certainly one definition of a cult is that members are not free to opt out if they choose to do so – and it was Muhammad who enunciated Islam’s notorious death penalty for apostasy by saying, ““Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him.” (Bukhari 9.84.57). Also, there are several celebrated incidents in which Muhammad lashed out violently against his opponents, ordering the murder of several people for the crime of making fun of him -- including the poet Abu ‘Afak, who was over one hundred years old, and the poetess ‘Asma bint Marwan. Abu ‘Afak was killed in his sleep, in response to Muhammad’s question, “Who will avenge me on this scoundrel?” Similarly, Muhammad on another occasion cried out, “Will no one rid me of this daughter of Marwan?” One of his followers, ‘Umayr ibn ‘Adi, went to her house that night, where he found her sleeping next to her children. The youngest, a nursing babe, was in her arms. But that didn’t stop ‘Umayr from murdering her and the baby as well. Muhammad commended him: “You have done a great service to Allah and His Messenger, ‘Umayr!” (Ibn Ishaq, 674-676).

Is the “Islamic practice of giving charity” no more than a “‘funding mechanism for combat’”? If not, one wonders why so many Islamic charities in the United States and around the world have been shut down for funding terrorism, including what was once the largest Islamic charity in the United States, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), as well as the Global Relief Foundation (GRF), the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), and many others.

Is it true that “the more ‘devout’ a Muslim, the more likely he is to be ‘violent,’” and is it also true that “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah”? While certainly not all devout Muslims are terrorists, virtually all Islamic terrorists are devout Muslims. In recent years, not only Osama bin Laden but also devout Muslims such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would-be Times Square bomber Feisal Shahzad, Arkansas jihad murderer Abdulhakim Muhammad, and other jihad terror plotters such as Khalid Aldawsari, Baitullah Mehsud, and Roshonara Choudhry, among many others, reference Islamic teachings to justify violence against unbelievers. Just this week, Detroit underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab declared in court that Muslims should only be judged by the Qur’an.

Can “any war against non-believers” really be “‘justified’ under Muslim law”? Majid Khadduri, an Iraqi scholar of Islamic law of international renown. In his book War and Peace in the Law of Islam, which was published in 1955 and remains one of the most lucid and illuminating works on the subject, Khadduri says this about jihad:

The state which is regarded as the instrument for universalizing a certain religion must perforce be an ever expanding state. The Islamic state, whose principal function was to put God’s law into practice, sought to establish Islam as the dominant reigning ideology over the entire world....The jihad was therefore employed as an instrument for both the universalization of religion and the establishment of an imperial world state. (P. 51)

Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Assistant Professor on the Faculty of Shari’ah and Law of the International Islamic University in Islamabad. In his 1994 book The Methodology of Ijtihad, he quotes the twelfth century Maliki jurist Ibn Rushd: “Muslim jurists agreed that the purpose of fighting with the People of the Book...is one of two things: it is either their conversion to Islam or the payment of jizyah.” Nyazee concludes: “This leaves no doubt that the primary goal of the Muslim community, in the eyes of its jurists, is to spread the word of Allah through jihad, and the option of poll-tax [jizya] is to be exercised only after subjugation” of non-Muslims.

A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law endorsed by the most prestigious institution in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, says that the leader of the Muslims “makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians...until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax,” and cites Qur’an 9:29 in support of this idea: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day and who forbid not what Allah and His messenger have forbidden-who do not practice the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book-until they pay the poll tax out of hand and are humbled.” (‘Umdat al-Salik o9.8)

Are there wars against unbelievers that cannot be justified by Islamic law? Certainly. But there is also a broad mandate for such wars – broad enough to have served as a justification for wars between Muslims and non-Muslims throughout history. During World War I, the crumbling Ottoman Empire even tried to shore up support for its war against the Allies by declaring it a jihad.

In the face of Ackerman’s reports, the FBI is in full retreat. It announced after an earlier report that it had banned use of my book The Truth About Muhammad, which is simply a biography of Muhammad based on the earliest Muslim sources. And this latest report quickly drove the bureau further into Lysenkoism; it quickly announced late Thursday that it was dropping the latest program that Ackerman had zeroed in on as well.

Lysenkoism was ideologically biased junk science regarding biology and agriculture that was adopted as official policy by the Soviet Union under Stalin. The real scientists who told the truth were sent to the gulag.

It is no surprise that in an official environment that refuses to speak about “Islam” and “terrorism” in the same sentence -- a policy which must involve quite a lot of mental and verbal gymnastics when jihad terrorists start quoting Qur’an and other Islamic sources -- that the truth about Islam would come under fire whenever it appears as part of counterterrorism studies. It is no surprise that in an official environment that thinks that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular” and that jihad is a wholly positive interior spiritual struggle would get nervous at revelations that somewhere the truth about Islam and jihad was getting through.

As Lysenkoism grows more entrenched and the FBI’s heads planted more firmly in the sand, Spencer Ackerman’s responsibility for the next jihad attack in the U.S. grows apace.

"Behind the smokescreen of the construction of a mosque and aid for orphans she was able to raise 650 thousand U.S. dollars for terrorists."

"War is deceit," Muhammad said. "'Lady Al Qaeda' on trial in Jeddah," from Asia News, August 2:

Riyadh (AsiaNews) – The closed door trial of Haila al-Qusayyer, nicknamed "Lady Al Qaeda" for her role in the organization, has started in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The woman, 47, is accused of recruiting people, having procured funding, transported weapons and explosives, provided false documents, illegal emigration and helped evasion.

Al-Qusayyer’s affiliation to the terrorist organization, as claimed by the Saudi security, began on her marriage with Abdul Rahman Al-Ghamdi, who was killed in 2004 in a clash with police in Taif. She later married Saeed al-Shehri, a former prisoner at Guantanamo.

The most important task of the terrorist was to raise money: Saudi sources say that behind the smokescreen of the construction of a mosque and aid for orphans she was able to raise 650 thousand U.S. dollars for terrorists. Among other allegations, she is charged with having procured shelter to more than 60 persons accused of terrorism and of having played an important role in the escape of another terrorist, Wafa Al-Shehrim, to Yemen.

The capture of Al-Qusayyer by Saudis security forces provoked a series of attacks and kidnappings by the number two of al-Qaeda in Yemen, who has called for her release.

Al-Qusayyer is not the only Saudi woman accused of terrorism, but the first one to have played a leading role within the organization. So far, in fact, it was wives who accompanied their husbands, at most providing logistical support. The first was the wife of the head of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, Saleh al-Oufi, who was killed in 2005.

War is deceit, Muhammad said. But the Canada Revenue Agency caught up with this shell game. "Former charity funded terror group: federal audit," by Chloé Fedio for The Star, April 15 (thanks to RV):

Nearly $15 million of Canadian charitable donations were sent overseas to groups the taxman has labelled terrorist organizations, according to a federal audit obtained by the Toronto Star.

The audit states that International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy Canada (IRFAN-Canada) used "deceptive fundraising" to support Hamas.

The Canada Revenue Agency announced its decision to revoke the status of the Mississauga-based charity last week. A lawyer for IRFAN-Canada said the charity has appealed the decision.

"Canada Revenue Agency's position is really built on a pillar of sand," said Naseer Syed.

However, a CRA report states that "IRFAN-Canada is an integral part of an international fundraising effort to support Hamas." Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Canada, the U.S., the European Union and Israel.

Jihadists Without Borders:

IRFAN-Canada created promotional videos that the CRA said "demonize Israel, characterize the Arab-Israeli conflict as a religious war, appeal for all Arab and Muslim nations to join in the struggle against Israel and glorify martyrdom."

But Syed said the CRA overstated the political content.

"As the promotional videos feature the potential recipients of humanitarian aid - the needy families affected by poverty, disease and war - discussing the poverty in Gaza in the immediate postwar period, it is difficult to imagine that the videos would not contain some political content."

The decision to revoke the group's status comes after years of tax audits and litigation over its alleged ties to Hamas. An audit of the charity's 2002 fiscal year found that IRFAN-Canada "maintained partnerships" with organizations that have direct ties to Hamas.

The most recent audit, from Jan. 1, 2005 until Dec. 31, 2009, reveals that IRFAN-Canada gave $14.6 million to 15 organizations that have ties to Hamas.

They include the Gaza Ministry of Health, which the CRA said has been under Hamas control and direction since March 2006. Though Hamas does deliver social and humanitarian services, the CRA said those actions cannot be distinguished from the group's terrorist activities.

It is refreshing to see a Western entity not trying to project an imaginary compartmentalization of operations on a jihad terrorist outfit where there is none. Qur'an 9:60 details the acceptable uses of zakat, or charity, and contrary to Western expectations that charitable groups like the Red Cross are strictly non-combatant, zakat is also earmarked for those "fighting in the cause of Allah."

Syed said the charity helps people in need through local organizations and never knowingly dealt with Hamas.

Wink.

"The charity was trying to send a dialysis machine to Gaza," Syed said. "The issue is, how to you get aid to Palestinians, especially in Gaza? All the parties that we're dealing with are legal in their jurisdictions."

No kidding: Hamas is legal in Gaza.

A United Nations agency credited the charity for donating US$1.2 million for the construction of a new girls' school in the West Bank in 2009.

The CRA said IRFAN-Canada has damaged the integrity of the Canadian charity system. [...]

The audit also found that the charity failed to maintain proper records. The records the charity did provide for the audit period were often an "after-the-fact paper exercise" that showed it distributed $19 million in Canadian funds and $17 million in gifts-in-kind for projects outside Canada during that period.

The audit established that $13 million of the gifts-in-kind were transferred to organization with ties to Hamas.

Stockwell Day raised the charity's alleged link to Hamas in Parliament when he was an opposition MP in 2004. He asked the Liberal government to investigate.

Day referenced a Privy Council report sent to Prime Minister Jean Chretien in 2000 that listed Povrel Jerusalem Fund for Human Services (JFHS) as a Canadian group with links to terrorist organizations.

The audit suggests that JFHS and IRFAN-Canada were consolidated in 2001. under the leadership of Rasem Abdel-Majid. The report states the consolidation was concealed, "leading us to consider the strong possibility that this exercise was intended to circumvent the CRA's refusal to grant JFHS registration as a charity."

Syed said IRFAN-Canada was formed independently and later acquired some assets from JFHS.

Though the IRFAN-Canada is no longer a charity, it still operates as a not-for profit organization.

Yet another unsavory use for Islamic charities. "Albanians deposited Serb organ profits in Islamic charities, prosecutor," from Serbianna, December 17 (thanks to Julia Gorin, who has a great deal more information and background about the entire Kosovo organ trafficking story here):

Serbian war crimes prosecutor says that the Kosovo Albanian criminal boss, Hashim Thaci, used bank accounts designated as Islamic charity to deposit profits he earned by selling organs he extracted from captured Serbs....

Names of some of those accounts are Help For Kosovo, Medicare, Caravan, Al- Haramajin, Taibah International. etc.

Serbian prosecution says that the FBI has also uncovered these accounts after the 9/11 attacks but it is not specified why the FBI withheld the information about Thaci....

Um, maybe because the FBI was on his side -- since, after all, the U.S. has been on the side of the Balkan jihadists since the 1990s?

Well, they got Capone on tax evasion. "Arlington imam, wife accused of marriage fraud," by Jason Trahan for The Dallas Morning News, October 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A prominent Islamic scholar who has battled accusations of extremist beliefs has been arrested along with his wife on federal charges that they married other people to get U.S. citizenship.

Ibrahim Abdelrahman Dremali and Safaa Rashad Eissa were arrested by immigration agents, Arlington police and the FBI on Oct. 6 on a warrant out of Des Moines, Iowa. They were released on their own recognizance after appearing before a federal judge in Fort Worth the same day.

They are scheduled to enter pleas Nov. 12 in Iowa on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, which can carry a five-year sentence, and procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully, which can result in 10 to 25 years in prison.

Dremali, who earned degrees in geology and Islamic law in Cairo, immigrated to the U.S. in 1989 and has served as an imam, or Muslim spiritual leader, in south Florida, Iowa and Austin and worked at Islamic schools.

This summer, he and his wife moved to a house on Virginia Lane near the Islamic Society of Arlington, where he helped lead a local Islamic school....

Reached by phone this past week in Arlington, Dremali said he was too sick to talk. He was originally supposed to report to court Wednesday in Des Moines. His attorney, Alfredo Parrish, sought a delay because doctors treating Dremali, who has hepatitis C and is awaiting a liver transplant at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, said he cannot travel....

After Dremali emigrated to the U.S., he co-founded the Islamic Center of Boca Raton in 1998. In 2000, the Gaza native, participated in a pro-Palestinian rally in Miami that featured the burning of Israeli flags and a mock funeral for Palestinians killed in the Israeli conflict. According to a published report, Dremali told the crowd "not to be sad for those who were martyred, and to not be afraid to die for what they believe in."

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Dremali denied making the statement amid criticism from conservative bloggers about his role in the rally and other associations.

In 2002, Adham Hassoun, a Palestinian activist and computer programmer in Florida, was detained on immigration charges. Dremali was one of four people called to speak about Hassoun's "peaceful and generous character" at a hearing, a court record shows.

Hassoun attended the same Fort Lauderdale mosque as Jose Padilla and was thought to have helped convert him to Islam. Padilla was later accused of planning a dirty bomb attack in the U.S., but authorities ultimately convicted him, and Hassoun, of coordinating aid to al-Qaeda.

Ties to terrorists?

Dremali later said he barely knew Hassoun.

"You can judge a person by the company they keep," wrote Joe Kaufman, a conservative activist in southern Florida, in one of several blog posts accusing Dremali of being a radical Islamist. "Will our government sit back and let things happen, or will it begin to take action, so that the next 9/11 never becomes reality?"

Last week, Kaufman said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News that he is not surprised to hear of Dremali's arrest. "Regardless if they prosecute him on terrorism or immigration, I think it's a good thing to take him off the streets," he said.

Kaufman has also highlighted a more than $16,000 donation by Dremali's Islamic Center of Boca Raton to the Global Relief Foundation, one of several Muslim charities shut down by the Bush administration for funding international terrorism.

Dremali has said that he did not know Global Relief had terrorist ties when the donation was made....

Whose bidding is Cuomo doing? "Cuomo To Not Investigate Funds For Islamic Cultural Center," from NY1 News, September 2 (thanks to Pamela Geller, who has a series of links to mosque leaders' questionable activities and ties here):

State Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo said Thursday he has no plans to investigate the Islamic community center and mosque.

According to a recent poll, seven out of 10 New York State voters say they want him to look into the project's financing.

Cuomo said he could not investigate the fundraising for the project because so little money has been raised so far.

He said his office would also need cause to probe the group.

"I hope nobody is suggesting this is a religion that some people don't like and therefore we should start a government investigation. That would be a terrible and dangerous precedent," said the Democratic candidate.

Cuomo did note that if anyone has evidence that the project has terrorist ties, that might be cause for an investigation....

OK, Cuomo, how's this?

"Report: Ground Zero Mosque Investor Contributed to Designated Terror Group," from FoxNews.com, September 3 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A key financial backer of the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero once contributed to a U.S.-designated terror group, MyFox New York reports.

Egyptian-born businessman Hisham Elzanaty, who made what is described as a "significant investment" in the Ground Zero mosque project,contributed more than $6,000 in 1999 to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, also known as HLF, tax records show.

The donations came two years before the federal government shut down HLF and designated it a terror group. Elzanaty's attorney told MyFox New York that his client believed at the time that he was donating to an orphanage. Elzanaty did not respond to questions.

Federal investigators say the group was set up as a Texas-based charity, but in fact supported Hamas....

Still looking to chip away territory wherever the opportunity seems to present itself. And why not? It's worked this far. "Montenegro: Radical Muslims placed under surveillance," from AdnKronos International, August 19:

Podgorica and Beograd, 19 August (AKI) - Montenegro's security agency is stepping up surveillance of radical Muslims suspected of links with fundamentalist Wahabi movement in the region. Police have been authorised to tap the phones of alleged members of a group based in several towns in Montenegro, reports said.

There some 100 to 120 Wahabis in the tiny Balkan country, according to the national security agency.

The move came after a local politician Dzemail Suljevic from the Serbian part of Muslim-majority Sandzak - which has districts in Serbia and Montenegro - last week urged Muslims from the region to form an autonomous province.

Sandzak stretches from the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina to Kosovo over an area of 8,403 square kilometres. Six of its municipalities of are in Serbia and five in neighbouring Montenegro.

The towns in Montenegro that secret police from Podgorica have placed under surveillance are ones that Suljevic said should be "added" to Sandzak. They include Plav, Gusinje, Rozaje and Bijelo Polje.

The country's Wahabis are believed to be financed by various Islamic charities, Montenegrin news agency MINA cited the national security agency as saying.

The idea of autonomy for Sandzak, which has sparked opposition from both Serbia and Montenegro, reportedly comes from radical imam Muamer Zukorlic. He is known for his hostility to the state-endorsed official Serbian Islamic Community (IZS) and his spiritual allegiance to Bosnia.

Meanwhile, in Sadzak's town of Novi Pazar, the Serbian flag was brought down from local elementary school and burned, while the Bosnian flag was left intact.

Police said late on Wednesday they had arrested three young men in connection with the incident.

More members of the Tiny Minority of Extremists in moderate, tolerant, pro-American Kosovo?

Of course, their presence in the Balkans is commonly written off as the product of Wahhabi influence. And while Saudi money has been instrumental in exporting jihad ideology and funding the activity that results, this explanation is all too often also used to avoid acknowledging anything inherent in Islamic texts and traditions outside of Wahhabism that could motivate jihadist terrorism.

As for the use of charities, they are often a handy subterfuge for Western consumption due to the fact that in the Western tradition, charities are, by nature, non-combatant. This is not the case in the Islamic tradition; the lack of a distinction stems from Qur'an 9:60, which includes provisions for those who are "in the cause of Allah" (fi sabil Allah).

And it's not just cheeky infidels pulling that connection out of a hat. It can be seen worldwide in the frequent convergence of jihadist activity and "social services" by groups including Hamas, Hizballah, Jamaat ud-Dawa, and now this group, as well.

"Kosovo: Police arrest five radical Islamists," from AdnKronos International, May 22:

Pristina, 22 May (AKI) - Kosovo police have arrested five members of the fundamentalist Wahabi Islamic movement who are suspected of "criminal activities, "police spokesman Hazir Berisa said on Saturday. He did not specify if those arrested were suspected of recruiting terrorists or plotting attacks.

Berisa said the five suspects were associated with a humanitarian organisation called Iskrenost (Sincerity).

Nice.

The arrests took place late on Friday in the southwest city of Prizren in an operation in which 120 police officers were deployed. Berisa said police confiscated a large quantity of weapons during the operation, including automatic rifles, pistols, ammunition and uniforms.

The Wahabi movement originated in Saudi Arabia in the 17th century. Wahabi ideology preaches a 'pure' form of Islam. It was brought to the Balkans by Arab 'mujahadeen' fighters who fought on the side of local Muslims during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

Many former 'mujahadeen' remained in the region after the war indoctrinating local youths and even operating terrorist training camps, according to foreign intelligence sources.

Tensions between Wahabis and mainstream Muslims have been simmering in the Balkans for some years as the Wahabi ideology preaches religious intolerance towards other religious groups, including moderate Muslims.

Wahabis have sought to gain influence in Bosnia-Heregovina and also in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo.

Since the Bosnian war, radical Islamists have often operated under the guise of humanitarian organisations from Islamic countries and several such charities have been banned in Bosnia.

Somehow he totally Misunderstood the Religion of Peace™, even while insisting on correct obedience to the Book of Peace. How odd! Maybe Honest Ibe Hooper will clear it all up for us before we get too many more Misunderstanders of Islam like this one.

Or -- instead of waiting for more steaming piles of explanations from Honest Ibe about how Islam is Peace -- we could take sensible steps to defend Constitutionalism and genuine pluralism...Naaah! That would be "Islamophobic"!

"E-mails paint Times Square suspect as frustrated Muslim," by Susan Candiotti for CNN, May 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

New York (CNN) -- Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the failed car bombing in New York's Times Square, was frustrated with the state of the Muslim world and sought a way to "fight back."

Two e-mails obtained by CNN help piece together a portrait of the Pakistani-born naturalized U.S. citizen. They also may shed some light on what propelled his failed terror plot.

"Everyone knows the current situation of Muslim World," he wrote in an e-mail he sent to a large group of recipients in February 2006.

At the time, he had been in the United States for about six years, had earned his MBA and was working as a financial analyst in Connecticut.

"Everyone knows how the Muslim country bows down to pressure from the west. Everyone knows the kind of humiliation we are faced with around the globe."

The e-mail continues: "It is with no doubt that we today Muslim, followers of Islam are attacked and occupied by foreign infidel forces. The crusade has already started against Islam and Muslims with cartoons of our beloved Prophet PBUH (peace be upon him) as War drums."

Shahzad was referring to the 2005 controversy in which a Danish newspaper published satirical cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that many Muslims found offensive.

"Can you tell me a way to save the oppressed," Shahzad asked. "And a way to fight back when rockets are fired at us and Muslim blood flows? In Palestine, Afghan, Iraq, Chechnya and elsewhere."

The second e-mail was sent in April 2009 to a smaller group of recipients. By then, Shahzad was an American citizen. In that e-mail, Shahzad ridicules an article written by a Muslim who took a more moderate view than him.

"If you don't have the right teacher, then Satan should become your sheikh," according to a translated portion of the e-mail.

"I bet when it comes to defending the lands, his opinion would be we should do dialogue, etc., which is not the proven way from history and has not worked in current time and will not work in the future because it simply wasn't the way of the Quran," he added....

"In January 2007, Akram Musa Abdallah knowingly made material false statements when he was being interviewed by FBI agents in connection with the federal investigation and prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development (HLF) and its officers. At the time of the interviews, Abdallah knew the HLF was a Specially Designated Terrorist organization." CAIR and ISNA and others are unindicted co-conspirators in the HLF case. "Mesa Man Sentenced to Prison for Lying to the FBI During a Terrorism Investigation," an FBI press release, March 4 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

PHOENIX--Today, Akram Musa Abdallah, a.k.a. Abu Saiaf, 55, of Mesa, Arizona, was sentenced to 18 months in prison as a result of his guilty plea to false statements to a government agency, in federal district court in Phoenix. In sentencing Abdallah, U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake applied an enhancement because the offense related to international terrorism. This is the first time in the District of Arizona that the terrorism enhancement has been applied for this offense.

Dennis K. Burke, United States Attorney for the District of Arizona, stated, "This sentence should serve as a strong warning to anyone who knowingly lies during a terrorism investigation. It is important that the public cooperate in investigations involving national security for the safety and security of all people in the United States, and that in those investigations members of the public are truthful and complete in their statements to law enforcement."

In January 2007, Akram Musa Abdallah knowingly made material false statements when he was being interviewed by FBI agents in connection with the federal investigation and prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development (HLF) and its officers. At the time of the interviews, Abdallah knew the HLF was a Specially Designated Terrorist organization. Abdallah also knew that the HLF and its officers were pending trial in the Northern District of Texas for crimes which included providing material support to Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization.

During interviews with the FBI, Abdallah denied that he was involved in fund raising activities for the HLF. In fact, between approximately 1994 and 1997, Abdallah was involved in numerous fund raising activities, including collecting donations and organizing, facilitating and coordinating fund raising events on behalf of the HLF in the Phoenix metropolitan area....

Now wait a minute. Mohamad Mustapha Ali Masfaka is indicted for lying about his ties to a charity that aided Hamas. Yet Tariq Ramadan gave money to a charity that aided Hamas, and he has been granted a special "exemption" to enter the country after being barred for five years. Of course, Mohamad Mustapha Ali Masfaka is probably not a soothingly deceptive voice of Islamic moderation, or a vocal and high-profile critic of the Bush Administration.

"Man hid link to Hamas funding, U.S. charges Detroit," by Cecil Angel for the Detroit Free Press, January 23 (thanks to Louise):

A Syrian-born man was indicted in federal court in Detroit for lying to federal officials about his ties to a charity that the U.S. Department of Treasury says provided aid to the militant Palestinian group Hamas, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said Friday.

Mohamad Mustapha Ali Masfaka, 47, of Detroit has been charged with attempted naturalization fraud, making false statements to FBI investigators and immigration officials, and perjury. If convicted of the charges, he faces up to 23 years in prison and up to $750,000 in fines.

According to federal investigators, Masfaka was employed by Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in 1997 and 1998 and ran the group's operations in the Detroit area including organizing and participating in fund-raising events.

The group gave money to the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, investigators said. The U.S. government considers it a terrorist group.

In 2002, Masfaka failed to mention his employment with the Holy Land Foundation in an application for naturalization with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. In 2003, he told FBI agents he only worked for the group as a singer for fund-raising events but never received compensation.

However, investigators uncovered cashed checks showing that Masfaka's role was more extensive than he admitted and they he had been paid for his work.

Masfaka was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection when he attempted to reenter the United States from Canada via the Ambassador Bridge, McQuade said Friday.

More evidence that it is well-nigh impossible to tell whether a Muslim organization in the West is a friend or foe of the global jihad. From Reuters, :

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark charged a Muslim organization, the Danish Al-Aqsa Association, on Wednesday with funding terrorism by channelling funds to Palestinian militant group Hamas, the prosecutor said.

"We have today charged the organization and two of its members, and seized some of its funds," Henning Thiesen, special prosecutor for serious economic crime, told Reuters.

The Justice Ministry said an investigation launched in 2002 showed the two Al-Aqsa members had collected money in Denmark and transferred it to "Middle Eastern organizations which are part of or have connections to the terror organization Hamas".

The Islamist group Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction and has claimed responsibility for many suicide bombings of Israelis.

The charges were brought under an anti-terrorism law enacted in 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Denmark has detained six Muslims on terrorism charges in two other cases.

The Danish Al-Aqsa Association was founded in 1999, taking its name from Jerusalem's most important mosque. It has in the past denied it has links to militant organizations in the Middle East, saying it supports orphans in Palestine.

And makes orphans in Israel.

It's Al-Arian day here at the palatial poolside hedonistic offices of Jihad Watch in Secure Undisclosed Locationville, where it is always sunny and everyone shares sunscreen and equality of rights and dignity as human beings. This latest Al-Arian update is a press release from Militant Islam Monitor:

The wife of Sami Al Arian is registered as the co founding director and secretary of the World Islamic Studies Enterprise front for the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Nahla Al Arian should have been indicted along with her husband for helping him set up the PIJ terrorist network which is accused of carrying out suicide bombings and attacks which killed 100 people and maimed numerous others.

Nahla Al Arian is also the sister of Mazen Al Najjer, who was deported from the United States as unindicted co-conspirator number 12 in the leadership of Islamic Jihad. Al Najjer was also a director of WISE.

The PIJ terrorist network which was set up by Al Arian, his wife Nahla, her brother Mazen Al Najjar, and ex-USF professor turned Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, continues to fundraise and orchestrate terrorist attacks both in the US and worldwide.

At the start of the Iraq war Ramadan Shallah was quoted in the New York Post calling for his followers to carry out suicide attacks on US and coalition soldiers. http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=985

Former USF professor Ramadan Abdallah Shallah was accused of being behind a recent Tel Aviv suicide bombing.
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/477
Nahla Al Arian's designation as secretary and founder/ director on the incorporation papers of WISE shows that she assisted her husband's terrorist activities from WISE's inception.

Her role in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad network, and culpability in the attacks carried out by the group must be investigated and revealed by the media.

Nahla Al Arian's position as co founder, director, and secretary, of the World Islamic Studies Enterprise proves that she helped to found a front for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation and must be held accountable.

It is in the public and national interest that Nahla Al Arian's claims of her husband's innocence be challenged and scrutinized both inside and outside the courthouse in Tampa.

Militant Islam Monitor is calling upon the media to question why Nahla Al Arian has not been indicted as a co conspirator for aiding in the activities of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist front known as the World Islamic Studies Enterprise.

Another Al-Arian update: "Sami Al-Arian's Islamic Academy," from Laura Mansfield in FrontPage (thanks to EPG):

Florida's tuition voucher program is designed to help improve the education level of children who attend schools which do not meet educational standards. In 2003, Florida taxpayers indirectly subsidized the Islamic Academy of Florida in Tampa, with over $350,000 in funds.

Why is this a problem? What makes funding an Islamic school any different from funding a Christian school?

The difference is that at the time, the school's principal was none other than Sami Al Arian, who was under indictment for terrorism-related charges. He is at this very moment going to trial.

The Florida Islamic Academy was founded in 1992 by Sami Al-Arian. North American Islamic Trust holds the the title to the school property, as well as to the Tampa-area mosques at 130th Ave. E in Temple Terrace, FL and at 6307 Barclay Avenue in Spring Hill, FL. The trust owns about 27 percent of the 1,200 mosques in the United States.

The North American Islamic Trust is a subsidiary of the Islamic Society of North America.

Sami Al Arian, along with seven others, was indicted in February 2003, on racketeering charges for allegedly financing and supporting homicide bombers in Israel.

The Florida Islamic Academy is explicitly named in the indictment:

The Islamic Academy of Florida, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "IAF") was a tax exempt Florida corporation established on August 24, 1992. SAMI AMIN AL-ARIAN was the Director of IAF from its inception through at least June, 2002. SAMEEH HAMMOUDEH was also employed by the IAF and served as its Treasurer. IAF was located at 5910 East 130th Avenue, Tampa, Florida.

And then later goes on to state:

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Jihad-Shiqaqi Faction (PIJ), including the ICP, WISE, IAF, and others known and unknown, constituted an "enterprise" (hereinafter referred to as the "PIJ Enterprise"), as defined by Title 18, United States Code, Section 1961(4); that is, a group of individuals and entities associated in fact which engaged in, and the activities of which affected, interstate and foreign commerce. The enterprise constituted an ongoing organization whose members functioned as a continuing unit for a common purpose of achieving the objects of the enterprise.

The indictment also alleges:

On or about May 5, 2002, SAMI AMIN AL-ARIAN and SAMEEH HAMMOUDEH caused an employee at IAF to tell an unidentified woman during a telephone conversation that the woman should write a check to IAF after she indicated she wanted to send money for the Palestinians.

Yet, despite this, the Islamic Academy of Florida continued to receive money from the tuition voucher program in Florida through July 2003.

Lt. Col. Jonathan D. Halevi writes in IMRA, "What Drives Saudi Arabia to Persist in Terrorist Financing?"

The U.S. offensive against terrorism has succeeded in reducing the extent of global terrorism. However, under the surface, the financial channels that are the arteries of radical Islamic movements from Hamas to the Chechens continue to operate. U.S. pressure has managed to force Islamic financiers to alter their pattern of operations, but the substance of their support persists - in a financial jihad that backs the wider global jihad against the infidels.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states remain the most significant source of funds flowing to the Islamist movements. New documents found at "charitable foundations" linked to Hamas, as well as a careful examination of the Palestinian press, indicate a continuing flow of funds directly from official Saudi organizations to these foundations, which were declared by both Israel and the U.S. as terrorist organizations.

Palestinian Authority officials recently confirmed that Saudi Arabia
continues to fund charitable foundations controlled by Hamas. The World Assembly for Muslim Youth (WAMY) and the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) are active in transferring these funds. Captured documents show that the Saudi charity al-Haramain transferred funds to the al-Quran and a-Sunna Society in Qalqilia in August 2003 - almost two months after President George W. Bush announced in a summit meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, that he had assurances from Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah and other Arab leaders that they would halt all financial assistance to terrorist organizations.

In a later captured document, dated 8 February 2004, the Hamas-linked Idhna foundation in the Hebron area thanked al-Haramain for its assistance. The chairman of the al-Haramain administrative council was the Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs, a member of the Saudi cabinet...

Read it all.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) press release :

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Michael J. Garcia, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), today announced that a nationwide campaign by ICE agents against unlicensed money transmittal businesses and underground "hawalas" has resulted in the arrest of 140 individuals, 138 criminal indictments, and the seizure of more than $25.5 million in illicit proceeds since the enactment of the USA Patriot Act, which requires such businesses to be licensed and registered.

"Over the past two weeks, ICE has shut down a number of unlicensed money transmittal businesses that were responsible for the transfer of millions of dollars to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran," said Assistant Secretary Garcia. "ICE targets these illegal operations because we know that terrorist and other criminal organizations can use these underground businesses to move illicit funds anywhere in the world with no questions asked."

In recent days, ICE has won guilty pleas from two defendants and arrested another on charges of operating unlicensed money transmittal businesses.

On Friday, May 20, Rahim Bariek, 46, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan and resident of Herndon, Virginia, pleaded guilty in Alexandria to operating an unlicensed money transmittal business that wired millions of dollars to Iran, Pakistan, and areas in Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban between 2001 and 2003. On November 14, 2001, roughly two months after the 9/11 attacks, Bariek testified before the U.S. Senate about how important it was for "hawaladars" like himself to abide by federal laws governing such businesses. Those who skirt the rules "give all hawala a bad name," he testified. A subsequent ICE probe revealed that Bariek was operating an illegal money transmittal firm in Virginia that illegally wired $4.9 million to Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Bariek faces a maximum five-year sentence when sentenced on July 29, 2005.

On Friday, May 20, Noor Alocozy, 41, a native of Afghanistan native living in San Francisco, pleaded guilty to federal charges of operating an unlicensed money transmittal business that funneled nearly $1 million to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere. The investigation by ICE, the FBI, DEA, and IRS revealed that Alocozy's business had been utilized by Jack Idema, the former Green Beret-turned bounty hunter who is currently imprisoned in Afghanistan for allegedly torturing Afghan civilians. During the investigation, Alocozy provided ICE investigators with copies of business ledgers indicating that Idema used Alocozy's business to send funds from the U.S. to Afghanistan, presumably in support of his quest to capture Osama bin Laden and collect the $50 million reward. Alocozy is scheduled to be sentenced on August 26, 2005.

On May 13, 2005, Eltaib Yousif, 41, a resident of Castro Valley, California, made his initial court appearance in federal court in San Francisco after being arrested by ICE agents on charges of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. According to the indictment, Yousif illegally moved more than $1.5 million outside the country between September 2001 and November 2003. The investigation began after San Francisco ICE agents received a tip from ICE agents in New York about suspicious deposits being made into accounts at Citibank branches there and in the Bay Area.

From AFP via the Khaleej Times, "Libyan, Lebanese in US arrested over alleged jihad funding," with thanks to Skeetstreet.

BOSTON, Massachusetts - Two men, one Libyan and another Lebanese, were arrested Thursday and charged with financing jihad through a charitable front group, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.

Emadeddin Muntasser, 40, of Braintree, Massachusetts, and Muhamed Mubayyid, 40, of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, were accused of six counts of conspiracy and defrauding the government, prosecutors said in a statement.

"Organizations that conceal their true activities to abuse our tax laws, and in this case fund their support of the mujahadeen and jihad, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," US Attorney Andrew Sullivan said in a statement. Jihad is a holy war against infidels.

Muntasser is president of Care International based in Boston, Massachusetts and Mubayyid is treasurer.

Between 1993 and 2003, Care collected 1.7 million tax-free dollars as a charitable organization...

In the 1990s, Muntasser was involved in running Al-Kifah Refugee Center in Boston, which was tied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing according to the indictment, and Muntasser then went on to found Care.

Another jihad charity. From Reuters:

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday froze the assets of a charity it called a front for the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and said it was seeking safe channels for donations to Palestinians in need.

This afternoon we designated the Elehssan Society, including all of its branches, as a charitable front for the brutal terrorist group the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Enforcement Stuart Levey said.

"Elehssan masquerades as a charity while actually helping to finance PIJ's acts of terror against the Israeli people and other innocents," he told a congressional hearing. Elehssan operates in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.

Eurabia alert from Expatica, :

BRUSSELS - Belgian anti-terrorism experts are investigating possible links between some of the country's not-for-profit groups and known terrorist organisations, it was confirmed on Wednesday.

Several newspapers from the Sud Presse publishing group reported that Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinkx had received 86 separate
files on groups thought to be helping to finance international terrorism in some way or other.

But the newspapers said that most of the groups suspected of having links with terrorism were religious organisations.

Those Mennonites! At it again, eh?

Another story on Kifah Wael Jayyousi, from CNN, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former top official for the District of Columbia's public schools is being held on charges of conspiring to raise money and recruit fighters for Muslim extremists.

Kifah Wael Jayyousi, arrested Sunday at an airport in Detroit, Michigan, was chief facilities director for public schools in Washington from 1999 to 2001. But in the years running up to that high-profile position, he supported "violent jihad" in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Somalia, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Monday.

Jayyousi's arrest is connected to the investigation of The Global Relief Foundation and what federal authorities allege was a network providing material support to terrorists, mostly through supposed charities.

Jayyousi, a U.S. citizen originally from Jordan, is accused of conspiring with Adham Amin Hassoun, who has been in U.S. custody since 2002. Also charged in the criminal complaint is Kassem Daher, described in an FBI affidavit as living in Lebanon....

The criminal complaint against Jayyousi, 43, was filed in Miami, Florida, in December, and cites an investigation that began in 1993. It alleges that Jayyousi and his two co-conspirators set up nonprofit charities through which they raised money and recruited fighters for jihadi groups affiliated with al Qaeda.

The charities include American Islamic Group and American Worldwide Relief. In one instance, Jayyousi is described as having recruited a person to provide satellite phones to Chechen mujahedeen commanders.

It was in 1993 that the Omar Abdel Rahman was arrested and charged with plotting to blow up several New York landmarks. Abdel Rahman, now serving a life sentence, was a spiritual leader of Egypt's largest Islamic militant group, al-Gama'a al-Islamiya.

An FBI agent's affidavit describes Jayyousi as a "supporter and follower" of Abdel Rahman and says that in 1994 and 1995, investigators intercepted phone conversations between the two men.

"Jayyousi would update [Abdel Rahman] with jihad news, many times reading accounts and statements issued directly by terrorist organizations," the affidavit says.

From the BBC, with thanks to Susan:

German police have raided more than 30 sites believed to be connected to a banned Islamic organisation, al-Aqsa. The raids happened a day after the country's top administrative court upheld a 2002 ban on the group.

The German government alleges that the charity raises funds for the Palestinian militant movement, Hamas.

Al-Aqsa, which says it raises funds to alleviate poverty, had won permission to continue fundraising on a temporary basis last year.

The raids were conducted on 34 sites in Berlin, Bremen, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Interior Ministry says the police seized "extensive" materials.

The German Interior Minister, Otto Schily, said the raids had targeted sites connected with two groups suspected of taking over from al-Aqsa in 2002.

He said if the suspicions were confirmed, he would ban the new groups as well.

A "bouncer" at the mosque? From Expatica, with thanks to Anthony:

The El Tawheed mosque is a dilapidated-looking building on the Jan Hanzenstraat, part of the old working-class neighbourhood of Old West in Amsterdam. A neatly typed note (in perfect Dutch) has been taped onto the window, requesting the press to respect the privacy of the mosque's assembly.

The building was bought about five years ago with a EUR 1.5 million loan from the Saudi Arabian charity Al Haramain, which has since been put on the United Nation's blacklist of organisations with al-Qaeda links.

Until earlier this year Al Haramain also used El Tawheed as its Dutch postal address but the mosque "got fed up with the negative publicity this attracted" and now claims to have "no contacts whatsoever" with the banned organisation, although the mosque's spokesman, Farid Zaari, does not accept El Haramain has terrorist connections.

According to Zaari, the loan and postal facility were the only contacts the mosque has ever had with al-Haramain. But in its report earlier this year, the AIVD claimed: "There is a financial, organisational and personnel interconnection between the El Tawheed mosque in Amsterdam and the above-mentioned organisation al-Haramain."

It went on to say: "In the past, the former head of the al-Haramain HQ in Saudi Arabia, Aqeel el Aqeel and his assistant Mansour al-Kadi, have acquired executive positions in the El Tawheed Foundation...in exchange for support in the financing of the Tawheed mosque in Amsterdam. The AIVD does not have evidence that these executives used their influence to interfere with the daily running of the Tawheed mosque. In practice the involvement of the duo remained limited to formal annual inspections."

El Tawheed spokesman Zaari denies categorically that his mosque is involved in any way with political extremists and strongly condemns violence. What the mosque does do is rigorously advocate the word of Allah. Zaari: "For example, we will not shake the hand of a woman because that is against our faith and we want to live in accordance to that faith."

Zaari believes this unequivocal stance may have contributed to the negative reputation of the mosque in the Dutch media over the last three years. "We are not ashamed to tell people what is in the Koran. For example, we condemn the act of homosexuality but we don't tell people to insult or hurt homosexuals. People should be free to disagree with each other but differences should be expressed with words, not violence."

Zaari is angry that politicians are now calling for the mosque to be closed down without providing any evidence to justify such a move. "Let them come with the evidence. The authorities are more than welcome to investigate us, it's in our own interest because then people will see we have a clean slate."

In fact, the El Tawheed mosque is mentioned on several occasions in the 2004 report by the Dutch security services into the influence of the radical Salafitism (sometimes also called Wahhabism) movement in the Netherlands. This 'orthodox' form of Islam believes that Western ideals such as democracy, gender equality and freedom of expression are un-Islamic and questions the desirability of Muslims integrating into Western society, says the AIVD.

"The Netherlands has a number of mosque foundations with an outspoken Salafitist character. They have emerged from missions and financing from Saudi Arabia. The mosques involved are Stichting El Tawheed in Amsterdam..." The AIVD goes on to name mosques in the southern towns of Eindhoven, Tilburg, Breda and Helmond.

The report also claimed that there had been talk of the "explicit and unstoppable spread of radical, extreme isolationist views" in some Dutch mosques.

The report concluded that the AIVD did not have evidence that mosques in Holland openly propagated jihad. But it did say that this form of orthodox Islam was very attractive to Muslim communities in the West, especially to young Muslims to whom it seemed to offer a simple solution for their identity problems.

The report also claimed that there had been talk of the "explicit and unstoppable spread of radical, extreme isolationist views" in some Dutch mosques.

On top of the AIVD investigation, the El Tawheed mosque was also part of an investigation into the sale and/or distribution of radical Islamic literature by the Amsterdam public prosecution service launched in April this year.

According to Zaari, the prosecution office has cleared the mosque of any wrongdoing and the mosque's lawyer Ad Westendorp has confirmed this.

The public prosecution office said it could not comment as the investigation has not been officially concluded - according to Westendorp only two of the three books under scrutiny were available at El Tawheed's library and while these two have been cleared the authorities are still looking into the admissibility of the third.

The public prosecution office stressed that its investigation is related to anti-discrimination legislation and is in no way connected to terrorism.

According to Zaari, Mohammed B. was not a member of the El Tawheed mosque and as far as anyone there knows, not a regular visitor. "But we have around 500 people here on Friday nights so it's not inconceivable that he has prayed here. But we don't know him so wouldn't recognise him. He is not a member of any of our activities... as for Mohammed Attar, I had never heard of him until September 11." Attar was one of the leaders of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York.

That would be Muhammad Atta.

The family of one of the civilian non-combatants killed by Hamas (which killings it has celebrated as part of its "Glory Record") is fighting back. And of course the BBC is more concerned for the associates of the perpetrators than for the victims. From the BBC, :

The family of David Boim, an American teenager shot dead by Hamas at a West Bank bus stop in 1996, is suing a group of Chicago-based organisations who they say helped fund Hamas operations.

It will be the first courtroom test of a piece of federal anti-terror legislation passed in the early 1990s, which supporters say helps strike a blow at terror support networks.

But the case has also raised concerns for the Muslim community about where support for militants ends and guilt by association begins.

'Anti-terror tool'

"This federal statute is designed to provide Americans who are injured by international terrorism a right to sue in American courts the people who are responsible - and it reaches beyond just those who pull the trigger or carry the bomb," said Rick Hoffman, an attorney for the Boim family.

"We just happen to be the first to pursue this, but hopefully this is a tool that others will be able to follow as well to cut off the funding of these sorts of terrorist attacks."

The lawsuit is being fought a world away from where Boim was killed
The family is seeking damages of $600m (£310m). But even if the jury awards such a vast sum, neither the family nor the lawyers may see that money because many of the organisations' assets have already been the subject of separate, government actions.

Nonetheless, according to Jewish leaders the Boim case is a positive precedent for Chicago's Jewish community, which has long harboured concerns about local Islamic charitable organisations acting as conduits for funding militants.

"This is an uphill struggle against international terrorism, and the forces of good who fight fairly now have a law in their defence that gets a measure of justice against the known supporters of terrorism," says Jay Tcath, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council.

But others are concerned that the effects of the law may not be so clear cut....

One of the defendants in the case is the Quranic Literacy Institute.

In the basement of an unremarkable suburban house in south-west Chicago, it has built up a vast library of Arabic texts to support its 12-year project to write a new English translation of the Koran.

The Boims accuse the Institute of knowingly providing cover to a man alleged to be a key Hamas figure in the United States.

But the group's secretary, Amer Haleem, says the Institute has been "dragged into" the case for other reasons: "guilt by association and religious persecution.

"There's absolutely no connection between us and any terrorist organisation. They're depending on the fact that any Muslim can be accused of anything now and the American people will say 'By and large, well, it must be true'."

Well, this doesn't seem to be a very complicated question: did they knowingly harbor the man or didn't they?

"Every community now feels tainted by this broad brush stroke. Every mosque, every centre, every book publisher is now suffering [a drop in] what is being given to their organisation," says Seema Imam of the Muslim Civil Rights Center.

The Boim case, she says, undermines philanthropy, which is a pillar of the Muslim religion, and has a devastating effect on individuals and the community.

Again, this is really not so difficult. If charitable giving goes to terrorist groups, it must be stopped. And Seema Imam and her coreligionists should want it stopped. Why is it so hard for them to establish charities that don't end up giving money to jihadist murderers?

"There's an extensive amount of fear among Muslim[s]. The conversation is of confusion - how do I live in the land that I thought was the land of democracy, what do we do, how do we worship and where do we go from here?"

For the family of David Boim, this week may finally bring an end to their long search for legal reparation for a past tragedy.

But it will be many years before its clear how the legacy of his death will affect the future of America's Muslims.

If they are really anti-terror, then it can only affect them positively.

From the National Post:

OTTAWA - Conservative MP Stockwell Day wants Ottawa to investigate a Mississauga, Ont., charity he alleges has been operating as a front for a Palestinian terrorist organization. Mr. Day called on federal officials to study the charitable status of the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy, which he said operates as a front for Hamas. Hamas has been listed as a terrorist group by the federal government.

And more from the Canadian Jewish News:

The Islamic terrorist group Hamas has resumed fundraising in Canada through a front organization that offers charitable tax receipts to donors, an activist group stated earlier this week.

The International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy, IRFAN-Canada, has taken over for the defunct Jerusalem Fund for Human Services as Hamas' fundraising arm in Canada, according to the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD).

However, a spokesman for the organization denied the allegations. "We have nothing to do with the Jerusalem Fund," said Rasem Abdel-Majid, IRFAN-Canada's general manager. "This is an international relief [agency]. We have no connections to anybody."

Abdel-Majid also rejected suggestions the group supports Hamas. "That's not true," he said. "I want [CCD] to come out with proof of that."

CCD called on the federal government to freeze IRFAN's funds, prosecute the people behind it and explain how an organization with clear links to the Jerusalem Fund could have obtained the right to issue tax receipts for donations that ultimately benefit the banned terrorist organization Hamas.

"It really makes you wonder what the CRA [Canadian Revenue Agency] is doing when they grant charitable status to a group whose linkages to a banned organization in Canada is so transparent," said Alastair Gordon, director of communications for CCD.

Naresh Raghubeer, CCD's executive director, said only "gross incompetence" could explain how federal authorities permitted the Jerusalem Fund to re-emerge and do business in Canada under the IRFAN brand. He said IRFAN-Canada uses the same address and fax number as the Jerusalem Fund.

A search of the Internet by The CJN quickly uncovered the link. A website catering to Muslim students and another geared to Muslim entrepreneurs provided contact information for the Jerusalem Fund. The fund's mailing address in Mississauga and its fax number were identical to the ones advertised on IRFAN's website.

Here's an interesting piece, asserting that Osama's millions are not as many as often believed, and that he is not financing global terror. So...who is? I can name a few people off the top of my head, and I'll wager you can, too. Also, there are donations, which probably come from zakat payments made all over the world. From AP, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Recent investigations into al-Qaida, including by the Sept. 11 commission, have substantially altered the commonly held view that Osama bin Laden's inheritance and massive fortune are being used to finance his international terror operations.

While bin Laden isn't poor, he's not worth the $300 million once believed. Nor is he thought to be directly financing his terror group with his personal wealth or a network of businesses in Sudan, where he operated from 1991 to 1996.

"There has been a revision of collective thinking," said Kenneth Katzman, a Congressional Research Service expert who has studied terror groups. "The new thinking is that bin Laden's fortune didn't really enter into al-Qaida that much, or wasn't the driving force in al-Qaida."

The report from the Sept. 11 commission concluded that al-Qaida has many financing avenues and could easily find new sources, particularly given the attack's price tag of just $400,000 to $500,000 over two years.

While the report said the government has been unable to determine the source of the attack's financing, the commission said it appears al-Qaida's financial support doesn't come from bin Laden personally.

"The CIA now estimates that it costs al-Qaida about $30 million per year to sustain its activities before 9/11 and that this money was raised almost entirely through donations," the report said.

Aynan Sabri Ismail is going to be deported -- because, according to his lawyer (in a deft turn of phrase), of a band of "anti-Semitic thugs." From CBS11, with thanks to Robert:

Accused Dallas terrorist Aynan Sabri Ismail took the stand in federal court and swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

"I love this country," the bearded Kuwaiti-born Palestinian told U.S. Immigration Judge D. Anthony Rogers during a hearing earlier this month. "It's been good to me and this is where my family is. I want to build a peaceful, decent life for them. I just want to be a normal, decent person."

At stake for Ismail in the nearly empty Dallas immigration court was deportation to Jordan or a chance to prosper in America with his wife and five children, all citizens.

Despite professing love for his adoptive country, the 34-year-old illegal immigrant who came on a college student visa in 1988 now faces imminent expulsion, labeled a dangerous terrorist by the U.S. government. This week, Ismail decided not to appeal Judge Rogers' decision to reject an application to stay.

"He's not going to be in this country. He's not going to be acting as a sleeper. He's not going to be raising funds in this country," said Carl Rusnok, spokesman for the Dallas bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "He's going to be out of this country where he's not going to do us direct harm."

Ismail's lawyer, John Wheat Gibson, said his client's deportation is part of a government agenda by a "small group of anti-semitic thugs" to rid the country of Muslims.

"They're fanatic," Gibson said of the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who argued against Ismail's application to stay. "They're fundamentalists. They're just like Hamas."

Government lawyers, under pressure to use any legal means to rid the nation of perceived dangerous elements, put on evidence they said showed Ismail served as a top fundraiser for the banned Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation. President George Bush dubbed the organization a clandestine fundraising arm of Hamas and froze its assets in November, 2001.

Government lawyers said that from 1996 through 2001 Ismail had to have known that the money he raised for the nation's largest Muslim charity was going to the families of Hamas suicide bombers, providing "martyrs" with an incentive and comfort to attack Israeli civilians.

Have the Saudis been financing terror in Australia? From the Australian via The Advertiser, with thanks to Twostellas:

A VISITING Saudi Arabian government delegation was summoned to a meeting with senior Canberra bureaucrats this month to discuss Australia's concerns about the kingdom's financing of terrorism.

The Saudi officials had been in Australia several days to meet Islamic community and business leaders before the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade learned of their whereabouts and arranged a meeting through the Saudi Arabian embassy.

A member of the delegation from the Ministry for Islamic Affairs and Endowment told The Weekend Australian it was here to sort out problems with the lucrative business of exporting halal meat to Saudi Arabia.

But members also met trustees raising $2.65million for the controversial purchase of a mosque in southwestern Sydney.

Supporters of hardline Islamic cleric Sheikh Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud have bought the mosque and must raise the full amount before the July 30 settlement date.

Sheikh Zoud preaches at the prayer hall around the corner whose congregation has included Faheem Lodhi, who is in custody charged with committing an act in preparation for a terrorist attack.

Al-Haramain is just the tip of the iceberg. From AP, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Al-Qaida has siphoned millions of dollars from Islamic charities that help poor Muslims in Africa and Asia, and U.S. and Saudi government efforts to cut the flow have largely failed, Western diplomats and former charity workers say.

Working with sympathizers inside the charities, al-Qaida has for years used humanitarian funds for terror attacks in Kenya, Tanzania and Indonesia, U.S. and other Western officials told The Associated Press.

In one case, donations to the Al-Haramain Foundation to support Islamic preachers ended up in the pockets of a suspect in the November 2002 bombing of an Israeli hotel in Kenya, a Western diplomat told AP.

A wholesale fish business financed with Al-Haramain funds also steered profits to the al-Qaida cell behind the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in East Africa, U.S. officials told AP.

Another terror/charity story, from Dallas's CBS11, with thanks to Todd and Dick:

All through his protracted fight to gain legal residency in America, 16-year Dallas resident Ayman Sabri Ismail has held to the story that his work for the Holy Land Foundation was as a lowly computer graphics technician who knew nothing about the charity's business.

Claiming a tenuous low-profile connection to the Richardson-based organization could only help the Jordanian stay in North Texas with his naturalized American wife and five children. Especially, since President Bush two years ago declared the charity a clandestine fundraising arm for the terrorist group Hamas, shut it down and moved to deport or charge other employees with various crimes.

But in an unusual turn of courtroom events, the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday allowed a rare public accusation to surface: that Ismail is a terrorist.

Government records obtained by CBS-11 cite evidence that Ismail was a high-ranking fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, not the lowly computer technician he has repeatedly claimed he was. Working as a fundraiser for the banned organization makes Ismail a terrorist under provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the government has asserted in immigration records obtained by CBS-11.

A Dallas immigration judge's ruling on a request for bond, detailing evidence gathered by the Department of Homeland Security, says Ismail accepted checks from donors, actively solicited money and was given the title "Director of Resource Development, Pledges Division."

"Notwithstanding (Ismail's) self-serving statements, the evidence demonstrates that respondent did solicit and receive funds for HLF within the meaning of (the Patriot Act)," according to a Dallas immigration judge's ruling, called a bond memorandum, denying a bond hearing. "Respondent engaged in terrorist activity...

Ismail was detained earlier this month and sent to a federal holding facility in Haskell, Texas, where he could not be reached for comment. According to government records, he denied being a fundraiser for HLF even when presented with checks made out to him and donor solicitations sporting his signature and title.

"In general, the respondent argues that he did not solicit funds on behalf of HLF and that HLF did not solicit funds that were provided to Hamas," the bond memorandum stated.

From his defense comes the usual allegations of racist persecution. Evidently all these guys are reading out of the same playbook.

Ismail's Dallas attorney, John Wheat Gibson, dismissed the government allegations as government persecution tantamount to German government persecution of Jews during the 1930s.

"What this young man is going through is pretty much what a lot of Jewish Germans had to suffer in 1936," Gibson said. "It had nothing to do with the merits of the case; it has to do purely with the ethnicity of the defendant."

Gibson also said that even if his client did wear several hats while working for HLF, raising money for an organization that Ismail believed was a legitimate charity is not a crime.

"He was doing the same job that the secretary for the Baptist church does," Gibson said. "They have no evidence that he was any more than a graphic artist. He was working for a nonprofit corporation."

The Bush administration in December 2001 cited FBI and foreign intelligence in claiming that HLF and some of its employees worked as clandestine U.S.-based support for Hamas, a group that has repeatedly deployed suicide bombers in a often-stated quest to eliminate the state of Israel.

Supporters have steadfastly maintained that HLF was a legitimate charity that helped only needy Muslims across the globe but they have lost legal appeals to reopen all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

One former FBI counter-terrorism official who worked on the HLF investigation said the charity funneled large sums of money as incentives for suicide bombers to strike.

"It was to help support those families, telling the terrorists that we will take care of your family if you do this for Allah," said Tino Perez, recently retired head of the Dallas FBI's International Terrorism squad. ...

But a spokesperson for the DFW Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group, defended Ismail as nothing more or less than a devoted father and husband. Court records show that Ismail came to the U.S. on a student visa in 1990 to attend the University of Texas at Tyler.

"They need to focus on the real terrorists, not innocent people that happen to be Muslims or Arabs ... and being targeted because of that," she said.

Maybe this man really is innocent. But when has a Muslim ever been arrested when such spokesmen didn't say "They need to focus on the real terrorists"? Just who would this spokesperson identify as a "real" terrorist? George W. Bush? Ariel Sharon?

There is no jihad in the Balkans, they say. Orthodox Serbs and others are trying to frame a purely ethnic conflict as a jihad, they say.

From a Treasury Department press release, with thanks to the SITE Institute:

In another step today to halt the flow of terrorist dollars that have tainted the charitable community, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Department designated three Bosnian charities under Executive Order 13224. The U.S. is asking the United Nations' 1267 Sanctions Committee to add these entities to its consolidated list of terrorists tied to al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden and the Taliban.

"Today's action continues the international drumbeat to expose the terrorist nodes used to support the infrastructure of hate," said Juan Zarate, the Treasury Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Executive Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes. "Unfortunately, we have seen the vulnerabilities of charities in countries like Bosnia, where there is not only a need for charitable giving but also a susceptibility that such institutions will be co-opted by terrorist sympathizers."

The United States previously designated Bosnian-operated charities that were funneling dollars for terrorist-related activities, including the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), the Global Relief Foundation (GRF) and the Bosnian branch of Al-Haramain Foundation (AHF), including its director and Vazir, an alias for the organization.

From Treasury Secretary John Snow in Opinion Journal, :

One of the most critical things the 9/11 Commission hearings have brought to light is the important role the Patriot Act plays in helping to win the war on terror. We have heard a lot about "the wall"--a conceptual barrier that prohibited agencies such as the FBI and CIA from communicating freely with each other. That wall was knocked down when President Bush signed the Patriot Act in October 2001.

Sept. 11 compelled our nation to identify the areas we needed to bolster in order to secure our homeland. We have learned a number of very important lessons about the vulnerabilities in our financial system. First, that our ability to combat terrorist financing is linked with our ability to combat money laundering. Second, that we must remain vigilant in our continuing efforts to identify new ways in which terrorists and criminals will attempt to use our own financial system to fuel their agendas. And third, that our ability to obtain and share financial information is critical to our success in identifying and bringing down terrorist networks. ...

Under the Patriot Act, banks and other financial institutions are directed to bolster defenses in potentially vulnerable areas. As we strengthen our defenses against financial crimes in traditional financial institutions, such as banks, criminals and terrorists will look to other types of financial institutions or methods through which to move or launder their money. With that in mind, we continue to bring additional types of businesses under the umbrella of anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist-financing regulation, thereby raising awareness of the issues and equipping these businesses with the tools to protect themselves. ...

Sami Omar Al-Hussayen in court with his lawyer

From AP (with thanks to Nicolei), an intriguing look at the Sami Omar Al-Hussayen case:

"Even if the jury finds him not guilty," said Rand Lewis of the Martin School of International Affairs at the University of Idaho, "the Feds are going to deport him. And so they have achieved their goal, which is to show that they've strenuously fought terrorism within the United States. It's a face-saving case."

Al-Hussayen's wife and three young sons have already returned to Riyadh rather than fight federal attempts to deport him.

His lawyers and allies claim the government has it all wrong. The 34-year-old doctoral student is a leader of the Muslim community on the University of Idaho campus, a devoted husband and father and an opponent of terrorism, they say. He may be deeply concerned about the oppression of Muslims around the world, but only as any other deeply religious Muslim man would be.

The government, however, claims that its 2 1/2 year investigation shows that Al-Hussayen is the money man and computer brains behind an Internet network that is financing and recruiting terrorists worldwide. Prosecutors claim he has gone beyond mainstream Islam and its struggle against evil to radical Islam and extreme jihad, or terrorism.

Still, Al-Hussayen appears upbeat during the long hours of testimony each day.

"I think he's real confident in his innocence and glad to get the trial going after 14 months," said defense attorney Scott McKay, as the first week of the anticipated six-week trial drew to a close last Thursday. Testimony resumes Monday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Lindquist called Al-Hussayen a money conduit for terrorism who used his computer expertise to develop or manage a score of Web sites that included information about financing and participating in terrorist activity.

"The evidence will show his dual persona -- a face to the public and his private face, his private face of extreme jihad," she said.

Lead defense attorney David Nevin maintains the public face is all Al-Hussayen has.

"He's not an angry fundamentalist bent on murder, maiming and kidnapping," Nevin said. "He's respected in the community. He raised his kids as Americans. His youngest son is a U.S. citizen by virtue of being born here."

As president of the Muslim Student Association on the Moscow campus, Al-Hussayen issued a public letter to the community in September 2001 condemning the terrorist attacks on the East Coast. He marched in a peace rally, donated blood and worked to educate locals about Islam.

Al-Hussayen's father is the retired education minister for the Saudi government. Three of his brothers are medical doctors, with one in Canada. His two sisters are college educated, one in computer science like himself. His younger brother is attending the University.

Born and raised in Riyadh, Al-Hussayen had the opportunity to travel the world as a boy with his father, who oversees Saudi students studying in other countries.

Al-Hussayen received his undergraduate degree from King Saud University in Riyadh in the early 1990s and worked at the College of Science and Technology of King Abdul Aziz University before beginning his studies in the United States.

He got his masters degree at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., where he studied from 1994 to 1996, then began his doctoral work at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1997. He transferred to the University of Idaho for its computer science program that is rapidly building an international reputation.

Throughout his academic career, Al-Hussayen maintained near-perfect, if not perfect, grades, Nevin said.

Yet at the same time, Nevin said, Al-Hussayen was a fervent Muslim who did what he could to foster religious outreach programs and support Muslims fighting oppression, especially those in Chechnya and in the Middle East.

"Sami cares deeply about what's going on in Chechnya and Palestine," Nevin said.

Lindquist maintains that Al-Hussayen was so concerned that he ran Web sites that supported the militant Palestinian organization Hamas and funneled money to the Islamic Assembly of North America.

"With his expertise and expert advice, he created for them the vehicle for the recruiting and funding of terrorists," Lindquist said.

But Nevin maintained that what Al-Hussayen wanted was not more terrorism but "our prayers and our attention.

"He's not a pacifist," Nevin admitted. "He thinks the Chechens and Palestinians should continue to fight. But he did not want terrorism."

Given the nature of the leadership in both places, that, Mr. Nevin, is an exceedingly fine distinction.

Jihad in Hungary, courtesy of our friends and allies the Saudis. From AP, :

The mosque run by a man detained by police on suspicion of planning to bomb a Jewish museum received money from an Islamic organization suspected of financing al-Qaida, a Muslim community leader said Wednesday.

The Dar-Assalam mosque, run by Palestinian-born dentist Tayseer Saleh, 42, received funds from the Saudi-based Al-Haramain charity after the mosque broke away from Hungary's main Islamic group, the Hungarian Islam Society, society leader Zoltan Bolek said.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Al-Haramain has come under scrutiny for suspicions it bankrolled al-Qaida terror activities. Its branches in 10 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, have been shut down for suspected ties to al-Qaida and other terror groups.

Bolek told The Associated Press that Saleh's mosque "received funds and frequent visits from the Al-Haramain group."

"I feel sorry for Saleh because he was a decent man and they have twisted his mind with their distorted view of Islam," he added.

Bolek estimated that around 20,000 Muslims live in Hungary, but said only around "1 percent" were attracted to extremist views.

Police detained Saleh, a naturalized Hungarian, on Tuesday after the intelligence services and witnesses said he was planning to bomb a Jewish museum in Budapest.

The capture came as Israeli President Moshe Katzan arrived in Budapest to take part in the opening of Hungary's first Holocaust memorial center on Thursday. Police ruled out any connection between the alleged bomb plot and Katzan's visit.

At the Dar-Assalam mosque on Wednesday, a worshipper who refused to identify himself also said that the mosque received funds from Saudi Arabian groups.

"Yes, we have received a lot of funds from Saudi Arabia, but I do not want to name the group," he told AP.

The city-center dental clinic where Saleh worked with his Hungarian wife was closed Wednesday. Calls to the clinic were unanswered.

Police say that they have no information to suggest the bomb plot was linked to foreign terror groups, but they are investigating that possibility.

Police said they have enough evidence to justify the arrest of a Hungarian suspect of Palestinian origin Tuesday

Saleh faces charges of preparing a terror threat, even though authorities discovered no explosives or weapons while searching buildings connected with the suspect.

"We have found other physical evidence and documents, which we are in the process of evaluating," police spokesman Laszlo Garamvolgyi said.

A court will decide on Thursday on whether the dentist should remain in detention.

More on Canada's usefulness to terrorists, from The Globe and Mail ():

Canada's anti-money-laundering centre uncovered $35-million in suspected terrorist financing in the first nine months of the fiscal year, outstripping the tally for the entire previous year.

The amount reflects the total detected by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre from April through December 2003, forming the basis of 29 case files passed to police or intelligence officials for further investigation.

The figures obtained by The Canadian Press are the latest indication that dangerous organizations continue to try to use Canada's financial institutions as conduits for bankrolling terrorist acts.

Fintrac, as the federal centre is known, identified 25 cases of suspected terrorist financing involving $22-million in all of fiscal 2002-03. ...

The agency says terrorist financing may involve money raised from legitimate sources, such as personal donations and profits from businesses and charitable organizations, as well as from criminal activities, such as the drug trade, the smuggling of weapons and other goods, fraud, kidnapping and extortion.

The "rumpled academic"

After an episode of curious bumbling in the Sami Al-Arian case, a judge has ruled that raising money for jihad terrorists is not constitutionally protected free speech. He also refused canny requests from the defense to stop using the word "terrorist." From AP:

A federal judge has rejected a former professor's claims that the government infringed on his right to free speech by prosecuting him on charges he helped raise money for terrorists.

U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. refused Friday to dismiss a part of the 50-count indictment against Sami Al-Arian, who is charged with using an Islamic charity and an academic think tank as a front to raise money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al-Arian is scheduled to go on trial in January, along with Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatim Naji Fariz and Ghassan Zayed Ballut, on charges that they provided financial and other support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Israel.

Al-Arian's attorneys were not immediately available for comment Monday.

They have argued he is being prosecuted for his political beliefs and for supporting an organization that is involved in legitimate political and charitable activities.

The prosecution responded that Al-Arian was a leader of a government-designated terrorist organization and was being prosecuted for facilitating acts of violence. He "assisted in funding the bloodshed in the Middle East," prosecutors argued in court papers.

"This court agrees with the government that the indictment does not criminalize pure speech," Moody wrote. "Instead the ... indictment utilizes the speech of defendants to show the existence of the conspiracies, the defendants' agreements to participate in them, their level of participation or role in them, and the defendants' criminal intent."

The defense also argued that raising money for the group should be protected by the First Amendment.

But Moody said fund-raising does not have constitutional protection. Moreover, Moody concluded, "Stopping the spread of terrorism is ... a compelling governmental interest."

Moody also rejected defense motions to strike the words "terrorism" and "terrorist" from the indictment because it could inflame jurors. The judge said the allegation of supporting a terrorist organization is an "essential element of two of the charges."

This group had been spreading its message in American prisons, mosques, and Islamic schools. From the Washington Post, with thanks to EPG:

The Treasury Department ordered banks yesterday to freeze the accounts of the Oregon and Missouri branches of a large Saudi charity that U.S. officials say has been used to finance the al Qaeda terrorist network around the world.

FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents searched a home in Ashland, Ore., that is the U.S. headquarters for the charity, the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. The search is part of an investigation into allegations that the Oregon branch was involved in money laundering and income tax and currency-reporting violations, Treasury officials said.

Over the past two years, U.S. and Saudi authorities have intensified a joint crackdown on al-Haramain offices around the globe after concluding that they had funneled money, personnel and equipment to al Qaeda. Branches in Bosnia and Somalia were shuttered in 2002, and last December others were closed in Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania and Pakistan.

U.S. officials continue to investigate the foundation's headquarters in Saudi Arabia. Several weeks ago al-Haramain's chief, Aqeel al-Aqeel, was fired by top Saudi clerical authorities amid growing suspicions about his role at the charity.

Lawrence Matasar, an attorney for the al-Haramain office in Oregon, said charity officials in that state are cooperating with the government in the investigation. "We believe no crimes have been committed," he said.

Al-Haramain's headquarters in Saudi Arabia launched its Oregon office in 1997 by funding the work of an Ashland landscaper, Pete Seda, who had been sending Korans to prison inmates. The two people now mainly under investigation are Seda and Soliman Albuthe, a Saudi citizen who also helped run the Oregon organization.

Officials are investigating numerous financial transactions involving Albuthe and Seda, also known as Pirouz Sedaghaty, including allegations of transporting large sums of undeclared traveler's checks across U.S. borders. Under U.S. law, anyone transporting $10,000 or more in or out of the country must declare it to customs agents.

Agents are looking into $131,000 that was wired by a man in London to the Oregon foundation, which then dispatched Albuthe to transport the funds by traveler's checks to Saudi Arabia. The transaction was not properly reported to U.S. authorities, according to an affidavit filed in court in Oregon. The funds were ultimately destined for Muslim fighters or refugees in Chechnya, it said.

The affidavit also disclosed that a federal grand jury has been investigating al-Haramain's U.S. operations.

The U.S. branch of the charity has mainly distributed Islamic books and videos to Americans, and also helped establish a mosque in Springfield, Mo., with more than $370,000 provided by the Saudi headquarters.

One of the top leaders of that mosque was Kamran Bokhari, a student at Southwest Missouri State University, who was also the U.S. representative of a radical London-based group called al-Mujahiroun, which supports al Qaeda, according to the Site Institute, a terrorism research group.

It's no secret that Al-Muhajiroun supports Al-Qaeda. They're quite open about it.