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Islamic charities in US linked to terrorist funding
Washington, Aug 20: In the first such allegation, the US government has said Islamic charities sponsored by Saudi Arabian government have been channeling funds worth millions of US dollars to the al-Qaeda terror network and the militant outfit Hamas through an investment firm.
Washington, Aug 20: In the first such allegation,
the US government has said Islamic charities sponsored by
Saudi Arabian government have been channeling funds worth
millions of US dollars to the al-Qaeda terror network and the
militant outfit Hamas through an investment firm.
According to court documents made public yesterday,
the charities in northern Virginia invested $3.7 million in
BMI Inc., a now-defunct, new jersey-based private Islamic
investment company which is suspected of funding al-Qaeda and
the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
The affidavit was filed in Virginia federal court by
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, making it the
first such allegation from an agency of US government.
The money, part of a $10 million endowment from unidentified donors in Saudi Arabia, may have been transferred to terrorist groups, a daily reported today.
The investigation into such suspect companies spans four continents and is the largest current US inquiry into terrorist financing, US officials told the daily.
The affidavit filed by David Kane was to explain the detention of BMI Inc founder Soliman S Biheiri, indicted two weeks ago on charges of making false statements to obtain US residency and other immigration charges. Biheiri, who started BMI Inc in 1986 was held for more than a month as a material witness in the justice department's investigation of terrorist financing, the daily said, quoting unidentified sources.
One of BMI's chief investors was Saudi businessman Yasin Qadi, whom the United States and United Nations named a ``specially designated global terrorist'' in October 2001 for his alleged support for both al-Qaeda and the Hamas.
Bureau Report
The money, part of a $10 million endowment from unidentified donors in Saudi Arabia, may have been transferred to terrorist groups, a daily reported today.
The investigation into such suspect companies spans four continents and is the largest current US inquiry into terrorist financing, US officials told the daily.
The affidavit filed by David Kane was to explain the detention of BMI Inc founder Soliman S Biheiri, indicted two weeks ago on charges of making false statements to obtain US residency and other immigration charges. Biheiri, who started BMI Inc in 1986 was held for more than a month as a material witness in the justice department's investigation of terrorist financing, the daily said, quoting unidentified sources.
One of BMI's chief investors was Saudi businessman Yasin Qadi, whom the United States and United Nations named a ``specially designated global terrorist'' in October 2001 for his alleged support for both al-Qaeda and the Hamas.
Bureau Report