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Gems, al-Qaida and murder. Mystery over killing of Osama Bin Laden's friend · Saudi man's death was political, say his family· US secret service was monitoring his activities Nick Fielding Friday March 2, 2007 The Guardian (UK) Pallbearers carry the coffin of Muhammad Jamal Khalifa at Ivato airport in Antananarivo, in Madagascar. Photograph: Jasleen Sethi/Reuters When Muhammad Jamal Khalifa was found dead at a remote gemstone mine in south-eastern Madagascar at the end of January, local police quickly put the murder down to a business deal gone wrong. The Saudi businessman, 49, had had to call in local police to...

An Islamic charity with ties to Al Qaeda and the Taliban is now collaborating with an unlikely new partner: UNICEF, the United Nations’ Children’s Fund.UNICEF has signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), a Saudi charity of massive scope that keeps branches in more than 20 countries and has over 100 offices worldwide. According to UNICEF, it will be teaming with the charity’s domestic Saudi branch to “promote children’s rights, health, equality and education,” in the oil-rich kingdom — but the organization has been doing more than just charity work. The U.S. Treasury Department...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia has extended for two more years the imprisonment of a terror suspect linked to al-Qaeda's attempts to produce chemical and biological weapons, saying he has more information about terrorist operations. Yazid Sufaat, a U.S.-trained biochemist and former Malaysian army captain, was arrested in late 2001 as he returned home from Afghanistan, where officials say he was working on a biological and chemical weapons program for al-Qaeda that was ended by the U.S.-led war. Since then, he has been held without trial under Malaysia's Internal Security Act on accusations of being a member of Jemaah...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday named the Philippine and Indonesian branches of the International Islamic Relief Organization as fund-raisers for al Qaeda and other terror groups. It also designated one of the Saudi-based organization's high-ranking officials, Abd Al Hamid Sulaiman Al-Mujil, as a fund-raiser for al Qaeda. The action means that no American can have any dealings with the two branches of the organization or with Al-Mujil and that any assets they have in the United States will be frozen. "Al-Mujil has a long record of supporting Islamic militant groups, and he has maintained a cell...

The candidate Bush meets with Muslim leaders in Austin, Texas. Abdurahman Alamoudi (right of Bush) heads the sister organization of terror connected IIRO. A CIA report from 1996, obtained by investigators for the lawyer suing a number of Islamic charities on behalf of victims of the 9/11 attacks, reveals that the U.S. government knew that over one-third of the Islamic charities operating throughout the world were aiding known terrorist groups. Many of the charities detailed in the report are Saudi-sponsored and official Saudi government charities are implicated in supporting terrorism. These charities include the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO)...

Responding to last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Saudi Arabia’s role in the war on terror, entitled “Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe in the War on Terror?”, Riyadh’s ambassador to the U.S., Prince Turki al-Faisal, charged the committee members with ignorance. "Judging by the statements made at the hearing, it appears that the members of the Committee are not fully aware of the significant steps Saudi Arabia has taken in the war on terrorism and extremism.” Worse, according to the prince, U.S. senators “chose to ignore the realities for the sake of political expediency.” Did they really? The U.S....

Ottawa pulls Saudi group's charity status Tax violation: Muslim World League being sued by 9/11 families Stewart Bell National Post Monday, December 01, 2003 TORONTO - Federal regulators have revoked the charity status of the Canadian branch of a Saudi organization that has faced longstanding allegations of ties to terrorism. A notice in the government publication Canada Gazette said the Muslim World League (MWL) is one of several charities that "have not met the filing requirements of the Income Tax Act." The revocation came into effect on Nov. 15, but the organization, dedicated to promoting Islam, was still calling itself...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- A powerful Saudi charity under scrutiny for alleged terrorist financing is expanding operations in tsunami-ravaged areas of Indonesia, importing a hard-line religious message that the West fears could spread extremist Islam in the world's most populous Muslim nation. The presence of the International Islamic Relief Organization could complicate relief efforts in Indonesia, which is desperate for help but also under pressure to contain Islamic militants. Attacks have included nightclub bombings in 2002 that killed 202 people. It also offers a high-profile test of Saudi promises to closely monitor its major aid societies. Many have faced probes...

Insight on the News - National Issue: 03/02/04 Special Report Saffuri's Ties to Terror Suspects By Kenneth R. Timmerman The rise of Khaled Saffuri to political prominence within the U.S. Muslim community has all the ingredients of a Horatio Alger success story. Brought up as a stateless exile in Kuwait, Saffuri came to America as a student in 1982, went to college in San Diego, and soon gravitated into the world of Muslim activism. A talented fund-raiser and behind-the-scenes power broker, Saffuri built bridges to politicians in both parties by generously contributing to their election campaigns, from California libertarian Rep....

Special ReportSaffuri's Ties to Terror Suspects Posted Feb. 23, 2004 By Kenneth R. Timmerman Saffuri (above) has formed relationships with several questionable allies, including Sami al-Arian, who was arrested last year. The rise of Khaled Saffuri to political prominence within the U.S. Muslim community has all the ingredients of a Horatio Alger success story. Brought up as a stateless exile in Kuwait, Saffuri came to America as a student in 1982, went to college in San Diego, and soon gravitated into the world of Muslim activism. A talented fund-raiser and behind-the-scenes power broker, Saffuri built bridges to politicians in both...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anxious to appear fair in doling out nearly $20 billion in work in Iraq, the U.S.-led authority there is holding conferences in Washington and London next week for prospective contractors. Called "CPA Industry Days," the Coalition Provisional Authority's Iraq Infrastructure Reconstruction Office (IIRO) is set to draw thousands of participants at its meetings in Washington on Nov. 19 and in London two days later. "The conferences will allow both small and large industry to see where we are going and it will enhance the transparency of the contracting process," a U.S. defense official said on Monday, adding...

Saudi Wealth Fuels Global Jihadism Posted Oct. 27, 2003 By Kenneth R. Timmerman Generations of Muslims in the Middle East have been raised on the anti-Western, anti-Semitic theologies of Ayatollah Khomeini and in the Saudi Wahhabi system of madrassas (religious schools). This foundation set the stage for the rise of Osama bin Laden. Doaa 'Amer is a professional TV anchor who hosts Muslim Woman Magazine on IQRAA TV, a satellite channel broadcasting throughout the Arab world. As she tells it, her job is to educate the next generation of children to be "true Muslims." Readers accustomed to hearing Islam described...

Just days after the Oklahoma City bombing, the INS deported Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, even though the FBI had evidence that linked the Saudi businessman to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Bojinka plot and Oklahoma City. Not only was Khalifa deported to Jordan, where he was subsequently freed, but the U.S. government let him leave with potentially incriminating evidence and cleared his record of terrorism charges. Evidence in the FBI's possession at the time potentially implicated the Saudi businessman in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the airliner bombing plot and the Oklahoma City...

<p>WASHINGTON - On Aug. 20, 2001, Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen, a man who would soon be named a minister of the Saudi government and put in charge of its two holy mosques, arrived in the United States to meet with some of this country's most influential fundamentalist Sunni Muslim leaders.</p>

<p>A task force of federal agents has ratcheted up a two-year-old antiterrorism investigation aimed at several Virginia-based Islamic charities suspected of diverting millions of dollars to terror network al Qaeda and other militant radicals.</p> <p>Led by agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI, the task-force probe has targeted a number of people tied to several private companies and interrelated Islamic charities operating out of business fronts in Herndon and Falls Church.</p>

A U.S. intelligence report claims a Saudi humanitarian organization that operates in Canada has funded "militant training camps," shipped weapons to Afghanistan and had ties to Osama bin Laden. The International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) is named in the 1996 document as one of 15 organizations that "employ members or otherwise facilitate the activities of terrorist groups in Bosnia." The document ties the group, which has an office in Ontario, to the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, a man convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and plots to kill the Pope and attack U.S. airliners. "The majority of Hamas...

Islamic charities based in Northern Virginia and sponsored by the government of Saudi Arabia invested millions of dollars in a company suspected of funding al-Qaida and the Islamic Resistance Movement, the government alleged for the first time yesterday. An affidavit made public in federal court in Virginia contends that the Muslim charities gave $3.7 million to BMI Inc., a private Islamic investment company in New Jersey that may have passed the money to terrorist groups. The money was part of a $10 million endowment from unnamed donors in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, according to the affidavit filed by the Bureau of...

Islamic charities based in Northern Virginia and sponsored by the government of Saudi Arabia invested millions of dollars in a company suspected of funding al Qaeda and the Islamic Resistance Movement, the government alleged for the first time yesterday. An affidavit made public in federal court in Virginia contends that the Muslim charities gave $3.7 million to BMI Inc., a private Islamic investment company in New Jersey that may have passed the money to terrorist groups. The money was part of a $10 million endowment from unnamed donors in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, according to the affidavit filed by David Kane...

<p>The Treasury Department said Monday that it would decline to provide the Senate with a list of Saudi individuals and organizations the federal government has investigated for possibly funding al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.</p> <p>The action was the second in two weeks to set the White House and Congress at odds over the Saudis and federal intelligence-gathering related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.</p>

<p>The Treasury Department rejected a request from senators Tuesday and refused to release a classified list of Saudi individuals or organizations suspected of financing terrorist groups.</p> <p>A Treasury spokesman, Rob Nichols, said a department official misspoke when he told senators last week the list was unclassified, which would mean it was not restricted information.</p>

May 21, 2003, 8:45 a.m. Trails Lead to SaudisA Virginia terror probe continues. By Matthew Epstein In March 2002, Federal terrorism investigators descended upon a group of Saudi-backed executives operating out of northern Virginia. The government hauled away truckloads of files and computer hard drives from the "SAAR Network," a web of dozens of related companies with interlocking officers, directors, and corporate headquarters. The Treasury Department suspected the group was laundering money for al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Now over a year after the raids, many are asking whether the Justice Department will hand down indictments or clear the...

The Center for Middle East Studies at UC Berkeley says in its mission statement that "the center aims to reach the broadest possible constituency, working with a variety of organizations and individuals to discover new avenues for scholarly outreach and cooperation (http://ias.berkeley.edu/cmes)." Such goals are respectable and embody those which a university should strive to provide for its students. As part of its goal to promote understanding, CMES has been responsible for the many lectures and presentations about the situation in the Middle East over the past year. Former speakers include revisionist Israeli historian Illan Pappe and Palestinian activist Edward...

SITE Institute,4/18/2003 - Saudis Hire Prominent Law Firms to Defend Themselves from $1 Trillion Lawsuit Filed by 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism Law firms hired by Saudi defendants in the $1 Trillion lawsuit filed by the 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism have begun to respond to Families’ allegations. The defendants claim that the suit is a “broadside indictment of Saudi government, religion and culture” but have filed documents in support of their defense that ironically, according to the lead attorney for the Families, Ron Motley, bolsters the plaintiffs’ case. Documents filed on behalf of Prince Sultan bin Abdul...