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Man found dead was being investigated over charity cash Bound body of Riad Hamad was found last month in Lady Bird Lake. A man whose body was found in Lady Bird Lake last month had been under investigation by federal authorities who said they could not trace the whereabouts of more than $500,000 he received for his charity, according to a search warrant obtained Wednesday. Riad Hamad, 55, a teacher at Clint Small Jr. Middle School in Southwest Austin, was found April 16 near Comal Street and Nash Hernandez Sr. Road. Police have said that they think he might have...

Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah. A 15-page report congressional report includes intelligence from law enforcement as well as New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance. Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah. One of the key issues... is a potential flaw...

Mary Anastasia O'Grady writes in today's Wall Street Journal that George Soros's Open Society Institute has been funding terrorism. In a column entitled Friends of Terror in Peru, O'Grady notes that Thursday's vote by the European Parliament to take the Peruvian guerrilla group known as the Tupac Amaru (aka MRTA) off its terrorist list has Peru in an uproar. For good reason: The MRTA is notorious for kidnapping, torturing and murdering civilians to advance its political agenda. More recently, Peruvian officials have linked it to Hugo Chávez's "Bolivarian Movement," which seeks to destabilize democracies in Latin America, and to the...

Treasury Warns Of Deception By Iran Treasury Warns Banks That Iran Is Engaging In Deceptive Practices To Skirt Sanctions WASHINGTON, Mar. 27, 2008 (AP) The Bush administration issued a fresh warning Thursday to U.S. banks that Iran is using "an array of deceptive practices" to hide its alleged involvement in nuclear proliferation and terrorist activities. The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network alleged that Iran is resorting to such alleged practices to evade detection and skirt financial sanctions. "The government of Iran disguises its involvement in proliferation and terrorism activities through an array of deceptive practices specifically designed to evade...

Billionaire leverages harsher libel rules to suppress unflattering book NEW YORK - Rachel Ehrenfeld writes about terrorism for a living. But now she is the one who feels targeted. Her modest midtown Manhattan apartment is filled to the ceiling with books, most having to do with global terror networks and Mideast conflict. Sitting at her desk, she gazes out at the Hudson River. She says she has a hard time placing her work. She says she has been blacklisted. If she travels to England, she fears she will be arrested. "I feel like a leper," she said. Ehrenfeld faces a...

(IsraelNN.com) Rachel Ehrenfeld, Director of the American Center for Democracy, said at the Jerusalem Conference Tuesday that Saudi Arabian bankers are the main financiers of global terrorism. Corrupt “Sharia financing” banking practices - legal under Islamic law - are a fairly new phenomenon, Ehrenfeld said. They were first developed by the Muslim brotherhood in the 70s, following the financial power gained by Saudis during the oil boom. Ehrenfeld at Jerusalem Conference ”Saudis are using money in order to corrupt the West, to fund terrorism, and eventually to take over the West,” said Ehrenfeld. “For years, Saudi Arabia has been a...

As Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador prepare to have their armies make a run for the borders, Alvaro Uribe accused Hugo Chavez of funding the terrorist organization FARC. In its lightning raid across the Ecuadorian border to strike at FARC’s leadership, the Colombian army captured some critical intelligence at the camp of FARC leader Raul Reyes. Included in that was a thank-you note from Chavez for an earlier contribution to his own cause: Colombia’s police chief, Gen. Oscar Naranjo, said documents recovered from a slain rebel leader’s computer indicate Chavez recently sent $300 million to Colombian guerrillas. He said another document...

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia’s police chief on Monday said documents found on a slain rebel’s laptop computer suggest Venezuela recently paid $300 million to Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, perhaps in exchange for the release of six hostages.Other documents show the rebels had appeared interested in buying uranium, Gen. Oscar Naranjo said at an explosive news conference where he lashed out at Venezuela and Ecuador for the financial and political support they have provided to Colombia’s leftist rebels.“When they mention negotiations for 50 kilos of uranium this means that the FARC are taking big steps in the world of terrorism to...

A former Florida college professor who pleaded guilty to aiding a Palestinian terrorist group was not immune from a subpoena forcing him to testify in an unrelated probe of Muslim charities, an appeals court ruled Friday. Sami Al-Arian, 50, had argued the terms of the plea agreement exempted him from testifying before a grand jury in an investigation of Islamic charities in Virginia. A federal judge disagreed and found Al-Arian guilty of contempt when he refused to testify. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Al-Arian's appeal Friday, ruling that federal prosecutors did not violate the plea agreement by...

Ex-Lawmaker Charged in Terror Conspiracy Jan 16 02:42 PM US/Eastern By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer 19 Comments WASHINGTON (AP) - A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to...

 A federal grand jury in Kansas City has issued a new indictment against an Islamic charity based in Columbia---and has added a former Michigan congressman to the list of people indicted.The new indictment accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency and several former officers of of engaging in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of a terrorist. The indictment charges former Michigan Congressman Mark Deli Siljander with money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice.Federal officials say the charity sent money to Pakistan to benefit a man designated by the United States as a global terrorist. The prosecutor says the man had...

BOSTON - Three former leaders of an Islamic charity were convicted Friday of duping the U.S. government into getting tax-exempt status by hiding the group's pro-jihad activities. Care International Inc., which is now defunct, described its mission as helping war orphans, widows and refugees in Muslim nations. But prosecutors said the organization also distributed a newsletter promoting jihad and supported Muslim militants involved in armed conflicts around the world. Emadeddin Muntasser, the founder of Care International; Muhammed Mubayyid, the group's former treasurer; and Samir Al-Monla, the president of Care from 1996 to 1998, were charged with tax code violations, making...

Three former leaders of an Islamic charity were convicted on federal tax and fraud charges in Boston yesterday for using tax exemptions to hide support for religious militants and alleged terrorists overseas. The convictions marked a victory for the Justice Department, which has had limited success in prosecuting charity groups suspected of financial ties to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups... The defunct group, Care International Inc., described itself as a charity for Muslim refugees, widows and orphans. Prosecutors said, however, that the organization distributed a newsletter in favor of jihadist causes and lent other support to Islamic militants since its...

In a reprise of its notorious December 2004 delivery of $600,000 in cash and humanitarian aid to the 'other side' in the then al Qaeda controlled Iraqi city of Fallujah as American forces were fighting to liberate the city from the terrorists, the anti-American group Code Pink is again raising money to send to an al Qaeda stronghold in Iraq.Several weeks ago, Code Pink announced that it was soliciting money to send to Nineveh province to aid "Iraqi orphans, widows and internally displaced people."It just so happens that Nineveh province is where al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents have recently regrouped...

The Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) has upped the ante in the "financial jihad" and is now raising money through a popular forum on behalf of the mujahideen of al Qaeda. Andrew Cochran believes that this is an indication of the success of the Coalition in breaking al Qaeda's financial networks. CT Blog has this bit from the forum:“Oh Muslims !! this is a call for you from the fighters to the entire Muslims. Following the campaign against Islam to dry its sources, many of the people who support this religion suffer from lack of equipments and basic means for...

On November 20, I posted on the success of the U.S.-led Iraq Threat Finance Cell in disrupting Al Qaeda in Iraq's financial network. Reuven Paz, one of the leading experts in the CT community and the founder and Director of the Project for the Research of Islamist Movements (PRISM) at the GLORIA Center in Israel, has written a follow-up to that post for us, with an analysis of Al Qaeda's admission of financial distress. I am pleased to run Mr. Paz's analysis below in its entirety with my gratitude: On 20 November 2007, Andrew Cochran reported on this blog about...

Saudi Arabia is the primary global financier of the Islamist terror cult. Until the Saudis started racking up billions in inflated oil revenues in the 1970s, the Wahhabi movement was regarded by Muslims the world over as little more than primitive insanity. Without rivers of treasure to feed its roots, this horrific movement could neither grow nor thrive. It is the Saudis’ unlimited funds—over $200 billion in foreign exchange earnings in 2006—that have allowed them to buy up the faculties of the Islamic world’s leading intellectual centers; to build or take over thousands of mosques; to establish thousands of radical...

The vast majority of "high value targets" for U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Afghanistan are tied to the Taliban, which is using the country's rampant opium poppy cultivation to fund terrorist insurgencies. "We must make it clear to the Afghan people that we, the international community and the Afghan government are serious about this drug trade and corresponding terrorism," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "We are not just eradicating a few opium fields or arresting some local, midlevel drug dealers to show something is being done, but that is...

Last Friday, President Bush certified Saudi Arabia as a cooperative anti-terrorism ally and released U.S. financial aid to Riyadh. This occurred despite charges leveled against the “Kingdom” by Stuart Levey, the U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, who one day after the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, declared that Saudi Arabia had failed to prosecute terrorism financiers. Levey voiced frustration that not a single terrorist supporter identified by Washington had been prosecuted by the Saudis. “If I could snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia,”...

Taliban use hostage cash to fund UK blitz By Massoud Ansari in Kila Abdullah, Pakistan Last Updated: 12:20am BST 14/10/2007 Millions of dollars handed over to secure the release of South Korean hostages in Afghanistan have been used to buy weapons deployed against British and American forces in the country, the Taliban claims. Killed: Major Alexis Roberts Major Alexis Roberts, 32, Prince William's former platoon commander at Sandhurst, was one of the victims of the Taliban offensive funded by the hostage money. According to Taliban fighters interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph, the money has also been used to train recruits...

Refugee or Terrorist? by: Bethany Stotts, October 10, 2007 Following the devastating attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress passed the Patriot Act and the REAL ID Act, an effort to prevent further terrorist invasion of U.S. soil. The Patriot Act extends the material support bar to include fundraising for terrorist groups, and is retroactive towards all aliens whatever their entry date. In addition, a 2001 Department of Justice memorandum states that the Patriot act requires the government to deport an alien for fundraising or recruitment on behalf of a terrorist organization “even if the alien did not intend to...

The Long War Journal: Al Qaeda financier and foreign facilitator captured in Baghdad Written by Bill Roggio on October 4, 2007 7:47 AM to The Long War Journal Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/10/al_qaeda_financier_a.php Just one day after the announcement of the capture of Muthanna, a senior al Qaeda facilitator of foreign fighters in the Sinjar region on the Syrian border, Multinational Forces Iraq announced the capture of a major financier in Baghdad. The yet to be named al Qaeda financier was captured by the Iraqi Army in the Baghdad neighborhood of Kindi. The al Qaeda operative used his leather business to...

On September 11, 2001, most Americans were shocked to hear that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. The mastermind of the worst terrorist attack in the history of the United States, Osama bin Laden, was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. Joint Intelligence Report by the U.S. Congress using "incontrovertible evidence" linked Saudi Arabia to the financing of al-Qaeda operatives in the United States. Saudi Arabia’s involvement in terrorist financing can be documented through materials captured by Israel in Palestinian headquarters in 2002-3 including 70 per cent direct funding to Hamas.

As Americans wonder how to cope with Iran, Iran keeps killing Americans. The primary battleground is Iraq, where agents of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards fund and arm the Shiite extremists whose IEDs pierce the armor of U.S. soldiers and whose bombs massacre Iraqi civilians. Within the next few days, four senators will introduce legislation that faces these facts unflinchingly and calls on America to win. The resolution — an amendment to a defense appropriations bill — is sponsored by Jon Kyl, Joseph Lieberman, Norm Coleman, and Lindsey Graham. It expresses the sense of the Senate that the U.S. should “combat, contain,...

Homeland Security: We've warned for years that an Islamist underground exists in this country, secretly working to take over the U.S. Now the mainstream media is waking up to the threat. Yes, theirs is an ambitious plan. But the enemy lurking within is assiduous, patient and well-organized. We are only now starting to see its tentacles, thanks to a landmark federal terror-financing case under way in Dallas. News about the secret Islamist plot against the U.S. is starting to trickle out from the few media covering the trial against the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Muslim charity in America. It...

December 6, 2001 THE MONEY TRAILF.B.I. Traces Hamas's Plan to Finance Attacks to '93By DAVID FIRESTONE ight years ago, after the F.B.I. tracked a group of senior leaders of the radical Islamic group Hamas to a hotel room in Philadelphia, electronic eavesdropping provided the first clear indication that the group planned to raise money in the United States for terrorism in Israel. The results of that surveillance, recently declassified, show that Hamas leaders and their supporters in the United States were even then planning to use violence to defeat the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians. The ...

Early Tuesday, federal agents acting on President Bush's orders and on the strength of evidence accumulated during years of FBI surveillance, raided several offices of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a group suspected of being the main North American fundraiser for Palestinian Islamic terrorist organization Hamas. The raids followed President Bush's decision to freeze the group's U.S. assets, as well as those of West Bank-based Al-Aqsa Islamic Bank and Beit-el Mal Holdings. It took the Holy Land Foundation only a few hours to mount a media offensive in response to the president's move. Within half-a-day, a series ...

<p>THAT the Holy Land Foundation, under investigation since 1993, may have been able to keep raising money for terrorism before its assets were frozen this week because it was repped by the best-connected law firm in Washington, Vernon Jordan's Akin Gump.</p>

RICHARDSON, Texas – The leader of a large Muslim charity attended a mid-1990s event where $207,000 was raised for Hamas and the keynote speaker urged the crowd to "finish off the Israelis; kill them all," according to an FBI memo. The memo, obtained by The Associated Press, also detailed 1993 meetings between officials of the militant Palestinian group and the charity, the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, to discuss fund-raising for the families of suicide bombers. The Treasury Department used the FBI memo as grounds to freeze Holy Land's assets and raid its offices this week. Holy ...

ICHARDSON, Tex., Dec. 5 — In the parking lot of a nondescript suburban office building here, about 300 supporters of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development gathered tonight for a religious vigil. Three times they knelt and rose as one, their lips mouthing nearly silent Arabic prayers. But when they rose for the final time, a local imam, Dr. Nabil Al- Sadoon, began to lead them in a series of noisy chants and protests. "Palestine is occupied! The Israelis are the occupiers!" they shouted at first, and later: "Holy Land is helping the persecuted! The widows! The orphans!" ...

U.S.: Saudis Still Filling Al Qaeda's Coffers ABC News: The Blotter September 11, 2007 5:40 PM http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/09/us-saudis-still.html Brian Ross Reports: Despite six years of promises, U.S. officials say Saudi Arabia continues to look the other way at wealthy individuals identified as sending millions of dollars to al Qaeda. "If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia," Stuart Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury in charge of tracking terror financing, told ABC News. Despite some efforts as a U.S. ally in the war on terror, Levey says Saudi...

WASHINGTON - Despite six years of promises, Saudi Arabia has failed to pursue wealthy individuals identified as sending millions of dollars to Al Qaeda, the US official in charge of tracking terror financing said in an ABC News interview on Tuesday. “If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia,” said Stuart Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury. No one identified by the United States and the United Nations as a terror financier has been prosecuted by the Saudis, Levey said. “When the evidence is clear that these...

Israeli intelligence about Palestinian groups that a Muslim charity aided was often unreliable, a former senior U.S. diplomat testified Tuesday at the organization's trial on terrorism-support charges. Edward Abingdon, who served as U.S. consul-general in Jerusalem during the 1990s, said the Israelis had an "agenda" and provided "selective information to try to influence U.S. thinking." Abingdon's testimony took dead aim at prosecutors' claims that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was knowingly funding terrorists instead of providing humanitarian aid. Holy Land, once the nation's largest Muslim charity, and five of its leaders are charged with funneling millions in...

I've heard the question asked repeatedly. How is Al Qaeda, which is supposedly relegated to living in caves in stone-age conditions able to create state of the art video documentaries that rival those produced by TV networks and news channels? In other words, where is the money coming from? In the past much of the seed money used to finance Bin Laden's operations came from his personal fortune. But with all of the money controls slammed into place six years ago after the 9/11 attacks, that money has been for all intents and purposes untouchable. Yet this year Al Qaeda's...

TEHRAN, Aug 25 (MNA)-- Hundreds of Iraqis residing in the U.S. converged in the front of the Saudi embassy in Washington on Friday condemning Riyadh’s policy towards Iraq, Sotaliraq said on its website. With slogans “Down with Terrorism” and “Shia and Sunni Should Unite in Iraq,” demonstrators called for the immediate halt to Saudi support for terrorism in Iraq and the issuance of “takfiri” religious decrees (fatwas) by Saudi scholars. Nazar Heydar, the director of Iraq information center in Washington and a member of the international center for campaign against terrorism, said “by this demonstration we meant to draw the...

DALLAS — Prosecutors have produced scores of documents, audio and videotapes, and intercepted phone calls in their attempt to prove that a Muslim charity based in a suburban Dallas office park was actually a fundraising arm of Middle Eastern terrorists. Much of the evidence has surfaced before in books, newspaper articles and previous trials. But those who track terror-financing say the document haul from the trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development has also produced new information. They say the documents shed light on a web of related organizations of militant Palestinian supporters in the United States,...

BAGHDAD — Less than a year after her father was sent to the gallows, Saddam Hussein's daughter is facing charges that also could lead to her execution. A spokesman for the Ministry of Interior said Friday that Raghad Hussein, 38, has been charged with financing the insurgents who have bedeviled this country since shortly after her father's regime was toppled in 2003. Hussein is believed to be living in Amman, Jordan, as a guest of King Abdullah II. The spokesman, Abdul Kereem Khalaf, said the Iraqi Judicial Authority issued an arrest warrant for Hussein a year ago, but that it...

(AP) DALLAS An Islamic advocacy group asked a federal judge Thursday to remove it and other Muslim organizations and individuals from a list of unindicted co-conspirators in a terrorism-finance trial. Also, a group of Muslim lawyers and the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys protested to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales about the list, which they said could lead to discrimination against American Muslims. Federal prosecutors produced a list of more than 300 individuals and groups of unindicted co-conspirators in the case against a Texas charity they said helped finance the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which the U.S. government has...

Ashland, Ore. - It's hard – often impossible – to prove that secret government wiretapping in the name of national security is violating one's privacy rights. The evidence itself usually is top secret. But one rather obscure case could pull back the veil on a surveillance program that's at the heart of the US fight against terror. In the federal appeals court in San Francisco Wednesday, lawyers for a Saudi charity accused of helping Al Qaeda will argue that their clients, including two American attorneys, were illegally spied on without the required court warrant. How do they know? Treasury Department...

DALLAS — Lawyers for Muslim charity leaders accused of aiding Middle East terrorists scored a rare win in court today when a federal judge blocked some evidence seized by Israeli soldiers during raids of Palestinian organizations. Defense lawyers had objected that some of the documents weren't signed or dated, and they cast doubt on Israel's handling of the evidence. Five former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development are charged with funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which the U.S. government designated a terrorist organization in 1995. The trial is in its fourth...

A coalition organized to support the embattled Holy Land Foundation (HLF) against federal charges of funding terrorism is "tainted" by the involvement of three organizations with a history of sympathizing with terrorist groups, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). "Hungry for Justice," a coalition established to speak out in support of the HLF through a Web site and a series of planned public events, claims the federal charges and ongoing trial in Dallas are part of a "politically driven" anti-Muslim witch-hunt and an attempt to single out Muslim charitable organizations in this country.  The coalition includes the Council on American...

Representative Ed Royce (R-CA) is calling on Congress to investigate the ties between Islamic terrorists and Mexican drug gangs revelaed in a report by the Drug Enforcement Agency in yesterday's Washington Times. A ranking House Republican yesterday demanded a hearing based on recent reports that Islamic terrorists embedded in the United States are teaming with Mexican drug cartels to fund terrorism networks overseas. Rep. Ed Royce, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs terrorism and nonproliferation subcommittee, said the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) document — first reported yesterday by The Washington Times — highlights how vulnerable the nation is when...

A former director of the Drug Enforcement Administration warned federal officials shortly after the September 11 attacks that violent drug cartels from Mexico were teaming with Muslim gangs to fund terrorist organizations overseas. Asa Hutchinson, who also has been a Homeland Security undersecretary, said that in 2001, DEA agents uncovered the link between the drug cartels and terrorist groups but too few government officials listened. "I think it's important to recognize that the link between terrorism and drug trafficking exists," said Mr. Hutchinson in a phone interview from Arkansas. "While we are fighting terrorists, we should not neglect our fight...

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents are building a case against a Muslim charity on trial in Dallas on charges of providing financial aid to the terrorist organization Hamas and of raising illicit cash for other extremist groups. Five officers of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development — once considered the largest Muslim charity in the nation, but which U.S. intelligence officials have called the North American fundraiser for the Islamist terrorist group Hamas — are on trial in Dallas, charged with aiding terrorism, conspiracy and money laundering. The prosecution has spent the two weeks of the trial so...

Islamic extremists embedded in the United States — posing as Hispanic nationals — are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report. "Since drug traffickers and terrorists operate in a clandestine environment, both groups utilize similar methodologies to function ... all lend themselves to facilitation and are among the essential elements that may contribute to the successful conclusion of a catastrophic event by terrorists," said the confidential report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times. The 2005 report outlines an ongoing scheme in which...

(IsraelNN.com) Legal action is being taken against two Muslim charities in the United States due to their support of the Hamas and Hizbullah terrorist groups. On Tuesday, the US Treasury began legal action against the Iran-based Martyrs Foundation and what it says is a front-group for it – the Goodwill Charitable Organization (GCO), which has a US branch in Dearborn, Michigan. The organization is accused of providing funding to Hizbullah. Action was also initiated against al-Qard al-Hassan, a Lebanese firm believed to have been used by Hizbullah as a front for managing its finances. The administrative order also includes a...

US Acts Against Groups Aiding Hezbollah July 24, 2007 The Associated Press Jeannine Aversa WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration took action Tuesday against an Iran-based foundation, including its U.S. branch, for allegedly providing support to Hezbollah, a terrorist group the United States has blamed for bloodshed in Lebanon. The Treasury Department's action covers the Martyrs Foundation and Goodwill Charitable Organization of Dearborn, Mich., which the government identified as a fundraising office for the foundation. The government also moved against al-Qard al-Hassan, a Beirut firm that the U.S. government believes was used by Hezbollah "as a cover to manage its financial...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration took action Tuesday against an Iran-based foundation, including its U.S. branch, for allegedly providing support to Hezbollah, a terrorist group the United States has blamed for bloodshed in Lebanon. The Treasury Department's action covers the Martyrs Foundation and Goodwill Charitable Organization of Dearborn, Mich., which the government identified as a fundraising office for the foundation.

WASHINGTON - A major CIA effort launched last year to hunt down Osama bin Laden has produced no significant leads on his whereabouts, but has helped track an alarming increase in the movement of al-Qaeda operatives and money into Pakistan's tribal territories, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the operation. In one of the most troubling trends, U.S. officials said that al-Qaeda's command base in Pakistan increasingly is being funded by cash coming out of Iraq, where the terrorist network's operatives are raising substantial sums from donations to the anti-U.S. insurgency as well as kidnappings of wealthy Iraqis...

DETROIT - A federal agency has frozen the assets of a Muslim group that some intelligence experts allege raised money in metro Detroit to bankroll terrorism through Hezbollah. The action, taken this week by the U.S. Treasury Department, makes it illegal to contribute to or conduct business with the Islamic Resistance Support Organization. It comes after the Israel-based Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center alleged IRSO had raised money in Michigan through donation boxes in restaurants and possibly other places. The center says IRSO used similar boxes in Lebanon to raise donations. But local Arab-American and Muslim leaders contacted Thursday said...