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BEIJING: The Chinese government has indicated it is not interested in investigating allegations that the Bank of China was involved in transferring millions of dollars to Hamas and Islamic Jihad for carrying out terrorist activities in Israel between 2004 and 2007.The allegations have been made in the form of lawsuits filed in US courts by a group of 100 Israelis including parents of a 4-year old boy killed in terrorist attack in 2004. The group has alleged that BOC put through dozens of wire transfers totalling several million dollars to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.Jiang Yu, spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign...

How did cash from the network's telethons for children end up in the hands of the 7/7 London bombers? Those familiar with the BBC’s bias towards and promotion of the Islamic faith and its regular apologias on behalf of Islamic extremism will have barely raised an eyebrow at the news that £20,000 from one of the corporation’s charity appeals ended up in the hands of the Muslim terrorists who murdered 52 people in London in 2005. The money, raised by the BBC’s Children in Need telethons, was given to a “community school” in the northern English city of Leeds —...

The murder of Pamela Fayed , the subsequent arrest of James Fayed for operating a money transmission business without a license and the government seizure of some millions of dollars in gold bullion, now appears to be simply the surface story as the first details emerge of terrorist links to the movement of some money through Fayed's firm. It appears that the arrest of Fayed on charges that he ran a money transmitting business through Goldfinger Coin and also through eBullion without proper licenses may have been a forced hand of prosecutors because of the murder of Pamela Fayed (and...

A federal judge has denied a request by defense attorneys in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case who asked that next month’s re-trial be delayed. In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis called their claim that they cannot be ready for trial because of delays in payments of their court-appointed attorneys’ fees “hyperbolic and inaccurate.” Judge Solis chastised the court-appointed attorneys in the case for waiting until late March, about five months after the October mistrial, to file their budget for the re-trial, which includes expenses for pre-trial preparation such as pay for experts and air...

(Accounting for Iran's Hezbollah crimes) Terrorism victims file $650 million NY lawsuit against 2 banks The Associated PressPublished: July 14, 2008 NEW YORK: A group of Americans, Canadians and Israelis who claim Hezbollah rocket attacks injured them and killed relatives have accused two banks of helping finance the terrorist attacks and have sued them for $650 million. The 85 plaintiffs say in court papers the American Express Bank Ltd. of New York and the Lebanese-Canadian Bank SAL of Beirut unlawfully transferred millions of dollars for Hezbollah between 2004 and 2006. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/14/business/NA-US-Hezbollah-Lawsuit.php

It's the sort of sight that too often makes Canadian politicians go weak in the spine: ethnic voters rallying for a parochial, unsavory cause. Over the weekend, thousands of Tamil Canadians gathered in a Toronto park to denounce Ottawa's decision to outlaw the World Tamil Movement (WTM), which the RCMP believes is nothing but a fundraising front for the Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan-based terrorist group that has been outlawed in Canada since 2006. Even by the standards of terrorist insurgencies, the Tigers are a brutal organization -- a creepy cult-like outfit that habitually engages in massacres of civilians, and...

The Bush administration has decided to defer the start of a new security screening program for thousands of officials of organizations seeking funds from the Agency for International Development until it reviews all the comments from those affected, according to USAID's acting deputy administrator, James Kunder. Although USAID said in a Federal Register notice last month that the program would become effective yesterday, Kunder said that it "would be effective, but not operational" until there is "a systematic review" of the views of the private organizations involved. The screening plan would affect top officials and board members of foreign aid...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush announced Thursday the United States will freeze the property and interests of people deemed to be undermining Lebanon's democratic government. Bush's executive order targets anyone considered to be helping Syria assert control in Lebanon or trying to break down the rule of law in that Middle Eastern country, including by means of violence. «Such actions constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,» Bush said in an accompanying message to Congress. Bush's order also applies to spouses and dependent children of those deemed to...

Confidential reports ...detail for the first time how Al Rajhi Bank has maintained accounts and accepted donations for Saudi charities In addition, Mr. Al Rajhi and family members have been major donors to Islamic charities that are suspected by Western intelligence agencies of funding terrorism.....a year after Sept. 11, Mr. Al Rajhi ordered Al Rajhi Bank's board "to explore financial instruments that would allow the bank's charitable contributions to avoid official Saudi scrutiny." .... Mr. Al Rajhi "transferred $1.1 billion to offshore accounts -- "Al Rajhi Bank: Conduit for Extremist Finance." Today, Mr. Al Rajhi is a reclusive octogenarian whose...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against al Qaeda, other radical groups and Pakistan-based Habib Bank Ltd over the 2002 abduction, torture and murder of her husband. Mariane Pearl, whose story is told in the recently released movie "A Mighty Heart" starring Angelina Jolie, filed the suit at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, according to her lawyers. "Plaintiffs seek to hold responsible those terrorists, terrorist organizations and the supporting charitable and banking organizations for the senseless kidnapping, torture and murder of Daniel...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration announced a new tool Tuesday to freeze financial assets of those who want to destabilize Iraq. President Bush unveiled a new executive order that allows the administration to block bank accounts and any other financial assets that might be found in this country belonging to people, companies or groups that the United States deems are working to threaten stability in Iraq. Bush cited the "unusual and extraordinary threat" to national security and foreign policy of the United States "posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote...

Abrar Haque of Cleveland was convicted on more than 60 counts including conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. Investigations of Arab Americans draw complaints  BY MIKE TOBIN Mohammed Hasan pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering. CLEVELAND -- Federal agencies increasingly are fighting the war on terror with tax laws and food stamp regulations. Investigators from the FBI, IRS and other agencies have turned to tactics similar to those that broke the Mafia to investigate people suspected of funneling money to terrorists overseas. Decades ago, FBI agents snagged mobsters in low-level crimes and then persuaded them to testify against...

$5 billion found in suspicious deals Cnews.canoe.ca October 4, 2006 By JOHN WARD OTTAWA (CP) - The country's money-laundering watchdog uncovered more than $5 billion in suspicious deals last year, including $250 million in suspected terrorist financing. The dollar figure was more than twice what was found the year before. The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, better known as Fintrac, said the growth was due to a deliberate strategy of hunting large-scale, money-laundering schemes. In all, Fintrac tipped police and the federal intelligence service to 168 suspicious cases, up from 142 the year before, the agency...

This past week a considerable number of stories, complete with photos, have appeared in the MSM relating to Hezbollah indemnifying the Lebanese for the damage done to their property by the war with Israel started by Hezbollah. Wads of fresh $100 bills passed from Hezbollah to those poor Lebanese who suffered damage or injury during the war. But with the stories, and the pictures, questions have now arisen about the "charitable" motives, and methods, of the Hezbollah terrorists. One of the most prominent and influential members of the Hizballah terrorist organization, along with two of his companies, was designated by...

North Korea has opened new accounts at 23 banks in 10 countries since the United States suspended operations with a Macau bank accused of illicit dealings with Pyongyang, a report said Saturday. The accounts were set up in Mongolia, Russia and Vietnam, among other countries, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper said, citing an unnamed source familiar with North Korean matters. The United States, concerned that the new bank accounts may be used for transactions related to weapons proliferation or other criminal activity, has asked authorities in those countries to freeze the accounts, the paper said. North Korea allegedly opened the accounts...

THE Pakistan earthquake appeal has emerged as a potential link between some of the terror suspects arrested over the alleged plot to destroy transatlantic aircraft using liquid bombs, The Times has learnt. A charity founded to help orphans and disaster victims provides a connection between some individuals being questioned by police on suspicion of plotting “unimaginable mass murder”. Crescent Relief London was created by Abdul Rauf, from Birmingham. Two of his sons were arrested as part of the bombing inquiry and are among the 23 suspects still being held by police after the alleged attempt to bomb planes flying between...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Investigations into a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners in mid-air, foiled by British, Pakistani and U.S. security agencies a week ago, have focused on the possible financing role played by Islamic charities. Suspicion has fallen on two Pakistani charities said to be linked to banned militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad and its affiliate Jamaat-ul-Furqa, according to Pakistani intelligence officials who say a string of arrests were made in the past week. In particular, authorities are investigating donations made from abroad "We are looking into the activities of al-Rasheed Trust and al Asar Trust because there are some questions...

The West must change its ways because tolerance could be the death of us, writes Janet Albrechtsen ANY mention of state-funded terrorism tends to evoke images of evil Saudis pouring money into madrassas in Indonesia and Pakistan to train terrorists and sending shiploads of pamphlets on do-it-yourself jihad to mosques in the West. Or a few mad mullahs in Iran and Syria arming Hezbollah terrorists with lethal weapons to strike Israelis. It's all so passe. The phrase needs updating after the arrests of 24 terrorist suspects last week in Britain. As it turns out, the West is doing its bit...

British and Pakistani investigators are trying to determine whether the group of Britons suspected of plotting to blow up as many as 10 commercial airliners may have received money raised for earthquake relief by a Pakistani charity that is a front for an Islamic militant group. The charity, Jamaat ud Dawa, which is active in the mosques of Britain’s largest cities, played a significant role in carrying out relief efforts after last October’s earthquake in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. It is one of the most militant of the groups battling the part of Kashmir controlled by India. In May, it was labeled...

Pakistan’s Daily Times ( a paper that’s been known to publish jihadi screeds) reports that an Islamic “charity” organization transferred “a huge amount” of money to the UK terror plotters—and called it “earthquake relief:” ‘Quake money’ used to finance UK plane bombing plot. KARACHI: A UK-based Islamic charity organisation remitted a huge amount of money to three individuals in three different bank accounts in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, in December last year with the sole purpose of helping its recipients and their organisations carry out the aircraft bombing plan in the UK, insider sources told Daily Times yesterday. An investigation carried...

‘Quake money’ used to finance UK plane bombing plot * Funds given to two British citizens of Kashmiri origin and an Islamabad-based Kashmiri builder * ‘Earthquake relief’ money remitted to individuals alarmed British agenciesBy Sarfaraz Ahmed and Maqbool Ahmed KARACHI: A UK-based Islamic charity organisation remitted a huge amount of money to three individuals in three different bank accounts in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, in December last year with the sole purpose of helping its recipients and their organisations carry out the aircraft bombing plan in the UK, insider sources told Daily Times yesterday. An investigation carried out by Daily Times...

‘Quake money’ used to finance UK plane bombing plot * Funds given to two British citizens of Kashmiri origin and an Islamabad-based Kashmiri builder * ‘Earthquake relief’ money remitted to individuals alarmed British agencies By Sarfaraz Ahmed and Maqbool Ahmed KARACHI: A UK-based Islamic charity organisation remitted a huge amount of money to three individuals in three different bank accounts in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, in December last year with the sole purpose of helping its recipients and their organisations carry out the aircraft bombing plan in the UK, insider sources told Daily Times yesterday. An investigation carried out by Daily...

Police Eye Money Trail in Airliner Plot Saturday August 12, 2006 12:46 AM By JENNIFER QUINN and PAUL HAVEN Associated Press Writers LONDON (AP) - Investigators on three continents worked to fill in the full, frightening picture Friday of a plot to blow U.S. jetliners out of the Atlantic skies, tracking the money trail and seizing more alleged conspirators in the teeming towns of eastern Pakistan. One arrested there, a Briton named Rashid Rauf, is believed to have been the operational planner and to have connections with al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Pakistani and U.S. officials said. British and Pakistani authorities have...

(Excerpted) LIQUID explosives ... are not difficult to obtain or make from raw ingredients could have been involved in the terror plot. One candidate, nitromethane, is used to fuel model aeroplane engines as well as being an explosive and an industrial solvent. Dr Sidney Alford, an explosives technician, said it was quite easy to get hold of in fairly small quantities, but it would have to be combined with a "sensitising" substance to make a bomb. An alternative, nitroethane, was less well known but just as effective, and there were fewer restrictions on obtaining and transporting it, he said. Another...

LONDON - The Bank of England froze the assets of 19 people early Friday, naming them as people arrested Thursday in connection with an alleged terror plot to bomb British passenger jets. "On the advice of the police and security services, the Treasury has instructed the Bank of England to issue notices to effect a freeze of the assets of a number of individuals arrested in yesterday's operations," a Treasury statement said. Most of those named in the list were London residents, and many bore Muslim names. Scotland Yard had no immediate comment. The bank released the following names: Abdula...

WASHINGTON: American Muslims are afraid of making cash contributions to Islamic charities for fear that US intelligence and security agencies might haul them up as financial backers of terrorism. Instead, they have been sending packages of medicines and other goods to leading Islamic charities, assuming that they are contributing to relief efforts in the Middle East. However, it not only burdens the charities, to whom such gifts are sent, with shipping and delivery costs at the US end but once the goods land at the intended place, there are fresh difficulties involving storage, transport and delivery. All charities prefer cash...

CHICAGO - A federal judge Wednesday denied prosecutors' request to seat an anonymous jury in the trial of a Bridgeview, Ill., man charged with funneling money to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve ruled that prosecutors failed to show Muhammad Salah and his co-defendant Abdelhaleem Ashqar, of Virginia, are likely to intimidate or harass jurors. "(T)he mere invocation of the word `terrorism,' without more, is insufficient to warrant such an anonymous jury," St. Eve wrote in a ruling released Wednesday. Salah's attorney, Michael Deutsch, called the ruling a small but significant step toward a fair...

Nairobi, Kenya (CNSNews.com) - The international community should speed up efforts to prevent terrorist groups from using the proceeds from illicit diamond trade to finance their activities and launder their funds, campaigners say. A Nairobi-based African affairs analyst, Adan Mohamed, said it was "very likely" that groups like Hizballah still use the trade to raise additional revenue. "Nothing much has happened in putting mechanisms in place to prevent diamond trade from being used to clean dirty cash or finance conflicts," he said.Investigations by researchers, human rights groups, the United Nations and media organizations have revealed how Hizballah exploited weakness in...

Treasury says assistance went to al-Qaida, related groups in Southeast AsiaWashington -- The U.S. Department of the Treasury has designated the Philippine and Indonesian branch offices of the Saudi Arabia-based International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) as entities that have assisted the fundraising efforts of al-Qaida and related terrorist groups, according to an August 3 press statement. The department's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) also designated Abd Al Hamid Sulaiman Al-Mujil, executive director of the Eastern Province Branch of IIRO in Saudi Arabia, as a terrorist financier. Treasury officials said Al-Mujil used his position to help finance activities of...

CBNNews.com – (CBN News) - The leader of Hezbollah has declared America the enemy. Many Arabs and Muslims in America openly support Hezbollah. Is this treason? Is this a potential threat to our safety? Several thousand people marched through the Detroit suburb of Dearborn a few weeks ago, chanting "Hezbollah" and holding up photos of Hezbollah leader Sheik Nasrallah and posters comparing President Bush to Hitler. Similar protests took place in San Francisco, New York, and other cities. The U.S. government calls Hezbollah a terrorist organization, but don't tell that to these Americans. Osama Siblani publishes the Arab-American News, the...

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...

With the violence only starting to escalate, emotions were unusually high when the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) met on Capitol Hill recently. After one guest stood up to personally criticize Sen. Norm Coleman (R.-Minn.) for never having visited a Palestinian refugee camp (and to invite him to one), a Philadelphian rabbi rose from his chair to respond forcefully: “They invite you to the refugee camps because you’re a United States senator,” he declared. “But as a Jew who would love to help out, I can’t walk into a camp without getting my neck slit open.”

25 Years (1982-2007) to BBC (war) Crimes on Israel (Images war)'Victimhood' as a cult, as a pretext to mass murder & Jihadi-fascistic promotion We are all so used to the usual song by Arabists & Islamists propagandists, that it´s their ''victimhood'' that ''makes'' them terrorists. There is only the fundamental problem, their fundamentalism that is, their Jihadi-fascistic ideology on the 'infidels' has nothing to do with what the west does or does not do, though images, especially their tactics to bring about collateral damage & ultimately to those desired (by them) graphic photos of injured Arab kids so that they...

Hizballah Activity in North America Brian Hecht of The Investigative Project on Terrorism has prepared a quick reference guide to major Hizballah and Hizballah-linked illegal activity in the United States, Canada and Mexico: (see full report)

Mounties call Tamil group 'arm of Tigers' Court document first glimpse into four-year probe Stewart Bell National Post Thursday, July 20, 2006 TORONTO - The Tamil Tigers terrorist organization is "entrenched" in Canada and uses a Toronto-based "front organization" called the World Tamil Movement to raise money for arms, says a summary of an ongoing RCMP probe released yesterday. The 58-page document released by the Ontario court provides the first glimpse of a four-year RCMP investigation, called Project OSALUKI, into the Canadian fundraising efforts of the Sri Lankan terror group the Tamil Tigers. According to the heavily edited outline...

The Chinese-designed C-802 missile that damaged an Israeli Saar 5-class corvette recently has implications beyond the present conflict in Lebanon. It shows that the threat of a transfer of weapons technology, from a state sponsor of terrorism like Iran, to a terrorist group, is very real. Transferring an anti-ship missile like the C-802 is very difficult. Anti-ship missiles are big (the C-802 weighs 1500 pounds and is 21 feet long), and the launch vehicles are going to be about as big as a tractor-trailer rig. This is a system that is conspicuous, and hard to hide. The other thing to...

On March 29, the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force unsealed an indictment charging 19 persons with operating a global crime and terrorism ring spanning Lebanon, Canada, China, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States. The ring sold counterfeit drugs and other contraband materials, largely through direct consumer shipment from Canada, to Americans seeking cheaper drugs. It, in turn, directed its profits to support of the criminal terrorist group Hezbollah. Less than four months later, as Hezbollah rockets rained down on Israel, the Senate voted for an amendment offered by David Vitter of Louisiana to ban Customs agents from seizing prescription drugs...

The FBI is trying to ferret out possible Hizbollah agents in the United States amid concerns that rising U.S.-Iranian tensions could trigger attacks on American soil, FBI officials said. Relations between Washington and Tehran, which soured after the 1979 Islamic revolution, have deteriorated further recently over Iran's nuclear program and its support for Hizbollah, the militant Islamic group whose capture of two Israeli soldiers last week prompted Israel to launch retaliatory strikes in Lebanon. American law enforcement officials are concerned the Lebanon-based Hizbollah, which has so far focused on fund-raising and other support activities inside the United States, could turn...

SOME of the main fundraisers for the terror group suspected of masterminding the Mumbai train bombings are operating from Britain, according to Indian intelligence officials. The officials accuse Britain of failing to act against a number of wealthy businessmen, who they claim are using bogus charities to funnel up to pound stg. 8million ($19.5million) a year to Kashmiri militant groups, such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, which remains the main suspect for orchestrating the synchronised train bombings that killed 182 people. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has reminded his British counterpart Tony Blair that India handed over a detailed dossier three years ago...

LAST week, the Department of Homeland Security announced $1.7 billion in new spending for state and local governments, including more than $700 million under our Urban Areas Security Initiative. Few readers may know it based on the news media reaction, but these 2006 grants continue a financing stream that places New York and Washington at the very top of the list in terms of money received. The terrorists who struck us on Sept. 11, 2001, and their allies continue to view New York and Washington as among America's prime targets. Therefore we have put our money where the threat is.

Hillary Clinton is wasting no time turning Bush administration cuts in counterterrorism funding for New York City to her political advantage - invoking the budget slashing to her supporters as another reason they should contribute to her Senate reelection campaign. "When the Department of Homeland Security cut funding to New York's Homeland Security Grant program this week, they included a so-called 'explanation' that said the city had no national monuments and icons," Clinton explains, in an email sent to prospective contributors on Friday. Exhorting her backers to send the DHS postcards of New York icons like the Statue of Liberty...

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group. The...

She says "common sense" connects Sami Al-Arian and others to financial support of PIJ violence. TAMPA - Use your common sense to see the connections. That's what federal prosecutor Cherie Krigsman told jurors Monday as she wrapped up part of the government's case in the five-month trial of Sami Al-Arian. Her closing argument to a packed courtroom began with a haunting video of a suicide bombing in Israel's West Bank in 1995, which showed American student Alisa Flatow, 20, lying unconscious on scorched grass beside a burned-out bus, with bleeding people around her. "Hot metal shrapnel, propelled at blinding speed,...

Prosecutor charges professor was terror 'crime boss' A fired college professor acted as a "crime boss" for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a murderous gang that operated like the Mafia, a federal prosecutor told a jury Monday. Although Sami Al-Arian and three co-defendants are not charged with killing anyone, they conspired to bring about attacks and are just as guilty under the law as the suicide bombers who carried them out, prosecutor Cherie Krigsman said in closing arguments. "The men of the PIJ you got to know in this case, they didn't strap bombs to their body," she said. "They leave that...

Jerusalem Viewpoints No. 531 23 Iyar 5765 / 1 June 2005 What Drives Saudi Arabia to Persist in Terrorist Financing? Al-Jihad bi-al-Mal - Financial Jihad Against the Infidels Lt. Col. Jonathan D. Halevi 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...

CBS-11 News The Investigators FORT WORTH -- At home and off duty, Fort Worth Police Detective Scott Campbell never lets two semi-automatic Glock .45s stray far from his shooting hand. He sleeps with one, and while awake, he eats and watches television with both weapons close by. Det. Campbell's wife keeps a loaded gun close at hand too, even though she is a stay-at-home mom who cares for the couple's two young children, ages 4 and 1. Det. Campbell and his wife go to these extraordinary lengths because they and their children have been marked for assassination. A ruthless criminal...

Terror Suspect Gets Invitation To Have Dinner With President HARTFORD, Conn. -- A year after federal agents raided his home in a terrorism investigation, Muslim businessman Syed Maswood is lucky to get on an airplane without being detained and searched. But that didn't stop him from getting an invitation to dine with President Bush. Maswood, a nuclear engineer who has not been charged with any crime and has been trying for months to get his name off no-fly lists, received an invitation to serve as an honorary chairman at a Republican fundraiser with Bush in Washington next month. A Republican...

WASHINGTON Federal authorities today announced a Virginia man has been indicted for illegally wiring millions of dollars to Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Middle East regions.The indictment was filed in U-S district court in Alexandria, Virginia.It says Afghan native and U-S citizen Rahim Bariek (RAH-heem BAY-ri-ek)allegedly wired over four-point-nine (m) million dollars from Bariek Money Transfer in Herndon, Virginia, without proper licenses.Officials say between November 2001 and August 2003, Bariek deposited funds from worldwide customers. They say he took a fee and transferred the funds to individuals designated by his customers in the Middle East.Authorities say at least some of the...

U.K. Freezes Assets of Group Linked With Saudi Exile Al-Faqih Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government told its central bank to freeze the assets of an organization it suspects of having links with Saad al-Faqih, a Saudi Arabian dissident living in exile in Britain. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown instructed the Bank of England to direct British financial institutions to immediately freeze funds belonging to the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, the Treasury said in a statement. The Treasury said it has ``reasonable grounds'' for suspecting the organization is acting on behalf of al-Faqih, who was listed...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is developing a plan to give the government access to possibly hundreds of millions of international banking records in an effort to trace and deter terrorist financing, even as many bankers say they already feel besieged by government antiterrorism rules that they consider overly burdensome. The initiative, as conceived by a working group within the Treasury Department, would vastly expand the government's database of financial transactions by gaining access to logs of international wire transfers into and out of American banks. Such overseas transactions were used by the Sept. 11 hijackers to wire more than...