 
Arnaout & Osama (click to enlarge photos) |
 Enaam Arnaout, a Syrian born naturalized American Citizen and director of Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), an Illinois-based charity, was indicted for conspiracy to fraudulently obtain charitable donations to provide financial assistance to organizations engaged in violence and terrorism. He was first arrested for perjury in May, 2002 when the assets of the BIF were frozen. He went to court to have the assets released. His written statement to the court states:
"BIF has never provided aid or support to people or organizations known to be engaged in violence, terrorist activities or military operations of any nature."
He was then charged with perjury, since in March a treasure trove of evidence was uncovered at the BIF offices in Bosnia directly linking BIF and Arnaout to Osama bin Laden and terrorists in Chechnya. On September 18, 2002 U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall cleared the perjury charge by citing previous decisions holding that an affidavit signed by a witness in a lawsuit similar to the one brought against the government by Benevolence was not signed under penalty of perjury! "We respectfully disagree with the judge's ruling," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said. "The opinion relies on a technical interpretation of the perjury statute and has no bearing on the facts of the case." In other words, the judge declared that although Arnaout lied, there is no penalty for lying. Amazing. Another example of the ludicrous state of the US justice system, corrupted by the trial lawyers, where common sense is abandoned and a known terrorist money launderer walks on a bizzare technicality. |
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The US Justice department could not, and would not allow this travesty to stand. On October 9, 2002, the Chicago U.S. Attorney's office filed a criminal complaint that the BIF supported terrorist groups and individuals and had "direct dealings" with al Qaida Chechen guerrillas and Hezb e Islami -- a military group operating in Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. The grand jury charged Arnaout with one count of engaging in a racketeering enterprise, one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, two counts of money laundering, two counts of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud. The indictment indicated that although the BIF actually provided relief funds for legitimate purposes, that Arnaout diverted funds to support armed terrorist activities.
Attorney General Ashcroft said,
"In order to deceive donors and to guarantee the success of
his operation, Arnaout is charged with concealing at all times from the government, the general public and a considerable number of donors his relationship with al Qaeda; its leader, Osama bin Laden; and other terrorist organizations."
The evidence found at the BIF offices in Bosnia shows: Arnaout and BIF officials were connected with al Qaeda Mamdouh Salim - a key bin Laden associate who wrote fatwas and participated in efforts to obtain nuclear weapons and chemical weapons for al Qaeda. He is a Bosnian director of BIF and now in jail in New York on federal charges related to the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and wounded more than 4,000. BIF sponsored his visa for a visit to Bosnia and sponsored him for housing there. BIF had contact with another individual, Mohamed Bayazid, who made repeated efforts to get uranium for Al Qaeda to develop a nuclear weapon. BIF had links to people involved in the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, a plot to bomb US airlines and a plan to assassinate Pope John Paul II during his visit to the Philippines in 1995. Also found in BIF's Bosnia offices were military manuals providing instruction on small arms and explosives, photographs of bin Laden and Arnaout and photos of Arnaout handling several weapons, including a shoulder-fired rocket launcher.
The affidavit also says that searches of BIF offices uncovered papers "establishing direct communication between Arnaout and bin Laden ... in the late 1980s and 1990s."
Included in the seized documents were notes from a 1988 organizational meeting in Afghanistan that Osama bin Laden, and Mamdouh Salim attended, along with the text of the oath of allegiance, or bayat, that al Qaeda members are required to take. Investigators found personnel records of individuals trained in terrorist camps under bin Laden and a handwritten chart showing Arnaout at the top of a jihad organization. The indictment said that in October 2001, Arnaout spoke by phone with Benevolence founder Adel Batterjee in Saudi Arabia and said he was being watched by the government. In November, Arnaout and a Bosnian colleague discussed creating "a new list of orphans" to disguise the charity's financial support for an injured fighter. Later, because of the US Government's attention, Batterjee instructed Arnaout to move to Saudi Arabia with his family, but Arnaout was arrested before getting court permission to leave the country. His attorneys said he wanted to visit his sick mother in Saudi Arabia. [ed. Right.] In an attempt to achieve political correctness and defer the expected political spin Muslim backlash, Attorney General Ashcroft said:
"It is sinister to prey on good hearts to fund the works of evil." "It is chilling that the origins of al Qaeda were found in a charity claiming to do good."
It is chilling to efn that Mr. Ashcroft has to make the point that the contributors to the BIF were naive Muslim bumpkins who had no idea their contributions would be channeled to support fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organizations. The fact is, who would actually believe that? The fact is that Muslim organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, have never come forward to denounce the fundamentalist's jihad against America, but never miss an opportunity to claim the US government has a purposeful vendetta against Muslims and Arabs in the wake of the September 11 attacks. If the Muslim organizations of America can organize to send that message, why have we never heard a message of solidarity with America and condemnation of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden? We demand that Muslim Americans be treated with the respect and dignity that all Americans deserve. At the same time, it is clear that funding for al Qaida, as well as other fundamentalist terror groups, came from organized Islamic America. Just as clear is the total absence of a pro-American stance from the American Islamic community. Where is that voice?
Benevolence International Foundation is a tax-exempt charitable organization with offices in Illinois, Pakistan and Bosnia. Their website says:
"BIF is a humanitarian organization dedicated to helping those afflicted by wars. BIF first provides short-term relief such as emergency food distribution, and then moves on to long term projects providing education and self-sufficiency to the children, widowed, refugees, injured and staff of vital governmental institutions."
The organization was established by Adil Abdul Galil Betargy, a wealthy Saudi sheikh who is an associate of Bin Laden. Arnaout used the organization for over a decade to funnel money to terrorists in Chechnya, Bosnia and Afghanistan. Attorney General Ashcroft said most disturbing to him is that Arnaout deceived Muslims who are obliged to donate to legitimate charities. The BIF raised more than $3 million in contributions in the year ending April 2000. A second charity, the Global Relief Foundation whose co-founder Rabbid Haddad is under arrest and The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, whose efforts are directed toward Palestinian terrorism against Israel, are also under US indictment.
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Enaam Arnaout, a Syrian born naturalized American Citizen and director of Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), an Illinois-based charity, was indicted for conspiracy to fraudulently obtain charitable donations to provide financial assistance to organizations engaged in violence and terrorism. 
