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U.S. Muslim charities studied for terror links
©Los Angeles Times, From Boston to Burbank, Calif., federal authorities are intensifying their scrutiny of U.S. Muslim nonprofit organizations as sources of funding for al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations. In a recent confidential letter to state charity officials, the U.S. Treasury Department sought financial records on eight American Muslim groups, including some of the largest Muslim charities in the United States. The inquiry is the first examination of domestic nonprofits to come to light since U.S. authorities launched a global antiterrorism initiative in response to the Sept. 11 attacks linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Treasury has ordered banks across the world to freeze the assets of 66 individuals and organizations with suspected ties to terrorism, including several overseas charities. Bush administration officials think that money raised by American charities has ended up financing bin Laden's network. Investigators are looking for al-Qaida connections in a wide range of nonprofits -- from a multimillion-dollar relief agency that received money from an alleged bin Laden front organization to an obscure Islamic center once headed by a man now identified as bin Laden's chief of logistics. Evidence appears to be emerging that shows links between al-Qaida and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. The Bush administration on Friday added Hamas and 21 other terrorist groups to its broad financial dragnet. Charities tied to Hamas have been under investigation in the United States for years. The confidential Treasury letter names two charities the State Department removed last year from its international aid program. Citing classified evidence, the department refused to explain in detail the reasons for its decision. The State Department ruling did not prevent the groups from raising money in the United States or shipping it overseas. The two charities -- the Islamic American Relief Agency in Missouri and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in Texas -- collected nearly $16-million in contributions last year. Representatives of those and other groups say they do not finance or support terrorism. Some of the officers said they had nothing to hide and welcomed federal scrutiny, while others said the Treasury investigation reeked of "McCarthy-era treatment." Each of the eight nonprofits under scrutiny has condemned the Sept. 11 attacks. The six that formally are registered as charities are soliciting funds for the victims on their Web sites. Experts say it will be difficult to determine with certainty whether any of the millions of dollars sent overseas by U.S.-based charities winds up in the hands of terrorists -- or if it does, whether the groups had knowledge of its illicit use. Past investigations have yielded little solid evidence. Many Islamic charities and religious organizations within the United States contribute to each other. Then the money goes overseas as humanitarian relief, where accountability is rare. Most foreign countries, unlike the United States, do not require nonprofits to file annual statements on their fund raising and expenditures -- although Kuwait recently said it would tighten its regulation of charities to make sure the money does not go to terrorists. "Some of these organizations are pure fronts, but there are others that are obviously involved in legitimate humanitarian needs," said Oliver "Buck" Revell, a former FBI associate deputy director who researches terrorist groups. Saudi prince blames bin LadenCAIRO -- The leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia agreed to extradite Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabia in 1998 but reneged after U.S. strikes on Afghanistan that year, a former head of Saudi intelligence said Saturday. Prince Turki al-Faisal, who left his post a few days before the Sept. 11 attacks, also said he is convinced bin Laden and his al-Qaida network were behind them. He is the first prominent Saudi to say so publicly. The Saudi royal family member said in an interview with the Saudi-owned satellite TV channel MBC that he discussed bin Laden's handover with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar in a meeting in Kandahar, Afghanistan, two months before the August 1998 terrorist attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa. Those attacks prompted the United States to fire cruise missiles at a bin Laden camp in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. -- Associated Press
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