Microsoft, UBS and Compaq sponsor Al-Qaeda
06 February 2003, 02:28 PM
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Source: www.ft.com
Big international corporations, including Microsoft, UBS and Compaq, were among the donors to an Islamic charity that US officials say was one of the leading financiers for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation.
In evidence filed in its case against Enaam Arnaout, who headed the Chicago-based charity Benevolence International, the US Justice Department says the charity received both direct employee donations and matching grants from those companies.
Microsoft told the Associated Press that it contributed about $20,000 (€18,500) to BIF over "a period of time", but ended the matching grants after it learned of the terrorism allegations. Both UBS and Hewlett-Packard, which acquired Compaq last year, said they had also severed their ties with the charity.
The revelation is the most graphic illustration of how deeply some of the charities implicated in financing terrorist groups had reached into mainstream US donors. Since the September 11 attacks, the US has shut down dozens of Islamic charities in the US and is pursuing complex criminal investigations in an effort to establish clear links to terrorist groups.
The charity told its donors it was raising money for aid to Muslims in war-torn regions such as Bosnia and Chechnya, but US officials believe much of that money was diverted to al-Qaeda.
The case against Mr Arnaout appears to be among the strongest yet laid out by the government. In its submission to the court, the Justice Department spelled out what it called "a 15-year conspiracy to use ostensibly charitable organisations to support violence overseas on behalf of purportedly Islamic causes".
The government alleges that Mr Arnaout was a close associate of Mr bin Laden, and was intimately involved in the creation of al-Qaeda in the late 1980s. It says that several top al-Qaeda operatives also served as officials of Benevolence International, a Saudi charity that established its head office in Chicago in 1992.
The filing also charges that Mr Arnaout was among a network of financiers that included Wa'el Julaidan, who was designated last year as a terrorist financier by the US and Saudi Arabia and is also linked to several US-based charitable groups that are under investigation.
Mr Arnaout will go to trial next month on charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering and providing aid to terrorist organisations. He has denied aiding al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
Among the new allegations in the Justice Department's filing is that Mohamed Loay Bayazid, a Syrian-born American who is accused of trying to obtain uranium to help al-Qaeda build a nuclear weapon, was briefly an officer with the charity.
Mr Arnaout's lawyer told the AP that Mr Bayazid had no connections with the charity.
Big international corporations, including Microsoft, UBS and Compaq, were among the donors to an Islamic charity that US officials say was one of the leading financiers for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation.
In evidence filed in its case against Enaam Arnaout, who headed the Chicago-based charity Benevolence International, the US Justice Department says the charity received both direct employee donations and matching grants from those companies.
Microsoft told the Associated Press that it contributed about $20,000 (€18,500) to BIF over "a period of time", but ended the matching grants after it learned of the terrorism allegations. Both UBS and Hewlett-Packard, which acquired Compaq last year, said they had also severed their ties with the charity.
The revelation is the most graphic illustration of how deeply some of the charities implicated in financing terrorist groups had reached into mainstream US donors. Since the September 11 attacks, the US has shut down dozens of Islamic charities in the US and is pursuing complex criminal investigations in an effort to establish clear links to terrorist groups.
The charity told its donors it was raising money for aid to Muslims in war-torn regions such as Bosnia and Chechnya, but US officials believe much of that money was diverted to al-Qaeda.
The case against Mr Arnaout appears to be among the strongest yet laid out by the government. In its submission to the court, the Justice Department spelled out what it called "a 15-year conspiracy to use ostensibly charitable organisations to support violence overseas on behalf of purportedly Islamic causes".
The government alleges that Mr Arnaout was a close associate of Mr bin Laden, and was intimately involved in the creation of al-Qaeda in the late 1980s. It says that several top al-Qaeda operatives also served as officials of Benevolence International, a Saudi charity that established its head office in Chicago in 1992.
The filing also charges that Mr Arnaout was among a network of financiers that included Wa'el Julaidan, who was designated last year as a terrorist financier by the US and Saudi Arabia and is also linked to several US-based charitable groups that are under investigation.
Mr Arnaout will go to trial next month on charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering and providing aid to terrorist organisations. He has denied aiding al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
Among the new allegations in the Justice Department's filing is that Mohamed Loay Bayazid, a Syrian-born American who is accused of trying to obtain uranium to help al-Qaeda build a nuclear weapon, was briefly an officer with the charity.
Mr Arnaout's lawyer told the AP that Mr Bayazid had no connections with the charity.
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26 February 2001 05:48 PM