Author: Stewart Bell
Publication: National Post
Date: August 22, 2003
URL: http://www.nationalpost.com/utilities/story.html?id=2915D2AD-9A4C-4E6F-87CE-9622734A956A
A U.S. intelligence report claims
a Saudi humanitarian organization that operates in Canada has funded "militant
training camps," shipped weapons to Afghanistan and had ties to Osama bin
Laden.
The International Islamic Relief
Organization (IIRO) is named in the 1996 document as one of 15 organizations
that "employ members or otherwise facilitate the activities of terrorist
groups in Bosnia."
The document ties the group, which
has an office in Ontario, to the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas,
a man convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and plots to kill
the Pope and attack U.S. airliners.
"The majority of Hamas members in
the Philippines are employed by the organization," it says, adding, "the
IIRO helps fund six militant training camps in Afghanistan, according to
a clandestine source."
The report also claims the Bosnian
and Swedish offices of the Ottawa-based charity Human Concern International
were connected to terrorism and weapons smuggling, but a spokesman said
the group never had offices in either country.
The report was obtained from the
law firm Motley Rice, which has filed a class-action suit on behalf of
family members of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. The suit targets
dozens of Islamic charities and Saudi officials for their alleged roles
in financing al-Qaeda.
The document was identified as a
"CIA report" by special agent David Kane, an official in the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security, in a court affidavit made public this week in Virginia.
Special Agent Kane cited Canadian
immigration documents as evidence the IIRO also operates under the name
Muslim World League (MWL), which is a government-registered charity in
Canada.
The allegations against the IIRO
and MWL, are controversial because both groups are funded by the Saudi
government, which denies it financially supports armed Islamic extremist
factions.
The CIA report cited by Special
Agent Kane claims about one-third of the 50 international Islamic non-profit
organizations were supporting terrorism or employing terrorist suspects.
While Muslim charities help the needy, they were also fostering violence,
it said.
"Where Muslims are engaged in armed
conflict, some Islamic organizations provide military aid as part of a
'humanitarian' package," it says. The governments of Muslim states support
the major charities but are unable to monitor how the money is spent, it
added.
The document shows that at least
five years before the Sept. 11 attacks Western intelligence officials were
aware Islamic charities were funnelling money to terrorist causes.
At the time, Yugoslavia was the
focus of radical Islamic organizations because of the war between Serbs
and Bosnian Muslims.
"We have information that nearly
one third of the Islamic NGOs [non-governmental organizations] in the Balkans
have facilitated the activities of Islamic groups that engage in terrorism,
including the Egyptian Al-Gamaat Al Islamiyya, Palestinian Hamas, Algerian
groups and Lebanese Hezbollah," the report says. "Some of the terrorist
groups have access to credentials for the UN High Commission for Refugees
and other UN staffs in the former Yugoslavia."
The report claims the head of the
Muslim World League branch in Peshawar, Pakistan, "was illicitly supplying
League documentation and arms to militants in Afghanistan and Tajikistan."
The Muslim World League is based
in Etobicoke. Its Internet site says it is the Canadian branch of an international
Islamic organization headquartered in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Among its stated
aims are promoting Islam, distributing the Koran, introducing Islam to
Canadians and helping the Imams who deliver Friday sermons at Canadian
mosques.
Several suspected Islamic terrorists
arrested in Canada have been former employees of the IIRO, including Mahmoud
Jaballah, a Toronto man who is a member of the Egyptian group Al Jihad.
sbell@nationalpost.com