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Terrorist financing knows no boundaries
How money raised by charities ends up in the pockets of international terrorists has been the subject of intense investigation since Sept. 11, 2001. Last month one of those investigations touched Columbia. Federal officials alleged that a nonprofit organization there was part of the Islamic African Relief Agency, a global charity whose officers had raised at least $5 million for terrorists. Details of how IARA allegedly supported terrorism were packed into a four-page Treasury Department summary, thick with unfamiliar names and organizations. Using special computer software, The Kansas City Star diagramed the links described in the Treasury summary. They allege:⢠At least eight connections between IARA and Osama bin Laden, his organizations or the Taliban.The Star compiled a list of organizations and individuals connected to the charity from the Treasury Department summary and other government documents. That list then was entered into social network analysis software, which produced a visual representation of the network. Social network analysis is the study of relationships and has been used by criminologists, health-care researchers and academics in the social sciences. By displaying relationships visually and analyzing them with sophisticated mathematics, it is possible to more clearly see the flow and structure of a network of individuals or groups. The analysis showed that IARA officials allegedly performed services or favors for bin Laden and his organizations. Other times, IARA was alleged to have teamed with bin Laden to support other terrorists. "The connections are quantitatively and qualitatively significant," said Matt Levitt, a senior fellow in terrorism studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "We're not just talking about connections to al Qaida" but to Hamas and other extremist organizations as well.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-11-28 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=49930 |