Federal agents have intensified a two-year-old anti-terrorism investigation aimed at several Virginia-based Islamic charities suspected of diverting millions of dollars to al Qaeda and other radical groups. Led by agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI, the task-force probe has targeted a number of people tied to several private companies and interrelated Islamic charities operating out of business fronts in Herndon and Falls Church, according to a report in the Washington Times Monday. A key focus of the investigation is Soliman S Biheiri, an Egyptian national being held on federal immigration charges. He has also been named by the Justice Department as a material witness in ongoing government terrorism investigations. Biheiri operated the now-defunct Secaucus, New Jersey, firm BMI Inc. and was identified last week in an affidavit by ICE agent David Kane, who said investigators had focused on the âfinancial relationship betweenâ BMI and a Herndon corporation known as Sana-Bell Inc. The agency also is looking into two Islamic charities, the Muslim World League (MWL) and the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), both of Falls Church.
| Both of those are old friends of ours here... |
The newspaper says the investigation has focused on âa group of individualsâ suspected of providing material support to terrorists and of money laundering and income-tax evasion through use of related for-profit companies and ostensibly charitable entities under their control. BMI has been linked by federal authorities to the diversion of millions of dollars in money transfers to suspected terrorist organisations including al Qaeda. Investigators are trying to determine whether the Virginia-based charities illegally diverted as much as $4 million to BMI, cash that eventually was used to fund terrorist activities. In an affidavit, Kane said the MWL and the IIRO operated in separate Falls Church offices but under an umbrella. He said the CIA listed the IIRO as having âextremist connections,â including with the Palestinian group Hamas, Algerian radicals and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, the Egyptian terrorist organization that served as a precursor to al Qaeda. He further said that the CIA report linked the IIRO to Osama bin Laden as well as convicted terrorist Ramzi Yousef, who was sentenced to life in prison for masterminding the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. According to him, the organisation helped fund six terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
| A worthy use of Islamic charity dollars... Well, the usual use, anyway. |
According to the affidavit, the IIRO is believed to have transferred money to certain bank accounts routed through various front organisations, including the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest Muslim charity in the country, with offices in Texas, California, New Jersey and Illinois. Federal law enforcement officials told The Washington Times that the MWL initially was funded by bin Laden and later by the Saudi government, and that Sana-Bell Inc. was established to generate funds for IIRO operations. The officials said several MWL employees are believed to have worked with al Qaeda, and that key bin Laden associates had infiltrated the organisationâs offices worldwide. They also said Sana-Bell Inc. was part of a global effort to manage the IIROâs financial assets through an international endowment fund known as the Sanabil al-Khair. Last year, federal agents raided 14 Islamic businesses in Virginia, seizing two dozen computers and hundreds of bank statements and other documents in an âOperation Green Questâ investigation. In those raids, investigators also focused on several Islamic charities, a network purportedly controlled by the Saar Foundation, an organisation created by Suleiman Abdul Al-Aziz al-Rajhi, a member of one of Saudi Arabiaâs richest families.
| That's the obligatory Soddy connection... |
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