MOHAMAD Jamal Khalifa is the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden. He is accused of helping to spread Al-Qaeda’s reach in the region in the late 1980s as head of the International Islamic Research Organisation’s (Iiro) Philippine operations, a Saudi charity now under watch.
Who’s watch? Nayef’s?
The Philippine authorities say they have ’substantial information’ that Khalifa ’recruited militants and gave financial support to Muslim extremist groups fighting the government’. Yet, they say they have no case against him and he is not a wanted man in the country.
Why?
The case shows the challenges the authorities face in the war on terrorism. Often, evidence strong enough to hold up in a court of law is inadequate. Few people dare to testify against suspected terrorists.
Especially not Binny’s brother-in-law, it would seem.
Khalifa, who now runs a seafood restaurant in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, told The Straits Times that he became director of Iiro’s Manila office in 1988 but quit in 1994 to return to the kingdom. The Iiro, he said, did humanitarian work, setting up clinics and schools. He denied that it had anything to do with militancy.
’The people have forgotten all the good work I did and are making these allegations without any proof,’ he said.
| "The witnesses are all dead, ain't they?" |
But Colonel Rodolfo Mendoza, a counter-terrorism expert for the Philippine National Police, said: ’We have substantial information that he engaged in activities inimical to the country’s interests.’ The authorities said Khalifa used the Iiro as a legal front for his activities in the Philippines. ’He was responsible for linking local extremists to the financial machinery of the Al-Qaeda. He helped spread radical Islam in the southern Philippines,’ Col Mendoza said. ’He had a legitimate cover, which he used to transfer funds to the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf, and to receive funding from foreign groups.’ The 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is the country’s largest rebel group while the Abu Sayyaf is a ragtag group of about 200 Muslim extremists notorious for kidnapping people for ransom. One of the projects financed by Khalifa is an orphanage for the children of slain MILF rebels in the southern Philippines. The UN Monitoring Group said in its report that the Iiro’s office in Zamboanga city reportedly served as the coordinating centre for secessionist Islamic activities during the early 1990s. Yet, enforcement agencies have not moved against Khalifa because they lack direct evidence, said Col Mendoza. ’No case was ever filed against him and nobody has come forward to testify,’ he said.
| Besides, he's back in Jedda, safe and sound, and the Soddies aren't going to extradite him, anyway... |
Dr Zachary Abuza, who has written a book on Militant Islam In South-east Asia, believes that the problem lies in inadequate monitoring mechanisms. ’Khalifa walked that fine line between legal and illicit activities because the end-use of funds was not being adequately monitored.’ The lesson was, simply, that there had to be better accounting of such firms in the region, Dr Abuza said. |