Posted on 08/22/2003 9:50:07 AM PDT by knighthawk
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
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