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WASHINGTON - Despite six years of promises, Saudi Arabia has failed to pursue wealthy individuals identified as sending millions of dollars to Al Qaeda, the US official in charge of tracking terror financing said in an ABC News interview on Tuesday. “If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia,” said Stuart Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury. No one identified by the United States and the United Nations as a terror financier has been prosecuted by the Saudis, Levey said. “When the evidence is clear that these...

Israeli intelligence about Palestinian groups that a Muslim charity aided was often unreliable, a former senior U.S. diplomat testified Tuesday at the organization's trial on terrorism-support charges. Edward Abingdon, who served as U.S. consul-general in Jerusalem during the 1990s, said the Israelis had an "agenda" and provided "selective information to try to influence U.S. thinking." Abingdon's testimony took dead aim at prosecutors' claims that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was knowingly funding terrorists instead of providing humanitarian aid. Holy Land, once the nation's largest Muslim charity, and five of its leaders are charged with funneling millions in...

I've heard the question asked repeatedly. How is Al Qaeda, which is supposedly relegated to living in caves in stone-age conditions able to create state of the art video documentaries that rival those produced by TV networks and news channels? In other words, where is the money coming from? In the past much of the seed money used to finance Bin Laden's operations came from his personal fortune. But with all of the money controls slammed into place six years ago after the 9/11 attacks, that money has been for all intents and purposes untouchable. Yet this year Al Qaeda's...

TEHRAN, Aug 25 (MNA)-- Hundreds of Iraqis residing in the U.S. converged in the front of the Saudi embassy in Washington on Friday condemning Riyadh’s policy towards Iraq, Sotaliraq said on its website. With slogans “Down with Terrorism” and “Shia and Sunni Should Unite in Iraq,” demonstrators called for the immediate halt to Saudi support for terrorism in Iraq and the issuance of “takfiri” religious decrees (fatwas) by Saudi scholars. Nazar Heydar, the director of Iraq information center in Washington and a member of the international center for campaign against terrorism, said “by this demonstration we meant to draw the...

DALLAS — Prosecutors have produced scores of documents, audio and videotapes, and intercepted phone calls in their attempt to prove that a Muslim charity based in a suburban Dallas office park was actually a fundraising arm of Middle Eastern terrorists. Much of the evidence has surfaced before in books, newspaper articles and previous trials. But those who track terror-financing say the document haul from the trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development has also produced new information. They say the documents shed light on a web of related organizations of militant Palestinian supporters in the United States,...

BAGHDAD — Less than a year after her father was sent to the gallows, Saddam Hussein's daughter is facing charges that also could lead to her execution. A spokesman for the Ministry of Interior said Friday that Raghad Hussein, 38, has been charged with financing the insurgents who have bedeviled this country since shortly after her father's regime was toppled in 2003. Hussein is believed to be living in Amman, Jordan, as a guest of King Abdullah II. The spokesman, Abdul Kereem Khalaf, said the Iraqi Judicial Authority issued an arrest warrant for Hussein a year ago, but that it...

(AP) DALLAS An Islamic advocacy group asked a federal judge Thursday to remove it and other Muslim organizations and individuals from a list of unindicted co-conspirators in a terrorism-finance trial. Also, a group of Muslim lawyers and the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys protested to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales about the list, which they said could lead to discrimination against American Muslims. Federal prosecutors produced a list of more than 300 individuals and groups of unindicted co-conspirators in the case against a Texas charity they said helped finance the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which the U.S. government has...

Ashland, Ore. - It's hard – often impossible – to prove that secret government wiretapping in the name of national security is violating one's privacy rights. The evidence itself usually is top secret. But one rather obscure case could pull back the veil on a surveillance program that's at the heart of the US fight against terror. In the federal appeals court in San Francisco Wednesday, lawyers for a Saudi charity accused of helping Al Qaeda will argue that their clients, including two American attorneys, were illegally spied on without the required court warrant. How do they know? Treasury Department...

DALLAS — Lawyers for Muslim charity leaders accused of aiding Middle East terrorists scored a rare win in court today when a federal judge blocked some evidence seized by Israeli soldiers during raids of Palestinian organizations. Defense lawyers had objected that some of the documents weren't signed or dated, and they cast doubt on Israel's handling of the evidence. Five former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development are charged with funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which the U.S. government designated a terrorist organization in 1995. The trial is in its fourth...

A coalition organized to support the embattled Holy Land Foundation (HLF) against federal charges of funding terrorism is "tainted" by the involvement of three organizations with a history of sympathizing with terrorist groups, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). "Hungry for Justice," a coalition established to speak out in support of the HLF through a Web site and a series of planned public events, claims the federal charges and ongoing trial in Dallas are part of a "politically driven" anti-Muslim witch-hunt and an attempt to single out Muslim charitable organizations in this country.  The coalition includes the Council on American...

Representative Ed Royce (R-CA) is calling on Congress to investigate the ties between Islamic terrorists and Mexican drug gangs revelaed in a report by the Drug Enforcement Agency in yesterday's Washington Times. A ranking House Republican yesterday demanded a hearing based on recent reports that Islamic terrorists embedded in the United States are teaming with Mexican drug cartels to fund terrorism networks overseas. Rep. Ed Royce, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs terrorism and nonproliferation subcommittee, said the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) document — first reported yesterday by The Washington Times — highlights how vulnerable the nation is when...

A former director of the Drug Enforcement Administration warned federal officials shortly after the September 11 attacks that violent drug cartels from Mexico were teaming with Muslim gangs to fund terrorist organizations overseas. Asa Hutchinson, who also has been a Homeland Security undersecretary, said that in 2001, DEA agents uncovered the link between the drug cartels and terrorist groups but too few government officials listened. "I think it's important to recognize that the link between terrorism and drug trafficking exists," said Mr. Hutchinson in a phone interview from Arkansas. "While we are fighting terrorists, we should not neglect our fight...

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents are building a case against a Muslim charity on trial in Dallas on charges of providing financial aid to the terrorist organization Hamas and of raising illicit cash for other extremist groups. Five officers of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development — once considered the largest Muslim charity in the nation, but which U.S. intelligence officials have called the North American fundraiser for the Islamist terrorist group Hamas — are on trial in Dallas, charged with aiding terrorism, conspiracy and money laundering. The prosecution has spent the two weeks of the trial so...

Islamic extremists embedded in the United States — posing as Hispanic nationals — are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report. "Since drug traffickers and terrorists operate in a clandestine environment, both groups utilize similar methodologies to function ... all lend themselves to facilitation and are among the essential elements that may contribute to the successful conclusion of a catastrophic event by terrorists," said the confidential report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times. The 2005 report outlines an ongoing scheme in which...

(IsraelNN.com) Legal action is being taken against two Muslim charities in the United States due to their support of the Hamas and Hizbullah terrorist groups. On Tuesday, the US Treasury began legal action against the Iran-based Martyrs Foundation and what it says is a front-group for it – the Goodwill Charitable Organization (GCO), which has a US branch in Dearborn, Michigan. The organization is accused of providing funding to Hizbullah. Action was also initiated against al-Qard al-Hassan, a Lebanese firm believed to have been used by Hizbullah as a front for managing its finances. The administrative order also includes a...

US Acts Against Groups Aiding Hezbollah July 24, 2007 The Associated Press Jeannine Aversa WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration took action Tuesday against an Iran-based foundation, including its U.S. branch, for allegedly providing support to Hezbollah, a terrorist group the United States has blamed for bloodshed in Lebanon. The Treasury Department's action covers the Martyrs Foundation and Goodwill Charitable Organization of Dearborn, Mich., which the government identified as a fundraising office for the foundation. The government also moved against al-Qard al-Hassan, a Beirut firm that the U.S. government believes was used by Hezbollah "as a cover to manage its financial...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration took action Tuesday against an Iran-based foundation, including its U.S. branch, for allegedly providing support to Hezbollah, a terrorist group the United States has blamed for bloodshed in Lebanon. The Treasury Department's action covers the Martyrs Foundation and Goodwill Charitable Organization of Dearborn, Mich., which the government identified as a fundraising office for the foundation.

WASHINGTON - A major CIA effort launched last year to hunt down Osama bin Laden has produced no significant leads on his whereabouts, but has helped track an alarming increase in the movement of al-Qaeda operatives and money into Pakistan's tribal territories, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the operation. In one of the most troubling trends, U.S. officials said that al-Qaeda's command base in Pakistan increasingly is being funded by cash coming out of Iraq, where the terrorist network's operatives are raising substantial sums from donations to the anti-U.S. insurgency as well as kidnappings of wealthy Iraqis...

DETROIT - A federal agency has frozen the assets of a Muslim group that some intelligence experts allege raised money in metro Detroit to bankroll terrorism through Hezbollah. The action, taken this week by the U.S. Treasury Department, makes it illegal to contribute to or conduct business with the Islamic Resistance Support Organization. It comes after the Israel-based Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center alleged IRSO had raised money in Michigan through donation boxes in restaurants and possibly other places. The center says IRSO used similar boxes in Lebanon to raise donations. But local Arab-American and Muslim leaders contacted Thursday said...

Treasury Designates Key Hizballah Fundraising OrganizationThe U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated the Islamic Resistance Support Organization (IRSO), a key Hizballah fundraising organization."While some terrorist-supporting charities try to obscure their support for violence, IRSO makes no attempt to hide its true colors.  IRSO's fundraising materials present donors with the option of sending funds to equip Hizballah fighters or to purchase rockets that Hizballah uses to target civilian populations," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI)  "IRSO works to inflict suffering rather than alleviate it."   IRSO was named today pursuant to Executive Order 13224,...