* Walid Khan Amin Shah : [Mohammed Jamal] Khalifa [ founder of International Islamic Relief Organization and the Khalifa Trading Industries] and Bayazid [president of Benevolence International Foundation] were arrested in December 14, 1994 in Mountain View, California on charges related to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Khalifa was planning to fly to the Philippines.
When the FBI looked inside Khalifa's luggage, they found manuals in Arabic on training terrorists, which covered subjects such as bomb-making and other violent activities. Khalifa claims that his possession of the materials was in innocence.
They also found a personal organizer with several contacts. One phone number was for Wali Khan Amin Shah, a member of the Manila cell, which was plotting Operation Bojinka at the time. There was also a listing for an unknown man, who might have been Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Khalifa was placed in solitairy confinement and the contents of his luggage were logged and edited. http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:fth9KYfHFdoJ:www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Mohammed-Jamal-Khalifa+Mohammed+Jamal+Khalifa&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
JANUARY 5, 1995 : (SEC OF STATE WARREN CHRISTOPHER WRITES TO ATTNY GEN JANET RENO, PRESSURING HER TO DEPORT MOHAMMED JAMAL KHALIFA) "Secretary of State Warren Christopher wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno on Jan. 5, 1995, arguing that 'to permit Mr. [Mohammed Jamal] Khalifa to remain at large inside the United States in light of his alleged activities and criminal conviction in Jordan . . . . would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.'"
"Of course," notes the author, "the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco wasn't asking for Khalifa to be released, merely held for questioning. Khalifa had traveled the world as Osama bin Laden's 'banker.' He was a potential intelligence gold mine."
Secretary Christopher, however, prevailed. Khalifa was deported to Jordan, where, at trial, the murder witness recanted. Bin Laden's banker was promptly set free. U.S. counterterrorism officials were dumbfounded by the administration's decision to let Khalifa go. "Not even speaking in retrospect, but contemporaneous with what the intelligence community knew about bin Laden, Khalifa's deportation was unreal," CIA counterterrorism analyst Jacob L. Boesen told the author.
Concludes Lance: "In light of what we now know. . . Khalifa's release has to be considered one of the most grievous instances of negligence in the years leading up to 9/11.[/2001]" ----------- Clinton Administration Freed Bin Laden's Banker, News Max, Sunday Jan. 4, 2004; 11:43 p.m. EST
Speaking of the IIRO:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday named the Philippine and Indonesian branches of the International Islamic Relief Organization as fund-raisers for al Qaeda and other terror groups. It also designated one of the Saudi-based organization's high-ranking officials, Abd Al Hamid Sulaiman Al-Mujil, as a fund-raiser for al Qaeda. The action means that no American can have any dealings with the two branches of the organization or with Al-Mujil and that any assets they have in the United States will be frozen.
"Al-Mujil has a long record of supporting Islamic militant groups, and he has maintained a cell of regular financial donors in the Middle East who support extremist positions," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
A Treasury official said the organization had no offices in the United States.
In a background paper, the department said Al-Mujil had provided donor funds directly to al Qaeda. He was sometimes called the "million dollar man" for supporting Islamic militant groups, including Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf Group, both based in Southeast Asia, it said ----- "US Treasury names suspected al Qaeda fund-raisers," Reuters Staff, Yahoo News/Reuters, August 3, 2006
The Philippine branches of the IIRO were founded sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s by Muhammad Jamal Khalifah, who is Usama bin Laden's brother-in-law and has been identified as a senior al Qaida member. IIRO-PHL's director, Abd al-Hadi Daguit, is a trusted associate of Khalifah.
While working as the director of IIRO-PHL, Khalifah maintained close connections with al Qaida through his relations with senior al Qaida supporters, including Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) Wa'el Hamza Julaidan. At the time Khalifah directed the IIRO-PHL, he employed an ASG intelligence officer as the provincial director of the IIRO-PHL in the Tawi-Tawi region of the Southern Philippines until that officer's death in 1994.
In the mid 1990s, a major ASG supporter, Mahmud Abd Al-Jalil Afif, served as the director of the IIRO-PHL and used the organization to funnel money to terrorist groups including the ASG. Afif was implicated in the assassination of Father Salvatore Carzeda in San Jose Gusu, Zamboanga City, Philippines on June 20, 1992. ------ "Treasury Designates Director, Branches of Charity Bankrolling Al Qaida Network," August 3, 2006, hp-45, Treasury Press Release
So, who is Wael Hamza Jalaidan?
Well, he is associated with the Tucson, Arizona "cell" according to ol' Judith Miller :
* Wael Hamza Jalaidan :
The organization that eventually evolved into Al Qaeda (the name means "the base" in Arabic) began as the Makhtab al Khadimat, the Office of Services, in Peshawar, Pakistan, according to federal prosecutors, trial testimony and terrorism analysts.
Ms. Katz says that the Makhtab's journal, Al Jihad (holy war), was initially distributed in the United States in 1986 by the Islamic Center of Tucson. The center was also listed at the time as the Office of Services' [Makhtab al Khadimat's] only American branch.
Two people later associated with the Tucson center — Wael Hamza Jalaidan, its director, and Wadih El-Hage — were eventually linked to Al Qaeda by the authorities. Last year, the government listed Mr. Jalaidan, who heads the Saudi-based World Muslim League, as a founder of Al Qaeda and its logistics chief. Mr. El-Hage was convicted more than a decade later in the 1998 conspiracy to bomb American embassies in Africa. -------- "U.S. Long Underestimated Qaeda's Scope, Officials Say," JUDITH MILLER and DON VAN NATTA Jr., The New York Times, June 9, 2002
What is signifigant about Tucson besides what is mentioned here?
Al Fuqra, the Terror Group Nobody Ever Talks About :
JANUARY 31, 1990. (TUCSON, ARIZONA : ATTACK ON BLACK CLERIC RASHID KHALIFA BY EL HAGE'S GROUP & JAMAAT AL FUQRA) Rashad Khalifa, controversial Muslim leader in Tucson, Ariz., is stabbed to death. A black Muslim cleric named Rashid Khalifa was murdered in Tucson. Khalifa had practiced a sect that was deemed heretical by fundamentalist Muslims. He was soon marked for death. According to federal prosecutors and to information volunteered by El Hage in interviews he gave to FBI agents, a still unidentified man was sent to Tucson to do surveillance on Khalifa. This person visited El Hage at his home, had lunch together and then was driven by El Hage to Khalifa's mosque where the visitor recorded the movements of Khalifa. El Hage admitted before the grand jury that he never reported this visit to the authorities even though Khalifa was later found murdered. Federal records show that Kalifa was killed by a member of the Al-Fuqra organization, a black Muslim fundamentalist group that has engaged in a series of murders, robberies, and other attacks in Colorado and Canada. Members of AlFuqra were also indicted and convicted in the World Trade Center bombing conspiracy trials. Sources familiar with the investigation say that Al-Fuqra as early as 1988 in acquiring weapons and recruiting volunteers for the jihad in Afghanistan.
In a background paper, the department said Al-Mujil had provided donor funds directly to al Qaeda. He was sometimes called the "million dollar man" for supporting Islamic militant groups, including Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf Group, both based in Southeast Asia
From the article in the first post:
Yazid Sufaat, a U.S.-trained biochemist and former Malaysian army captain, was arrested in late 2001 as he returned home from Afghanistan, where officials say he was working on a biological and chemical weapons program for al-Qaeda that was ended by the U.S.-led war.
Since then, he has been held without trial under Malaysia's Internal Security Act on accusations of being a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda ally in Southeast Asia.
Regarding Post #14 on Al Fuqra, IIRC Al Fuqra was also suspect in the Danny Pearl killing. There is a bit on Pearl, KSM, and Bob Baer in the first link from Post #11, under the heading "Early 1998: CIA Ignores Ex-Agent’s Warning KSM Is ‘Going to Hijack Some Planes,’ Visiting Germany".
ping