AL QAIDA-Why the United States has Reasons to Worry?

TERRORISM-Global Network of Islamic Fundamentalist’s – Part II | AUGUST, 30 2004 | DARKO TRIFUNOVIC

[Darko]

AL QAIDA-Why the United States has Reasons to Worry?

[Darko]

AL QAIDA-Why the United States has Reasons to Worry?

Associated Press reported on "...NATO authorities who raided a Saudi aid agency last fall found computer files containing photographs of terrorist targets and street maps of Washington with government buildings marked, a senior U.S. official disclosed Thursday…The newspaper continued that… "…The October raid of the Sarajevo office of the Saudi High Commissioner for Aid to Bosnia also netted a computer program explaining how to use crop duster aircraft to spread pesticide, and materials used to make fake U.S. State Department identification badges and credit cards, the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity."

In mentioning from the Saudi High Commissioner for Aid to Bosnia, it must be taken into account that the Saudi rulers have been well known for transferring huge sums of money to this particular "charitable" agency. Over the past nine years, the agency alone has spent approximately $600million U.S. dollars for its "activities" within Bosnia. The money came from various donations made by certain prominent Saudi businessmen and also from certain Saudi governmental grants.

Both sad and ironic is that King Fahd personally contributed the sum of $34 million U.S. dollars to the agency now known to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda activities of terrorism. It also very much appears that not all the money was even used for any humanitarian purposes at all but rather for something much more sinister which clearly is Osama bin Laden’s Bosnian Al-Qaeda network of "charities."

Daniel Benjamin, director of Transnational Threats located at the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration said Al-Qaeda was also using "charities" including several named: Maktab Khidmat or "Services Bureau" as well as another called Mercy International Relief Organization. These charities were also used by the terrorists for relaying messages and funding for its operations. Bosnian authorities are also now heavily investigating connections between Benevolence International Foundation of Palos Hills, Ill. and Mr. Hadz Boudella, "a charity worker" recently arrested (October 2001) in Sarajevo who later was turned over to the U.S. authorities sending him to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Boudella had apparently worked for Benevolence International in Zenica between 1992 through 1994 and is believed to be connected to Abu Al-Me'Ali, the leader of a unit of Islamic fighters in Zenica. Boudella was also working closely with another "Islamic charity" called "Human Appeal International" when he was arrested, according to his wife Nadja Dizdarevic . Apparently, when Boudella and many others were handed over to the U.S. anti-terrorist forces this past January, the American authorities said they also suspected Boudella’s involvement with two Islamic militant groups--Algeria's Armed Islamic Group and Egypt's al-Gama'a al Islamiyya. Boudella came to Bosnia in 1992 and he claimed to want to undertake humanitarian work with an organization called Al Bir, Dizdarevic as stated by Mr. Al Bir Al. "Dawalia" is the Arabic translation meaning "Benevolence International Foundation" according to an FBI affidavit fromChicago . The Global Relief Foundation was located in Bridgeview and the Benevolence International Foundation in Palos Hills were both searched over with a fine tooth comb by the American FBI whose spokeswoman Ebony Harrel said: "The head of one of the nation's largest Muslim charities was charged with allegedly lying about his involvement with Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network of terror. In a 35-page criminal complaint, the government contends that Enaam M. Arnaout and the Benevolence International Foundation supported bin Laden operatives who were searching for nuclear and chemical materials and plotting terrorist strikes around the world."

Mr. Ennam Arnaout launched Benevolence's operations from Bosnia / Herzegovina during 1992 and ostensibly, to distribute relief supplies to both civilians and soldiers. He was eventually granted Bosnian citizenship (February 8th 1996). His passport is among 300 issued between 1995 and 1996 that Bosnian authorities are now investigating as to determine whether they were handled properly. The complaint alleges that Arnaout had very close ties with Osama bin Laden and his top aides dating back to the 1980s when the Syrian-born naturalized American was living in Pakistan. In other words, during 1989, bin Laden asked Arnaout to care for one of his wives at his home in Pakistan until he could pick her up according to certain governmental officials. Arnaout also was an administrator for bin Laden, distributing funds on his behalf according to a confidential witness now cooperating with the Bosnian government. The complaint also alleges that the foundation sponsored the man’s false VISA and also paid for his housing in Bosnia and also for the other man, Mamdouh Salim, another vital key bin Laden associate. Salim allegedly approved the purchase of uranium for making nuclear weapons. The initial Al-Qaeda operative ordered to carry out the purchase of this uranium, Mohamed Bayazid, used the foundation's address in Illinois to obtain a driver's license according to the complaint. Salim was later arrested in Germany (1998) and is currently awaiting trial in New York City on charges of conspiring with bin Laden and al-Qaida to kill U.S. citizens.

“In the New York area, BIF was represented by a senior Bosnian diplomat and “Minister Counsellor” at the Bosnian Mission to United Nations in Manhattan: Saffet Abid Catovic. Since 1993, Catovic has been a prominent charitable fundraiser for the Balkans and an outspoken voice at the UN mission on Islamic religious and political issues. He has had a close relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and, in interviews in 1994, he publicly thanked the Saudis for their generous financial assistance to Bosnian religious projects. However, he has since noted: “there was no way to do wire transfers into Bosnia; it had to be physically carried—the funds had to be physically carried in to give the people, uh, financial help… it’s not unusual.” Given his fundamentalist activism in the northeastern United States, it is clear that Catovic was also using his position to advocate “holy struggle” against the opponents of radical Islam, including inside the United States. Testifying in Immigration court, Catovic denied supporting the blind Shaykh Omar Abdel Rahman (head of the Egyptian Al-Gama`at Al-Islamiyya terror organization) but nonetheless added, “I admire his recitation of the Koran… [h]e’s a blind man who recites Koran very beautifully.” During his testimony, Catovic also admitted to having met Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, the current General Secretary of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), “once or twice” at terrorist fundraising conferences held in the United States by the Tampa-based Islamic Committee for Palestine (ICP). New York police who arrested El Sayyid Nosair, the assassin of militant Jewish leader Meir Kahane and co-conspirator in the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing, found Saffet Catovic’s business card from the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation amongst Nosair’s personal effects. In a videotaped theological lecture published by an Islamic media outlet in New Jersey, Catovic introduced Siddig Ali (also later convicted of a central role in a fundamentalist conspiracy to bomb New York landmarks in 1993) to speak on the subject of “Jihad: The Forgotten Duty.” Catovic offered heartfelt praise of Siddig, and told his camera audience that they should feel “honored to have our dear brother from Sudan, a land which is participating in the Jihad in the struggle itself, and by the mercy of Allah, has almost succeeded in gaining that victory totally and completely.” Siddig Ali ordered to his followers amongst viewers:

“If the Da`wa [Islamic Call] is confronted, anybody, anywhere, by any power, then the sword is to be absolutely used and implemented… But let’s come back to our Muslims that are with us today and Brother Saffet just showed us today a video of what is going on today in Muslim Bosnia. What happened to our involvement as Muslims, to attack the core of this disease? …Allah (SWT) warned us in the Qur`an when he said, ‘O you who believe, what is the matter with you, that when it is time that you are asked to go forth to fight in the cause of Allah, you cling heavily to the earth? …As if we came back from our respective countries with the same defeatist mentality, that we cannot announce and pronounce these ayat [verses] of Jihad… because we are still afraid that the CIA or the FBI or the authorities or countries are going to be behind us… [and we do not] confront the kuffar [infidels] who has taken our own sisters, our brothers, as slaves in Bosnia.” It is, of course, fundamentally significant that Catovic, a senior official at BIF (an organization now officially recognized by the U.S. government as an Al-Qaida terrorist front group), had such a close relationship with Siddig Ali, one of the lead conspirators in the 1993 New York terror plots.

On November 24.2000,the Dorral Forrestal Conference Center in Princeton, New Jersey hosted a three-day local Muslim “spiritual retreat.” One of the speakers at the event was Saffet Catovic, whose lecture was titled “Political and Social Jihad.”In an article about the retreat,the author explained, “Brother Saffet Catovic has been active in the Bosnian Jihad for many years.” Between August 20-26, 2001, Catovic was a featured invitee and speaker at a “Jihad Camp” organized for Muslim men between the ages of 14 and 25, sponsored by the northeast regional branch of the “Young Muslims of North America.” Though there was no explicit mention of any martial purpose, the flyer was printed in camouflage colors and the text was in military-style block print. The conference registration form began with a quote from the Qur`an: “Jihad is ordained for you (Muslims) though you dislike it, and it may be that you dislike something which is good for you and that you like something which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know.” One of the other lecturers at the Jihad Camp (who has teamed up with Catovic at many other speaking events) was Imam Siraj Wahaj, a radical African-American Muslim cleric, listed by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White in 1995 as an “unindicted person who may be alleged as [a] conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. ”

Another search conducted on (December 16th 2001) at a Benevolence International Foundation office in Newark, N.J., according to Dean Boyd, spokesman for the U.S. Customs Service said that the group claiming to be an "Islamic Charity", is cooperating with FBI officials and said: "It's part of a higher level of scrutiny of all Muslim relief organizations.''

It is important to underline that Safet Catovic are also more members of AID (The Secret Service of Bosnian Muslims). During this same time no report was uncovered by FBI Officials stating that any proof was his possession regarding his true identity accept for a U.N. badge which manifested outwardly that he was apparently a Minister Counsellor at the Bosnia Mission to the United Nations. His ID had apparently expired (October 31st 2003). Until today there is no explanation as to whereby Catovic had simultaneously been both a charity worker and also a Bosnian UN Mission Diplomat. That question still lingers! Furthermore, Catovic organized an active Jihad Camp in Pennsylvania very close by to a place where one of planes crashed on September 11th 2001. This Jihad Camp was held only one month prior to the September 11th 2001 terrorist attack on America between (August 20 to 26th 2001).

At the same time as the Illinois searches, two Global Relief Foundation offices that were located in the Former Yugoslavia parts of both Bosnia and Kosovo were also searched by NATO-led peacekeepers and also their associated U.N. police. A NATO spokesman said three people were detained there but gave no additional details. The monetary / financial asset holdings of both these groups are now frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department said State Department spokesman Tony Fratto. He also stated that since "Early Saturday there were coordinated actions to block the assets because the groups are both suspected of funding terrorist activities.''

Officials said the Chicago searches were conducted by the U.S. Treasury Department, the FBI and the U.S. Customs Department and the actual Search Warrants themselves were sealed. Fratto cited the Patriot Act signed on (October 26th 2001) by U.S. President George Bush which gives federal agents much broader powers to detain immigrants, eavesdrop on telephone calls and look at emails. The Act also gives Officials new powers to actively share anti-terrorist sensitive informational details of all and any ongoing criminal investigations with the CIA. Moreover, U.S. President George Bush Jr. on (11/7/01) stated: "We put the world's financial institutions on notice: if you do business with terrorists, if you support them or sponsor them, you will not do business with the United States of America."

Additionally, September 28th 2001, the U.N. adopted a new Security Council Resolution 1363 (2001). This instructs UN member States to take all and every of the necessary steps to freeze the financial funds of entities and/or persons suspected of committing, and/or posing significant risks of committing, or providing material support for any future acts of terrorism.

The NATO statement insofar as the recent raids on the Islamic Global Relief offices in Yugoslavia said UN Peacekeepers and U.N. police had received credible information that Global Relief may have been directly involved in supporting terrorism. On Sunday December 16th 2001, Federal agents raided the Bridgeview offices of another Islamic charity called, "The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development." Authorities said this new Texas based charity is believed to be a front for raising money for Islamic Al-Qaeda terrorist groups such as even Hammas.