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Feds Say Charity Lied About Links To bin Laden
By REBECCA CARR / Cox Washington Bureau
05-01-02
WASHINGTON --The head of one of the nation's largest Muslim charities was charged Tuesday 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.
Arnaout, 39, executive director of the foundation based in southwest suburban Chicago, has denied in court documents any involvement with terrorists.
The complaint alleges that Arnaout has close ties with bin Laden and his top aides dating back to the 1980s when the Syrian-born naturalized American was living in Pakistan.
For example, in 1989, bin Laden asked Arnaout to care for one of his wives at his home in Pakistan until he could pick her up, according the government.
Arnaout was an "administrator" for bin Laden, distributing funds on his behalf, according to a confidential witness now cooperating with the government.
The complaint also alleges that the foundation sponsored the visa and paid for the housing in Bosnia for Mamdouh Salim, a key bin Laden associate, who allegedly approved the purchase of uranium for making a nuclear weapon.
And the al-Qaida operative ordered to carry out the purchase of the uranium, Mohamed Bayazid, used the foundation's address in Illinois to obtain a driver's license, according to the complaint.
Salim was arrested in Germany in 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 addition, the foundation allegedly aided the Chechen mujahideen, providing money, supplies, steel-sole boots and an X-Ray machine.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ian H. Levin ordered Arnaout held until a detention hearing next Tuesday.
The foundation's attorney, Matthew Piers, called the government's criminal complaint "bizarre." Arnaout and the foundation have not been charged with terrorism. They have been charged with perjury stemming from a civil lawsuit initiated by the foundation.
"The government, having gone through this charity with a fine tooth comb hasn't charged him with terrorism, but has charged him with perjury. I think this is compensation for the fact that the war on terrorism is failing," said Piers, comparing the arrest to the more than 1,400 people who have been detained but not charged with terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks..
"What is of deep concern is the 'super charge' manner in which the government presented this," Piers said. "If they had been looking so carefully, why such a minor charge?"
The Treasury Department froze the charity's assets last December 14 in a nationwide crack down on nonprofit groups suspected of funneling money to overseas terrorist organizations.
In response, Benevolence International filed a lawsuit against Attorney General John Ashcroft in federal court seeking its assets back.
In recent court filings, Arnaout declared in a sworn statement: "BIF has never provided aid or support to people or organizations known to be engaged in violence, terrorist activities, or military operations of any nature. BIF abhors terrorism and all forms of violence against human beings."
Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said documents seized by investigators and former al-Qaida members tell a different story.
"The complaint alleges that the Benevolence International Foundation was supporting violence secretly," Fitzgerald said.
On March 19, federal investigators searched the foundation's offices in Bosnia-Herzegovina. They recovered three firearms, a ski mask, numerous military manuals on small arms and explosives, a fraudulent passport and foundation correspondence.
In addition, investigators say they found classified documents from several governments about Islamic extremism; photos of bin Laden in Afghanistan and photos of Arnaout carrying rifles, a shoulder-fired rocket and an anti-aircraft gun.
There were documents that showed direct communication between Arnaout and bin Laden in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to the criminal complaint.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the charges against Arnaout should serve notice that the government intends to "use every tool to go after terrorist networks in the United States."
Signaling that the government's fight against terrorism is expanding, Ashcroft also announced Tuesday that a federal grand jury indicted a Colombian rebel group and six of its members on charges of murdering three Americans.
Known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, its Spanish acronym, the rebel group has waged a terrorism campaign against that country's government for the last four decades.
The indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court in Washington, accused the rebel group and the six individuals of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, using a firearm during a crime of violence and aiding and abetting the murder conspiracy.
The six were identified by the Justice Department as German Briceno Suarez, Gustavo Bocota Aguablanca, Nelson Vargas Rueda, a man called El Marrano, also known as Fernando and two men known by single names -- Jeronimo and Dumar.
The charges stem from the 1999 slayings of three Americans who were kidnapped in northeastern Colombia while they were providing aid.
According to the indictment, the six FARC men abducted Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok, and Lahee'Enae Gay on Feb. 25, 1999, accusing them of working as military advisers -- a charge the U.S. government has denied.
After being held a week, the Americans were tied up with nylon cords, blindfolded with cloth and then shot. Their bodies were dumped in a pasture in neighboring Venezuela.
"These three workers went to Colombia to do good but instead met with great evil," Ashcroft said.

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