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Saudi Arabia must do a better job at ferreting out major individual donors who continue to fund terrorism abroad, including in Iraq, a top U.S. Treasury official said on Tuesday. Stuart Levey, the Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Saudi Arabia had made significant strides in counterterrorism efforts in recent years and that the kingdom was "doing an excellent job" fighting operatives of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network at home. But he told a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee that concerns remained, including the existence of so-called "deep-pocket donors" and the abuse of charities to fund...

The local San Diego FOX-6 Channel has just broken the story tonight that the San Diego Chapter of "Kind Hearts" Charity has also had it's finances frozen for having links to terrorist organizations. Two of the 9/11 hijackers were living and taking flying lessons here in San Diego.

CHICAGO (AP) An appeals court Wednesday upheld the dismissal of an Islamic charity's civil suit accusing six news organizations and eight journalists of defaming the charity by reporting that it was under investigation for possible terrorist ties. The 33-page opinion by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals brushed aside claims by Global Relief Foundation based in suburban Bridgeview that there were serious doubts about whether the government could prove that it had ever supported terrorism. The news organizations, including The Associated Press, never wrote that the group had ties to terrorism but only that it was under investigation for...

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was back in court seeking information about the New York Times' anonymous sources on Monday, this time appealing his setback in a lower court. Fitzgerald is best known for being the special prosecutor whose investigation led to the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Former Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail in that case last year for resisting Fitzgerald's request to reveal her sources, and the two have been pitted against each other once again in a free-speech battle over journalists' rights to keep their sources secret from...

Albania Seizes Assets Of Bin Laden Associate TIRANA (AP)--The Albanian government has seized the assets and bank accounts of a man who allegedly worked with Osama bin Laden and others to provide support to terror networks in Albania, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. Abdul Latif Saleh, who holds Jordanian and Albanian citizenship, was placed on a U.N. sanctions list in September, requiring all U.N. members to impose a travel ban on him and block his assets. Albania earlier had blocked 33 bank accounts in three commercial banks as well as assets and investments in Saleh's businesses and civic organizations he...

<p>A task force of federal agents has ratcheted up a two-year-old antiterrorism investigation aimed at several Virginia-based Islamic charities suspected of diverting millions of dollars to terror network al Qaeda and other militant radicals.</p> <p>Led by agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI, the task-force probe has targeted a number of people tied to several private companies and interrelated Islamic charities operating out of business fronts in Herndon and Falls Church.</p>

PALOS HILLS, Ill. (AP) A local bank has closed a mosque's account after it donated money to an Islamic charity under federal investigation for allegedly helping terrorists. Family Bank and Trust Co. closed the account of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview after the mosque wrote two checks to the Islamic American Relief Agency, according to the mosque's imam, Sheikh Jamal Said. Mosque Foundation president Oussama Jamal said the mosque made its donations in August and September, before the federal government froze the charity's assets and raided its Missouri offices in October. The Treasury Department alleged Islamic American Relief was part...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A leading fund-raiser for an Islamic charity with alleged links to the Palestinian militant group Hamas was ordered deported Tuesday. An immigration judge ruled that Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, 44, should have known that his work for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development provided support for the group. "Our laws prohibit aliens who are living here as our guests to use this country as a base to advocate terrorism or raise money for terrorist causes," said John Salter, Los Angeles chief counsel for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The judge did not name a country...

AP Exclusive: Former NBA Star's Mosque Donated Money to Alleged Terror Fronts, Records ShowBy Matt Kelley Associated Press Writer Published: Feb 9, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - A mosque established and funded by basketball star Hakeem Olajuwon gave more than $80,000 to charities the government later determined to be fronts for the terror groups al-Qaida and Hamas, according to financial records obtained by The Associated Press. Olajuwon told the AP he had not known of any links to terrorism when the donations were made, prior to the government's crackdown on the groups, and would not have given the money if he...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- A powerful Saudi charity under scrutiny for alleged terrorist financing is expanding operations in tsunami-ravaged areas of Indonesia, importing a hard-line religious message that the West fears could spread extremist Islam in the world's most populous Muslim nation. The presence of the International Islamic Relief Organization could complicate relief efforts in Indonesia, which is desperate for help but also under pressure to contain Islamic militants. Attacks have included nightclub bombings in 2002 that killed 202 people. It also offers a high-profile test of Saudi promises to closely monitor its major aid societies. Many have faced probes...

The parents of an American teenager killed by gunmen in the West Bank won $156 million from three Islamic groups and an alleged Hamas fund-raiser, one of the first jury awards against U.S.-based institutions accused of supporting terrorism. A federal court jury set $52 million in damages Wednesday in the suit brought by the parents of 17-year-old David Boim, who was shot near the Israeli settlement of Beit El. U.S. Magistrate Arlander Keys tripled the amount in accord with U.S. anti-terrorism law. The case was the first in which jurors awarded damages from U.S.-based charities accused of bankrolling Hamas, according...

CROMWELL, Conn. -- A Connecticut nuclear engineer is under investigation in a federal terrorism probe, but denies allegations he offered support to a militant Islamic Web site and said he's being targeted because he is Muslim. Syed R. Maswood, 41, confirmed that he is the unnamed Connecticut resident mentioned last week in a federal affidavit charging a British national with supporting terrorism. Federal agents raided Maswood's home March 17, seizing computer equipment and financial records, he said. Investigators discovered his e-mail address among files used to maintain a Web site that funneled money and equipment to terrorists, according to the...

Investigators Look Into Finances Of Local Muslim Cleric Damra Faces Charges Of Tax Evasion, Money Laundering, Mail Fraud UPDATED: 7:12 AM EDT May 13, 2004 CLEVELAND -- A local Muslim cleric accused of hiding terrorist ties now has federal investigators looking into his finances. Federal prosecutors are checking the financial records of Fawaz Mohammed Damra, 41. It could lead to charges of tax evasion, money laundering, and mail and wire fraud, NewsChannel5 reported. Damra, the leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, is also accused of concealing terrorist ties on his U.S. citizenship application. Prosecutors revealed the financial investigation while...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The chief of a Saudi charity that has been accused of terror links has been fired, Saudi officials said. The officials said that Akeel al-Akeel of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation was sacked and replaced by his deputy, Dabbas al-Dabbasy. The officials, speaking Wednesday on condition of anonymity, said Minister of Islamic Affairs Saleh al-Sheik issued the decision to dismiss al-Akeel, but they did not say when he was sacked or why. In 2002, the U.S. government said it had evidence that some money from the organization's offices in Bosnia and Somalia had been diverted to support...

Action News has confirmed that the U.S. Justice Department has raided a Syracuse-area charity called "Help The Needy." 3 men have been arrested in Syracuse; 4 in all are indicted on charges of illegally transfering money to Iraq. That is illegal under sanctions placed on Iraq after the Gulf War. The IRS, INS, FBI and Customs Department have all been involved in this investigation for more than one year.

<p>A financial-crimes task force that has targeted terrorists' efforts to raise illicit cash expanded operations yesterday to more than a dozen U.S. cities and outposts in Europe and the Middle East in what was described as a major crackdown on international terrorism.</p>

<p>The Clinton administration shut down a 1995 investigation of Islamic charities, concerned that a public probe would expose Saudi Arabia's suspected ties to a global money-laundering operation that raised millions for anti-Israel terrorists, federal officials told The Washington Times.</p> <p>Law enforcement authorities and others close to the aborted investigation said the State Department pressed federal officials to pull agents off the previously undisclosed probe after the charities were targeted in the diversion of cash to groups that fund terrorism.</p>

<p>TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A deported Palestinian professor who had been jailed on secret evidence that prosecutors said linked him to terrorism landed in Beirut, Lebanon, on Saturday, supporters said.</p> <p>Mazen Al-Najjar was granted a six-month visa, and arrangements have been made for him to move permanently from Lebanon to another country, his brother-in-law, Sami Al-Arian, said at a news conference.</p>

Last modified: 03:26 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 31, 2002 Sheik key figure in government case against Holy Land FBI memo says local charity paid for his trips here, but U.S. did too 07/31/2002 By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON – Sheik Jamil Hamami figures prominently in the government's case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the Dallas-area Muslim charity raided and shut down last year after being designated a financial front for the Hamas terrorist organization. Holy Land paid for the sheik, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank, to travel to...

CHICAGO (April 5, 2002 2:36 p.m. EST) - A federal judge refused Friday to prohibit secret evidence presented by the government in a lawsuit brought by an Islamic charity suspected of ties to terrorism. The government froze assets of the Global Relief Foundation on Dec. 14 and confiscated many of its records. More recently, the government has said the organization, based in suburban Bridgeview, has had communications with a former aide to Osama bin Laden. Global Relief wants U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen to force federal officials to lift the freeze tying up its money and give back its financial...