Free Republic

Even as war rages in Iraq, federal agents have begun to unlock the secrets of an unlicensed, unregistered Islamic charity in upstate New York that allegedly pumped millions of dollars into Baghdad. Flouting U.S. economic sanctions, the group shipped cash out of Syracuse, laundered it in banks in Jordan and then illegally funneled it into Iraq, according to an unsealed federal indictment. Operating under the name Help the Needy, the organization described itself as a tax-exempt nonprofit that provided food and humanitarian assistance to the "starving children and suffering Muslims of Iraq." But it lacked charitable status, misrepresented itself in...

The Saudi man arrested by the Joint Terrorism Task Force yesterday in Idaho has ties to close associates of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and to four Arab men charged at the same time with channeling funds to Iraq. Sami Omar Al-Hussayen – a University of Idaho doctoral candidate supported by the Saudi government – was a terrorist bagman, according to a federal criminal justice source quoted by a Seattle newspaper. Saudi student Sami Omar al-Hussayen "He's in touch with people who could pick up the phone, call [bin Laden], and he would take the call," the source told the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An upstate New York doctor was found guilty on Thursday of illegally sending millions of dollars to Iraq, in violation of U.S. sanctions, authorities said. Rafil Dhafir was convicted of 59 out of 60 charges ranging from conspiracy to money laundering to Medicare fraud after a 15-week federal trial in Syracuse, N.Y., prosecutors said. Dhafir, an oncologist, used an unregistered charity named "Help the Needy" to solicit some $4 million in contributions in the United States and then launder much of it to Iraq through bank accounts in Jordan, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said he began sending...