Accused Terror Financier Boasted Of Access to U.S. Military Briefings in Iraq

By Evan Kohlmann

A federal grand jury in Missouri has issued a formal indictment against five officials from the local offices of an Islamic charity, charging them with violating U.S. trade laws and also fraudulently diverting thousands of dollars from a U.S. government development grant into a lobbying campaign aimed at thwarting a Congressional investigation into its links to terrorism. The new indictment comes directly on the heels of another decision last month from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the right of the U.S. Treasury Department to freeze the financial assets of the same charity, the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), for allegedly helping to finance terrorism.

The individuals named in the current indictment include former IARA-USA executive director Mubarak Hamed, former board member and treasurer Ali Bagegni, vice-president for international operations Abdel Azim el-Siddiq, and IARA Middle East coordinator based in Jordan Khalid al-Sudani. A frequent visitor to Iraq, al-Sudani—whose assets have been frozen by the U.S. government since 2004—was routinely profiled in donor materials produced by IARA and its sister organization ISRA. Yet, in the months of chaos following the fall of Saddam Hussein, al-Sudani was nonetheless reportedly handed “a pass from the Americans” and even granted access to U.S. “military briefings” in Baghdad. It is not clear precisely when U.S. authorities in Iraq finally recognized al-Sudani as an alleged terrorist financier.

The now-defunct IARA—a Sudanese organization with domestic operations in Missouri, Maryland, Michigan, Texas, Florida, New York, and Oklahoma—has repeatedly denied any role in financing Al-Qaida. However, neither the charity’s directors nor lawyers have been able to explain a litany of instances in which IARA-USA and its officers have been engaged in problematic behavior. In the early 1990s, the president and vice-president of IARA were regular invited speakers at conferences organized inside the U.S. by front groups for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). In February 1999, the Turkish government reportedly blocked IARA-USA from transferring thousands of dollars in donations to another Islamic charity that was later accused by French magistrates of playing “an important role” in the attempted terrorist attack on Los Angeles International Airport by Algerian Ahmed Ressam. Meanwhile, in December 1999—the same month that Ressam was arrested crossing the U.S.-Canadian border—Jordanian authorities detained IARA-USA regional fundraising coordinator Ziyad Khaleel during a trip to Amman on charges of serving as a “procurement agent” for Al-Qaida leader Usama Bin Laden. Subsequent federal court proceedings against Bin Laden in New York revealed that while working as a fundraiser and webmaster for IARA-USA in Missouri, Khaleel had knowingly purchased a satellite telephone and accessories for Bin Laden’s personal use in Afghanistan.

In October 2004, three years after 9/11, the U.S. government eventually announced the formal designation of IARA as a banned terrorist entity for providing financial and logistical assistance to a host of terrorist groups, including Al-Qaida, Hamas, Al-Gama`at al-Islamiyya in Egypt, and Al-Ittihad al-Islamiya in Somalia.

See also:
- "Terrorist-linked Islamic Charities Responsible for Funneling More than $1 Million in Aid to Central Iraq." (January 2005)
- "Missouri Charity Donations Helped Finance Al-Qaida Millenium Terror Network." (November 2004)

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