Chuck. IMO here are the kind of people that want to destroy our lifestyle. These people should not even be in the USA or any other free country. However democracy grants these IMO scum certain rights which they use in any way they can to destroy the lifestyle we enjoy.
Hub Islamic leader’s radical links run deep
By Jonathan Wells and Kevin Wisniewski/SPECIAL REPORT
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
news.bostonherald.com
The leader of the Islamic group preparing to build a major new mosque in Boston has deeper involvement with organizations and individuals suspected of funding terrorism than previously disclosed, the Herald has learned.
Records obtained by the newspaper reveal the chairman of the local Islamic Society of Boston, Osama M. Kandil, is one of three directors of Taibah International Aid Association, a Muslim charity long suspected by investigators in the United States and Europe of funding international terrorism.
In addition, records show that over the past 15 years Kandil has surrounded himself with an array of individuals investigators say are working within the United States to support militant Islam's worldwide agenda.
Kandil's ties to suspect organizations and individuals raise new questions about the city of Boston's decision to grant the Islamic Society of Boston approvals to build a $22 million mosque and cultural center in Roxbury which would be the largest of its kind in the Northeast.
So far, Mayor Thomas M. Menino has shrugged off the connections some of the leaders of the mosque have to Islamic extremism.
The Herald reported in October that Kandil and one of his former companies had been identified by the federal government as being part of the ``Safa Group,'' a complex network of U.S.-based corporations, charities and individuals currently under investigation for backing Islamic terrorist groups.
Both Kandil and the Islamic Society of Boston claimed the naming of Kandil in a government affidavit as a member of the Safa Group was a mistake and that he was only included because he happened to rent a home in Herndon, Va., owned by a key member of the Safa Group. The government coined the name Safa Group because several individuals who have been under investigation live on Safa Court and Safa Road in Herndon.
``I was never part of that group,'' Kandil said. ``I was never involved in their activities.''
The Islamic Society of Boston echoed that claim: ``There is absolutely no other connection between Dr. Kandil and any other organization that supports terrorism.''
Charity linked to terror
However, findings by the Herald in the past two months are starkly at odds with those claims. The most striking fact is Kandil's leadership position with Taibah International Aid Association, which has been the subject of terrorism investigations dating back to 1997.
In 2002, Taibah was identified by investigators in Bosnia as ``under the direction of'' the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the oldest Islamic terrorist groups in the world.
Both U.S. and Bosnian officials determined Taibah worked hand-in-hand in Bosnia with another Islamic charity, Global Relief Foundation in Bridgeview, Ill., which the United States named as a ``Specially Designated Global Terrorist'' in October 2002.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Global Relief's Arabic newsletter regularly sought donations for armed Islamic jihad, including one solicitation for money ``for equipping the raiders, for the purchase of ammunition and food, and for their (the Mujahideen's) transportation so that they can raise God the Almighty's word.''
The relationship between Taibah and Global Relief was so close, Taibah stepped in to represent Global Relief's interests in Bosnia after the government there shut down Global Relief for supporting terrorists, FBI records show.
In 2001, one month after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, Taibah's Bosnia office was raided in connection with a terrorist plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy there. It turned out at least one of the six men arrested in the scheme worked for Taibah.
At present, Taibah is targeted in two related federal cases as involved in financing terrorist groups. In one, Taibah is named as a member of the Safa Group of companies and charities, which the government says has financed terrorist groups including Hamas and al-Qaeda.
In the other, investigators found Taibah served as an agent for another non-profit group, the Success Foundation in Falls Church, Va, which the government alleges has funneled money to the terrorist group Hamas.
In 1997, Taibah's dealings with the Saudi charity International Relief Organization were scrutinized as part of a federal terrorism, money laundering and fraud probe in Illinois and Virginia, according to testimony before Congress by Matthew Epstein of the Investigative Project. Both charities operated out of the same address at 360 South Washington St. in Falls Church, Va.
Records show the International Relief Organization, which is the U.S.-based arm of the International Islamic Relief Organization, or IIRO, transferred thousands of dollars to another charity called Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which the U.S. government shut down in December 2001 for aiding terrorists.
According to terrorism investigator Rita Katz, director of the Site Institute, the evidence is clear that Taibah is not a typical charity.
``Although it purports to be a humanitarian organization, the Taibah International Aid Association is tied to al-Qaeda front groups,'' Katz said.
Back to Egypt
Kandil could not be reached for comment this week and a spokesman for the Islamic Society of Boston declined comment. According to his former neighbors in Herndon, Va., Kandil moved back to Egypt in 2002 after federal agents raided the Safa Group's offices in March of that year. When the Herald interviewed Kandil in October, he spoke by telephone from a hotel in Germany.
Until he left the country, Kandil lived in a $720,000 single-family home on Millwood Pond Drive in Herndon, one-half mile from the cluster of homes owned by members of the Safa Group, which government agents also raided in March 2002 as part of their terrorism financing probe.
Kandil's involvement in Taibah, revealed in records on file with the Virginia Secretary of State, was first discovered by the National Security News Service, a nonprofit news organization in Washington, D.C. Those records indicate the charity was incorported in November 1991 by four wealthy Saudis.
One of them was Abdullah bin Laden, a nephew of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who has been investigated by the FBI for his role as head of the World Association of Muslim Youth. Before Abdullah bin Laden abandoned WAMY's offices in Virginia soon after Sept. 11, the group had been investigated by the FBI for suspected support of terrorist groups.
Another founding director of Taibah was Saudi lawyer Basim A. Alim. Alim graduated from Harvard Law School in 1993 and at one point listed as his address the same Cambridge apartment as one of the current directors of the Islamic Society of Boston, Walid Fitaihi.
Alim, who now practices law in Saudi Arabia, has been retained to coordinate the defense of the major Saudi charities named in the Sept. 11 victims' civil suit.
Taibah filed articles of amendment in 1999 which named Kandil as one of its four directors. In its last two annual reports, the charity lists Kandil as one of three directors.
On the current three-man board of directors with Kandil is Abdurahman M. Alamoudi, a well-known Muslim activist in the United States who, records show, founded the Islamic Society of Boston in 1982.
Alamoudi's career took an unexpected turn this fall when he was arrested and indicted by the U.S. government for ferrying large sums of cash out of Libya, a designated terrorist nation.
In court papers, federal agents portray Alamoudi as a significant financier of international Islamic terrorism who used several related non-profit corporations, including Taibah, to aid the cause of armed Jihad.
Before his arrest, Alamoudi drew attention for his public statements in support of the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, but also enjoyed access to high levels of the U.S. government where he was received as an influential spokesman for American Muslims.
The close working relationship between Kandil and Alamoudi, evidenced by their roles with Taibah, calls into question Kandil's recent effort to distance both himself and the Islamic Society of Boston from Alamoudi.
In an interview with the Herald in October, Kandil chided the newspaper for mentioning Alamoudi's role as the founder of the Islamic Society of Boston and publishing Alamoudi's controversial statements, which included one in which he said he approved of the 1994 terrorist bombing of a Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 people and injured more than 200.
``It is inappropriate to talk about people who spent a year or two in Boston and then made statements 15 years later,'' said Kandil, who did not mention his ongoing dealings with Alamoudi at Taibah.
Other associates
One of Taibah's former directors is Samir I. Salah, the founder and president of the Dar al-Hijra, a mosque in Falls Church, Va, which has been both a platform for radical Islamic rhetoric and a magnet for militants.
Two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Nawaf Alhazmi and Hani Hanjour, attended Dar al-Hijra in March 2001 prior to commandeering United Flight 77 and crashing it into the Pentagon.
The Egyptian-born Salah, who served in 1999 and 2000 with Kandil on Taibah's board, also helped set up and manage the Bahamas branch of the Muslim Brotherhood's al-Taqwa Group, a network of banks and shell corporations which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
The Herald reported in October that Kandil was a founding director of a controversial Islamic group in the United States called the Muslim Arab Youth Association. Kandil claimed MAYA was a moderate group, but for many years the organization's conferences served as a platform and gathering place for militant Islamists.
Another Kandil business partner, Nabil Sadoun, was also a founding director of MAYA. Sadoun and Kandil were directors of American Products International, Inc., a now defunct for-profit company named by federal investigators as part of the Safa Group.
Sadoun was also a founder and director of United Association for Studies and Research in Springfield, Va, which was identified as ``the political command of Hamas in the United States'' by one of the terrorist group's operatives.
In Florida, Kandil and Sadoun were involved in the Islamic Center of Northwest Florida, Inc., which operated a mosque in Panama City, records show.
A central figure at that mosque was an Egyptian-born doctor and Islamic lecturer named Ahmed Elkadi, who also had other business interests with Kandil.
According to Katz, the terrorism investigator, Elkadi came to the United States in the early 1980s with the purpose of establishing an American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Elkadi was also tied to the Muslim Brotherhood by Soliman Biheiri, a financier convicted last year of violating U.S. immigration laws.
When the Herald spoke with Kandil in October, he denied associating with Muslim extremists or any involvement with organizations which support terrorist activities.
But when the Herald asked him for his views on suicide bombings, he declined comment.
``I'd rather not discuss this issue,'' Kandil said. ``I'd rather focus on the ISB (mosque) project. I'm the chairman of the board of trustees and the board has never discussed this subject. I don't want to talk about my personal opinion because I don't want it to be confused with the board's opinion.'' |
