FBI links charity to al-Qaida
( 2002-05-01 09:27 ) (7 )

An Islamic charity and its director were charged with perjury Tuesday and accused by the FBI of supporting terrorists who tried to obtain nuclear weapons for Osama bin Laden and plotted to assassinate the pope.

Federal agents said the Benevolence International Foundation had links to bin Laden going back decades and moved sizable amounts of cash for his al-Qaida terrorist network during the 1990s.

As recently as 2000, the FBI said, the foundation forwarded $685,000 to Islamic guerillas trained by bin Laden's group to fight Russians in Chechnya.

The FBI also said that members of al-Qaida have held positions within the charity, and that a man who tried to obtain uranium for bin Laden even listed the charity's Illinois address as his home.

"This complaint alleges Benevolence International Foundation was supporting violence secretly," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said.

Enaam M. Arnaout, the head of the charity based in suburban Palos Hills, was arrested at his home Tuesday and described by authorities as a trusted acquaintance of bin Laden. The 39-year-old Syrian-born naturalized American was ordered held for a hearing May 7.

"I am confident that Mr. Arnaout is not engaged in terrorist activities, nor has he supported such activities knowingly or directly," said his attorney, Stephen Levy. He suggested his client would be "more than helpful" if federal officials grant Arnaout immunity from prosecution.

An attorney for the charity, Matthew Piers, did not return a call.

The foundation is one of two Chicago-area Islamic charities whose assets were frozen Dec. 14 on suspicion of supporting terrorism. Federal agents also raided their offices that day. The co-founder of Global Relief Foundation, the other organization, is being held on an immigration charge.

Both groups have sued the government, denying they have anything to do with terrorism and asking that their assets be released. Arnaout and Benevolence International were charged Tuesday with lying under oath in that case when they said the foundation doesn't fund terrorism or military activity.

Federal investigators have been watching Benevolence International for years. A FBI affidavit said a search of the group's trash in 1999 turned up a clipping from a Seattle newspaper focusing on the danger of a smallpox epidemic.

Brochures for Benevolence International describe it as a humanitarian organization "dedicated to helping those afflicted by wars and natural disasters" in Afghanistan and other countries. IRS reports show that it received $3.3 million in contributions for the year ending April 2000.

The FBI affidavit said the charity was founded in the 1980s by Saudi sheik Adil Abdul Galil Batargy, a bin Laden associate, and that control of the group was later given to Arnaout.

According to the affidavit, Benevolence International had links to people involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a plot to bomb U.S. airlines and a plan to assassinate Pope John Paul II during his 1995 visit to the Philippines.

The affidavit does not accuse Arnaout or the charity of involvement in the alleged plots. But it says they lied about their ties to terrorists who were involved.

Several unidentified witnesses told authorities that al-Qaida members have held positions within the charity and that the group was used by bin Laden in the 1990s to transfer money, the affidavit said.

Specifically, the FBI said two men tried to obtain nuclear weapons or weapons-grade material for bin Laden in 1994 in the Sudan.

In one case, bin Laden associate Mamdouh Salim "participated in efforts to obtain nuclear and chemical weapons for al-Qaida," the affidavit said. In the second case, Mohamed Bayazid was given approval by Salim to try to "get uranium for al-Qaida to develop a nuclear weapon."

Fitzgerald, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said there is no evidence the men succeeded.

Salim is awaiting trial in New York on charges of conspiring to kill Americans. According to the FBI, the charity sponsored his visa for a 1998 visit to Bosnia and sponsored him for housing there.

Bayazid is not in custody and his whereabouts were not immediately known. The affidavit said he obtained an Illinois driver's license that listed the charity's Palos Hills office as his home address. Illinois officials said they could find no record of the license.

The FBI said bin Laden trusted Arnaout, citing a time in 1989 when Arnaout lived in Pakistan and allowed one of bin Laden's wives to live in his apartment for a week.

During a March raid on the charity's offices in Bosnia, authorities found guns, military manuals and a fake passport as well as photos of bin Laden and of Arnaout "handling rifles, a shoulder-fired rocket and an anti-aircraft gun," the affidavit said.

In other terrorism-related developments Tuesday:

A Somali man arrested last fall in a government crackdown on money transfer businesses was convicted in Boston of operating without a state license. No terrorism charges were filed against Mohamed Hussein, though investigators say al-Qaida skimmed from the millions of dollars that annually flow overseas through money outlets like the one Hussein operated.

A federal judge in New York threw out a perjury indictment against a 21-year-old Jordanian college student who knew two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. The judge declared that the government's practice of jailing material witnesses in the Sept. 11 grand jury investigation is unconstitutional.

The government said courts approved 934 warrants last year for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies, a decline from 1,003 in 2000. Under the new Patriot Act, the government does not have to seek as many warrants since they do not expire as quickly and can be used in some cases across jurisdictions.