Sei sulla pagina 1di 13

Terrorist Fundraising and Recruitment in Portland, Oregon

The Investigative Project (stopterror@aol.com)

I.) The 1998 East Africa Embassy Bombing Connection


II.) The Al-Haramain Foundation
III.) The Islamic Center of Portland (Masjid As-Saber)

Long before the attacks of September 11th, counterterrorism researchers and investigators
have focused on a disturbing pattern of radical Islamic fundamentalist activity in the state of
Oregon. Those suspicions were heightened in the wake of the 1998 East Africa Embassy
Bombings (attributed by the U.S. government to Usama Bin Laden and the Al-Qaida military
organization). During the 2001 trial of conspirators in that attack, a number of Portland-area
residents were implicated as associates of convicted Al-Qaida operatives. An investigation of
those U.S. citizens has uncovered a wide network of fundamentalist activists based in Portland,
with connections to at least three other states (Colorado, Michigan, and Wisconsin) and a major
national Muslim political and religious group, the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA).
Moreover, there are strong indications that these individuals are involved in significant material
support and recruitment for designated foreign terrorist organizations (FTO's).

The 1998 East Africa Embassy Bombing Connection


Wadih el-Hage, a naturalized American citizen originally from Lebanon, joined the Al-
Qaida military organization and became the personal secretary of Usama bin Laden. Under the
direction of Bin Laden and Al-Qaida, El-Hage, and, others engineered a plot to simultaneously
bomb two U.S. Embassies in East Africa on August 7, 1998. El-Hage's personal papers and
addressbook, submitted as evidence in the trials of the Embassy bombers, contain names and
addresses of El-Hage's international contacts, including many Al-Qaida activists. The
addressbook contained the following name and address:

"Khalil Zaidan
4611 Luradel Street
Suite 13 '
Portland, OR 97219"

As a result of this evidence, Zaidan was subpoenaed at Wadih El-Hage's trial, despite El-Hage's
motion to "quash any outstanding grand jury subpoenas."2 Zaidan has a history of involvement
in fundamentalist terror activity.

&$ According to phone records obtained during :the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial,
Zaidan's Portland-based company Rampart Technologies was called at least once by the
Al-KifahRefugee Center.3 Until its closure in 1994, Al-Kifah was the U.S. branch of

1 U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al. United States District Court for-the Southern District of New York. 116 F. Supp.
2d 489; 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14507. October 5, 2000, Decided. October 5, 2000, Filed.
2 U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et al. United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. 116 F. Supp.
2d 489; 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14507. October 5, 2000, Decided. October 5, 2000, Filed.
3 Phone records found amongst material taken from the Al-Kifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, NY.
Pittsburgh Tribune Investigation
A call for 'holy war1
By Betsy Kiel and Chuck Plunkett Jr.
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, August 4, 2002

In July 2000, the last edition of Assirat Al-Mustaqeem, an Arabic-language magazine


published in Pittsburgh, advocated jihad - "holy war" - against the West.

Ten months later - and four months before Sept. 11 - the Islamic Assembly of North
America (IANA) posted Web-site justifications of "martyrdom operations," such as
crashing an airplane "on a crucial enemy target."

Like all extremists, radical Islamists speak with hateful tongues.

But the militancy promoted in Assirat Al-Mustaqeem (The Straight Path) between 1991
and 2000 alarms experts consulted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. They say it echoed
the virulent anti-Americanism of Osama bin Laden's videotaped rants - years before he
became the global face of terrorism.

The magazine's quality, its duration and its presence in an American city such as
Pittsburgh surprise them, too.

More disturbing, an eight-month Trib investigation found close connections between


Assirat and Islamist organizations such as IANA across the United States. Those groups
endorse an extreme strain of Islam - one that labels the United States an enemy, defines
American values as evil and clamors for "holy war."

Assirat and IANA maintained close operating ties for years. A number of Assirat writers
left Pittsburgh to work for IANA in Michigan -- and for an Islamic charity in Illinois that
U.S. authorities accuse of terrorist ties.

Several experts say the movement between groups suggests a loose network intent on
radicalizing Muslims here and abroad.

Some of those individuals and groups are under surveillance by U.S. authorities, sources
say. An FBI spokesman in Pittsburgh "cannot confirm or deny" a local investigation.

In addition, the magazine cast a shadow over two other Pittsburgh organizations:
Attawheed Foundation, made up mostly of Middle Eastern graduate students at local
universities, and Al Andalus School, attended by many of their children.

Attawheed members deny ties to Assirat or extremism. But Assirat's publisher and editor
were officers of Attawheed; one of its writers taught at the school. The school's Web site
Magazine writers moved on to Islamist groups
By The Tribune-Review
Sunday, August 4, 2002

YPSILANTI, Mich. - A militant religious message is spread worldwide from this city
outside Detroit by a group of Islamists with connections to Pittsburgh.

Working in the onetime office of an accountant, the Islamic Assembly of North America
promotes its views through books, magazines, Internet sites, a radio program, a prison
ministry and conferences.

Two Algerians who wrote for Assirat Al-Mustaqeem, the Arabic-language magazine
once published in Pittsburgh, are now on lANA's staff. They are among a number of
former Assirat staff and other men who have moved between Pittsburgh and other U.S.
cities, associating with organizations or individuals with known or suspected ties to
Islamist movements.

Other names connected with IANA have surfaced repeatedly over a decade with Islamist
movements in the United States and in Middle Eastern countries.

The two former Assirat writers are just the latest incarnation of a Pittsburgh-connected
relationship that began in the 1990s.

Assirat regularly published articles about IANA; lANA's officers contributed articles to
the magazine or sat on its advisory board.

The relationship did not end when Assirat folded in July 2000.

Attawheed Foundation, made up mostly of Saudi graduate students attending Pittsburgh-


area universities, retains IANA as one of two beneficiaries of its assets. Attawheed also
listed IANA as a financial reference for donors. And Al Andalus, the private school in
Pittsburgh attended by many Attawheed members' children, maintained links on its Web
site to lANA's Internet sites.

One IANA site reprinted three fatwas — Islamic legal opinions — that encouraged
"martyrdom" attacks against enemy targets just four months before Sept. 11. Among the
examples cited in one fatwa was the crashing of an airplane into an enemy target.

Spokesmen for Attawheed insist "no special relationship" exists between their foundation
and IANA.

But an IANA employee said he is familiar with Attawheed and described the two groups'
relationship as financial.

Like a 'father'
Math behind foundation's finances doesn't add up
By The Tribune-Review
Sunday, August 4, 2002

Attawheed Foundation operates primarily on $20 donated monthly by each of its 50 or so


member-families, its representatives say. But its activities point to more substantial
funding — far over the limit for nonprofits to begin filing federal tax reports.

Attawheed claims an exemption from filing Internal Revenue Service reports because it
attests to taking in less than the $25,000 annual filing threshold for nonprofit, tax-exempt
organizations. Without that exemption, its records would be public.

In 1994, however, Attawheed advertised for donations in Assirat magazine, to help raise
$500,000 to build a mosque. It repeated the solicitation on the Internet in 1995, declaring:
"We aim to collect $200,000 from Muslims."

In May 2001, the foundation paid $1 million for a building in Green Tree. No mortgage
exists in county records, suggesting the foundation paid in full.

County records list the sale price as $880,000. But a source familiar with the deal set the
price at $1 million. The sale was structured, that source says, as a "purchase with chattel,"
which allows a seller and a buyer to agree on a higher, unrecorded price for tax purposes.
Money excluded from the recorded figure is considered as buying accessories or
furnishings separate from the real estate.

Former CIA counter-terrorism specialist Peter Probst says "it defies logic that they could
purchase a million-dollar house if they only have $25,000 in (annual) assets."

Attawheed spokesman Nazeeh Alothmany confirmed the $1 million figure, saying it was
raised over 12 years through fund-raising dinners. ."People come, get a speaker —
somebody speaks, and people start donating. You get about $100,000. You get about
$120,000. You get $60,000, $70,000, when you make a formal fund-raising dinner."

The property was entangled for months in a zoning dispute, involving legal and
professional-engineering services. The cost of those services is unknown.

Even without buying the Green Tree property, Attawheed had regular expenditures. It
pays $750 monthly, or $9,000 a year, to rent a South Hills motel conference room for
weekly prayer and other meetings, according to the motel's owner.

Attawheed has continued to seek donations on its Web page to "carry out the message of
the tawheed and spread the enlightenment of Islam until Allah's will is done and his
religion supreme over all others."
One man's path from magazine to suspect charity
By The Tribune-Review
Sunday, August 4, 2002

Mohammad Mogahed appears to embody the criss-crossing connections between Islamic


organizations in Pittsburgh and across the country.

Whether innocently coincidental or evidence of intentional networking, those connections


illustrate the difficulty that federal authorities face in trying to untangle the investigative
threads.

Mogahed enrolled in graduate architectural studies at Carnegie Mellon University from


1994 to 1996. Neighbors of his old Strachan Avenue apartment, in Pittsburgh's
Banksville neighborhood, described him as religious and private - leaving each morning
at 5 a.m., then returning and remaining home for most of the day. He and another CMU
student formed a company, Digital Art Technologies, whose address was Assirat Al-
Mustaqeem's former office on Potomac Avenue in Dormont.

Mogahed also worked for Assirat, rising from managing editor to editor in chief in its
final months. Nearly a year after the magazine stopped publishing, he left Pittsburgh to
work for Global Relief Foundation. The ChicagOr-area Islamic charity advertised in the
magazine, as did two other charities, Benevolence International and Holy Land
Foundation.

FBI agents raided Global Reliefs office in December, jailing its chairman and freezing its
assets. They contend Global Relief acted as a fund-raising front for Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaida network - an allegation denied by Global Reliefs attorneys and supporters.
Benevolence International and Holy Land Foundation also are under federal
investigation.

Global Reliefs alleged terrorist ties include a connection to Wadih El-Hage, convicted in
federal court of raising money for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
Two other Assirat writers once shared a Portland, Ore., address with an alleged El-Hage
associate who was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in that case.

In another Pittsburgh link to Global Relief, the Attawheed Foundation gave $9,090 to the
charity in 2000.

Former FBI analyst Matthew Levitt says the Pittsburgh foundation's donation "does not
necessarily make them partners in those crimes, although it may. There are a lot of people
knowing full well what these organizations were about - that is why they gave money."

Yet many devout Muslims donated to Global Relief, he adds, because it was one of the
big Islamic charities in America. "If they were religious people and wanted to give
money, this is where they would give it."
Sulaiman Abdul
Aziz al-Rajhi
& Family

Abdullah
al-Obaid al-Watania
L_ Kashmiri
Infocom Council
Bank - Jordan]

Yemmvest 555 Grove St.


Muslim World SAAR/IIIT/IIFSO
League Share the address555jGroveSt

360 S. Washington St. Yaqub Mirza Marc-Jac/SAFA/


Piedmont

Sanabel
al-Kheer IIRO Taibah Al Aqsa ICP/WISE
360 S. Washington St. International Fund
HCI/Mercy

r ~~t x-" "" -N /\ re


,£l$ - SDT - runding = Officer = Ownership = Suspected Connection
HCI - Mercy - LDI
Kuwait

Switzerland

Canada Michigan
Denotes Specially
Designated Global Terrorist
Human Concern International
i, Inc. (USA)
Human Concern International (IK'I)
#000689106
. . . •,-'•: • . MI, 00 #734-583..;;•;,..;:
1988: Incorporation •:•.'.' ,.
•31967 Block St., Garden City, MI 48135
•Feb. 1980: Incorporation •908 S Harrison, East Lansing, Ml 48823
•Afghanistan Relief Fund 1 I ..>:ii:i<1' • :'', • ;;•;."'.-
•Oct. 17, 1986: Incorporation •Incorporated By—4)mar Souhbani
•877 Shefford Road, 'Boafo of Directors—Ibrahim Hasabullah/Dr.' Say
Gloucester, ON Syced, Mohammad al Ma ooti, Oinar S'
•PO Box 3984 Station C, nd Article rporation
Ottawa, ON i Hasabull
•Abu Nazir, Sulaiman, endrnent t s of Incorporation
A Khan, Ahmed Malek : 248 Ciart MI 48135 ' ::
•Dec. 28, 1988: Transact Business in MI C'llANC: cy International - 1 J.S.A., Inc.
•41197Stonehaven, oubanni
Northville,MT48167 lercy In •nl U.S.A., Inc.
•Sajid Siddique 734-583
•Attorney: Sner Akhtar ^larne: Mercy f n U i n , i U > i , . i l
•Kaleem Akhtar ity, MI 4813.-<
•Nov. 24, 1993: Special Notice M748135
•160Metcalfe#202, ON
•June 23, 1994: Notice of change
•Fmr. Name—Human lad
Concern Relief Fund Society issein,
•Apr. 19, 2001: 2000 Information Update :l-Hare!:i,
•Mumtaz Akhtar, Sajid
Siddique, Faizel Kathrada,
Ayesha Waheed, Hafizar
Rahman, Allam Siddiqi, ailh, MI 48170
Azhar Syed, Faisal Qutty, nar al-Qadi, Syed
Mohammad Rida Beshir la.Mohamrnad
•Oct. 22, 2002: 2001 Information Update Ashmawey, t. 'ani • ' ~
•Abdurrahman Salman, Azhar •acpt. 24, '1998: Certifies ncd Name
Syed May l v 2000: Certificatt
•Oct. 29, 2002: 2002 Information Update •44450 Pine 1 nth, MI 48,170
•Farooqi Baksh, Taha Qyrbi, •NAME CH/ V. for Aid and
Irshan Mousa Uevelopracnl

Mercy' -'CJ • fvelopment, Inc.


M-583
002:Comor >n Update
Mercy for International Relief Agency lite. •44:450:Pfne ,-',>. )1, Plymouth, MI48170
#1136779 •Zakia:Maha Unrni al-Qadi, Syed Salman, Faizil Baksh,
AliiElmensh
•July 26, 1995: Incorporation
•2.7 Russet Court Stoney Creek,
ONL8EC35CANADA. :
•Faizil Baksh, Muhammad
Ahmed.l/iMor^lff al-Qadi
•July 1997: Newsletter
•110 Eugenie St. W.; #138, ; Human Concern International, Inc. (CO) Key
, .Winsor, ONN8X4Y6 CANADA,
•Sept. 2002: Newsletter •Feb. 6, 1986: Incorporation Egyptian/Algerian faction
•5060 Tecumseh Road E., Box •3800 E Jewell Ave #302 Denver, CO 80210
138, Winsor, ON N8T1C1 •Majed al Refae, M A Paris, Abdurrazaq radi,
•CANADA ,'.,, - - Bashir el Kabti
•Apr. 8, 1987: Amendment to Articles Kuwaiti/Saudi faction
•Abdurrazaq Aradi, Bashir el Kabti
•May/June, 1987: Solicitation in Islamic Horizons
•P.O. BOX 22525, Denver, CO 8Q222 Kuwaiti/Saudi faction
•Nov. 9, 1988: Transact business in Michigan
•Ml CID #900-494
•5303 E Evans Ave #201, Denver, CO 80222 Kuwaiti/Saudi faction
•31967 Block St., Garden City, MI 48135
•Registered Agent—Imliaz Ahmad
•Director—Omar Soubanni
C The ChartMastcr
Masjid
As —Saber
(Islamic
Center of Portland)

/Ali KlahecT\. Steitiye )


Muslim Social
World Reform
League Society
US, UN Deputy Dir

IIRO c
Islamic GO

World 50
n
Exec Dir' Committee
(I
B
fl f Sulaiman \, Alali ) P
15' P.
Rekik's Transcom
Business card was found in
Wadih el Hage's phonebook
University
Of
Tulsa
Regional Director
Americas and
South Africa $350,000

International Cartoons and International


Transcom Publicom
^ Cartoons and Entertainment Development
Group Group Salam's Animation Ctr reorganized International Foundation
Journey
Cartoon

phonebook
ucc
BMI
Siuleimati
Al-Ali

Sana-BeU

^ Bashir Archcon
^A. Kabbara Mgmt

Global Soleiman
Chemical Biheiri
Mercy
International

Bosnian
Mohamad Relief
Mabrook
Muslim
Financial
Group

Jamal
Nyrabeah

Quranic
Literacy
Institute
Associative
Design
Technology

Potrebbero piacerti anche