Tariq Ramadan, the so-called "moderate" Islamic "intellectual", was briefly detained and charged for "insulting a public agent" on Sunday at Paris Roissy Charles de Gaulle International Airport, while in transit to London.
From informed police sources, we have learned that when Ramadan tried to enter a prohibited area, a young policewoman stopped him. He began shouting at her and was then taken into police custody; the officer filed a complaint against him.
While in custody, he admitted the offense and was ordered to appear before a criminal court of Bobigny on April 6. Tariq Ramadan faces up to 6 months of imprisonment and 7,500 Euros of penalty.
By Jean-Charles Brisard of the Terror Finance Blog
Sunday's suicide bombing in an Internet Cafe of Casablanca reflects the growing pressure of the Islamist and terrorist networks in Morocco. The ongoing investigation revealed that suicide bombers were planning larger scale attacks, confirming that the country could be the next target of a North African terrorist network under consolidation following the GSPC offensive in Algeria, causing 50 deaths since the beginning of the year and after violence involving GSPC members erupted in Tunisia in December and January.
The suicide bombing in Casablanca came three years after the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004. It was also in a Cyber cafe where Moroccan authorities arrested last week in Casablanca a key leader of the GICM (Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group), Saad Houssaini, a veteran of Afghanistan and co-founder of the GICM, wanted since the Casablanca bombings of May 2003. Saad Houssaini was also connected to at least one of the Madrid bombers. According to Spanish Court records, in 1996, Hussaini formed in Valencia a radical Islamic group to plan terrorist attacks in Spain and Morocco along with three other activists, including Allekema Lamari. Lamari's remains were positively identified in the Leganes apartment were several 11M bombers blew themselves up after the attacks. DNA traces of Lamari were later recovered in a car used by the bombers to transport bombing devices on the morning of March 11, 2004. Saad Houssaini is also believed to be related to the 9/11 plot. According to the German authorities, he travelled from Istanbul to Karachi (under the name of Abdellah Hosayni) with Said Bahaji, an alleged member of the Hamburg cell, on September 3, 2001.
The arrest of Houssaini, who appeared as the rising figure among the jihadi groups in Morocco following the Casablanca bombings and the killing of Karim Al Mejjati, alleged mastermind of the Madrid bombings, in Saudi Arabia in April 2005, could have triggered the Sunday's bombing in Casablanca.
The bombing is a new indication of the growing threat posed by Al Qaeda affiliates in the region in an effort to reinforce and coordinate their actions under the umbrella organization of "Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb".
The fight against these networks has been active in Algeria and especially Morocco, where at least two separate terrorist networks have been dismantled over the last 6 months. Efforts have also intensified in Europe, where these networks have many supporters and where they are determined to export their violence. But if the European Intelligence and law-enforcement agencies have proven in the past their strong ability and efficiency in identifying terrorist threats and neutralizing terrorist networks, the European legal framework has failed to provide such efficient and preventive actions against the support networks of these groups.
The best example was provided last October, when a combined action of several European countries, including Italy and Switzerland, led to the arrest of several GSPC financial facilitators. The investigation uncovered that the cell has been able to transfer 1.3 million Euros via banks, 320,000 Euros in money transfers and thousands more via cash couriers to Algeria. Most of the cell members, including its leader Djamel Lounici, have already been identified in connection to terrorist networks as early as 1994. Some of them had already been indicted and condemned before being released in recent years. In one of these early warnings, a telephone intercept conducted in 1994 by the Italian authorities, cell members referred to Europe as a "paradise" where "there is no control whatsoever". A key member of the cell claimed that the European governments "pretend to be vigilant, but in the end they do nothing. They only try to impress people".
By Jean-Charles Brisard of the Terror Finance Blog
The World Bank released on March 7 its report on the Palestinian Authority. While critical of the PA's lack of transparency and inability and/or unwillingness to account for the hundreds of millions it received from donors, including $100 million in tax revenues given by Israel directly to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the Bank also urges donors to renew funding the Hamas led government.
Last we checked, Hamas is still designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. Why then the call from the WB, headquartered in Washington DC, a stone's throw from the White House, Treasury and the State Department to fund terrorists?
It's worth noting that the report was completed in February, but was released shortly after Salam Fayyad, the former Finance Minister agreed to resume his task under the Hamas ruled government. Fayyad is a former World Bank employee, who served as the International Monetary Fund representative to the PA from 1995-2001.
It seems that Fayyad's failure to get the PA's finances under control during Arafat and Abbas-led Fatah governments, now qualifies him to do the same under Hamas.
What will it take for the Western donor countries to stop funding this festering terrorist entity? It is the billions of dollars in World Bank, EU, and UN aid since 1993 that facilitated the Palestinians terrorist death culture to flourish. Yet, the WB thinks Hamas could use some extra funds to expand its terrorist agenda.
The U.S., which designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, is the major shareholder in the Bank, with more than 16 percent of the votes. Why was this latest recommendation allowed?
By Rachel Ehrenfeld of the Terror Finance Blog
The Saudi Interior Ministry announced on February 3, 2007 the arrest of 10 suspects "carrying out illegal activities including collecting donations illegally ... and sending them to suspected parties".
The announcement raises questions as to its real objective, as most of the suspects were know for years by the Saudi government as political dissidents. Some were previously detained.
Sulaiman Al Rushudi, a lawyer, was one of the cofounders of the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights (CDLR) in London in May 1993 closely linked to Osama Bin Laden. He was arrested in September 1994 along with several clerics and was detained for several years. Another CDLR founder, Saad Al-Faqih, has been listed as SDGT in 2004. Also arrested is Essam Al Basrawi, a lawyer who defended reformists during Saudi trials in 2004. Another suspect is a former cleric and attorney, Musa Al Qarni, who had publicly supported Jihad and was a personal friend of Osama Bin Laden during the Afghan war.
Were these arrests really related to "terrorism financing"? And if so, why did the Saudi government act only today when these individuals have been under surveillance for years?
By Jean-Charles Brisard of the Terror Finance Blog
Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama Bin Laden's brother in law and Al Qaeda financial facilitator, has been reportedly shot dead on January 31 in Madagascar.
The news comes only days after the Philippine press published on January 22 the last interview of Abu Sayyaf leader’s Khaddafy Janjalani, who was recently killed by the Philippine police and whose brother, the Abu Sayyaf's founder, was recruited by Khalifa according to the Philippine National Police.
In the interview Janjalani stated that "Jamal Khalifa was a philanthropist who helped Moro and other mujahideen in this world. Our friendship with them is dictated by necessity, convenience and the need to help one another. They needed at that time volunteers for Afghanistan, while we needed money to buy arms, ammunition and other necessities." He added that "we reciprocated their assistance by providing them volunteers." Janjalani reported that Khalifa and Ramzi Yousef, the first WTC bomber also involved in the 1994 Bojinka plot to hijack airplaines over the Pacific, provided Abu Sayyaf with $122,000. CNN reported two days before his killing that Khalifa had denied the charges.
Mohammed Jamal Khalifa served as a front for Osama Bin Laden in establishing numerous organizations, corporations and charitable institutions in the Philippines in the 90s. He hosted and provided funding to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 planner, and many other known terrorists through the IIRO office in the Philippines, designated by the US Treasury Department on August 8, 2006.
Mohammad Jamal Khalifa was indicted in Jordan for being involved in the bombing of a movie theatre. He was sentenced to death in absentia, on the basis of charges that he had conspired to commit terrorist acts as part of an organization established, among other things, "to fight Jews and Americans," according to court records. Mohammed Jamal Khalifa was deported to Jordan after his arrest in 1994 and retried there on terrorism charges. He was acquitted and returned to Saudi Arabia.
Although labelled a "senior Al Qaeda member" by the US Government, Khalifa was still freely running businesses in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
By JC Brisard of the Terror Finance Blog
