NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, Oct. 10, 2002

Arnaout faces seven charges, including conspiracy to engage in racketeering, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, two counts of money laundering, two counts of mail fraud and a count of wire fraud.

If convicted on all counts, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Arnaout could face 90 years in prison for taking charitable contributions from Muslims around the world and funneling them to terrorist or violent organizations.

He also claimed that raids discovered conclusive evidence that Arnaout was closely tied to al-Qaeda, including the discovery of notes from a meeting in 1988 that Ashcroft claimed detailed the start of the terror group and the original version of the Bayat, or oath of allegiance sworn by each member to Osama bin Laden.

"Arnaout is accused of defrauding charitable contributors by falsely claiming that the Benevolence International Foundation used donated funds solely for humanitarian relief," Ashcroft said.

"In fact, funds were being used to support al-Qaeda and other groups engaged in armed violence overseas. In addition, in an effort to conceal donors who knowingly supported terrorism, Arnaout is charged with co-mingling charitable contributions intended for humanitarian purposes with contributions intended to support armed violence.

"The documents recovered in the Benevolence International Foundation's Bosnia offices provide, for the first time, documentary proof of the founding of al-Qaeda and the oath sworn by al-Qaeda members," he said.

Here's a P.C. Pledge of Allegiance

"The documents uncovered from the Benevolence International Foundation, headed by the man charged in the indictment today, show the American people and the world for the first time tangible proof of the founding of the world's most dangerous terrorist network and the oath of allegiance its members pledge. It is chilling that the origins of al-Qaeda were discovered in a charity claiming to do good."

Ashcroft's charges stem from a series of raids on the organization's Bosnia chapter, Bosanska Idealna Futura, that uncovered documents, computer hard drives, weapons and explosives.

Benevolence's Web site details a slew of charity programs in the former Yugoslavia that claim more than $1 million was spent on relief projects.

The indictment also alleges that Arnaout made telephone calls to Bosnia to coordinate ways of keeping some payments and expenses that could not be conducted by a charity out of plain view, including manufacturing lists of phony Bosnian orphans receiving assistance, and to obstruct the current investigation.

He is also charged with using charitable donations to assist Islamic fighters in Chechnya and with helping some donors mask the nature of their donations to militant causes through the charity group.

When allegations of a possible link to terrorist organizations became public last year, Arnaout signed an affidavit that denied he had any links to terrorist organizations.

He was later arrested on perjury charges after a series of raids on BIF offices in Sarajevo and Zenica by the FBI and Bosnian intelligence organizations. These raids discovered evidence that showed a long-term relationship with Osama bin Laden, which began during the 1980s Afghan-Soviet war, as well as other links to suspected terrorists around the world.

The perjury charges were later dropped. An official of the Justice Department told United Press International that it expects to file new obstruction of justice charges, including allegations of perjury, shortly.

Wednesday's indictments on far more serious charges are said to stem from those same raids, as well as evidence gathered from other sources. Arnaout has been in federal custody since April. As far back as January, Bosnian law enforcement and intelligence officials had alleged a link between the BIF and other Muslim "charities" operating in Bosnia and terror groups that included al-Qaeda and the Algerian-based Armed Islamic Group.

Six "charity" workers from Yemen and Algeria were arrested by Bosnian authorities in October on charges they were plotting an attack on the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo. After a Bosnian court ordered their release on a lack of evidence in January, the men were transferred to U.S. military custody and transferred as "illegal enemy combatants" to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A spokesman for Benevolence in Chicago did not respond to a request for comment.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Al-Qaeda

Homeland/Civil Defense

War on Terrorism

Editor's note:
Revealed: The Terrorists Living Among Us