Harvard Won't Donate bin Laden Money to Victims

Last week, the City Council of Cambridge, Mass. -- home to Harvard -- passed a resolution 8 to 1 calling upon the university do the right thing and give the money to those who need it most.

But the very liberal university has quickly rejected the resolution.

A source close to the Camrbidge City Council told NewsMax the university feverishly lobbied behind the scenes and tried to have the resolution killed.

The council passed it anyway.

Harvard officials told the council they had no plans to return the bin Laden money. Instead, they had pledged to help create a fund, backed by several educational institutions, to provide a free college education to victims' spouses and children "at a school of their choice."

Harvard has also denied it received $5 million.

"We have gotten a total of $2 million from something called the Saudi bin Laden Group," Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn told NewsMax. That group, he explained, is "the family business, if you will, that the brothers except [the terrorist] Osama bin Laden control."

He referred to an extensive story on the family business last month, dealing with "the construction business, paving business," and other legitimate businesses.

Harvard was listed as one of the recipients of the family's largesse, along with other schools and institutions around the country. That apparently helped prompt the Cambridge City Council action.

The first of two $1 million gifts to Harvard from the family, acknowledged by Harvard, was to "generate funds for visiting professors, researchers, research projects in the field of Islamic architecture."

The second $1 million went to other research projects, this time "in Islamic law."

Wrinn says every time a story on Osama comes up, these grants also "come up."

"Every time [this happens]," he added, "we once again check out the group, make sure there [are] no terrorism ties whatsoever to them, either generally or specifically, and we move on."

Some of the council members had accused Harvard of taking terrorist money or supporting terrorism.

When the bin Laden family patriarch, Mohammed bin Laden, died in 1968, his estate was parceled out to "the family of 54 children," and that "is [Harvard's] only connection" to Osama bin Laden.

Wrinn reiterated that the Saudi bin Laden group's money "is totally separate from what Osama bin Laden did with his money."

While many press reports have noted that Osama is the "black sheep" of his family, other reports suggest he may secretly be backed by some members of the bin Laden family and other wealthy Saudis. And despite Osama's long association with terrorism, Saudi Arabia only revoked his passport after the Sept. 11 attacks.

On Saturday, a formal announcement was made that former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and ex-President Bill Clinton would head a drive to raise $100 million to provide educational opportunities for the victims’ families. Harvard's pledge was $1 million to help jump-start the effort.