Sunday, December 16, 2001


Under the pretext of "fighting terror", the United States has been raiding and freezing the assets of Islamic charities.

Using the so-called Patriot Act, the US has targeted arguably the three largest Islamic charities based in the United States - Holy Land Foundation, Global Relief Foundation and Benevolence International.

Whilst the government maintains that it is not fighting Islam, it targets these charities at the end of the holy month of Ramadan - a time when Muslims traditionally donate generously to Islamic causes. All the money donated by Muslims to these organisations throughout the course of Ramadhan is now frozen, and under the control of the United States government.

No evidence has ever been provided to demonstrate how these charities are linked to terrorism. In some cases, it seems merely to be the result of a slur campaign run against them by various lobby groups. In other cases, their "crime" would appear to be that they are amongst the most active providing humanitarian aid to Afghan civilians (such as is the case with GRF).

The effect of these raids and the freezing of millions of dollars donated by the Muslim communities of the West will be, potentially, loss of human life. Throughout the third world, there are untold numbers of children that depend upon aid provided through these organisations to survive.

Full details on the activities of these groups can be found at:

*  http://www.grf.org Global Relief Foundation
*  http://www.benevolence.org Benevolence International
*  http://www.hlf.org Holy Land Foundation

The Australian government has announced that it will soon be
publishing a similar list of businesses, organisations, and charities with "links" to terrorism. Their assets are also expected to be frozen.


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Sources: Feds raid Islamic charity groups

WASHINGTON (CNN) --Federal agents swept through the offices of two Islamic charity groups Friday, seizing all financial assets and records, federal law enforcement sources told CNN.

The raids, the first under the anti-terrorist Patriot Act, were conducted in Illinois and New Jersey as part of the government's effort to freeze assets of groups suspected of aiding terrorism.

The coordinated actions stem from orders issued by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control to freeze the organizations' assets.

Officials said Customs and IRS agents seized financial records from the Benevolence International Foundation in Newark, New Jersey. Earlier, FBI agents executed search warrants to seize records from the Global Relief Foundation near Chicago, Illinois.

A statement on the Treasury Department's Web site said all financial assets and all records of both groups were ordered blocked.

The Global Relief Foundation issued a statement Friday strongly denying any link to terrorism and saying it would fully cooperate with the investigation.

"We are in the business of helping innocent civilians and take every precaution to ensure our aid does not go to support or subsidize any nefarious activity," the statement said.

"Just as we would call the police if our collection box or computer equipment were being stolen, we would certainly alert the authorities if we had reason to believe the intended humanitarian purpose of our aid were being subverted to harm innocent lives."

The statement said it has already had to shut down its worldwide humanitarian operations.

A Benevolence Foundation spokesman said the asset freeze will shut down its relief to the poor, at least for the time being.

The Patriot Act, which President Bush signed into law in October, grants sweeping new powers for intelligence-gathering and surveillance.

The additional powers include the use of much more international intelligence information and expanded wiretapping authority, and strengthens penalties for those who help terrorists and lengthens the statute of limitations for terrorist acts.

The Global Relief Organization raised more than $5 million last year for charities in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world.

The charity complained that the raid, coming at the end of Ramadan -- the biggest period of charitable giving for Muslims -- would hurt its relief efforts.

The Global Relief Organization filed lawsuits last month against large media outlets, including ABC and the New York Times, claiming that it has been unfairly portrayed as a terror organization.

Earlier this month, President Bush said the Treasury Department moved to freeze the assets and accounts of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The government said the organization, based in Richardson, Texas, acts as a front to finance the militant wing of the Palestinian group Hamas.

Federal agents and local officers raided the foundation's Texas headquarters, seizing assets and records and executing what an FBI agent described as a "blocking order."

Find this article at:
 http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/12/14/inv.raid.charity/index.html