US accuses British charity of financing terrorism

Daniel Foggo and Philip Sherwell in Washington (Filed: 13/02/2005):

A British charity has been accused by the American government of financing Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

The Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), which is based in Birmingham and provides aid for orphanages and water wells in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been designated by the United States treasury as being part of a network of "terrorist" charities that have allegedly "provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to Osama bin Laden".

The Telegraph has also discovered that Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens who was refused entry to America last September because his name was on a security watch list, has previously donated thousands of pounds to the Birmingham charity. The reason for his exclusion has never been publicly revealed, but last night American officials indicated that the entertainer's funding of the ISRA was one of the reasons for him being banned. Mr Islam has always denied financing terrorism.

British security services are now investigating the finances of the charity, which last year reported an income of £479,000, and are under pressure from the Americans to freeze the charity's bank accounts. The concern about the British charity's activities is disclosed in documents published by the US Treasury's office of public affairs. It states that a charity called the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), which has its headquarters in the Sudan "was co-founded and financed by Osama bin Laden and is the precursor organisation of al-Qaeda". It says that this charity is linked with, or has interchangeable names, with a number of other charities, including the ISRA in Britain.

The US treasury has frozen the assets of the American branch of the IARA, making it a criminal offence for anyone to supply money to any of its offices, and is attempting to persuade other governments to do likewise with branches of IARA and ISRA in their countries. David Summers, the executive director of the ISRA, whose office is above a tatty second-hand clothes shop run by the charity on a Birmingham high street, said that he was aware of the accusations, but denied any involvement with terrorist organisations. He said that although his charity acts "autonomously", it has had recent financial links with the American branch and others. He had now severed all contact, however, because of the action by the American authorities, even though he thought it "very unlikely" that any of them were involved in terrorism.
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The Society for Internet Research, in it's report on the ISRA, noted the following:

Claims by ISRA representatives that their organization is not linked to the IARA are contradicted by their own promotional literature, the listing of 'IARA' offices in the US and Sudan as ISRA offices on their own website, and news statements from the ISRA such as one from 19 February 2003 which clearly identifies three ISRA directors as

Dr Mohammad Ibrahim General Director of ISRA, Sudan, Abdal Wahid Pederson Director of ISRA Denmark, Scandinavia. Abdal Samad Summers Director of ISRA UK.

Source: ISRA

Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim is AKA

SULAIMAN, Mohammed Ibrahim, Secretary General, IARA Headquarters; House Number 27 Block Number 29 Manishia District, Khartoum, Sudan; P.O. Box 3372, Khartoum, Sudan (individual) [SDGT]

Source: OFAC

Abdal Samad Summers is most likely AKA David Summers, who according to the UK Charity Commission is the Charity Correspondent for the ISRA in the UK, an organization that currently operates under the name 'Aid Direct' but which in their Charity Commission filings claims the names ISLAMIC RELIEF AGENCY and "ISRA".

Posted on 14 February 2005 @ 08:31