| An FBI document filed in U.S. District Court Wednesday ties a Bridgeview-based charity to a convicted Al Qaeda terrorist who once was the personal assistant to Osama bin Laden. The document alleges that Global Relief Foundation had contact in 1996 and 1997 with Wadih El-Hage, who was bin Laden's personal assistant and was sentenced last year to life imprisonment for playing a key role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa. Federal officials filed the document, along with scores of other records, to justify their decision last December to freeze Global Relief's assets because of suspected links to Al Qaeda. The Islamic charity, which in 2000 took in $5.3 million in contributions, has denied any connection to terrorism and alleges in a federal lawsuit that the government's action violated the Constitution. |