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| Africa: East |
| Kenyan branch of al-Haramain linked to al-Qaeda |
| 2004-01-27 |
| The United States urged last Thursday that the Kenyan branch of a Saudi charity be added to an international list of groups said to finance terrorism. Acting in conjunction with the government of Saudi Arabia, the US Treasury Department targeted branches of the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation in Tanzania, Indonesia and Pakistan as well as in Kenya. "These branches have provided financial, material and logistical support to the Al Qaeda network and other terrorist organisations," the United States said. US Treasury Secretary John Snow added, "The branches of Al Haramain that we have singled out today not only assist in the pursuit of death and destruction; they deceive countless people around the world who believe that they have helped spread good will and good works." In support of its charges, the Treasury Department revealed that an unnamed Al Haramain employee indicated a full year in advance that the US embassy in Nairobi would be attacked by a suicide bomber crashing a vehicle into the embassy’s gate. That was exactly the method used in August 1998 when Al Qaeda operatives destroyed the embassy, killing 200 Kenyans and 12 Americans. A simultaneous attack on the US embassy in Tanzania killed 12 Africans. One year prior to the attacks, Kenyan authorities arrested and deported an unspecified number of individuals associated with Al Haramain, the US says. The action came, according to US officials, after the United States learned that the Kenyan branch of the charity was plotting attacks against Americans. The US further charges that the former director of Tanzania’s Al Haramain branch assisted the advance party that planned the bombings in both Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. It also states that a wealthy Al Haramain official outside East Africa agreed to finance the embassy attacks. More recently, individuals associated with Al Haramain in Tanzania discussed plans early last year for attacks against several hotels in Zanzibar, the US Treasury Department says. "The scheduled attacks did not take place due to increased security by local authorities, but planning for the attacks remained active", the department adds. Al Haramain has denied involvement in terrorism and claimed that it closed its branches in Kenya Tanzania, Indonesia and Pakistan after the Saudi government ordered it to take such action in 2003. The Treasury Department says, however, that "continued monitoring by the United States and Saudi Arabia indicates that these offices and/or former officials associated with these branches are either continuing to operate or have other plans to avoid these measures". The US and Saudi Arabia urged the United Nations on Thursday to order its member states to freeze the assets of the four targeted branches of Al Haramain. The United States also said it was adding Al Haramain to its own list of groups suspected of supporting terrorism. As a result, any financial assets in the United States belonging to the four branches must be frozen. Some individuals believed linked to Al Haramain were arrested by Kenyan authorities in the weeks following the 1998 embassy attacks. The Kenyan government also revoked the registration of Al Haramain and four other Islamic groups, but Kenya’s High Court later blocked the deregistration. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 a Saudi charity? Surely they're mistaken |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-1-27 11:21:47 AM |