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| Terror Networks |
| International Islamic Relief Organization... |
| 2001-09-29 |
| David B. Ottaway and Dan Morgan Washington Post When Mahmoud Jaballah left Egypt in 1991 after numerous arrests for alleged ties to a terrorist group, he quickly found a job with a Muslim charity funded by the Saudi government and royal family. Now Jaballah, who spent three years working as a teacher in Pakistan for the Saudi-financed International Islamic Relief Organization, is in custody in Canada. He is accused of being a member of the terrorist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad and of having repeated contact with two top lieutenants of Osama bin Laden. Jaballah, who describes himself as an Egyptian fundamentalist, fled that country in 1991 after seven arrests in 10 years on suspicion of involvement in plots to assassinate Egyptian politicians. While in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage visa, he was hired by the IIRO to teach at a Pakistani school for orphans at a salary of $800 a month, according to court documents. In 1994, he fled Pakistan using false Iraqi and Saudi passports. After brief stays in Yemen and Azerbaijan, he arrived in Canada in 1996. Canadian immigration officials said Jaballah told them he had gone to IIRO because he was "in need of assistance." During his first Canadian deportation hearing in Ottawa in 1999, a key defense was that he had held legitimate employment with the IIRO in Pakistan. The Canadian judge ruled in his favor after noting that he had never been formally charged in Egypt but would have "some reason to be concerned" if he returned to Egypt. But this August, Canadian immigration authorities again asked for his deportation and detained him. The new allegations, citing Interpol, the international police organization, said Jaballah was wanted in Egypt on charges of belonging to Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the outlawed terrorist organization that attempted to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1995. The official complaint said the Canadian Security Intelligence had "reason to believe" he had engaged in terrorism and been in repeated contact with the head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad's cell in London. It also stated that Jaballah's lawyer in Egypt had been a close associate of Ayman Zawahiri, the Egyptian who became bin Laden's chief adviser when Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda effectively merged three years ago. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |