An investigation by the Today Programme has found that the United Nations
funded an organisation which US Treasury officials say is a front for Osama
bin Laden's al-Quaida network. The Saudi based Muwafaq Foundation - known as Blessed Relief - was part of a consortium of aid agencies who received
nearly two million US dollars for relief work in the Sudan in 1997.
On Friday October 12, the US Treasury Department extended financial
sanctions in its war on terrorim. It froze the assets of 39 individuals and
organisations with suspected terrorist links, including the name of the
influential businessman Yassin Kadi.
The US Treasury believes he established
the Muwafaq Foundation - or Blessed Relief - which officials say is a front
for al-Quadia, the global terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden. In a
written statement issued by his prestigious London lawyers - Peter Carter
Ruck - he vehemently denies the allegations and attacks both the US and UK
Governments. It reads: "Our client is horrified and shocked that his name
has been included on this list and at your allegation that he supports or is
in anyway connected with terrorism. Your allegations are completely untrue:
Mr Kadi has never been involved with, supported or provided funds for any
terrorist or extremist activities."
In 1992 Blessed Relief was registered as a charity in Jersey. It worked in
Muslim countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans. According
to US Treasury officials it was used by wealthy Saudi businessmen to
transfer millions of dollars directly to bin Laden. While Mr Kadi refutes
any connection with terrorism, Charles Shoebridge a former anti-terrorist
intelligence officer believes that in general it is easy for terrorists to
infiltrate charities. "For at least a decade the Government has been aware
that a number of refugee support groups, relief organisations and charities
do act in fact as fronts for the raising of funds for terrorist
organisations. They appear to be ordinary credible charities. Not only can
terrorists groups infiltrate organisations to turn them into front
organisations, but from the very outset organisations can be set up purely
as front organisations."
Now an investigation by the Today Programme can reveal that Blessed Relief
received direct funding from the United Nations. We've uncovered evidence
that in the late 90s it was one of 16 aid agencies that shared nearly two
million dollars for relief work in the Sudan. Its brief was to promote
educational and social development programmes in four different areas of the
country.
Charles Shoebridge believes that if they have funded terrorists the
UN only has itelf to blame. "What's happened here is a failure of
organisations like the United Nations to properly establish the credentials
of groups they are donating funds to, particularly when those are public
funds. You'd have thought an organisation like the United Nations has access
to a certain amount of intelligence from its constituent members
intelligence services. It seems that there is something of an environment of
a lack of enforcement in this particular area."
If the US Treasury is correct, the fact that the UN has been so easily duped
will no doubt cause great unease within the international community. Not
only would it have allowed terrorists to masquerade under a cloak of decency
- it actually provided hard cash with which they could fund their cause.
