National security adviser: millions of dollars are coming from the Arab Gulf to Canada to promote a “jihadist interpretation of the Qur’an”… more>>
Where is Iran getting U.S. currency that it sends to Hamas? From Baghdad and the Kurdish region of Iraq… more>>
T. Boone Pickens: There’s no need to negotiate with Iranian liars because “we do not need Mid-East oil” any longer. The U.S. has plenty energy resources of its own… more>>
Former Guantanamo Bay detainees are seeking a housing allowance from the United States. You see, their four-bedroom house in Montevideo isn’t spacious enough… more>>
Taliban weapons trafficker and drug smuggler Mohammed Zahir has been released from his Guantanamo jail cell back to freedom in Afghanistan by the Obama administration. Described by the Telegraph as “a leading Taliban weapons supplier,” Zahir reportedly had Stinger missiles and uranium on his property in Afghanistan prior to his arrest years ago. Zahir intended to use the uranium to produce an “atom bomb,” earning him a designation by Daniel Greenfield as a “nuclear terrorist.” In any case, the release of this major arms trafficker who can now revive his old gunrunning network would not, to put it politely, enhance security in Afghanistan; nor would it align with Pres. Obama’s professed support for gun control.
Five detainees at Guantanamo Bay have drawn up a lengthy business plan for an agricultural venture in Yemen as part as an instructional exercise. The document was approved for release last month by military officials. Judicial Watch rightly observes that the level of detail in the plan shows that the detainees “had access to many research tools, likely on the internet.” Although the business proposal appears to be only a classroom activity and not an actual, shovel-ready project, the language in the document indicates that terrorists would be comfortable with crowdfunding as a sharia-compliant platform to raise money.
In their business proposal, the self-described “Board of Directors of Yemen Milk & Honey Farms Ltd” specifically mentions Kickstarter, RocketHub, and other crowdfunding platforms as options for financing their project. They also note that crowdfunding can be equity-based, lending-based, reward-based, or donation-based. After reviewing their alternatives, the board concludes that they would like their financing be “equity based or reward based, as the board has observed [that the] interest-based economy is facing serious problems world wide, specifically in Europe and America.”
Using the recession has been a convenient target for Islamist criticism of the Western financial system since 2009, ignoring the fact that the West still leads the world across any recognized standard of economic development and standard of living, and ignoring the larger context of long-term economic success of the West compared to the economic failures of the interest-shunning Arab world over several centuries. But regardless of current or historical economic conditions, the truth is that the “board members” would still oppose interest on religious grounds. Riba, the word used in Islamic texts for interest, is the same Arabic word that applies to unnatural growth and swelling akin to pond scum and asthma.
Islamic law allows for profit and investments involving co-ownership and profit sharing. One such sharia financial concept that shares similar traits with crowdfunding is mudarabah, which Islamic finance lawyer John Dewar defines as, “An investment fund arrangement under which the financiers act as the capital providers (rab al-mal) and the client acts as the mudareb (akin to an investment agent) to invest the capital provided by the rab al-mal and manage the partnership.” For a sharia crowdfunding project, the donors would serve as the rab al-mal.
Analysts for McKinsey & Co. further note that “Islamic commercial law strongly favors equity over debt financing, which suggests that crowdfund investing platforms are especially well suited to Muslim-majority countries. In our view, crowdfund investing and Islamic financial services are inherently compatible and mutually reinforcing.”
Thus, the business school at Camp 6 of Guantanamo prison is well-aligned with contemporary sharia financial strictures. The “students” also appear to be one step ahead of regulators, who are just now developing anti-money laundering rules for crowdfunded projects which are be vulnerable to financial crime and exploitation. As AML attorney Christine Duhaime summed up crowdfunding risks last fall, “The combined effect of crowdfunded securities being low-priced, placed in offerings that are exempt from [SEC] registration and not subject to the filing review process of a registered offering, makes crowdfunding open to being used as a vehicle for money laundering and other financial crimes.”
In addition to crowdfunding regulations currently under review, stronger terms of service by the crowdfunding companies may be in order to prevent exploitation of their websites by users who promote violence, illicit activities, or otherwise serve the interests of criminals and terrorists.
Worrisome projects include a Kickstarter project in 2012 that billed itself as “your chance to become part of the Arab Spring.” If the two men who proposed the project had received the $20,000 they sought, they pledged to “travel together to Syria and join the rebels on the front line against the dictator Bashar al-Assad.” Late last year, Forbesreported that an anarchist launched a crowdfunded bitcoin-based “assassination market.” Read the rest of this entry ?
In October 2012, Dahabshiil commenced defamation proceedings in The Netherlands against Dahir Alasow (a Somali asylum seeker living in The Netherlands) in respect of various articles written by Mr Alasow and published on his websites including Sunatimes, Waagacusub and ASOJ. These articles alleged that Dahabshiil was, inter alia, involved in the financing of terrorism and other serious crimes, allegations which were categorically denied by Dahabshiil.
On 16 December 2014, the ’s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal of The Netherlands, following an extensive examination of the evidence, ruled that the articles were untrue and defamatory of Dahabshiil. Mr Alasow was ordered to remove various articles containing the defamatory allegations from his websites, publish a notice of rectification and pay Dahabshiil’s legal costs. The court’s decision can be found here: http://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:GHSHE:2014:5351
UAE-based money transfer business accused of plotting contract killing of two East African musicians
The Dahabshiil money transfer company is promising a $3 million reward for the murder of Djibouti singer Nimo Djama after singing about Dahabshiil’s role in financing terrorism. This allegation by Djama herself was nearly impossible to find in English-language print media (or even by the blogosphere) when the story began circulating among Somali sources last fall.
One outlet that did report on it was the Somali-Dutch news site, the Suna Times, excerpted below with some light editing for readability:
Dahabshiil—Facts, Violations, and Terrorism
The Djiboutian singer Nimo Djama accused Dahabshiil company of putting a three million dollar bounty for her death.
“Dahabshiil Bank, Ottawa branch has been assigned to assassinate me. They have received three million dollars to carry out the assassination. Dahabshil or Dhiigshiil wants to kill me. I’ve informed the Canadian law enforcement agencies. They installed cameras in my home,” said Nimo Djama in an audio interview on Oct 13, 2012.
Nimo Djama, aka the Mother of Djiboutian Singers, is a popular figure, and was part of the independence struggle in her country, but fled from Djibouti after being arrested by the administration of president Guelleh.
The well-known Somali singer Sado Ali Warsame who overthrown [sic] said Barre regime with her songs also accused Dahabshiil of putting a two million dollar bounty for her death, shortly after she released a song called Dahabshiil ha dhigan (“Don’t Deposit with Dahabshiil”).
Concern over Dahabshiil’s threat, which lost around 70% of its customers, resulted [in] reinforcement of Sado’s security…
A written description accompanying a video published on YouTube on Feb. 11 reveals further details about the hit ordered against Ms. Warsame (whose name may also be written as Saado Cali Warsame):
A Somali super star singer sings against Dahabshiil money transfer
A top Somali super star Sado Ali Warsame, had released an album against the Dahabshiil money transfer which she warns the people to send their money to the company because of what the singer called ‘a linkage to tribalism and extremism’.
The nationalist icon of Somalia top ten super stars, Sado Ali Warsame, who is well respected for her role in fighting against the military dictatorship through her cultural-rich music, is now taking the platform to challenge against all the actors against the pan-Somalia.
Her new song “Ha dhigan Dhiigshiil” which means don’t send your money through Dahabshiil, is a great challenge to the company which currently lost a court case against a well-known investigative journalist Dahir Abdulle Alasow in Breda Netherlands after the company accused the reporter of humiliating figures in the company, goodwill defamation and accusation related to Dahabshiil’s attempt to assassinate singer Sado Warsame.
The song relates Dahabshiil to Alshabab [al-Shabaab], a militant group allied to Alqaeda [Al Qaeda] which rules much of Southern Somalia with brutal laws, and a slow genocide going on in the Sool, Sanag and Ceyn (SSC) regions in Somalia by Somaliland forces, which Warsame is originally from.
Dahabshiil rejected the accusation and sued the investigative reporter whose website waagacusub.com published the articles relating Dahabshiil attempt to assassinate the artist Warsame and the linkage to the terror group and the slow genocide in SSC regions.
But the judge in Breda district court ruled out Dahabshiil’s argument and ordered the reporter to keep doing his job freely, and states the accusation as baseless.
The company’s name Dahabshiil means Goldsmith, while the singer calls it in the song as Dhiigshiil, which means Bloodsmith, a previous name of the company in early 2000s, which the company owners refute to be called now for their business goodwill.
The song had attracted a big number of listeners who clicked more than 30,000 times on one link in waagacusub website and the controversial comments on the songs divided the public opinion.
A comment with anonymous person says, “The song is true, Dahabshiil feeds Alshabab, and I agree that we don’t need to send our money to it”…
It’s not just an anonymous person on Youtube, or even an enterprising Somali-Dutch reporter. A presiding judge at a 2005 hearing in Guantanamo Bay told detainee Mohammed Sulaymon Barre, “I am convinced that your branch of the Dahabshiil company was used to transfer money for terrorism.”
Now, we leave you with a music video by Warsame. She sings about peace, national unity, satirizes the terrorists, and tells the truth about the financing of extremists. For this she gets death threats from Dubai?
UPDATE—FEB. 28, 2013:
Money Jihad has again (see comment below) been contacted by legal counsel for Dahabshiil, who makes the following response to this post:
Dahabshiil refutes the allegations made about it in this article in the strongest possible terms. The allegations are absurd and entirely false. For the avoidance of doubt, Dahabshiil has no involvement whatsoever in violence or terrorism of any kind.Dahabshiil considers these allegations to be highly defamatory and has accordingly commenced legal proceedings in The Netherlands to restrain further publication of them by their original author [of the Suna Times].
By way of background, Dahabshiil is a major international financial organisation, founded in 1970. Dahabshiil operates in approximately 150 countries across the world (including the USA and most European territories) with over 5,000 employees. Dahabshiil has a large and loyal customer base and a number of major international organisations rely on Dahabshiil to provide payment services for their staff, contractors, government institutions and partner NGOs. Dahabshiil has its headquarters in the United Kingdom where it is regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
For further general information about Dahabshiil , please visit Dahabshiil’s website at www.Dahabshiil.com
Osama Bin Laden’s former accountant and Al Qaeda payroll manager (and cook, driver, and bodyguard) has been released from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after serving only two years of his 14 year sentence. Pentagon officials say that the commutation was part of an agreement reached before Ibrahim al-Qosi’s trial in exchange for “cooperation.” But there has been no word on the nature or results of said cooperation. Qosi is being repatriated to Sudan. What could go wrong?
One of the longest-held prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has been released and sent home to Sudan after serving two years of a 14-year sentence for providing support to Al Qaeda’s late founder, Osama bin Laden.
Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud Qosi, 52, had been held at the compound for suspected terrorists since early 2002, shortly after it was opened at the U.S. Navy base in southern Cuba. His release and transfer to his homeland on Tuesday fulfilled a plea deal at the time of his July 2010 conviction for providing assistance in the form of cooking, driving and bookkeeping to Al Qaeda’s terrorist training center in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
Qosi’s release spurred new calls by human rights organizations for President Obama to release or transfer the remaining 168 foreign men still held at Guantanamo and to close the prison and military tribunal that have brought international condemnation of the U.S. practice of indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects without charges or trials.
With the release of Qosi, one of only seven to be tried among nearly 800 detainees brought to Guantanamo over the last decade, the Obama administration “has no justification” for continuing to hold dozens of men who have never been charged with any crime and aren’t considered dangerous, said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.
“As Obama embarks on his second presidential campaign, he should uphold the promises on which he was elected the first time, including closing Guantanamo and ending this shameful chapter in U.S. history,” Azmy insisted.
The Pentagon said in a statement Wednesday that Qosi’s release was in accordance with a pretrial accord in which the government agreed to suspend all but two years of his sentence in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors.
Qosi’s departure means only four convicted prisoners remain at Guantanamo, said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale. Only one of the convicts, Pakistani-born Majid Khan, is a “high-value detainee” accused of having a role in the Sept. 11 attacks or other major terrorist crimes.
Two of the three prisoners in the convicts’ block of the maximum-security Camp 5 prison could also be released in the near future: Omar Khadr of Canada is already eligible for transfer to his homeland once the Ottawa government agrees to accept him, and Noor Uthman Mohammed of Sudan may be released as soon as next year, once he has provided testimony in other pending trials, as agreed in his plea deal. The third convict at Camp 5 is Ali Hamza Bahlul of Yemen, an Al Qaeda propagandist serving a life sentence.
Khan was a legal U.S. resident in the Baltimore area at the time of his arrest in 2003 during a family visit to Pakistan. Initially detained and interrogated at a CIA “black site,” Khan was accused of plotting with Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to blow up U.S. apartment blocks and businesses. The terms of his plea bargain remain confidential, and his sentencing has been put off for four years, during which he is expected to provide testimony against other major terrorism suspects at Guantanamo.
Two other Guantanamo convicts, Salim Hamdan of Yemen and David Hicks of Australia, have served their time and gone home.
Obama had pledged to close Guantanamo within a year of his January 2009 inauguration but was thwarted by opponents in Congress who passed legislation prohibiting transfer of terrorism suspects to U.S. soil. His administration conducted a review of the remaining prisoners in 2009 and concluded that cases could be brought against some but that there was insufficient evidence to charge 46 of those considered too potentially dangerous to release.
Efforts to repatriate the majority who will neither be charged nor indefinitely held have stalled amid the political gridlock in Washington and refusal by some home countries to take back their suspect citizens.
Majid Khan, the Muslim financier of the 2003 attack on the Jakarta Marriott that killed 11 people and injured 180, has been sentenced at Guantanamo Bay after striking a plea deal with prosecutors.
U.S. citizen Patricia Pond was in Indonesia on business at the time of the jihadist attack, and was among the wounded. During the chaotic trauma care for the victims, Mrs. Pond was treated with a dirty needle and contracted the HIV virus.
She told her story standing beside her husband at a press conference following the sentencing:
Another example of the cream of humanity occupying Guantanamo Bay. Khan assisted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but financed attacks in his own right, too. From CNN on Feb. 22:
Washington (CNN) — A high-value terror suspect held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has reached a plea agreement with military prosecutors in which he would plead guilty and agree to testify against other detainees in return for a reduced sentence, according to a source familiar with the case.
Majid Khan, 31, was charged earlier this month with conspiracy, murder and attempted murder in violation of the law of war, providing material support for terrorism and spying. He was scheduled to be arraigned on February 29. If convicted during a military commission he faced a maximum of life in prison.
The source familiar with the case said Khan would plead guilty to all charges under the terms of the agreement, but the source would not specify exactly how much time Khan would have to serve if the agreement is approved by a military judge.
Khan’s military lawyer, Army Col. Jon Jackson, would not comment. Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman, also would not discuss the possibility of a plea deal involving Khan.
Khan is a Pakistani national who lived in the United States from 1996 to early 2002. The source familiar with the negotiations would not comment on a Washington Post report that Khan might be transferred to Pakistan at some point after fulfilling the obligation to testify in military commissions for other terror suspects.
The government maintains Khan joined members of al Qaeda following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Khan is accused of working for the self-proclaimed mastermind of those attacks — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — and other al Qaeda members when he returned to Pakistan in August 2002.
Khan allegedly traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, in December 2002 and provided $50,000 in al Qaeda money that ultimately reached the terror group Jemaah Islamiyah. The funds allegedly were used to finance the August 2003 bombing of the J.W.Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, which killed 11 people and wounded more than 180.
Khan and 13 other high-value detainees were transferred to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2006. Prior to that, the terror suspects were kept in CIA secret prisons overseas.
The U.S. State Department has designated Othman Ahmed al Ghamdi, a radical Sunni Muslim Arab, as a terrorist.
Moreover, State describes Ghamdi as a fundraiser for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). That’s Washington’s polite way of saying that Ghamdi solicits zakat donations from rich Gulf supporters, signs-off on kidnap for ransom schemes, or both.
Earlier Money Jihad coverage has addressed AQAP’s efforts to obtain funds from Saudi Arabiahere and here.
U.S. lists Saudi freed from Guantánamo as global terrorist
By Carol Rosenberg
The State Department Thursday added a freed Guantánamo detainee to its list of government-sanctioned terrorists, saying the Saudi Arabian soldier is now a fundraiser for the Yemeni offshoot Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula.
The Obama administration has been deeply concerned that turmoil in Yemen stirred by anti-government protests has created a vacuum that could strengthen the influence of the al Qaeda franchise there. The United States blames AQAP for training the so-called “Underwear Bomber,” now in federal custody after failing to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit plane on Christmas Day 2009.
Othman Ahmed al Ghamdi, 37 or 38, was among the earliest captives brought to Guantánamo from Afghanistan in the prison camp’s first week. He arrived on Jan. 14, 2002…
A State Department announcement Thursday said that, in addition to his fundraising activities, he had “worked with other AQAP members to plan and stockpile weapons for future attacks.”
In May 2010, the statement said, he appeared in a video that publicly identified him as the Yemeni terror group’s “operational commander”…
To compensate them for the “abuse” they endured at Guantanamo Bay, the British government has struck a payout deal with former detainees. British officials argue that the court case would have cost £50 million if it had continued.
Maybe it would have cost more to the government, but it would be far preferable to have Britain be £50 million poorer than to have a group of hardboiled jihadists £10 million richer.
Government to compensate ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees
Around a dozen men who accused British security forces of colluding in their transfer overseas are to get millions in compensation from the UK government.
Some of the men, who are all British citizens or residents, were detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.
At least six of them alleged UK forces were complicit in their torture before they arrived at Guantanamo.
Foreign Secretary William Hague denied the deal was an admission that security agencies colluded in any mistreatment.
In response to questions, he said the settlement reflected the desire to “move on” and be able to conduct an inquiry.
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke told the Commons that the settlement was “significant”, but had the cases gone to court, it would have cost taxpayers up to £50m.
The coalition government made clear in the summer that it wanted to avoid a massive court case which would also have put the British secret intelligence services under the spotlight. Prime Minister David Cameron offered to enter settlement talks with six men seeking damages, an offer that has now been accepted.
Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil el Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed and Martin Mubanga had led a High Court case against five government departments including MI5 and MI6.
They had claimed that officials in London were complicit in their transfer to Guantanamo Bay and should have prevented it and their ill-treatment.
Did this Guantanamo returnee raise riyals for Abdulmutallab’s bomb?
The failed jihadist plot to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was hatched by Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The Yemeni connection has been exposed by many reporters, including Brian Ross of ABC News:
The plot to blow up an American passenger jet over Detroit was organized and launched by al Qaeda leaders in Yemen who apparently sewed bomb materials into the suspect’s underwear before sending him on his mission, federal authorities tell ABC News…
Investigators say the suspect, Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian student …says he made contact via the internet with a radical imam in Yemen who then connected him with al Qaeda leaders in a village north of the country’s capital, Sanaa…
The al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen has increasingly taken on a lead role in coordinating major terror attacks as the U.S. has disrupted al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan, according to American authorities…
PETN, the explosive used on Flight 253, is expensive. It would take a major organization like AQAP to procure it. And just where would they get the money to do so? Unsurprisingly, they get it from Islamic “donations.”
Does anybody remember this Reuters article from September, “Yemen’s Qaeda wing seeks donations in Saudi Arabia”? Keep this formula in mind before you read the article:
“Go forth, light-armed and heavy-armed, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the way of Allah!”—Koran (Sura 9, Verse 41)
“The warrior gets his reward, and the one who equips him gets his own reward and that of the warrior”—Muhammad (Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 14 No. 2520)
“Your duty is to support the Mujahideen with money and men... The Zakat of one affluent Muslim merchant is enough to finance all the Jihadi front against our enemies”—Osama Bin Laden
*Technorati ceased providing blog rankings in May, 2014. Not sure how high we ended at that time, but were previously ranked as a top 500 U.S. politics blog in 2010 when our readership was much lower
Money Jihad 
Taliban arms dealer released from Guantanamo
January 19, 2015Mohammed Zahir
Taliban weapons trafficker and drug smuggler Mohammed Zahir has been released from his Guantanamo jail cell back to freedom in Afghanistan by the Obama administration. Described by the Telegraph as “a leading Taliban weapons supplier,” Zahir reportedly had Stinger missiles and uranium on his property in Afghanistan prior to his arrest years ago. Zahir intended to use the uranium to produce an “atom bomb,” earning him a designation by Daniel Greenfield as a “nuclear terrorist.” In any case, the release of this major arms trafficker who can now revive his old gunrunning network would not, to put it politely, enhance security in Afghanistan; nor would it align with Pres. Obama’s professed support for gun control.
Posted in News commentary | Tagged Afghanistan, Guantanamo, gunrunning, Taliban, uranium | 1 Comment »