Quick Takes: <i>News You May Have Missed</i>

Home » News » News Briefs »

Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

By: Aaron Klein

Published: July 20th, 2011

tell a friend

J Street Helping PA

In Its Bid For Statehood

The left-wing Jewish lobby J Street has been aiding the Palestinian Authority in its bid to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state at the United Nations, according to PA officials speaking to WorldNetDaily.

The officials said J Street has been helping the PA set up Capitol Hill meetings with mostly Democratic lawmakers in a search for diplomatic support for its UN statehood move. J Street did not return e-mail and phone requests for comment.

J Street’s founder and president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, has acknowledged receiving seed money from left-wing billionaire activist George Soros. The group also has come under fire for accepting funds from numerous Arab sources as well as pro-Arab organizations.

J Street states on its website that it seeks to “promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically.”

The lobby group supports talks with Hamas. The group has also opposed sanctions against Iran and is harshly critical of Israeli offensive anti-terror military actions.

Weiner’s Mother-In-Law

Tied To Terrorist Charities

The mother of Huma Abedin, Hillary’s Clinton’s chief of staff, has represented a Saudi-funded Muslim charity accused of terrorism financing and ties to al Qaeda. Huma is the wife of former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York.

Huma’s mother is Saleha Mahmood Abedin, an associate professor of sociology at Dar Al-Hekma College in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Abedin has reportedly represented the Muslim World League, or MWL, a Saudi-financed charity that has spawned Islamic groups accused of terror ties. One of the groups was declared by the U.S. government to be an official al Qaeda front.

In February 2010, Clinton spoke in Saudi Arabia at Abedin’s college, where she was first introduced by Abedin and then praised the work of the terror-tied professor:

Saleha Abedin has been quoted in numerous press accounts as both representing the MWL and serving as a delegate for the charity.

The MWL was founded in Mecca in 1962 and bills itself one of the largest Islamic non-governmental organizations. But according to U.S. government documents and testimony from the charity’s own officials, it is heavily financed by the Saudi government.

The MWL has been accused of terror ties, as have its various offshoots, including the International Islamic Relief Organization, or IIRO, and Al Haramain, which was declared a terror financing front by the U.S. and UN.

Indeed, the Treasury Department, in a September 2004 press release, alleged Al Haramain had “direct links” with Osama bin Laden. The group is now banned worldwide by United Nations Security Council Committee 1267.

There have long been reports citing accusations that the IIRO and MWL also repeatedly funded al Qaeda. In 1993, bin Laden reportedly told an associate that the MWL was one of his three most important charity fronts.

The MWL in 1988 founded the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, developing chapters in about 50 countries, including for a time in Oregon until it was designated a terror organization.

In the early 1990s, evidence began to grow that it was funding Islamist militants in Somalia and Bosnia, and a 1996 CIA report detailed its Bosnian militant ties.

The U.S. Treasury designated Al Haramain’s offices in Kenya and Tanzania as sponsors of terrorism for their role in planning and funding the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa. The Comoros Islands office was also designated because it “was used as a staging area and exfiltration route for the perpetrators of the 1998 bombings.”

The New York Times reported in 2003 that Al Haramain had provided funds to the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which was responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. The Indonesia office was later designated a terrorist entity by the Treasury.

In September 2004, the U.S. designated Al Haramain a terrorist organization. In June 2008, the Treasury Department applied the terrorist designation to the entire Al Haramain organization worldwide.

In August, 2006, the Treasury Department also designated the Philippine and Indonesian branch offices of the MWL-founded IIRO as terrorist entities “for facilitating fundraising for al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups.”

In the 1980s, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law, ran the Philippines offices of the IRRO. Khalifa has been linked to Manila-based plots to target the pope and U.S. airlines.

The IRRO has also been accused of funding Hamas, Algerian radicals, Afghanistan militant bases and the Egyptian terror group Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya.

In a court case in Canada, Arafat El-Asahi, the Canadian director of both the IIRO and the MWL, admitted the charities are near entities of the Saudi government.

Nonetheless, despite its offshoots being implicated in terror financing, the MWL itself has never been designated as a terror-financing charity by the U.S. government. Many have speculated that the U.S. is trying not to embarrass the Saudi government.

Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York’s 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m.

tell a friend

About the Author: Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York's 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m (CHANGE TO 7-9 p.m.). His website is KleinOnline.com

Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

Weiner’s Mother-In-Law

You might also be interested in: