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Advocacy Blog
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Virginia Muslim Charities Investigation Continues Over Four Years
The Washington Post has this interesting story about an international terrorism financing investigation that began March 2002. More than 15 sites in Northern Virginia were affected by the raids four years ago including charities, businesses, and think tanks, in particular the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). Noticeably, this investigation is taking a great length of time, reportedly because of an elaborate money trail. During this time, "Some of the organizations raided in 2002 have closed, including several affiliated with Alamoudi, who is serving a 23-year prison term. But the Herndon groups, including IIIT and Safa Trust Inc., are still operating. One of the main organizations named in the 2002 search warrant, the SAAR Foundation, dissolved in 2000." Interestingly, since March 2002, there have only two people have been convicted, but no charges have been made against anyone at the core of the investigation.
The searches primarily targeted a group of Middle Eastern men who operated a tightly connected Herndon-based network of more than 100 organizations, known collectively as the Safa Group, some of which existed only on paper, according to court documents. evidence of the transfer of large amounts of funds from the Safa Group organizations directly to terrorist-front organizations since the early 1990's.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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