Al-Haramain Foundation
Encyclopedia
Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation was a charity foundation, based in Saudi Arabia, alleged by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in a September 2004 press release to have "direct links" with Osama bin Laden. The charity is now banned worldwide by United Nations Security Council Committee 1267
.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control
of the United States Department of the Treasury
had already banned various branches of this organization at various times, including the US branch on 9 September 2004. Under various names it had branches in Afghanistan
, Albania
, Bangladesh
, Bosnia
, Comoros
, Ethiopia
, Indonesia
, Kenya
, the Netherlands
, Nigeria
, Pakistan
, Somalia
, Tanzania
, and the United States
.
There was one branch of the foundation in the United States, located at Ashland, Oregon. The Ashland chapter assisted the Islamic Society of Springfield, Missouri, in the purchase of a prayer house, but the Springfield organization shares no common directors and is not and never was under the control of the Al-Haramain organization. Directors of the Ashland chapter were Suliman Al-Buthe (
سليمان البوثي
) and Aqeel Abdul Aziz Al-Aqil (
عقيل عبد العزيز العقيل
), although Mr. Al-Aqil has long since resigned as a director. Mr. Al-Buthe and Mr. Al-Aqil are now personally embargoed worldwide by the UN.
The suit asserted that the Bush administration had circumvented the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by authorizing warrant
less wiretap
s. They asserted that the President lacked the authority to authorize wiretaps that circumvented the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Three individuals whose conversations were intercepted, Suliman al-Buthe, Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, learned of the eavesdropping when U.S. officials accidentally delivered logs of phone calls to them.
Al-Buthe, who had traveled intermittently to the United States but who has always resided in Saudi Arabia, had been one of the directors of the Ashland chapter. Belew and Ghafoor were two of the Foundation's U.S. lawyers.
Thomas H. Nelson of Welches, Oregon, another Foundation lawyer, filed the lawsuit.
Court records show he filed a motion to place the relevant material under seal.
On March 31, 2010, US District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker
ruled that the Bush administration should have gotten warrants for its wiretaps of Al Haramain.
Separately, the charity filed suit in August 2007, challenging the Department of Treasury's 2004 designation of Al Haramain as a "specially designated global terrorist" and the seizure and freezing of all of its assets. In September 2011, an appeals court ruled that United States officials correctly designated the charity as supporting terrorism, but found the Treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control improperly seized the charity’s assets using a “blocking order” to freeze them without a warrant supported by probable cause, violating the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures, and that they also violated the charity's procedural due process rights by failing to give a post-seizure explanation of the basis for the seizure.
United Nations Security Council Committee 1267
The 1267 Committee , was established on 15 October 1999, pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1267 concerning Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and/or the Taliban and associated individuals and entities. The 1267 Committee is one of three Security Council committees dealing with counter-terrorism...
.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control
Office of Foreign Assets Control
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury under the auspices of the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S...
of the United States Department of the Treasury
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
had already banned various branches of this organization at various times, including the US branch on 9 September 2004. Under various names it had branches in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, Comoros
Comoros
The Comoros , officially the Union of the Comoros is an archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa, on the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, between northeastern Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar...
, Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
There was one branch of the foundation in the United States, located at Ashland, Oregon. The Ashland chapter assisted the Islamic Society of Springfield, Missouri, in the purchase of a prayer house, but the Springfield organization shares no common directors and is not and never was under the control of the Al-Haramain organization. Directors of the Ashland chapter were Suliman Al-Buthe (
سليمان البوثي
) and Aqeel Abdul Aziz Al-Aqil (
عقيل عبد العزيز العقيل
), although Mr. Al-Aqil has long since resigned as a director. Mr. Al-Buthe and Mr. Al-Aqil are now personally embargoed worldwide by the UN.
The U.S. branch of Al Haramain
The American branch of Al-Haramain Foundation filed a lawsuit on February 28, 2006.The suit asserted that the Bush administration had circumvented the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by authorizing warrant
Warrant (law)
Most often, the term warrant refers to a specific type of authorization; a writ issued by a competent officer, usually a judge or magistrate, which permits an otherwise illegal act that would violate individual rights and affords the person executing the writ protection from damages if the act is...
less wiretap
Telephone tapping
Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line...
s. They asserted that the President lacked the authority to authorize wiretaps that circumvented the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Three individuals whose conversations were intercepted, Suliman al-Buthe, Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, learned of the eavesdropping when U.S. officials accidentally delivered logs of phone calls to them.
Al-Buthe, who had traveled intermittently to the United States but who has always resided in Saudi Arabia, had been one of the directors of the Ashland chapter. Belew and Ghafoor were two of the Foundation's U.S. lawyers.
Thomas H. Nelson of Welches, Oregon, another Foundation lawyer, filed the lawsuit.
Court records show he filed a motion to place the relevant material under seal.
On March 31, 2010, US District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker
Vaughn R. Walker
Vaughn R. Walker served as a district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 1989 to 2011.-Biography:Walker was born in Watseka, Illinois, in 1944...
ruled that the Bush administration should have gotten warrants for its wiretaps of Al Haramain.
Separately, the charity filed suit in August 2007, challenging the Department of Treasury's 2004 designation of Al Haramain as a "specially designated global terrorist" and the seizure and freezing of all of its assets. In September 2011, an appeals court ruled that United States officials correctly designated the charity as supporting terrorism, but found the Treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control improperly seized the charity’s assets using a “blocking order” to freeze them without a warrant supported by probable cause, violating the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures, and that they also violated the charity's procedural due process rights by failing to give a post-seizure explanation of the basis for the seizure.
External links
- Foreign Affairs ministry reports on status of Al-Haramain Foundation, Saudi Embassy, Washington DC, May 5, 2003
- Al Qaeda Skimming Charity Money, CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
, June 7, 2004 - Designated Charities and Potential Fundraising Front Organizations for FTOs, US TreasuryUnited States Department of the TreasuryThe Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
- NSA Snooped on Lawyers Knowing Spying Was Illegal, WiredWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, July 10, 2007