The Golden Chain
Encyclopedia
Benevolence International Foundation
The Benevolence International Foundation was a purported nonprofit charitable trust based in Saudi Arabia. It was a front for al-Qaeda and is now banned worldwide by the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267...
in Sarajevo. The list includes at least 20 top Saudi and Gulf State financial sponsors including bankers, businessmen, and former ministers. Part of the list includes a computer file titled "Tarekh Osama" or "Osama History", but the appellation "Golden Chain" itself is due to al Qaeda defector Jamal al-Fadl
Jamal al-Fadl
Jamal Ahmed Mohamed al-Fadl is a Sudanese militant and former associate of Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s. Al-Fadl was recruited for the Afghan war through the Farouq mosque in Brooklyn. In 1988, he joined al Qaeda and took an oath of fealty to Bin Laden...
, who vouched for its authenticity.
Most accounts are vague on what year the Golden Chain document was written; some say 1988. but US government counterterrorism advisor Richard Clarke
Richard Clarke
Richard Clarke may refer to:* Richard Clarke , Jamaican boxer* Richard Clarke , Northern Irish footballer with Portadown* Richard Clarke , Northern Irish footballer with Newry City & Glentoran...
says it dates from 1989. The "Golden Chain" was presented by the United States Government case USA v. Arnaout
Enaam Arnaout
Enaam M. Arnaout is a Syrian-American who pleaded guilty to using charitable donations to support fighters in Bosnia without apprising the donors of this, during his tenure as a director of the charity Benevolence International Foundation . -Life:Arnaout was raised in Hamat, Syria...
filed on January 29, 2003 and in other legal filings, which would cause its veracity and meaning to be brought under further scrutiny.
Adel Batterjee
Adel BatterjeeAdel Batterjee
Adel bin Abdul-Jalil Batterjee is a noted Saudi Arabian businessman and philanthropist, most widely known as the incorporator of the U.S., Canadian, and Saudi Arabian branches of the purported terrorist funding conduit Benevolence International Foundation...
is a wealthy Saudi businessman who is also the founder of both BIF and its predecessor, Lajnatt Al-Birr Al-Islamiah. He appears to be mentioned as a recipient three times. The US declared him as a terrorist financier in 2004.
"The Bin Laden Brothers"
Their first names are not mentioned. They give money to Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
. UPI will later point out that "the discovery of this document in Sarajevo calls into question whether al-Qaeda has received support from one of Osama’s scores of wealthy brothers."
Ibrahim Muhammad Afandi
Notable affiliations include:- Board member, Ibn Baz Foundation (President: Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, VP: Abdulaziz bin Fahd)
- Board member, International Islamic Relief OrganizationInternational Islamic Relief OrganizationThe International Islamic Relief Organization, , is a charity based in Saudi Arabia. It is a member of The Conference of NGOs, where it serves on the board...
(IIRO) - Chairman, Al Afandi Establishment (Jeddah)
- CEO Al Afandi Germany (Frankenberg)
- CEO, Sky Muzn Holding Co. BV (Netherlands)
- CEO, Saudi Industrial Services Company (Sisco) with partners Xenel IndustriesXenelXenel is a diversified company based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1973 by the four sons of Ahmed Alireza who headed the locally renown House of Alireza, Xenel - a spelling variation for family patriarch, the late Zainal Alireza - grew by establishing multiple joint ventures with...
and Dallah Al-BarakaDallah Al-BarakaDallah Al-Baraka , is a Saudi Conglomerate founded and owned by Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel. The word Dallah is the diminutive name of Abdullah - it also translates to "coffee pot" in Arabic.... - Founder, Great Saudi Development & Investment Co. (GSDIC)
- Founder, Arabian Company for Development and Investment Limited (ACDIL)
- Chairman, National Committee of Saudi Contractors Partner, African Company (Sudan), with Al Rajhi BankAl Rajhi BankThe Al-Rajhi Bank The Al-Rajhi Bank The Al-Rajhi Bank (known as the Al Rajhi Banking and Investment Corporation until a 2006 name change is the world's largest Islamic bank, and a major investor in Saudi Arabia's business world. It is one of the largest joint stock companies in the Kingdom, with...
and Dallah Al-BarakaDallah Al-BarakaDallah Al-Baraka , is a Saudi Conglomerate founded and owned by Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel. The word Dallah is the diminutive name of Abdullah - it also translates to "coffee pot" in Arabic.... - Former General Manager and shareholder of al-Amoudi GroupAbdul Rahman al-AmoudiAbdul Rahman Al-Amoudi, also known as Abdurahman Alamoudi, the founder of the American Muslim Council, pled guilty to financial and conspiracy charges in 2004, which resulted in a 23-year prison sentence.-Biography:...
- Owner, Gang Ranch (Canada), second largest ranch in North America
- Owner, Skylight Corp, Georgia, USA
- Owner, BSA Investments (complaint from LTV Steel Company, Inc)
- US address: 6914 Los Verdes Dr Apt 6, Rch Palos Vrd, CA 90275
Saleh Abdullah Kamel
Born in 1941, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Saleh Abdullah KamelSaleh Abdullah Kamel
Saleh Abdullah Kamel is a Saudi businessman, chairman and founder of the Dallah al Baraka Group . He is also the chairman of the General Council for Islamic Banks. He is estimated to be worth about $5.3 billion, ranking number 12 on Arabian Business list of richest Arabs 2008...
is CEO of Jeddah-based Dallah Al-Baraka
Dallah Al-Baraka
Dallah Al-Baraka , is a Saudi Conglomerate founded and owned by Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel. The word Dallah is the diminutive name of Abdullah - it also translates to "coffee pot" in Arabic....
, the 3rd largest commercial entity in Saudi Arabia. Other notable affiliations include:
- Chairman Arab Radio & Television (ART)
- Founding member and shareholder, Al Shamal Islamic BankAl Shamal Islamic BankThe Al-Shamal Islamic Bank of Khartoum, founded in 1983, is one of the major financial institutions of Sudan, and one of the leading Islamic banks worldwide.A declassified U.S...
(Khartoum, Sudan) - Partner, Tamlik Company Ltd (with Mohamed Binladen Co., Saleh Bin Laden)
- Shareholder, Jordan Islamic Bank
- Vice Chairman Bank Al Jazeera
- Founder, Iqraa International Foundation
Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi
Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi is one of Saudi Arabia's leading commercial figures and philanthropists, overseeing a financial empire of some $28b in assets.- CEO, al-Rajhi Bank
- Board member, International Islamic Relief OrganizationInternational Islamic Relief OrganizationThe International Islamic Relief Organization, , is a charity based in Saudi Arabia. It is a member of The Conference of NGOs, where it serves on the board...
(IIRO) - Board member, Ibn Baz Foundation
al Rajhi also created the SAAR Foundation
SAAR Foundation
The SAAR Foundation was a flagship corporation representing charities, think tanks, and business entities named after its founder, Saudi patriarch Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi. The SAAR Foundation achieved prominence as the key subject of a March 20, 2002 raid by federal agents, as a part of...
, which was shuttered in the wake of a March, 2002 raid by customs officials under the auspices of Operation Green Quest
Operation Green Quest
Operation Green Quest was a United States Customs Service-sponsored interagency investigative unit formed in October 2001 after the September 11 attacks, and concerned with the surveillance and interdiction of terrorist financing sources...
.
Abdel Rahman Hassan Sharbatly
Abdel Rahman Hassan Sharbatly was the founder of Riyadh Bank, the 2nd largest Saudi commercial bank. Other affiliations include:- Board member, Beirut Ryad Bank SAL (with Prince Khaled bin Turki and Abdullah Taha Bakhsh)
- Board member, Saudi Arabian Refinery Company (Chairman Prince Khaled bin Turki, directors include Kaaki (bin Mahfouz) and Al Rajhi)
- Shareholder, Middle East Capital Group (shareholders include Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, Sami Baarma - National Commercial BankNational Commercial BankThe National Commercial Bank also known as AlAhli Bank is the first Saudi Arabian bank, the largest bank by asset in the Arab world and one of the pioneers in Islamic Banking and finance in the world.- Founding and Legal Structure :...
) - CEO, Saudi Arabian Marketing Agencies and Company Ltd (Shareholder: Mohammad Bin LadenSalem bin LadenSalem bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian investor and businessman.-Life:Considered the eldest son of Mohammed bin Laden, the founder of Saudi Binladin Group and a half-brother and cousin of the infamous terrorist...
) - Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche, Audi and Volkswagen dealer
- Shareholder, Egyptian Gulf Bank
- Shareholder, Golden Pyramids Plaza Co
- Shareholder, Savola Snack Food Co. Ltd (with Saleh bin Mahfouz and Abdullah Taha Bakhsh)
Nisar Ahmad Saifi Working in Chupa Chups Division Kay Account Sales
Khaled bin Mahfouz
Khaled bin Mahfouz was, before his death in 2009, one of the leading figures in Saudi banking circles.- Former COO, BCCIBank of Credit and Commerce InternationalThe Bank of Credit and Commerce International was a major international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The Bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London. Within a decade BCCI touched its peak...
- Former CEO, National Commercial BankNational Commercial BankThe National Commercial Bank also known as AlAhli Bank is the first Saudi Arabian bank, the largest bank by asset in the Arab world and one of the pioneers in Islamic Banking and finance in the world.- Founding and Legal Structure :...
- Founder, Muwafaq Foundation
- Founder, International Development Foundation
Bin Mahfouz has written on his website that he has "never knowingly made any donation to Al Qaeda or to any organization or person acting on Al Qaeda's behalf or to any other terrorist organisation." He engaged in extensive litigation against individuals associating him with terrorism (see Khalid bin Mahfouz
Khalid bin Mahfouz
Khalid bin Mahfouz was a wealthy Saudi Arabian businessman residing in Ireland. He was accused of supporting al-Qaeda.As of 2002, he was believed to be confined in a hospital in Taif by Saudi authorities...
).
Abdel Qader Faqeeh
(Adel Faqih, etc.). Affiliations include:- Board member, Ibn Baz Foundation
- Chairman, Bank al Jazeera
- Chairman, Savola Group (with Sharbatly), merged with Azizia Panda (owned by Al-Waleed bin TalalAl-Waleed bin TalalPrince Al-Waleed bin Talal is a Saudi Arabian billionaire and member of the Saudi royal family. He is the nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. An entrepreneur and international investor he has amassed a fortune through investments in real estate and the stock market.He is founder and CEO of...
) - 13th largest Saudi company - Chairman, Makkah Construction & Development Company
Saleh al-Din Abdel Jawad
(Sallahuddin Abduljawad, etc.). Affiliations include:- CEO, General Machinery Agencies (Jeddah)
- Agent for General Motors, Wacker Corp, Mannesmann, Renault (RVI), Opel
- Board member, United Gulf Industries Corp, Manama, Bahrain (with Khalil Bin Laden)
- Partner, Savola Snack Food Co. Ltd (with Saleh Bin Mahfouz, Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, Prince Mishail Bin Abdullah Bin Turki, Abdulrahman Sharbatly)
- Founder of several scholarship funds (Berkeley, Oxford -including the Salahuddin Abduljawad Fellowship in Islamic Art History)
- through two al-BarakatAl-Barakatal-Barakat or al-Barakaat , which means "Blessings" in Arabic, is a group of companies established in Somalia in 1986. Al-Barakat has involved itself in the modern form of hawala, an informal value transfer system, and the remittance trade. By 2001, it was operating in 40 countries and was the...
companies, Barakat Trust (UK) and Barakat Foundation (USA) with Xenel Industries Ltd and Khalid Alireza
Ahmad Turki Yamani
(Ahmed Zaki Yamani, etc.). Born 1930, Mecca, son of former Saudi Chief Justice. Affiliations:- Former Saudi minister of petroleum and mineral resources
- Former director, ARAMCO
- Founder, InvestcorpInvestcorpInvestcorp is a manager of alternative investment products, serving high-net-worth private and institutional clients. Its principal client base is in the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council, but it also has institutional clients in North America and Europe...
(Board members include Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, Dr. Abdulhady Taher)
Abdel Hadi Taher
- CEO, Taher Group of Companies, 52nd largest Saudi company
- Owner, Marketing General Trading Corp (Jeddah)
- Shareholder, Arab Company for Hotels & Contracting Ltd (with Ahmed Zaki Yamani)
- Former Minister of State Former Governor of the Saudi state oil company Petromin (recently acquired by Gulf OilGulf OilGulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies...
), under responsibility of Ahmed Zaki Yamani - Former director, Saudi European Bank (Paris), held 25% of the bank shares along with Ahmed Zaki Yamani
al Kuwait
al Kuwait, or al Kuwaiti, Sheikh Abu Ahmed, a Pakistani man born in Kuwait. Abu Ahmed is the "courier" whose discovery led to the finding of the location of Osama bin Laden. He is also reportedly a part-owner of the compound in which Osama was living at the time of his death.Ahmad al Harbi
- CEO, Ahmad Al Harbi Group
L'Investigateur notes, "L'Houssaine Kherchtou testified on February 21, 2001, during the trial of suspected al-Qaida militants in connection with the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on 7 August 1998, that he was welcomed at Miram Shah guest house in Pakistan before joining Al-Qaida by 'Abu Ahmed al Harbi'."
Mohammed al-Issai
(al-Issaie, etc.). Affiliations:- Board member, Saudi Research & Marketing Company (with Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Abdullah Bin Khalid Bin Mahfouz, Dallah Albaraka Group) - 20th largest Saudi company
- CEO, Al Issai Trade Company (Daimler-Chrysler representative)
- Deputy Chairman, Arab Cement Company (shareholders include Saudi Binladin Group, Bin Mahfouz, Al Rajhi - Chairman: Turki Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud)
Osama bin Laden (deceased)
Received donations from the most prominent in the list: Bin Laden Brothers, Al Rajhi, Sharbatly, Bin Mahfouz, Adel Faqih, Al KuwaitWa'el Hamza Julaidan
Wa'el Hamza Julaidan was one of the four founders of al Qaeda in August, 1988.- Previously (1984) established "the Service Office" or Maktab al-Khidamat in Afghanistan, along with bin Laden and Abdullah Yusuf AzzamAbdullah Yusuf AzzamAbdullah Yusuf Azzam was a highly influential Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian, who preached in favor of defensive jihad by Muslims to help the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet invaders...
. - Former Secretary General of the Muslim World LeagueMuslim World LeagueThe Muslim World League is one of the largest Islamic non-governmental organizations. Muslim religious figures from 22 states founded it in Makkah in 1962.-Structure:...
and Rabita Trust in Pakistan, designated by the United States Treasury as SGDT. The Trust has received donations from Suleiman Al Rashid, Salahuddin Abduljawad, Abdul Tahi Taher
Abu Mazin
(Mazin M. etc.). Affiliations:- Son of Mohammed Saleh (brother of Osama Bin Laden father's wife and tutor of the Bin Laden family after patriarch Mohammad Bin Laden's death in 1968)
- Shareholder, Triple B Trading GmbH (Germany) - with Hassan Bahfzallah and Shahir A. I. Batterjee
- Secretary: Abdul-Martin Tatari
- Receives donations from Hamad Al Hussaini
See also
- Benevolence International FoundationBenevolence International FoundationThe Benevolence International Foundation was a purported nonprofit charitable trust based in Saudi Arabia. It was a front for al-Qaeda and is now banned worldwide by the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267...
- Enaam ArnaoutEnaam ArnaoutEnaam M. Arnaout is a Syrian-American who pleaded guilty to using charitable donations to support fighters in Bosnia without apprising the donors of this, during his tenure as a director of the charity Benevolence International Foundation . -Life:Arnaout was raised in Hamat, Syria...
- Osama Bin LadenOsama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
- Saudi ArabiaSaudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...