Naturally.
B
Mounties aid Swiss terror investigation
Saudis with B.C. ties accused of financing bin Laden
Stewart Bell
National Post
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=a6ef4f2f-f708-4406-b910-197ef
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<http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=a6ef4f2f-f708-4406-b910-197e
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Thursday, November 01, 2007
Canada and Switzerland have been co-operating on a terrorism financing
investigation of a Saudi businessman accused of funding Osama bin Laden, the
National Post has learned.
The two countries have been working together for more than a year on a probe
of Yasin Al Kadi, who once had business holdings in Vancouver and whose
assets are frozen in Canada under anti-terrorism legislation.
They began co-operating on the case last summer when Swiss authorities asked
the Department of Justice for a copy of the RCMP's files on a second Saudi
businessman who lives part-time in B.C.
The Mounties recently delivered their dossier to the Swiss judge in charge
of the case. A Justice Department spokesman would not comment, but an RCMP
counter-terrorism officer confirmed he had been assisting Swiss authorities.
"We are working with the Swiss in relation to a variety of issues around
that," said Inspector Lloyd Plante of the Integrated National Security
Enforcement Team at RCMP E Division in B.C.
The investigation is one of several that, six years after the 9/11 attacks,
are attempting to unravel the global web of charities and companies that
bankrolled bin Laden as he built the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Reached at her office in Switzerland, Judge Marie-
Antonella Bino confirmed she was investigating Mr. Kadi and that she had
requested help from Canadian authorities. "We are working on the case
together with the Canadian police," she said.
"I'm in charge of a proceeding against Mr. Kadi and I'm trying to find any
connection he could have had with some other people who [have] some
terrorism suspicions hanging [over them].
"That's why I was wondering what the Canadian authorities were doing in
their procedure and I've just received some days ago the Canadian file and I
haven't had time to go through it yet but I will do it."
On June 23, 2006, Judge Bino formally asked Canada for the results of an
RCMP investigation into Ibrahim Afandi, owner of the Gang Ranch in B.C.
Mr. Afandi is also a former director of the International Islamic Relief
Organization, a Saudi charity whose assets have been frozen by Canada for
their alleged links to terror financing.
Judge Bino's letter to the Justice Department said she needed the RCMP's
file in order to assess "links and/or interesting similarities between some
financial set-ups performed by Mr. Yasin Al Kadi and Mr. Ibrahim Afandi."
Mr. Kadi has been fighting allegations he is a financier of terrorism since
the mid-1990s. His assets were frozen by the United States, the U.K. and
Canada in October, 2001. The U.S. Treasury said he had been a director of
the Saudi-based Muwafaq Foundation, which it alleges was an al-Qaeda
financial front.
But Mr. Kadi has consistently denied ever funding terrorism or bin Laden. "I
have never been associated to this guy in any way and never sent him any
money," he said after his assets were frozen.
Judge Bino's inquiry may well settle the matter. In an interview, she told
the Post her investigation is both "for" and "against" Mr. Kadi, meaning it
could result in criminal charges but also exoneration.
"That's what he wants the most and that's why I'm looking for evidence, for
connections with other proceedings which are not only in Canada. I have
some other connections with other authorities in Europe and in America,
too," she said.
"The Canadian police sent me the information I was asking for and they
co-operated fully at the time and maybe we will go on co-operating together,
I don't know yet, it's a question I have to examine with my police officer."
The Anti-Terrorism Act makes it illegal to provide financial support to
terrorism but the law is not retroactive, so it cannot be used to prosecute
those who may have bankrolled terrorists before the Act came into force in
December, 2001.
Canada has not yet convicted anyone of terrorist financing - an issue that
was raised during the Air India inquiry. Last week, the federal agency that
tracks money laundering said it detected more than $200-million in financial
transactions last year that it suspected were linked to terrorism or other
security threats.
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