06/11/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09938

BOSNIAN SITES SEARCHED

The Bosnian government has moved against an Islamic charity charged with acting as a cover for terrorism. On June 3^rd, police in Bosnia-Herzegovina searched several offices of the Al-Haramain (PRON: AL-HAH-RAH-MINE) Islamic Foundation, including in the capital, Sarajevo, and the central Bosnian town of Travnik (PRON: TRAHV-NEEK).

Earlier this year, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill announced the blocking of funds from Al-Haramain’s Bosnian and Somalian branches. The Bosnian branch of Al-Haramain was linked to Gama’a al-Islamiyya (PRON: GAMA-AH ISLAHM-EE-YAH). The Egyptian-based terrorist group is responsible for the 1997 massacre of sixty-two people, including fifty-eight foreign tourists, at Luxor. The leader of Gama’a al-Islamiyya is Ayman al-Zawahiri (PRON: EYE-MAN AL ZAH-WAH-HEEREE). He is the second-in-command to Osama bin Laden, head of the Al-Qaida terror network.

Organizations like the Bosnian branch of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation use charity and relief work as a front to fund and otherwise assist terrorists, providing them with false identities, travel opportunities, and fake credentials. As Treasury Secretary O’Neill said, "Organizations that pervert the name of charity with acts of hatred and cruelty are an affront to us all, and we will find them, expose them, and shut them down."

Evidence obtained in searches on March 19^th of Benevolence International Foundation offices in Sarajevo and the town of Zenica (PRON: ZEN-ITSA) was used to charge Enaam Arnaout with perjury in connection with investigations of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida. Arnaout is a Syrian confederate of bin Laden and head of the Benevolence International Foundation office in Chicago, Illinois. Bosnia-Herzegovina has also handed over six Algerian terror suspects to the United States.

The Sarajevo authorities are continuing their investigations in cooperation with U.S. authorities. Bosnians and Americans stand shoulder to shoulder in the war against terrorism.