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Exclusive: Ohio-based Saudi “Charity” Supporting HAMAS Terror University
Author: Patrick Poole
Date Published: 2007-09-17
Who’d have thought that an organization funneling millions of dollars to HAMAS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations through Palestinian universities is based in…
Ohio-based Saudi “Charity”
By Patrick Poole
First there was the Holy Land Foundation. Then came Benevolence International, followed by Al-Haramain and KindHearts. Is Arab Student Aid International soon to join the list of Islamic “charities” closed down by the
The Dublin, Ohio-based not-for-profit organization, Arab Student Aid International (ASAI), has funneled millions of dollars over the last decade to the HAMAS-founded and -operated Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) – an institution well known to be a financial and operational front for the terrorist organization – in addition to two other universities, Al-Quds and Al-Najah, both with extensive ties to HAMAS and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. IUG was not only founded in 1978 by HAMAS founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, but its past and present staff includes many HAMAS leaders and legislators. HAMAS has also repeatedly used IUG as an operating base in factional clashes with their Fatah rivals and to store weapons and missiles for use in terror attacks against
Additionally, according to an April 2006 article published in the Washington Post, “Distance Learning: Hamas’ US Education”, several members of the HAMAS leadership conducted post-graduate study at US universities through scholarships provided by ASAI.
This discovery comes at the same time as there is a present struggle in Congress to keep US public funds, particularly through the USAID program, from the IUG because of its critical role in the HAMAS terror infrastructure. Washington Times reporter Joel Mowbray disclosed earlier this year in a March 5th article, “School linked to HAMAS gets U.S. cash”, that USAID had provided $140,000 to IUG in violation of a US law that prohibits such support, which prompted congressional hearings where legislators grilled USAID Director Ambassador Randall Tobias about these payments.
According to subsequent report by Mowbray, “How We Fund HAMAS University”, House Foreign Affairs chairman Rep. Tom Lantos told USAID Director Tobias, "Providing U.S. assistance to a terrorist-controlled university in
The disclosure about ASAI’s financial role in supporting the HAMAS terror university also comes amidst the ongoing Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial, where it has been revealed that payments made by US-based Islamic “charities” to IUG have been funneled to HAMAS operatives.
Background of Arab Student Aid International (ASAI)
ASAI has been in operation for more than 30 years. Originally incorporated in
Priority criteria include: the country of study, type of academic system, degree level, and field of specialization. ASAI requests from applicants to enroll in renowned and accredited universities in
According to ASAI, it has assisted more than 5,250 graduates through grants and no-interest loans from all over the Arab world.
ASAI’s chairman of the board and primary benefactor is Saudi Prince Turki bin Abdel Aziz, the son of the founder of the Saudi Kingdom, full brother to the late King Fahd, and half-brother to the current King Abdullah. Prince Turki is one of the “Sudairi Seven”, seven full-brothers, including the late King Fahd and the current Crown Prince Sultan, that have held some of the top governmental positions in the Saudi government since Fahd’s ascension in 1982.
Prince Turki, however, fell out with the other Saudi princes in the 1970s following a marital scandal, and has since lived in lavish self-imposed exile with his wife, Princess Hind Shams Al-Fassi. For more than a decade Prince Turki and Princess Hind have occupied the top three stories of the Cairo Ramses Hilton along with their extensive 100+ person entourage. The Egyptian press has reported a series of scandals involving both Prince Turki and Princess Hind, including her conviction in 2001 for failing to pay for more than $1 million in jewelry (for which Egyptian authorities have yet to impose any sentence) and a series of complaints by their servants alleging physical abuse, imprisonment, and non-payment for their services. The family also received international attention in 2004 when their son, Prince Sultan bin Turki, claimed to have been lured to a meeting in Geneva, where he was drugged, kidnapped, and flown back to Saudi Arabia and placed under house arrest in retaliation for his vocal support of political reforms in the Kingdom and denouncing corruption in the Saudi royal family.
Prince Turki’s financial role in ASAI can be seen in the organization’s list of contributors, where he is listed as the sole benefactor contributing $10 million or more. A review of the organization’s IRS Form 990s has disclosed even greater detail about Prince Turki’s financing of the organization. According to an attachment to the group’s 1997 Form 990, of the nearly $600,000 received by the group that year, all but $200 was donated by Prince Turki.
One other prominent name on ASAI’s contributor list is Ali Timmimi (#249), who was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy, attempting to aid the Taliban, soliciting treason, soliciting others to wage war against the
ASAI’s funding of the Islamic
In addition to its scholarship program focused on supporting individual students, ASAI has poured millions of dollars over the past decade into Palestinian universities in the West Bank and
On the ASAI website, it lists its various achievements, financial support and infrastructure development for these institutions, including:
What should especially concern investigators is the nearly $5 million that ASAI has provided these universities in direct cash payments through grants and scholarships. Once payment is remitted to the institutions, there is very little control or oversight that US government and ASAI officials could give to ensure that the money is being used for solely educational purposes.
The Role of the Islamic
In a recent policy report for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, “Better Late than Never: Keeping USAID Funds out of Terrorist Hands”, Matthew Levitt, former deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Treasury Department and author of, HAMAS: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad (Yale Univ. Press), detailed the integral role that IUG plays as part of the HAMAS terrorist infrastructure:
Indeed, Israeli and Palestinian scholars alike characterize the IUG as a Hamas institution. Meir Hatina described it as one of the key institutions that "coordinated [Muslim] Brotherhood activities in the Gaza Strip and later constituted a springboard for Hamas." Similarly, in his book Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and
Hamas itself has corroborated these ties. In a 2003 interview in the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal boasted of the group's participation in building the IUG in 1978. And according to FBI surveillance of a 1993 Hamas meeting in
Another recent report by Stephen Landes also discusses the infamous 1993 HAMAS meeting in
At an October 1993 meeting of Hamas leaders in
The Holy Land Foundation’s support for IUG has also been raised in the current terror support trial of
Exhibits entered into evidence a few days ago at the HLF trial include… Another check for $30,000 was made out to the Islamic University of Gaza (and has Shukri Abu Baker/OLF written on the memo line), a school long known to be controlled by HAMAS, and which counted such notables as former HAMAS leader Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantissi and current HAMAS leader Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahar as professors, and the recently deposed HAMAS Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is a former dean of the University. (“ISNA’s Lies Unchallenged Again,” Counterterrorism Blog [
A Congressional press release concerning the USAID hearings earlier this year quotes Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) citing a 2006 Baltimore Sun article, where Jameela El Shanty, a professor and HAMAS lawmaker admitted:
“HAMAS built this institution. The university presents the philosophy of HAMAS.”
In fact, the list of past and present HAMAS officials is extensive. Not only is current HAMAS head Ismail Haniyeh the former dean of IUG, he continues to serve on the university’s Board of Trustees. A published review of the now-dissolved HAMAS-controlled Palestinian Cabinet describes the other HAMAS leaders and their respective roles at IUG:
According to Joel Mowbray, during the congressional hearings earlier this year on USAID funding of IUG, Palestinian Media Watch Director Itamar Marcus testified that a 2006 article in the HAMAS Al-Risala magazine listed 16 IUG teachers that had been elected as HAMAS members of the Palestinian legislature, one of whom was Jamila Shanti, founder of the HAMAS women’s section and widow of Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who openly advocates for suicide bombings.
The purpose of IUG goes much further than education. Even the Chronicle of Higher Education has described the institution as “the HAMAS-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza”. Not only does military training occur within the university, but it is also an active recruiting ground for suicide bombers. Its military purpose has been recently seen in factional fighting between Fatah and HAMAS, with IUG serving as a fighting position and weapons cache for the terrorist organization.
According to a February 2007 New York Times article, an attack by HAMAS directed at Dr. Jawad Wadi, the president of the
…a rocket fired from the direction of the Islamic University smashed through the window behind his desk. Several more rockets slammed into other parts of the administration building. University officials collected the tail fins of four rockets, which bore the Hamas insignia.
An International Herald Tribune article earlier this year quotes a source that HAMAS was using IUG as a base for HAMAS gunman. A subsequent International Herald Tribune article published in May described IUG’s centrality in the Fatah-HAMAS factional fighting in
Hamas fighters have been inside Islamic University for days, trying to protect it from another Fatah attack like one last year that badly damaged the school, one of the prime means for Hamas to convert Palestinians to its Islamist cause. Hamas guards at the university have been killed by snipers in previous days, and on Friday, Fatah fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at the school, setting a building on fire, and exchanged gunshots with Hamas men inside.
Fatah said that Hamas fighters were using the university as a base for attacks on nearby police stations.
According to reporter Aaron Klein, in the midst of the factional fighting in February, a Fatah raid on IUG yielded a very surprising find – seven Iranian military trainers, including a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, as well as 1,000 Qassam rockets and additional equipment to manufacture the Qassams – claims the Iranians denied. Another news report also listed an additional 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles, hundreds of RPG launchers and extensive ammunition stores discovered on the Palestinian Authority raid on IUG.
Information obtained as a result of that raid indicated that kidnapped IDF soldier Corp. Galid Shalit had been held at IUG, and one of the leaders of the raid that captured him, Ahmad Jaabri, was severely wounded in the fighting.
IUG has also been used by HAMAS as a sanctuary for its leaders wanted for terrorist acts against
Palestinian officials have labeled the university a "sanctuary for wanted men" and they note that Hamas mastermind Yahya Ayyash fled from the West Bank to
Ayyash and other wanted Hamas members took advantage of the fact that none but Hamas loyalists set foot in the university.
We have seen that not only was IUG founded by HAMAS leaders and many of those leaders continue to be affiliated and work for the university, but HAMAS openly boasts of its control of the institution. IUG has been the center of the factional fighting between Fatah and HAMAS, and the school also serves as a military training and terror recruitment hub, as well as serving as a depot for Qassam rockets, military hardware and Iranian military personnel to conduct terror attacks against
This makes it difficult to see how IUG’s educational mission can be separated from its use as a military and terror hub, and how ASAI can avoid supporting HAMAS while sending millions of dollars over the past decade to finance the institution.
Terrorist Activity at other ASAI-funded Palestinian Universities
It is difficult to understate the importance that the Palestinian universities have played in the development of Palestinian terrorist organizations, in particular HAMAS and Islamic Jihad. Reuven Paz explained in an article published in the June 2000 edition of the Middle East Review of International Affairs, “Higher Education and the Development of Palestinian Islamic Groups”, how these universities became a battleground between the secular and Islamic Palestinian organizations and played a crucial role in the increased radicalization of the populace in
The Palestinian national awakening was complemented by a growing appreciation of the importance of education and enlightenment to political, economic, and social development. These educational institutions proved a major battleground in the struggle between religious and secular-minded Palestinians to shape the character of Palestinian society, and eventually, a future Palestinian state. Islamic groups especially used colleges and universities throughout the Territories as important centers for recruiting, socializing, and mobilizing supporters.
Paz also notes that Islamic Jihad, which was founded at IUG in 1982, utilized the Palestinian universities as the center of gravity for its organizational operations and activity. He attributes the radicalizing effect of Islamic Jihad itself that militarized the younger members of the Muslim Brotherhood in
ASAI has thrown millions of dollars into this cauldron of terrorist activity throughout the Palestinian universities in
A March 2007 report by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Cook of Palestinian Media Watch that initiated Joel Mowbray’s reporting for the Washington Times on USAID’s illegal funding of institutions tied to terrorism, describes in detail the operations of terrorist activity at
As an example, that report notes that earlier this year,
“The ‘Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyyah’ [of Hamas] in the Al-Quds Open University in
Dr. Dhiyab thanked [the Hamas group] ‘Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyyah’ for the organizing of the [Yahya Ayyash] Week…
Terrorist organizations operate openly at
But the part that has received the most attention is the Sbarro restaurant, which also serves as the exhibit’s entrance. The doormat is composed of two flags, one Israeli and one American. Above it hangs the green and red Sbarro sign.
Inside are toppled stools, pizza crusts, police tape, broken glass, as well as photographs of the actual scene of carnage and of the young Palestinian, Izzeden Masri, who carried into the restaurant some 20 pounds of explosive reportedly hidden in a guitar.
An Associated Press report, “Gruesome Exhibit Marks Anniversary of Uprising”, provides additional details of the Al-Najah exhibit:
Thousands of people, most of them university students, visited the exhibit, which is to run for a week in the university cafeteria.
In another part of the exhibit, visitors looked through dark windows to see mannequins dressed as suicide bombers. Each had Islam's holy book, the Quran, in one hand, and an automatic rifle in the other real suicide bombers often assume this pose in videos they make before staging attacks…
The exhibit also includes a large rock in front of a mannequin wearing the black hat, black jacket and black trousers typically worn by ultra-Orthodox Jews. A recording from inside the rock calls out: "O believer, there is a Jewish man behind me. Come and kill him."
But the glorification of terrorism is more than commemorative and celebratory at
Another October 2004 report from the Intelligence and
Conclusion
The primary mission of Arab Student Aid International of helping students from the Middle East attend universities in the West to help improve the technical and social development of these third-world countries is certainly laudatory. But ASAI has not confined its activities and financial role to just that goal.
Instead, through its Palestine Committee and West Bank and
For this very reason, Congress directly prohibited USAID from providing assistance to these Palestinian universities as part of the 2005 Foreign Operations Bill, and USAID has in recent months received bipartisan criticism from Congress for its violation of this prohibition.
And yet, while Congress has banned any public funds from finding their way to these institutions, there is apparently nothing that specifically prohibits private organizations like ASAI, or even
As Congress considers tightening the controls of USAID and other governmental institutions to prevent US government funds from finding their way to HAMAS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations through the Palestinian universities, it may also want to investigate ways to prohibit US companies, universities and “charities” from doing the same.
Regardless of the motive, pouring money from the
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FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Patrick Poole is an independent journalist who contributes to a number of publications and serves as a consultant to law enforcement on the domestic terror threat from Islamic radicalization. His past work in public policy received coverage from a number of national and international media outlets, including the New York Times, ABC News, the Baltimore Sun, WIRED News , the National Post (Canada), The Guardian (UK), and Jungewelt (Germany). He is the Executive Director of Central Ohioans Against Terrorism and he maintains a blog, Existential Space .
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FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Patrick Poole is an independent journalist who contributes to a number of publications and serves as a consultant to law enforcement on the domestic terror threat from Islamic radicalization. He is the Executive Director of Central Ohioans Against Terrorism and he maintains a blog, Existential Space.
If you are a reporter or producer who is interested in receiving more information about this writer or this article, please email your request to pr@familysecuritymatters.org.
Note -- The opinions expressed in this columfn are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of The Family Security Foundation, Inc.