Charity Connections Claimed in Bombing Plot
Charities in the UK and Pakistan are named in reports as conduits for funds, and other reports say earthquake relief in Pakistan was a pretense for fund transfers and personnel moves in the guise of relef workers.
The Sunday Mirror in London reports a claim that investigators there are looking into fund transfers from UK-based Muslim charities in connection with the airline bombing plot, possibly involving diversion of funds donated after the Pakistan earthquake in 2005. There is a separate claim that suspect traveled to training camps in Pakistan using the cover of relief volunteers. ("Exclusive: 'They Used Quake Cash'")
Australia's Daily Telegraph also carries the report that the charity Crescent Relief (UK Charity 1087724 Financial Statements) was involved in the fund transfers. As the financial statement show, this is a very small charity, with 2004 contributions of just £89,202 (about $170,000).
The People's Daily in China is making a similar claim about a charity called Muslim Charity of the UK, which might or might not be Muslim Charity: Helping the Needy (UK Charity 1078488 Financial Statements). There are no other charities in Guidestar UK with "Muslim Charity" in the title. If this is the organization referred to in the report, it is also a very small organization, with 2004 contributiosn of £173,400 ($328,000).
The sensational nature of these claims is that they involve charities based in the UK. More widely circulated reports speculate on connections with the Pakistan-based charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which runs schools, but also charities and related activities like blood banks and ambulance services. This organization has some connection with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group operating in Kashmir after being kicked out of Pakistan (Guardian UK, UK Times, New York Times).
At the time of the earthquake in October 2005, the Washington Post (John Lancaster and Kamran Khan) noted the prominent role in relief operations performed by Jamaat-ud-Dawa (which they called Jamaat ul-Dawa) ("Extremists Fill Aid Chasm after Quake").
Note: on Monday, the New York Times had a similar report about
diverted funds and terror trainees posing as relief volunteers, but
they claimed that the Pakistan charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa solicited
directly in the UK. ("Pakistani Charity under Scrutiny in Plot" by Dexter Filkins & Squad Mekhennet) However, Guidestar UK has no listing for Jamaat ud
Dawa in the UK.
The head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, has been put on house arrest, but Pakistan is not saying that this is related to the bombing plot, though coincidental in time. (There was a bombing of a train in Mumbai, India in July, which might also be related to the arrest.)
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